I only ate at two places in Hobart worth calling proper first-person recommendations. Everything else in this post is researched, checked against multiple current sources, and clearly marked as such. I would rather tell you that upfront than pretend I dined my way through the entire city on one four-night trip.
Hobart’s food scene has grown into something worth planning a trip around, cool-climate produce, Bruny Island oysters, a thriving whisky industry, and enough chef talent moving down from the mainland that Time Out has started comparing it to Sydney and Melbourne. This guide covers the categories that actually help you decide where to eat, not just another long undifferentiated list copied from somewhere else.
The quick answer
- For a proper dinner with history behind it, Drunken Admiral.
- For something buzzy and Japanese, Bar Wa Izakaya.
- For a splurge, Fico or Aloft.
- For dessert, Van Diemens Land Creamery.
- For whisky, Lark’s cellar door on Davey Street.
Quick orientation
A handful to orient you โ the full guide is below
By precinct
CBD & Waterfront
Drunken Admiral ยท Bar Wa Izakaya ยท Mures ยท Pigeon Whole Bakers ยท Van Diemens Land Creamery ยท Frank ยท Dier Makr ยท Fico ยท Pitzi ยท Sonny ยท Lark’s Cellar Door ยท Callington Mill
Salamanca & Battery Point
Jackman & McRoss ยท Honey Badger Dessert Cafe ยท Peppina ยท Derwent Distillery tasting room
Sandy Bay
Boardwalk Bistro at Wrest Point ยท The Point โ a short drive or bus from the CBD, not a walk
Further out
Ogee (North Hobart) ยท Sullivans Cove Distillery (Cambridge) โ worth planning around, not walkable
Where I actually ate
Drunken Admiral ($$$), on the old wharf, is a long-running seafood restaurant with a whitewashed facade covered in hand-painted signage, old-school seafarers’ tavern atmosphere inside, hanging lanterns, heavy timber tables, the sort of place that leans into the theme rather than apologising for it. It has clearly been feeding Hobart visitors for decades, and it shows in how well the whole operation runs, quick service even on a busy night, a menu built around the same Tasmanian seafood you will see mentioned throughout this guide. Expect $60 to $80 per person for a proper sit-down meal.
Bar Wa Izakaya ($$), on Elizabeth Street in the CBD, was the standout of the trip. Sake bottles hang from the ceiling in a dense, deliberate cluster, the share-plate menu is properly Japanese rather than a vague fusion gesture, and it has built a real reputation, it’s one of the most-reviewed restaurants in Hobart on Tripadvisor for a reason. One thing worth knowing if you go: their well-known ramen is lunch only, from around midday to mid-afternoon. Dinner is share plates and izakaya food instead, still worth the visit, just a different menu to what you might expect if you have read about the ramen online.
Iconic waterfront seafood
Drunken Admiral covers the historic, sit-down tavern angle well, but it is not the only institution on the water.
Mures Upper Deck
$$$The fine-dining side of the Mures operation. ร la carte seafood with proper waterfront views, caught from the family’s own boats.
Mures Lower Deck
$$The casual version โ fish and chips, a fishmonger counter, and an ice cream window. Open breakfast through dinner. Between the two decks, Mures covers everything from a quick feed to a proper sit-down seafood dinner, all at the same dock.
Cafes
Pigeon Whole Bakers
$Supplies pastries to many of Hobart’s other cafes, which tells you something about the baseline quality. Sourdough and seasonal pastries โ locals queue before it sells out.
Berta
$$A seasonal menu built around local produce behind a distinctive teal-tiled counter. Good option for a proper breakfast rather than just a pastry.
Best dessert
Van Diemens Land Creamery
$Tasmanian gelato with proper local flavours โ leatherwood honey, pepperberry. Sits among the fish and chip stalls on the wharf, a good way to close out a waterfront walk. Turns up on nearly every Hobart dessert list for a reason.
Honey Badger Dessert Cafe
$$A dessert-only cafe โ cakes and gelato with nothing else competing for the menu’s attention. Worth building into a Battery Point afternoon if you have a sweet tooth.
Best 2 or 3 course dinner
The one for
a set menu that changes every week
Templo
$$$$Tiny, everyone in the room gets the same courses โ hand-made pasta, seasonal produce, a menu that changes weekly so there’s always a reason to come back. Called one of the best restaurants in Hobart, sometimes the country. Set menu runs $100pp, straight from the restaurant’s own site. Seating is limited and shared โ book ahead, it fills fast.
The one for
fire-cooked Wagyu on the water
Frank
$$$$Order this
Robbins Island Wagyu, cooked over the wood-and-coal grill
A proper wood-and-coal grill, not a vague “South American” gesture. Robbins Island Wagyu and Tasmanian oysters cooked over fire, waterfront setting, mood lighting once it gets dark. Set “Feed Me” menus: $90 for three courses, $115 for five.
Romantic
The one for
sandstone, river views, and history
Old Wharf Restaurant
$$$Tasmania’s best produce inside historic sandstone surroundings with river views โ earns a spot on nearly every “romantic Hobart” list across multiple independent sources. Expect $80-100pp for dinner.
The one for
glamour over intimacy
Peppina
$$$Under a glass-roofed heritage building, part of the former St Marys Hospital site, now home to The Tasman hotel. Big, glamorous, consistently described as a special-occasion room.
If you want height and drama over intimacy, The Point ($$$$), the revolving restaurant atop Wrest Point, gives you a full rotation of Derwent views over dinner, French-inspired cuisine and a fair bit of tableside theatre, already covered in more detail in Things to Do in Hobart.
Cheap eats
Jackman & McRoss
$Covered in full in the Salamanca to Battery Point walk. A curried scallop pie locals queue for at lunchtime โ a fraction of a sit-down meal’s cost and no less memorable.
Fish and chip punts
$Covered in Things to Do in Hobart. Fresh, fast, eaten standing up by the water โ the other reliable cheap feed.
For a cheap sweet treat, Van Diemens Land Creamery (Best Dessert, above) does the job without breaking a tourist budget.
Hatted restaurants
Australia’s Good Food Guide “chef hat” awards are the real, currently active rating system for Hobart’s top kitchens, and I checked the current list before writing this rather than trusting an older or invented ranking. Hats run from one to three, awarded annually, and they are the closest thing Australia has to a formal fine-dining rating outside the major cities.
The one for
European classics with a new angle
Fico
$$$$Order this
Oysters served with carbonara instead of guanciale
Chef-owners Oskar Rossi and Federica Andrisani run a European-leaning menu that keeps finding new angles on old classics โ a gelato pudding elevated with local buffalo milk and hazelnut praline is another standout. Degustation runs $185pp.
See also: Pitzi, the casual sister restaurant on Victoria Street โThe one for
a menu that changes daily, on purpose
Dier Makr
$$$$A boundary-pushing set menu built around whatever the kitchen has that day, not a fixed concept. Sits alongside sister wine bar Lucinda. Reputation for being unpredictable in the best sense.
The one for
a tasting menu with a harbour view
Aloft
$$$$Pairs its tasting menu with properly excellent harbour views. Worth booking for a special occasion. Tasting menu runs around $140pp.
Pitzi
$$$Fico’s casual pasta-bar sibling โ same owners, same standard, a fraction of the ceremony and the price. Hand-made pasta, walk-ins welcome, no bad option on a short, rotating menu.
A correction worth making explicitly
You may see Dier Makr described elsewhere as “Michelin-starred.” That is not accurate. The Michelin Guide does not currently rate Tasmania at all. Dier Makr’s real accolade is its two AGFG chef hats, which is a different and equally legitimate system, just not the one sometimes claimed for it.
Best buffet
Hobart is not really a buffet city, small population, small dining scene, so I want to be honest rather than stretch to fill this category.
Boardwalk Bistro at Wrest Point
$$Buffet breakfast and a dedicated dessert buffet as part of regular service. Around $26.50 for the lunch buffet. Casual, family-friendly rather than fine dining โ but the genuine, currently operating buffet option in the city.
A short whisky trail
Tasmania’s whisky reputation is not hype, and Hobart’s cellar doors are properly walkable if you are staying anywhere near the CBD or waterfront.
Lark Distillery’s Cellar Door
$$Where Tasmania’s modern whisky industry effectively started โ Bill and Lyn Lark began distilling at home in 1992 after lobbying to lift a minimum still-size restriction. Recently renovated into a museum-style experience: guided tastings, whisky flights, brand history. Open daily from around 11am. Standard flights vary by selection; the guided “Welcome to LARK” experience runs $79.
The Still
$$Lark’s separate cocktail and whisky lounge โ retail and tasting by day, a moodier bar by night. A different address from the Davey Street cellar door, worth knowing.
Callington Mill’s Hobart cellar door
$$Brings the Oatlands-based distillery’s whiskies into the CBD. A standard tasting (four 15ml pours of the single malt) runs $30. The Serendipity Experience lets you blend and bottle your own cask-strength single malt with a guide. Open Wednesday to Sunday, afternoon into evening.
Evolve Spirits Bar
$$$A luxury lounge bar built around a genuine private fossil collection โ a Triceratops nose horn, megalodon teeth, an eight-foot Russian cave bear โ alongside more than 400 rare spirits from Tasmania and around the world. Sounds like a gimmick until you’re standing in the room.
Derwent Distillery tasting room
$$Single malt whisky, gin, and liqueurs, family-owned and considerably quieter than Lark or Callington Mill. Current tasting prices for the Battery Point room couldn’t be independently confirmed โ ask when you arrive. The distillery itself is in Dromedary, about 25 minutes out of Hobart; this is a proper tasting space for the range, not the production site.
Sullivans Cove Distillery
$$$Twice named the world’s best single malt whisky. Guided tour and tasting: $70pp, 90 minutes, daily at 2pm. Worth knowing before you plan your afternoon around it โ it’s a drive, not a walk.
Want the food and wine scene guided for you?
The Hobart Half Day Wine and Food Tour covers a chunk of this ground with a guide doing the talking and the bookings.
Wine bars
Hobart’s small wine bar scene has become one of its more distinctive features, tiny rooms, walk-ins only, records playing over the bar.
Sonny
$$Twenty seats along a single communal table, a record player spinning everything from Aretha Franklin to Khruangbin, a chalkboard wine list, house-made pasta and bar snacks. Walk-ins only, no reservations โ arrive early. Run by chef Matt Breen, who also owns Templo and Ogee.
Ogee
$$$Sonny’s more intimate, stylish sibling, from the same chef. Twenty-eight seats around a wooden island and open kitchen, French and Italian-inspired share plates, a tightly curated wine list. Sits a little further out โ worth the trip if wine bars are your thing.
Practical tips
Price tiers throughout this guide follow standard Australian dining shorthand: $ under $20 per person, $$ $20 to $50, $$$ $50 to $100, $$$$ $100 and up. These are checked against current menus and recent diner reports where I could find them, but restaurants change prices, so treat them as a guide rather than gospel.
Book ahead for anything hatted or well-reviewed. Templo, Fico, Dier Makr, and Aloft all get booked out, especially in summer and around festival periods. Do not assume you can walk in on a Friday or Saturday night and get a table.
Most of this is walkable. The CBD, waterfront, Salamanca, and Battery Point cover the majority of what is in this guide on foot. Wrest Point, for the buffet and the revolving restaurant, sits in Sandy Bay, a short drive or bus ride south of the CBD rather than a walk.
Ramen at Bar Wa Izakaya is lunch only. Worth repeating since it catches people out, the dinner menu is entirely different.
Whisky tastings at Lark’s Cellar Door do not need a booking for a standard flight, though table reservations are worth making for weekends or evenings if you want to sit rather than stand at the bar.
FAQ
What is the best restaurant in Hobart?
Depends what you want. Fico and Dier Makr both hold two AGFG chef hats and represent the top of the fine-dining scene. For something more personal, Templo’s set menu has a loyal following. For a properly memorable night out with view and theatre, Aloft.
Is Dier Makr Michelin-starred?
No. The Michelin Guide does not currently cover Tasmania. Dier Makr holds two AGFG chef hats, a different and equally legitimate Australian rating system.
Where can I get cheap food in Hobart?
Jackman & McRoss in Battery Point and the fish and chip punts at Constitution Dock are the two most reliable budget options within the areas covered in this cluster.
Is there a buffet restaurant in Hobart?
The Boardwalk Bistro at Wrest Point runs a buffet breakfast and a dessert buffet. It is the genuine, current buffet option in the city, though Hobart is not really known for this style of dining.
Where can I try Tasmanian whisky in the city itself?
Lark Distillery’s Cellar Door at 14 Davey Street is walkable from the CBD and waterfront, open daily, no booking required for a standard tasting.
Where can I get the best oysters in Hobart?
Bruny Island produces most of the oysters you will see on menus around the city, and both Mures Upper Deck and the Constitution Dock fish punts serve them fresh. For the Bruny Island source itself, that trip has its own dedicated post.
Which Hobart restaurants have a proper view?
Aloft sits above the harbour on Brooke Street Pier, Mures Upper Deck overlooks Victoria Dock, and The Point rotates a full 360 degrees above the Derwent, covered in more detail in Things to Do in Hobart. Old Wharf and Peppina both sit inside heritage waterfront buildings without the height, but with the same water proximity.
Is Bar Wa Izakaya’s ramen available at dinner?
No, it is a lunch-only menu. Dinner service is share plates and izakaya-style food instead.
Final thoughts
This is not an exhaustive list, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What it is: two places I actually ate and would recommend without hesitation, and a checked, corrected shortlist across the categories that matter when you are actually deciding where to book a table.
For the rest of your Hobart trip, Things to Do in Hobart ties the whole city together, and the Salamanca to Battery Point walk and TMAG guide both pair naturally with a meal either side of them. If your accommodation is not booked yet, Where to Stay in Hobart breaks the city down by area, several of the hotels there sit close enough to walk to nearly everything on this list. 3 Days in Hobart shows exactly where each of these fits into a single trip, or 7 Days in Tasmania for the wider state picture.
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