The Hobart List
Five editorial picks, ranked by the only filter that matters: why you are dining.
Aløft
Christian Ryan's pan-Asian Brooke Street Pier flagship — Hobart's most reliable contemporary fine-dining and a nine-course tasting menu with the most photographed waterfront view in the city.
Templo
The 20-seat chalkboard-menu CBD institution — Templo's daily-changing modern-Italian programme, with the most reliable chef-driven mid-tier dinner in Hobart.
Frank
The Hobart waterfront Argentine institution — Frank's wood-fired asado grills with a Derwent estuary view and the city's most reliable shared-plate dining.
Landscape
The IXL Jam Factory waterfront restaurant — Nathaniel Embrey's asado-grill kitchen built into the historic 1858 Hobart industrial building.
Scholé
Luke Burgess's 10-seat Japanese-inspired wine bar — Hobart's most distinctive contemporary chef-driven kitchen and the city's most reliable solo-dining destination.
Best for First Date in Hobart
Intimate, conversation-friendly rooms. Impressive without being intimidating. The tables where first impressions are made.
Templo
The 20-seat chalkboard-menu CBD institution — Templo's daily-changing modern-Italian programme, with the most reliable chef-driven mid-tier dinner in Hobart.
Landscape
The IXL Jam Factory waterfront restaurant — Nathaniel Embrey's asado-grill kitchen built into the historic 1858 Hobart industrial building.
Best for Business Dinner in Hobart
Power tables, private rooms, considered wine lists. Where the deal gets done.
Aløft
Christian Ryan's pan-Asian Brooke Street Pier flagship — Hobart's most reliable contemporary fine-dining and a nine-course tasting menu with the most photographed waterfront view in the city.
Templo
The 20-seat chalkboard-menu CBD institution — Templo's daily-changing modern-Italian programme, with the most reliable chef-driven mid-tier dinner in Hobart.
The Top Five in Hobart
Ranked against a single question: if you had one night in Hobart, where would you go?
Aløft
Christian Ryan's pan-Asian Brooke Street Pier flagship — Hobart's most reliable contemporary fine-dining and a nine-course tasting menu with the most photographed waterfront view in the city.
Templo
The 20-seat chalkboard-menu CBD institution — Templo's daily-changing modern-Italian programme, with the most reliable chef-driven mid-tier dinner in Hobart.
Frank
The Hobart waterfront Argentine institution — Frank's wood-fired asado grills with a Derwent estuary view and the city's most reliable shared-plate dining.
Landscape
The IXL Jam Factory waterfront restaurant — Nathaniel Embrey's asado-grill kitchen built into the historic 1858 Hobart industrial building.
Scholé
Luke Burgess's 10-seat Japanese-inspired wine bar — Hobart's most distinctive contemporary chef-driven kitchen and the city's most reliable solo-dining destination.
The Hobart Dining Guide
Hobart sits on the Derwent estuary at the southern tip of Tasmania — Australia's island state, separated from the mainland by 240 kilometres of Bass Strait — and is the most southerly state capital in Australia. The city has been transformed since 2011 by the opening of MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art), the most internationally significant private art museum in the Southern Hemisphere, which kicked off a decade of Hobart cultural and dining renaissance. The city holds about 240,000 year-round residents and runs a serious winter cultural programme (Dark Mofo, June 2026) that draws international visitors.
The dining is correspondingly distinctive. Aløft — the fine-dining flagship at the Brooke Street Pier waterfront, with a nine-course pan-Asian tasting menu — is the city's most reliable serious dining. Templo (a 20-seat chalkboard-menu kitchen) and Scholé (Luke Burgess's Japanese-inspired wine bar) are the two most chef-driven contemporary rooms. Frank and Landscape both run Argentine asado-grill programmes built around the Tasmanian-cask-timber grill. Institut Polaire runs the canonical cold-climate-produce wine bar.
Neighbourhoods
Reservations & Practical Notes
Aløft and Templo must be booked four to six weeks ahead in peak (Dark Mofo, June; summer holidays, December–February); two to three weeks shoulder. Scholé takes phone-only bookings (10-seat counter) two to three weeks ahead. Most Salamanca brasseries take walk-ins early but reserve aggressively after 21:00. Dress is Tasmanian-relaxed — linen rather than tailored, sandals are acceptable everywhere. Tipping is included as 10 per cent in Australia; round up another 5 per cent for exceptional service.
For a deeper editorial read, see our ongoing Editorial