With the likes of Fins and Halcyon House’s Paper Daisy on his resume, Dylan Cashman set out to create a restaurant space that offered fine-dining quality with top-notch wines and local beers, minus the pretentiousness. The Blue Door on 5th, which takes over the space occupied by Pablo Pablo eatery, puts a relaxed spin on the concept of fine dining, offering a melting pot of everything from modern Australian to Japanese and French culinary styles. Local produce is a big driver in Dylan’s kitchen. Every ingredient used here comes from farms between Brunswick and Stanthorpe, as well as whatever Dylan and his chefs manage to find on their regular foraging trips around Kingscliff. Basically, whatever is available in the best quality on the day will be on the menu, which means the food line-up will change regularly.

Expect dishes like blue-eye cod with pickled heirloom carrots, heirloom radishes (straight from a foraging adventure) atop a tahini yoghurt and falafel crumb, sided with zhoug – an Israeli salsa verde. There’s also a fancy take on chicken and mushrooms, which is drizzled in an earthy sauce made from the hay that the mushrooms in the dish were grown in – now that, friends, is a perfectly curated dish. Desserts are presented in style, with sweet delights like a smoked vanilla bavarois (set custard) with yuzu jelly, freeze-dried start-of-season mandarins, caramelised white chocolate and dragon fruit topped with French meringue. The beer is kept local, with the likes of small-batch Kempsey brewer Bucket Brewery on tap, alongside a predominately organic and natural wine list. Like the food menu, the wine selection has been put together with genuine passion and understanding, with a shine to minimal-intervention producers like Joshua Cooper and Shobbrook Wines. The Blue Door on 5th’s menu, bottle list, location and laid-back vibe is bringing fine dining back down to earth.

For location and opening times, head over to our Stumble Guide.