Potager - AKitchen Garden

On a ten-acre farm in the Tweed hinterland at Carool, the dining room looks out over the Northern Rivers valley toward the coast. Much of what appears on the plate is grown on site - herbs and flowers from the kitchen garden - rounded out with North Coast oysters and Speckle Park beef from nearby Bellingdale Farm. Head chef Luis do Carmo, who trained in Michelin-starred European kitchens, works to a whole-animal, low-waste approach, with menus that move with the season. The restaurant has held a chef's hat in the Australian Good Food Guide across several recent years and taken gold at the NSW Tourism Awards. It is a destination in its own right rather than a passing stop - a table booked in advance for the drive up into the hills behind the Tweed coast.