2021 Providoor expands to Sydney
Providoor changed the game for home-delivered meals. Restaurant meal delivery services have been around since the 1980s, with some of… Read More
Restaurants
2003 Mo Vida rides Spanish wave
Barcelona-born Frank Camorra opened Mo Vida in laneway in Melbourne, with tapas as bar food and more substantial plates to… Read More
2002 El Bulli named world’s best
The el Bulli restaurant in Roses, Catalonia, under chef Ferran Adrià, was named best restaurant in the world by Restaurant… Read More
2000 GST introduced
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, providing another incentive to eat at home. Food for human consumption was… Read More
2000 McDonald’s the Olympic restaurant
The official Olympic restaurant for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was that great Australian institution – McDonald's. The Sydney 2000… Read More
1999 McDonald’s launches McOz
The truly Australian touch in this burger was the addition of beetroot. The McOz consisted of a burger patty with… Read More
1995 Smoking ban in ACT restaurants
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was the first state or territory government in Australia to introduce a total smoking ban… Read More
1994 Peter Doyle opens Cicada in Sydney
Chef Peter Doyle, realising that the old-style formality was out-of-step with the times, transformed Sydney institution Le Trianon into Cicada.… Read More
1993 Fanny’s Restaurant closes
In the early 1990s, Australia paid a high price for the excesses of the 1980s with what Paul Keating famously… Read More
1991 Middle Eastern food at O’Connell’s
Greg Malouf started cooking upmarket Middle Eastern food at O’Connell’s Hotel in South Melbourne, redefining the possibilities of this cuisine.… Read More
1991 The term ‘Gastropub’ coined
It’s not a fashionable term anymore, but ‘Gastropub’ was coined in the UK in 1991 to describe pubs offering something… Read More
1991 Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes KFC
With health-consciousness increasing, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to eliminate the ‘F’ word. It became KFC. No longer ‘Finger-lickin’ good’,… Read More
1991 Darley Street Thai opens
David Thompson opened Darley Street Thai in Sydney’s Newtown in 1991, taking Thai food in Australia to a new level.… Read More
1990 The Hard Rock Café
Cheap and cheerful was the order of the day as the recession bit. Part of the international chain, The Hard… Read More
1990s Fusion cooking
Fusion cooking started before the 1990s (at Tetsuya’s, for example) but in this decade became more widespread. Chefs combined eastern… Read More
1989 Tetsuya’s opens in Rozelle.
One of the few Australian restaurants ever to make it into the top ten of Restaurant magazine’s Best Restaurants in… Read More
1988 The term molecular gastronomy coined
Oxford Professor of Physics, Nicholas Kurti, and French physical chemist and magazine editor, Hervé This, coined the term molecular gastronomy… Read More
1988 Caffè e Cucina opens in Chapel Street
The new licensing laws allowed cafés in Victoria to serve a glass of wine, a coffee or a complete meal.… Read More
1988 First Australian Subway opens in Perth
Founded by Fred de Luca in Connecticut in 1965, the Subway chain of sandwich shops was soon an expanding franchise operation. The… Read More
1987 Black Monday kills the big business lunch
The ‘80s ‘greed is good’ philosophy came to an abrupt end when the stock markets crashed on Black Monday, 19… Read More
1986 The Age Cheap Eats Guide launched
Alan Attwood, the Cheap Eats guide's inaugural editor, writes: ‘Ah, 1986. What a year. Bob Hawke was prime minister of… Read More
1986 Fringe Benefits Tax introduced
The federal Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) was introduced on 1 July 1986. FBT was payable on restaurant meals, which were… Read More
1985 Restaurant meal delivery service
While pizza delivery started in Brisbane as early as 1978, the first service set up for meal delivery from restaurants… Read More
1985 First Australian Sizzler opens
Sizzler was an American idea - the first one was opened in 1958 in California by Del and Helen Johnson.… Read More
1984 First Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide
The first Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, edited by Leo Schofield, David Dale and Jenna Price, began with The… Read More
1983 Iain Hewitson opens Fleurie
Described by Iain Hewitson as “the last BYO in Melbourne”, Fleurie, in a Toorak side street, offered superb food, attentive… Read More
1983 First tapas in Australia?
Opening towards the end of 1983, Torremolinos restaurant in Sydney claimed to be the only restaurant in Australia serving tapas.… Read More
1983 Seafood dining in Melbourne
In 1983, Jean Jacques Lale-Demoz opened his seafood restaurant in North Melbourne. The fine diner was in the vanguard of… Read More
1983 Domino’s launches with home delivery
The first Australian Domino’s store opened in Springwood, Queensland, in 1983. Domino's home delivery service gave it an advantage over… Read More
1982 Denny’s restaurants open in Australia
Denny's restaurants were another example of an American chain that tried to expand into Australia, but without success. The Australian… Read More
1980s Yum cha becomes popular
Literally 'drink tea', yum cha became popular in Australia in the early 1980s, first taking hold in the Chinatown establishments… Read More
1980s New Asian food choices
With the White Australia policy firmly in the past new Asian food choices emerged on the restaurant scene. The arrival… Read More
1979 First Ali Baba kebab store
The first Ali Baba kebab restaurant opened in 1979 outside the Woden Plaza in Canberra’s inner south. It was founded… Read More
1978 First McDonald’s Drive-Thru
In 1978, Australia's first McDonald's Drive-Thru opened in Warrawong, New South Wales. This was just three years after their first… Read More
1978 24-hour dining in Perth
Late-night and even 24-hour dining is just part of city life these days. But when Fast Eddy's opened in Perth… Read More
1977 Clichy restaurant opened in Collingwood.
Chef Iain Hewitson and food critic Sigmund Jorgenson started the influential Clichy restaurant in unfashionable Collingwood. The restaurant menu experimented… Read More
1976 First Thai restaurant
The first Thai restaurant in Australia was the Bahn Thai, which opened in Melbourne's St Kilda Road in June 1976.… Read More
1975 Flower Drum Restaurant opens in Melbourne
Gilbert Lau was part-owner of the Empress of China restaurant in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, one of the first upmarket… Read More
1975 Baxter Provender’s new dining style
Back in the days when we hadn't heard of the degustation menu, partners Alistair Herbert and Camillo Haffar opened Baxter… Read More
1973 Menu from Brisbane theatre restaurant
This 1973 menu from The Living Room theatre restaurant in Brisbane is such a great example of how Australians used… Read More
1972 Shakahari vegetarian restaurant opens in Lygon Street
The ceiling upstairs at Shakahari was silver insulation foil. There was brown rice a-plenty. The food was wholemeal, unrefined and… Read More
1972 Red Rooster founded in WA
The Aussie-owned fast food chain began in Western Australia. Originally a family business, Red Rooster was acquired, and the chain… Read More
1971 Hungry Jack’s launches in Australia
The US chain Burger King couldn’t use their own brand in Australia, as the name had been trademarked by a… Read More
1971 First Australian McDonald’s opens in Sydney
The first Australian McDonald's opened in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona 16 years after the company was founded in the USA.… Read More
1970 Pizza Hut launches in Australia
The first Australian Pizza Hut opened in Belfield, Sydney in April 1970. The building (shown here) was most recently a Korean… Read More
1968 Subway emerges in Connecticut
A recent high school graduate, 17 year old Fred DeLuca, and family friend Dr. Peter Buck teamed up to open… Read More
1968 Tasmania’s first licensed restaurant
Until the 1960s, if you wanted to wine and dine in Tasmania your options were restricted. There were fancy meals… Read More
1968 Australia’s first restaurant guide
“Galloping Gourmet” and television chef Graham Kerr published Graham Kerr’s Guide to Good Eating in Sydney – Australia's first restaurant… Read More
1968 Kentucky Fried Chicken launches in Australia
Australia's first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opened in Guildford in Sydney’s western suburbs on 27th April 1968, with a staff… Read More
1967 Taco Bill founded
Mexican food was a new experience for most Australians when the founder of Taco Bill, Bill Chilcote, arrived in Australia… Read More
1967 Bourbon & Beefsteak, Kings Cross
In 1967 a new era in the Americanisation of Australian food began. King's Cross in Sydney was the location of… Read More
1967 Sydney’s first Lebanese restaurant
The first Lebanese restaurant in Sydney was founded by the Mrough brothers in 1967 in Pitt Street, Redfern. Oddly, it… Read More
1966 Stephanie Alexander starts Jamaica House
Started by Stephanie Alexander and her Jamaican husband, Monty, mainly as a way to sell products imported from the West… Read More
1964 Golden Fleece roadhouses promoted
It's not clear when the first of the Golden Fleece branded restaurants was opened - perhaps in the 1950s or… Read More
1963 Men only at Ress Oriental Rib Room
In 1963, Melbourne's Ress Oriental Hotel trumpeted the opening of its new Rib Room, one of three restaurants in the… Read More
1962 New Year’s Eve at the Rex Hotel, Bondi
The special New Years's Eve menu at the Rex Hotel was typical for its time. It offered Oysters Naturelle or… Read More
1962 Christmas menu at Hotel Astra, Bondi
The multi-course Christmas menu at the Hotel Astra, Bondi, offered such choices as Oysters Natural au Citron, Consomme Royale, Fillet… Read More
1962 Southern Cross Hotel opens in Melbourne
The Southern Cross Hotel was the first luxury hotel in Melbourne to depart from the traditional style of hotels like… Read More
1962 First Burger King in Adelaide
Adelaide's Burger King chain had nothing to do with the similarly-named chain in the United States. However, its founder, Don… Read More
1961 Toto’s Pizzeria opens in Carlton
Toto’s claimed to be the first pizzeria in Australia, and on this basis was inducted into World Pizza Hall of… Read More
1960 Restaurant licence introduced in Victoria
The new licence allowed alcohol to be served with food. Formerly only hotels, registered clubs and wine saloons could legally… Read More
1960 Australia’s first revolving restaurant
Just one year after the world’s first revolving restaurant opened in Dortmund, Germany, the Hammon family opened the Skyway restaurant… Read More
1960 Fanny’s restaurant opens
Fanny’s restaurant was opened by Gloria and Blyth Staley in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, on the site of a Greek café.… Read More
1958 Cuckoo restaurant opens
The Cuckoo restaurant opened in 1958 in Olinda, a hamlet in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne. It was run by Willi and… Read More
1957 Lucia’s Pizza Bar in Adelaide
Lucia's Pizza Bar opened in 1957 and may well be Australia's first pizza restaurant (a title claimed for many years… Read More
1957 Australia’s first Japanese restaurant
The first Japanese restaurant in Australia wasn't a separate restaurant at all, but an annexe to the Dungowan restaurant in… Read More
1956 Beppi’s Italian Restaurant opens in Sydney
Certainly a stayer on the Sydney restaurant scene, Beppi's opened on 10 June 1956 and is still (as of 2021)… Read More
1956 The Arab coffee lounge opens in Lorne
This famous coffee lounge, in the popular seaside resort on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road was opened by brothers Graham, Alistair,… Read More
1956 Olympic Games attracts chefs to Melbourne
The 1956 Olympic Games changed the restaurant scene in Melbourne. Despite an initial suggestion that shearers’ cooks should introduce visiting… Read More
1955 First McDonald’s opens in USA
Salesman Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's in Illinois in 1955, licensing the name from a Californian Bar-B-Que restaurant that… Read More
1954 Melbourne’s first pavement café
By all accounts, the first pavement café in Melbourne was at Mirka's - the café opened by Georges and Mirka… Read More
1954 Curried Goanna served in Sydney
On 8 May 1954, Curried Goanna was among the foods served at a special Northern Territory night at a Sydney… Read More
1954 Pellegrini’s opens in Bourke Street
Pellegrini’s (66 Bourke St, Melbourne) was one of the first wave of Italian cafés in the city and remains virtually… Read More
1952 Kentucky Fried Chicken brand launched in USA
Harland Sanders opened his first restaurant in 1930 in the front room of a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky, naming… Read More
1939 Steak Diane introduced to Australia
There is some dispute about the origins of Steak Diane but it was almost certainly introduced to Australia by Tony… Read More
1936 Harry’s Cafe de Wheels
Harry 'Tiger' Edwards operated a pie cart in Sydney's Woolloomooloo just before WWII, taking advantage of custom from the navy… Read More
1932 Australia’s first milk bar
The Black and White 4d. Milk Bar, in Martin Place, Sydney was opened by Mick Adams in November 1932. He developed… Read More
1932 The Italian Society restaurant opens in Bourke Street.
Founded by Guiseppe Codognotto to cater to Italian immigrants, the famous Bourke Street restaurant, The Italian Society, was run by… Read More
1930 First Coles cafeteria
For several generations of Australians, a visit to Coles Cafeteria was the highlight of a trip to the city. Coles'… Read More
1928 Melbourne’s Café Florentino founded
Rinaldo Massoni purchased Café Denat in Bourke Street, Melbourne, in 1928 and changed the name to Café Florentino. Now called… Read More
1904 Hydro Majestic hotel opens at Medlow Bath
Built by the retail magnate Mark Foy, the Medlow Bath Hydro opened in 1904 as a hydropathic sanitorium and health… Read More
1898 Fasoli’s Italian restaurant opens in Melbourne
The Italian restaurant in Australia has a longer history than you might suppose. Yes, we can largely thank post-WWII immigrants… Read More
1893 Cafe Denat opens in Melbourne
The restaurant that was to evolve into Café Florentino opened its doors in Melbourne's Little Collins Street in 1893. The… Read More
1892 Hopetoun Tea Rooms in Melbourne
Melbourne's oldest tea rooms, the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, were originally set up as a small tea room in the fashionable… Read More
1891 Quong Tart opens his first Sydney tea room
Quong Tart was born in Canton, migrated to Australia at the age of nine and was raised by a Scots family… Read More
1885 Origin of Doyles at Watsons Bay
The Doyle family trace their restaurant's history back to 1885 when Alice Doyle's grandparents, Henry Newton and his wife Hannah… Read More
1882 Sixpenny restaurants in Melbourne
A story titled "Life in Australia" was published in Reynolds's Newspaper in London in 1882. It described the type of… Read More
1879 First Greek fish and chip shop
Athanassio Comino hailed from the Greek island of Kythera and arrived in Sydney in 1873. Although some accounts say he… Read More
1867 Menzies Hotel opens in Melbourne
Menzies Hotel, on the corner of Bourke and William Streets, was the first of Melbourne's grand Victorian era hotels. For… Read More
1858 Café de Paris restaurant opened in Melbourne
The Café de Paris restaurant was among the earliest European-style restaurants to open in Melbourne, although four-penny, six-penny and shilling restaurants… Read More