Tiny towns, big flavour
From pie warmers to pub kitchens and seaside taprooms, Tasmania’s small towns deliver outsized flavour. To help inspire your next road trip, here are four underrated regional destinations where locals prop up the bar for good reason.
Oatlands
Travel via: Heritage Highway
About an hour from Hobart and 75 minutes from Launceston, Oatlands has long been a popular pitstop for antique collectors. Why not stay for lunch, between browsing vintage wares?
With accommodation, a restaurant, a wine bar and a beer garden, The Kentish Hotel does an impressive job for the only pub in town. Marten Cullity and his wife Nikki have run the venue for a couple of years now, though it’s been in operation since 1832. Say hello to their resident pub dog, a chocolate lab named Crumpet, who loves to make new friends.
While the high season runs from late Jan to mid-winter, they stay open for locals all year around. Boag’s St George 3.5% is the go-to beer, Marten says – with no public transport, pretty much everyone drives. The Friday night meat tray is always a drawcard, and there’s karaoke once a month. The beef and Guinness pie, made from scratch with Nikki’s grandma’s recipe, has a loyal following, too.
If you’re coming through on a Monday or Tuesday, when The Kentish is closed, Callington Mill, a working whisky distillery with tasting room and restaurant, is open for lunch seven days a week. So too is cafe and providore Bunch, which pours Shake Roasters coffee, and serves wood-fired pizza on Fridays and Saturdays.
Swansea
Travel via: Great Eastern Drive
Often overshadowed as a culinary destination by its northern cousin Bicheno (home to the famous Lobster Shack), Swansea is quietly enjoying a culinary renaissance.
This past summer, acclaimed chef David Moyle (ex-Franklin, Hobart) moved into the Waterloo Hotel’s retro restaurant space. It has given the 80s motel – which boasts affordable rooms with water views – renewed appeal since Alex Sumner and Zac Green packed up their excellent kitchen in late 2024. The wine bar-style menu is available exclusively on weekends (with expanded hours in the planning stages), so we suggest you plan ahead by giving them a call to book a table. Visiting during the week? Head to the Melshell Oyster Shack, a waterfront farm where Moyle sources his oysters. It’s just 15-minute drive away in Dolphin Sands.
For drinks, Sumner, who lives in the area, recommends Mayfield Estate in Little Swanport (about 10 minutes south, towards Hobart). “It’s become the unofficial ‘pub’ for East Coasters,” she says. Peter Dredge (of Meadowbank) makes the sparkling wines, Anna Pooley (Pooley Wines, Bubb + Pooley) makes the chardonnay and Jacqui Dolan (Milton Vineyard) makes the pinot gris and rose.
Before you head home, drop into Cake and Honey (18 Franklin Street), which serves coffee, seasonal fruit tarts and slices of Persian love cake from 8am Tuesday to Saturday. Owner Michaela Storer bakes her renowned greens pie – shortcrust pastry packed with silverbeet and spinach, plus red onion and fetta with a scattering of nigella seeds – around mid-morning. “You’ll definitely have to be here before midday if you want one!” she says. They sell out every day.
Queenstown
Travel via: Western Wilds
With its rugged Northwest locale, mining history and population of around 1800, Queenstown is the last place you’d expect to find the team from New Norfolk’s The Agrarian Kitchen. And yet, here they are, having taken over the on-board menu for the West Coast Wilderness Railway experience in March this year.
It is not the only food-related reason to plan a trip to Queenstown, however. In 2021, Emma and Mark Stubbs quit their jobs in Hobart and moved to the West Coast to open the town’s only wine bar, Moonscape. The beer garden has a kids’ play area, while the front dining room has more of a ‘bar’ vibe; the menu leans Italian with antipasto plates, pizzas and arancini.
Whether you’re staying at The Empire Hotel elsewhere, visiting its circa 1900 dining room for classic Aussie pub fare is a quintessential experience. Wednesday night is parma night ($25 with a pot of beer), Thursday night is steak night ($25 plus $2 for salad) and kids eat free on Mondays.
Local painter Raymond Arnold, the artistic director of printmaking co-op PressWEST, recommends Char No. 9, which pops up from 4.30pm until 7.30pm Wednesday to Friday at the Queenstown Motor Lodge on Orr Street. “With their delicate fusion of Asian cooking, including a Japanese influence, [proprietors] Char and Nina are generous hosts,” he says. “It’s the only place in town you’ll find a katsu chicken, massaman curry or pad Thai.”
Penguin
Travel via: Northern Forage
Penguin’s tiny stretch of beachfront shops springs to life at 6.30am as farmers and construction workers filter into Penguin Country Bakehouse for their morning coffee and breakfast pie.
“It’s always busy!” says Scott Seymour of Penguin Beer Co. about the bakery (his go-to is the steak and pepper pie). Seymour’s beers are brewed in nearby Devonport; at the Penguin taproom you’ll find the whole range on draught, plus canned options to take-away.
When he started the business five years ago, the focus was on burgers and tacos, the latter being so popular the menu has expanded to include Mexican-inspired favourites like nachos, burritos and queso dip. The fish tacos, made with local flathead, taste all the more spectacular on the deck, which overlooks the Strait.
We hear a lot about how welcoming people are in Penguin, Scott says. “You’ll always find someone to chat to, if you’re looking for local tips.” When he gets a rare night off, he’ll grab takeaway pizzas from neighbouring restaurant Seasons by the Sea, though a retro-style bistro menu is available for those dining in. Think brie-stuffed chicken breasts, salt and pepper prawns, or pork belly with mash and broccolini.
Travelling in the off-season? Please be mindful that opening hours may shift in winter, and many venues will reduce staff accordingly. All the more reason to take it slow over a second glass of wine or an extra entrée.