Best places to eat and drink in the Blue Mountains

When it comes to a long weekend in the upper Blue Mountains, Blackheath is the smart choice to snack-and-stay. There’s a growing trend for good eats and accommodation in the town, including the Kyah hotel, where you’ll find new Mexican-ish restaurant Blaq. Chefs Alejandro Huerta and Galia Valadez are behind the menu here, serving fun things such as banana and corn cake with caramelised white chocolate and koji. Nearby, you can also book at Will Cowan-Lunn’s cosy hearth restaurant, Ates (don’t miss the focaccia and house-made ricotta).

ine bar Frankie and Mo’s features a beaut monthly chef-in-residence program, or if a cold beer and a counter meal are more your speed, check out the New Ivanhoe Hotel. We should also mention the excellent interiors and prawn toast at Ho’s Palace Chinese Restaurant, which looks like a Hong Kong set from The Man with the Golden Gun.

Further down the hill in the Megalong Valley, farm-to-table restaurant Megalong at Lot 101 is serving a tasting menu surrounded by jaw-dropping cliffscapes. They also offer rooms, which means you can give the impressive wine list a nudge, and a farmgate market every Saturday. Drive five minutes down the road and hit the Megalong Valley Tea Rooms for freshly baked scones next morning. And, since you’ve braved the road down here, drop past Logan Brae Orchards for apples from its 110-year old shop. They also have a luxury cabin on the property, if you want a full fruit immersion.

falafel rolls made by a chef who once worked preparing meals for the Rolling Stones. Lovers of Aussie-Chinese can make a beeline for Canton Palace, and there’s also a local secret in Unique Patisserie – party pies and sponge cakes out the front, Malaysian hawker food cl***ics such as laksa and char kwai teow out the back.

Oh, and let’s not forget the burgeoning bar scene. Two Doctors Whiskey Tavern, in the basement of the longstanding Fairmont Resort, offers a surprising mix of good whisky, squishy Chesterfields and … karaoke. The Factory Bar, an offshoot of the Blue Mountains Gin Company, is a relaxed place to try some of the neighbouring distillery’s gins, while Mountain Culture reigns supreme when it comes to cheeseburgers and craft beer. And if it’s the call of a toasty fire, dark beer and the comfort of the pub, the Old City Bank Bar and Br***erie has a bar stool with your name on it.