Where to eat in Darwin, by neighbourhood

Good food in Darwin is Southeast Asian, seafood-heavy and closer to Singapore than to Sydney in flavour. This guide is grouped by the areas our homes sit in, so you can eat well without driving, and every place on it is somewhere our team eats or sends guests. Book ahead on Friday and Saturday nights through the dry season; the good rooms fill a week out.

Short on time? Hanuman in the city for the meal you will talk about afterwards, Parap Village Market on Saturday morning for laksa, and the Darwin Ski Club for a sunset beer.

The city

Hanuman is the Darwin restaurant: Thai, Nonya and Indian cooking that has been the city's best table for decades. Order the Hanuman oysters on the way in, then the nonya satay chicken or the local soft-shell crab. Book a week ahead for a weekend. Ella by Minoli is modern Sri Lankan (the jaggery lamb, the spice-cured kangaroo tartare) and the current favourite of our team for a special dinner. Salted Egg does a dry laksa topped with grilled Skull Island prawns that people cross town for. Lazy Susan's Eating House is the group dinner: roast meats and do-it-yourself Peking duck pancakes. For pizza, Alfonsino's; for something North African and unexpected, Moorish Café.

The Waterfront and Stokes Hill Wharf

Ten minutes' walk from the city centre and the easiest evening if you are staying in one of our Waterfront apartments. Wharf One is the seafood occasion, with wood-fired cooking, a platter for two built around local barramundi, and a suckling pig feast worth organising a group for. Hot Tamale is the Mexican option with street-corn ribs, snapper ceviche and a serious margarita list. Out on Stokes Hill Wharf, Sanchos Taco Bar makes its own gluten-free corn tortillas and fills them with coconut-crumbed barramundi, and the fish-and-chip counters at the end of the wharf are where you eat with your feet over the water. Families: the Wave Lagoon is on the same lawn.

Cullen Bay

The marina faces the sunset, and our Cullen Bay guests can walk to all of these. Yots Greek Taverna for char-grilled octopus, saganaki and the spicy whitebait. Fin & Tonic for barramundi, battered or grilled, with chips and a garden salad, eaten on the boardwalk. Cathy's Place for the chilli mud crab: you choose the size, pay by the kilo, and wear the bib. Book Cathy's and ask about the crab when you do; it sells out.

Parap, Fannie Bay and East Point

Parap Village Market on Saturday morning (8 am to 2 pm) is the essential Darwin breakfast: a laksa from one of the long-running stalls, a fresh juice, tropical fruit for the week. Saffrron, also in Parap, is regional South Indian cooking with a prawn pepper masala made with local banana prawns. Pee Wee's at the Point sits on the water in East Point Reserve and is the dinner for an anniversary or a last night: crocodile in betel leaf, native-spiced kangaroo loin, and the city lights across Fannie Bay. Book it. And the Darwin Ski Club on Vesteys Beach is where our team goes for the cheapest sunset in town: sign in as a visitor, take a drink onto the lawn.

Nightcliff and Rapid Creek

Foreshore Café beside Nightcliff Jetty does the morning: coffee from early, big breakfasts, the sea in front of you. Rapid Creek Market on Sunday morning is Darwin's Asian produce market and the other place for a breakfast laksa. Nightcliff Market (Sunday, 8 am to 2 pm) has the food stalls and the live music. The Beachfront Hotel on Casuarina Drive is the local pub, with a deck over the water for a late lunch.

How to plan it

Group the list by where you are staying and by the day. A Saturday: Parap Market for breakfast, the pool through the middle of the day, Cullen Bay or the Ski Club for sunset, Hanuman for dinner. A Sunday: Rapid Creek Market early, Nightcliff Market, Mindil Beach Sunset Market from 4 pm if it is the season. Many restaurants close on Monday or Tuesday and some reduce hours in the wet season (November to April), so check before you walk over.