Azure Bar & Grill. Byron Bay, NSW
- The Scoffers
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Iconic Byron Bay, where the surf’s always up, the influencers are always brunching and every second café promises to heal your trauma through sustainably foraged microgreens and chakric alignment via an ethically sourced cold brew. Once upon a time, you could roll into town, grab a tarot reading, a chunk of organic hash and an ethically woven dreamcatcher from a guy named Moonbeam with three teeth, tie dyed pants and a heart of gold. Simpler times.
Now, not so much. These days it’s less boho barefoot and more Hollywood barefoot, as Hemsworths, Efrons, Damons and Kidmans have descended like overpriced seagulls onto this once-sleepy coastal enclave. The wannabes, the spiritually adjacent and the chronically #blessed follow in tow with phones at the ready in case someone orders a turmeric latte within six feet of Chris.
And nestled comfortably in this kombucha fuelled pilates meets podcast mecca is Azure Bar & Grill, tucked inside the frighteningly photogenic Elements of Byron resort. It’s part restaurant, part mood board and part gentle flex. A sleek, coastal dining room with big conscious but curated energy.
There are whitewashed walls, shell motifs, blonde wood and enough rattan to start your own Bali boutique. Dried natives here, palm leaves there and just in case you forget you’re by the ocean, soft greys and washed-out blues whisper coastal luxe like a particularly well moisturised meditation coach. Add a full cast of influencers draped in linen, sipping pet nat with lips plumper than the resort’s room rates and you’ve got the kind of vibe that’s less dinner out and more live-streamed soft launch.
The menu, helmed by resort lifer and kitchen whisperer Craig Robertson is a solid class in local sourcing. Indigenous ingredients are the stars here with wattleseed, bunya nut, and pepperberry popping up with the frequency of a Hemsworth at the Byron markets. The food here is very good, and while every dish seems to be touched by an indigenous ingredient, its still an appeal to the masses menu servicing both in house diners and members of the great unwashed general public.
There were a couple of hiccups. Oysters had been pre shucked and for $8 a pop, they were a bit average. Pepperberry venison was delicious, well prepared with a tart quandong chutney, as were some far away from home Port Lincoln Kinkawooka mussels. There are mussels farmed in NSW, in Eden, Jervis Bay and given they are farmed year round, this was surprising to see these bivalves from Port Lincoln. But they are a great product nonetheless.
Beef short rib parpardelle laid no claims to any indigenous additions and rightly so, it was well balanced, although the pasta itself had been a little too long in the pot. The lamb backstrap however, was completely overwhelmed by a heavy hand with the river mint to the point of being unpleasant.
Still, credit where it’s due. Azure knows its crowd and plays the hits. The wattleseed pavlova is a prime example glossy, architectural, suspiciously symmetrical, and somehow manages to taste like a sexy camping trip. The overall experience was good, with the few minor menu hiccups.
Service is warm with just the right hint of namaste, and the wine list is a love letter to New South Wales’ more photogenic vineyards. You’ll sip, you’ll swirl, you’ll pretend you’ve always been into natural wine, even as your palate begs for a standard shiraz like it’s 2014. The truth is, Azure is very Byron right now. Polished, picturesque, slightly over thought and a coastal temple where aesthetic trumps appetite just a little more often than it should. But it’s also genuinely trying and trying well, to tell a story about place and produce and people, even if that story occasionally gets drowned out by the sound of someone live streaming their entrée.
In a town where a single almond croissant can set you back the GDP of a small island nation, Azure’s pricing is shockingly reasonable. For food this thoughtful and surrounds this smug, it’s borderline generous. And with Mindy Woods Karkalla now only doing on farm and occasional dining, this is a needed venue in Byron to showcase Australian native ingredients.
So should you go? Sure. Just don’t forget to take a selfie with your entrée, nod solemnly at the bush tomato aioli and tell your followers it was a spiritual experience. Because here in Byron, that’s basically the tasting note that counts. Online reviews might suggest you shouldn't go, a number of them far from kind, but that was not our experience.
Azure Bar and Grill in Elements of Byron Bay Resort is at 144 Bayshore Dr, Byron Bay NSW
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