Explore Asia

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This new venture by uber-chef Teage Ezard offers a slick spin on South-East Asian street food. While the decor's a heck of a lot more chic than your average alleyway stall, the menu stays loyal to the hawker tradition, offering such bite-sized treats as son-in-law eggs.

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This is an office favourite even though our office is now all the way across town. The highlight of the northern Chinese menu has to be the dumplings. Forget the gelatinous lumps of your average yum cha joint; this place offers real pot-stickers - meaty, greasy and utterly divine.

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Rumour has it finding decent Thai food in Hobart is virtually impossible. But as long as they can get a table at Mai Ake, you won't hear Hobart's Thai aficionados complaining. For an authentic taste of Thailand, sit down to a classic pad see ew or a choo chee koong.

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Jimmy's in Subiaco serves up a cuisine cross-section of Asia, with the menu listing noodle dishes from Japan, Thailand, China, Malaysia and Indonesia. If the food doesn't transport you to Asia, the prices just might, with bargains of the kind last seen in a Bangkok back-alley.

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Cabramatta is Sydney's own Little Vietnam, offering truly authentic Vietnamese cuisine that hasn't been dumbed down or given a slick city sheen. By all accounts, the top pick at Tan Viet is the crispy chicken - tender meat and crunchy skin, served your choice of rice or noodles, or in an egg noodle soup.

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Our Canberra sources don't have words to describe this place, merely stating vehemently that it's the place to go for Asian food in the nation's capital. While the top pick is probably the laksa, the menu features plenty more Malaysian and Thai noodle dishes at criminally cheap prices.

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Though the events of recent years might have dulled it slightly, Australians have always had a passionate relationship with Indonesia, choosing a sun-baking Balinese holiday above any other. Jimbaran offers the chance to recall those vacation memories over a sweet fried chicken or their signature seafood curry.

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Indian has had its day as an exotic dinner choice. Enter Nepalese cuisine, which offers some of the spicy favourites of Indian with a Himalayan twist. Vancha Ghar offers a great overview of this lesser-known cuisine, from curries to achar and even spicy Himalayan tea.

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Being so far north it's practically in Asia, Darwin offers some of the best Asian eating in the country. Any Darwinian insider will tell you that the best (and cheapest) eating is to be found at the markets or in the air-conditioned bliss of the food courts. But for a fine-dining equivalent, you can't go past the Thai-slash-Indian-tandoor hybrid cuisine of chef Jimmy Shu.