Booming bars and seriously good coffee: a local’s guide to Newcastle
The NSW coastal city has changed dramatically, says Newcastle writers’ festival’s Rosemarie Milsom. It now has excellent eateries, new arts festivals and bustling breweries
Newcastle is on Awabakal and Worimi country. It has changed dramatically since I moved back here from Sydney in 2008. The cityscape is full of cranes with lots of new apartment blocks and hotels. The light rail is a newish, if controversial, addition and great coffee is everywhere.
A lot more tourists come here now. In her memoir The Taste of Memory, the late, great writer Marion Halligan described Newcastle as “that well-kept secret of a place”. Well, the secret’s out!
It’s such an easy place to live; everything is a 15-minute drive away. In October, an international terminal is opening at Newcastle airport with a direct flight to Bali up first. Everyone’s hoping for a bigger Asian destination next, so we can link up with Europe. That will be a game-changer for Newcastle.
Food
My top pick is the French-inspired Bistro Penny. It opened in 2024 in a heritage building in the inner city and it has ambience galore. It’s quite expensive but the classic Cafe de Paris steak is hard to beat. Book in advance for a weekend table.
Humbug makes its own pasta and has a super interesting wine list. In summer, I love to stroll up from Newcastle beach and eat outdoors. From snacks to mains, it’s all good. Nagisa is a Japanese restaurant in Honeysuckle, right on the harbour. The sashimi, wagyu beef and dumplings are excellent and the banquets are perfect for a group.
I salivate just thinking about Arno Deli’s paninis. The warm porchetta is my favourite – wintry and earthy with eggplant. It does cold salami or prosciutto paninis, too, and the cannoli is great. It’s in the CBD; expect a queue on weekends.
Equium Social in Mayfield is serious about coffee but does excellent hot chocolate, loose-leaf native ingredient tea, housemade sodas and smoothies too.
Cakeboi in Hamilton is owned by Reece Hignell, a baker who was on MasterChef. It has Newcastle’s best hot chocolate and good chai but you go for the cakes. My favourites are raspberry coconut cake, devil’s food cake, lemon tart and cinnamon scrolls.
Sunnyboy Kiosk at Dixon Park beach is super local. Everyone raves about the coffee but I get a smoothie or a fresh juice. You pull up a plastic stool in front of the surf club among Newcastle Knights rugby players and a young beachy crew in gym wear.
Nature
The historic Newcastle ocean baths are free, spectacular, close to a light rail stop and wheelchair-accessible. The concrete bleachers are painted a shade of teal that just screams art deco. You get everyone from boisterous teenagers to Newcastle’s top barristers. Some days the tide smashes over the wall and you see cormorants, osprey, sea eagles or whales. On hot nights people come to sit around or swim, and there’s lighting for evening dips.
Bathers Way is a popular 6km walk from Merewether ocean baths in the south to Nobbys beach in the north. Keep walking around the harbour and you’ll pass the waterfront precinct Honeysuckle and reach Throsby Creek in Wickham. It was once heavily polluted but now there’s silvery fish leaping about, birdlife, mangroves and Newcastle Rowing Club uses it for their annual regatta. It’s a rewilding success story that proves community can fight for a space and make it something special.
Hickson Street lookout in Merewether has a stunning view. Young people hang out here, eating takeaway. You can walk down to Burwood beach (beware, it’s unpatrolled) or challenge yourself with a hike or a bike through the Glenrock state conservation area.
Stockton Bight sand dunes, in Worimi conservation lands, are famous. Murrook Adventures runs an all-terrain vehicle sand dune tour packed with cultural and ecological insights. It’s so good, I’ve done it twice.
Nightlife
Newcastle’s live music scene has gone backwards over the decades. There aren’t many venues left, but The Lass pub has long been a live music hotspot and the Stag & Hunter hotel gets some amazing Australian and international acts. Mad Poet in Newcastle West is newer and has a great wine list, hotdogs and tacos, and a small stage for live acts on Wednesday nights.
Like most places, it’s the small bars and breweries that are booming these days. Bar Mellow on Hunter Street is in a beautiful ex-bank. It has cool booths and a nice vibe; I’d go for a negroni or a good glass of wine. Method Brewing in Islington is close to heaps of great restaurants on Beaumont Street and you can BYO food to the brewery.
Romberg’s is my pick for a sophisticated cocktail with a view. It’s on the top floor of Crystalbrook Kingsley but it’s open to all.
Inspiration
The Lock-Up contemporary gallery in Newcastle’s historical precinct runs exhibitions, performances and classes. It’s in an 1800s police station and there’s still a padded cell inside. A lot of the art is site specific and responds to Australia’s colonial history. The curation is top-notch and recent artists have included Khaled Sabsabi and Locust Jones.
Murrook culture centre is an amazing newish First Nations-run space in Port Stephens (20 minutes north). It leans heavily into interactive digital media and video; it’s quite unique. You can pick up some local Gathang language phrases in the cafe, which serves yapay djagil (house food) close to a peaceful billabong fringed by paperbark trees.
The lighthouse at Whibayganba/Nobbys Head is an iconic symbol of Newcastle. There’s a beautiful walk along the breakwall there. It’s currently managed as Lighthouse Arts by Hunters Writers’ Centre and it has exhibitions on the weekend. The 360-degree view from the top is spectacular.
Newcastle Art Gallery in Cooks Hill is reopening in late September in tandem with New Annual arts festival. The exhibition space will be doubled plus it’ll have a new cafe and shop.
Neighbourhood
Eclectic Newcastle East is my favourite place. You’ve got million-dollar ocean view apartments as well as housing commission units right there on the water. There’s ocean baths, cafes, parklands, cool restaurants and lots of heritage buildings. It’s next to the CBD but is about 300m from Newcastle beach – that’s pretty rare!
Newcastle beach is the last light rail stop. From there, I recommend heading to Grain Store, in a former warehouse, for one of its many boutique beers. Or getting takeaway oysters or fish and chips from Scottie’s and eating them on the grass.
Islington and Wickham are pretty gentrified suburbs but maintain an egalitarian, low-key feel. Slingtown in Carrington roasts its own coffee, while Yard Sale in Islington is an ethically minded store with both wardrobe and pantry staples. I buy all my presents at High Swan Dive. It’s like a nursery for millennials with indoor plants, nice pots and gardening tools. Islington park has a skate bowl, a playground and access to Throsby Creek.
Darby Street in Cooks Hill is Newcastle’s best-known eat street. It has inner-Sydney vibes, terrace housing and the Delaney hotel. Goldbergs coffee house has been operating since 1995 and is the only spot open for coffee after 3pm. It’s a no-frills institution. I’m one of the regulars who has been coming for 25 years.
Accommodation
The newest kid on the block is Little National hotel (from $180) in Newcastle West. It’s closest to the Newcastle Interchange light rail stop if you’re on the train from Sydney. The rooms are tight but people rave about the beds.
Rydges Newcastle (from $200) is a bit old-school but the rooms are spacious and it’s right on the harbour. The bulk carrier ships glide past your window blowing that distinctive horn, and the path to the start of Bathers Way is right out the front.
Crystalbrook Kingsley (from $234 per night) is in a mushroom-shaped building that’s very architecturally arresting. It has Romberg’s rooftop bar, a great restaurant called Roundhouse and a casual bar downstairs called Ms Marys. It’s close to the Darby Street precinct.
It’s a five-minute ferry to Stockton Beach holiday park (from $38 for an unpowered tent site and $214 for a villa) or a good swimmer could make their own way. It’s alongside Stockton Bight sand dunes.
Rosemarie Milsom is the founding director of Newcastle writers’ festival