This is not meant to be a comprehensive directory of restaurants in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, or anywhere else for that matter. It's a list of places where I eat and take my friends, because the value, food and ambience is so good.

I'm not even going to pretend these are the best places, necessarily, because there may be others I haven't been to yet, but I am going to guaranteee that they will each come up to expectation in terms of good Aussie fare and a warm and friendly atmosphere. These are the places where the locals eat and tourists often miss. They are all worth a trip.

• Muoi's Feast
  
  Slightly off the main tourist track in Byron Bay, NSW, Muoi's Feast is one of those gems that shines brightly amid an eclectic group of restaurants that in themselves have much to offer
• Relish at The Links
  
  One of the Illawarra's best kept secrets, Relish at The Links is tucked inside the clubhouse of a championship sized golf course just off the Shellharbour Road, Dunmore.
• Sassafras
  
  The trick to eating at Sassafras is to first find the town it's in. Yamba is an island town, separated from the New South Wales mainland by a causeway that only reveals itself every couple of years or so,