Restaurant in Hobart, Australia
Garden-driven cooking. Book it for occasions.
Agrarian Kitchen sits in a converted 19th-century asylum in New Norfolk, 38km from Hobart, where chef Rodney Dunn builds the menu around a working kitchen garden. Named on Tatler's Best Restaurants Asia-Pacific 2025 list, it is easy to book relative to its award tier. Worth the drive for food-focused travellers; not a late-night or city-convenience option.
The most common assumption about Agrarian Kitchen is that it sits somewhere in Hobart's restaurant strip, slotted between waterfront tables and weekend brunch crowds. It does not. The restaurant operates out of New Norfolk, roughly 38 kilometres northwest of the city centre, in a converted 19th-century asylum building on The Avenue. That distance is the single most important logistical fact about this booking. If you are willing to make the trip — and you should be — you will find one of the most credible farm-to-table operations in the Asia-Pacific, recognised on the Tatler Leading Restaurants Asia-Pacific 2025 list alongside venues with considerably more marketing budget. For food and travel enthusiasts who want depth rather than a polished city dining room, Agrarian Kitchen justifies every kilometre.
Chef Rodney Dunn built Agrarian Kitchen around the productive capacity of a working kitchen garden. The cooking is grounded in what the land yields, which means the flavour profile here tilts toward honest, seasonal, and ingredient-forward rather than architectural or technique-led. If you are expecting the kind of refined modernist plating you would find at Attica in Melbourne or the seafood precision of Le Bernardin in New York City, recalibrate. What Agrarian Kitchen does is connect the produce cycle directly to the plate, and in Tasmania that cycle is genuinely compelling given the state's cool climate, clean soils, and short supply chains.
The setting compounds the experience. A Victorian-era asylum repurposed as a dining room and garden creates a physical environment that is harder to manufacture than any fit-out budget can achieve. The building is the context. For a guest lens that values provenance, place, and culinary intent over spectacle, this combination is hard to match in the region.
Tatler's 2025 Asia-Pacific recognition is the primary trust signal here , the list is editorially selective and covers a competitive field. That credential, alongside the regional reputation Dunn has built through the Agrarian Kitchen cooking school and restaurant over multiple years, supports the booking case without requiring manufactured superlatives.
Agrarian Kitchen is classified as easy to book relative to comparable venues in its award tier. That is partly a function of its remote location , the drive self-selects a committed diner rather than an opportunistic one , and partly because it lacks the metropolitan demand pressure of city restaurants with equivalent recognition. Book one to two weeks out for standard service windows, though weekend sittings during peak Tasmanian tourism season (December through February, and the Hobart summer festival period) will benefit from earlier planning. Reach the restaurant directly at +61 3 6262 0011 to confirm availability and current service schedules, as hours are not published in this record. Given the distance from Hobart, call ahead to verify rather than arriving on assumption.
There is no published price range in the available data. Contact the restaurant before booking to understand current menu format and cost, particularly if you are budgeting against a special occasion.
Agrarian Kitchen is a destination experience that rewards daylight , the garden context, the drive through the Derwent Valley, and the building itself are all leading appreciated in natural light. This is not a late-night venue. If your itinerary requires a post-10pm option, plan your Hobart evening around the city's bar scene instead. Check our full Hobart bars guide for options that work after standard dinner hours. Treat Agrarian Kitchen as a lunch or early-dinner anchor for a day that extends into the valley, not as an end-of-night booking.
Address: 11a The Avenue, New Norfolk TAS 7140, Australia. Phone: +61 3 6262 0011. Website: theagrariankitchen.com. Booking difficulty: easy. Leading approach from Hobart: drive (approximately 40 minutes). Pair with a broader Tasmanian day trip using our full Hobart experiences guide and our full Hobart wineries guide for the Derwent Valley corridor. For city-based accommodation before or after, consult our full Hobart hotels guide.
Quick reference: New Norfolk, TAS , call ahead , easy to book , leading in daylight hours , Tatler Asia-Pacific 2025.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agrarian Kitchen | {"address": "11a The Avenue, New Norfolk, Tasmania 7140, Australia", "badge_name": "", "badge_text_raw": "", "badge_year": "", "description": "Once a 19th-century asylum, now a modern Tasmanian sanctuary where garden-grown produce meets thoughtful, soulful cooking.", "detail_url": "", "evidence_sources": "listing", "hero_image": "", "instagram": "", "list_scope": "Tatler Best Restaurants Asia-Pacific 2025", "listing_url": "", "manifest_key": "tatler_the-agrarian-kitchen_7e47491ddf", "page_year": "2025", "phone": "+61 3 6262 0011", "record_type": "list_membership", "region": "asia_pacific", "source_surface": "listing", "source_url": "", "taxonomy_label": "Australian, Modern", "taxonomy_url": "", "venue_type": "restaurant", "website": "", "winner_kind": "list_membership"}; Chef: Rodney Dunn document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } }); | Easy | — | ||
| Attica | Australian Modern | World's 50 Best | Unknown | — | |
| Brae | Modern Australian | World's 50 Best | Unknown | — | |
| Rockpool | Australian Cuisine | World's 50 Best | Unknown | — | |
| Saint Peter | Australian Seafood | World's 50 Best | Unknown | — | |
| Flower Drum | Cantonese | World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Two to three weeks ahead is a reasonable buffer for most dates, and the venue is classified as easier to book than comparable award-tier restaurants in Australia. That said, weekends fill faster given the destination nature of the drive from Hobart through the Derwent Valley. Appearing on the Tatler Asia-Pacific Best Restaurants 2025 list will have sharpened demand, so for a specific Saturday, book early.
If staying in Hobart proper is the priority, the city's waterfront precinct has options that skip the 40-minute drive to New Norfolk. Agrarian Kitchen's distinction is its working kitchen garden and the former 19th-century asylum building — that context does not exist in the city. For a garden-and-produce-led format in Tasmania, there is no direct city-based equivalent; for straightforward fine dining without the drive, look at Hobart's CBD restaurant strip instead.
The venue data does not include explicit dietary restriction policies, so contact them directly on +61 3 6262 0011 before booking. Given the kitchen garden format led by Rodney Dunn, the menu is produce-driven and changes with seasonal yield, which typically gives kitchens at this level reasonable flexibility — but confirm specifics rather than assume.
Yes, with one practical caveat: plan for a daytime or early-evening visit, as the setting in the historic Derwent Valley building and the garden context pay off in daylight. The Tatler Asia-Pacific Best Restaurants 2025 listing and Rodney Dunn's garden-to-table approach give it the credentials to anchor a birthday, anniversary, or milestone meal. It reads as a deliberate, full-afternoon experience rather than a quick dinner booking.
It can work, but the format and 40-minute drive from Hobart lean toward a shared occasion rather than a solo drop-in. There is no database record of a counter or bar seating configuration that typically suits solo diners at this type of destination restaurant. If solo dining is the plan, call ahead on +61 3 6262 0011 to confirm how they seat single covers — some kitchen garden formats seat solo guests more comfortably at lunch than dinner.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
