Why you won’t find a single menu at Byron Bay’s hottest new restaurant
by Jill Dupleix · Australian Financial ReviewJill DupleixFood writer
Jun 19, 2026 – 5.00am
Don’t expect a menu when you dine at Feu, the flagship fine diner of The Belongil, just out of Byron Bay. That’s so passé. Instead, there is a box of porcelain toys: ducklings, figs, crab claws and pig snouts. Each one is placed on the table, like a culinary totem, and the produce’s provenance explained (“the fish tonight is Spanish mackerel from Daniel Fleming, caught just off the coast here”). There is even a little spoon to signal if you want a supplement of Honos kaluga caviar.
It feels like a pagan ritual, witchcraft or a shaman reading the runes. You choose what you feel like eating and place your little totems in a heavy cast-iron pan in the order you’d like your dishes served, and off it goes to the kitchen. Note there has been no discussion of how your chosen items are cooked or what they may come with. Dinner is in the lap of the gods.
Loading...
Save
Log in or Subscribe to save article
Share
Copy link
Copied
Copy link
Copied
Share via...
Gift this article
Subscribe to gift this article
Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.
Already a subscriber? Login
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Read More
Jill DupleixFood writerJill Dupleix is AFR Magazine's culinary editor.
Latest In Food & wine
Fetching latest articles