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The mission of You Beauty is to “pay homage to the classic corner pub of a big city” from its regional location in the heart of one of the Northern Rivers’ most charming towns. Having finally been successful in scoring a spot for dinner – it’s always bustling, with tables filling every evening with groups of friends catching up over perfectly presented, snackable share plates – I can vouch for its success, though what this place pulls off is far more refined than your typical corner drinking hole.
The vibe
With its dark wooden floorboards and old-school Aussie wall hangings, there’s a delightfully unpretentious vibe to the space – bifold doors connecting the pub-style dining room to a big verandah that overlooks the street, and a ’70s soundtrack flooding the space through retro speakers wired into the ceiling. The pub-style energy is matched with friendly, easy-going service, but the offering (excellent wine, well-crafted cocktails and first-rate snacks) is more akin to what you’d expect from a Melbourne wine bar. In my eyes, it’s the perfect holiday dinner spot: a vibey, laid-back setting serving good drinks and tasty-as-heck food that you’ll be thinking about for weeks.
The food
The food offering is wine bar-style share plates with an Aussie accent. We start with oysters, which are freshly shucked to order and served with a zingy Davidson Plum mignonette, then move on to a round of more substantial snacks. Two discs of the restaurant’s signature croc toast ($10 each) arrive piping hot and perfectly golden, with a dish of chilli oil that adds a satisfying edge to the umami, prawn toast-esque bites. Kangaroo tail croquettes ($12 each) crowned with a gem of Davidson Plum ketchup arrive next – they're surprisingly light and just the right amount of salty. Our waiter suggests the house-made focaccia ($6) and barbecued prawns (fresh from Ballina’s Northern Rivers Seafood, which she assures us is the best in the biz), so we follow her lead and are not disappointed. The chunky prawns ($26) are doused in a halo of finger lime butter sauce that’s got an almost hemp-like earthiness, and we mop it up with chunks of perfectly light focaccia that we’ve already slathered in house-made butter.
For our main course, our waiter recommends the risotto ($28) – a smoky bowl of perfectly al dente wattleseed-flavoured rice dotted with corn that’s been charred over the fire. Crowned with creamy ricotta, jalapeños and freshly caught spanner crab, it’s a complex take on what can be a relatively samey dish – and it works a charm. On the side, a light, refreshing melon and cucumber salad ($18) cuts through the richness and lifts.
To finish, we could have opted for burnt vanilla ice cream with cherries and pistachio or an elevated take on the Weiss Bar, but in reality, we were too full to consider it.
Tight, simple and seasonal, the menu is a love letter to the produce of the Northern Rivers region, and it’s perfect date-night fare: creative in concept, but in reality – good, uncomplicated snacks that hit just right.
The drinks
In line with the uncomplicated energy, the drinks here are simple and reliably top-notch. Aussie-made beer is served on tap (along with an Irish cream ale imported from Dublin), and a strong selection of local and international wine is served by the glass or the bottle. We order two glasses of Chilean orange wine ($17 per glass) to start, which is subtle and peachy and the perfect complement to our starters. If we were in the mood for a cocktail, we could have ordered a classic or one of their ten signature concoctions – which range from Shuckatini (laced with sake and oyster gin) to a yuzu-spiked Negroni Sour.
Time Out tip
As with most places in the Northern Rivers, the kitchen here closes early – book a table for 6ish, then head to The Eltham (a wonderful pub that shares some of You Beauty’s DNA) for a post-dinner drink overlooking the fields.
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