Paste doesn’t just buck country town Thai trends by painting outside the red-green-yellow curry box, it puts MIttagong on the map of “best places to eat sator pad goong outside of Thailand”.

Chef Bee Satongun and her restaurateur husband Jason Bailey also run Paste’s original acclaimed location in Bangkok, but in Australia they get to showcase Cowra pork – perhaps basted with wild honey, grilled on the bone and underlined by wattleseed relish – and Moreton Bay bug jostling with pomelo and betel leaf.

The dining room is spacious, modern and glass-fronted; Satongun’s cooking is complex, textural and refined. A slippery fermented rice-noodle salad with blue swimmer crab, pickled garlic and coconut milk transports you to the tropics, while minced duck larb feels right at home in the Highlands with its toasty roasted paste and flavour boost of duck liver. Wine, including local gear, is given fair attention, too.

Good to know: Takeaway is available if you’re keen for a quiet night in your long-weekend holiday home.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.