I used to live around the corner and up the road from the legendary Clareville Kiosk. But somehow I never made it for lunch or dinner to this unassuming weatherboard cottage set on a choice bit of real estate.
Featured in the Good Food Guide since its first edition, another culinary legend, Leo Schofield, wrote in the 1987 volume that the Clareville Kiosk serves “exceptional, simple, fresh, delicious, no-nonsense food.”
The Clareville is built on the remains of the much-lauded and multi-awarded Clareville Kiosk. The Northern Beaches favourite was the location of the local post office and beachside kiosk. But it is no re-run. While sticky toffee pudding is no more, there is much, much more to try.
Meanwhile, back to the future. We’re on Delecta Avenue (could there be a better address for a restaurant?) It’s early Spring 2025, the venerable frangipani out front is primed to bud, the evening is warm, the sky blushes, and Pittwater shimmers silver.
The Chef
It’s a homecoming for owner and chef Cooper Dickson. Cooper’s a Baillie Lodges alum – working as Executive Chef at Latitude 131, Southern Ocean Lodge and Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island. Already a fisherman, the remote locations nurtured his foraging instincts too.
The Style
The petite dining room at the Clareville is refined ‘cosy coastal’. Unlike nearly every other restaurant in 2025, with the usual velvet banquettes and moody lighting, the VJ walls are the colour of sand, the floors and chairs are blonde timber, and the artwork is Cooper’s own. Like Pipit chef Scott Devlin, Cooper pays tribute to the bounty of the ocean with ‘Gyotaku’, or the art of fish rubbing on rice paper. Prints of squid, flathead and a giant snapper are embellished with Japanese Sumi inks.
The Food
The menu may be divided into Snacks, Entrees, Mains and Sides, but you can order to share and graze. Meanwhile, our table’s oyster lovers revel in the briny shellfish served spritzed with lemon or dressed with cucumber, apple, jalapeno and dill creme.
There’s a new take on ‘surf and turf’ at The Clareville – roasted scallops bathed in miso butter with corn and furikake on a bed of popcorn that’s doing a double shift as support and warm crunch. The scallops take on their surroundings to become almost earthy and delicious, rather than fishy.
Manchego churros are subtly flavoured with puffed grains, candied nuts and muntries. Muntries? They’re small green or red native berries that groove into the churros’ grooves seamlessly.
From the entrees, we tried the seared tuna with kombu cream, crispy buckwheat, kumquat and sumo mandarin dressing. The pretty in pink tuna just seared, silky, ocean-sweet and savoury.
Keeping it wild, ‘three corner leek’ dumplings masquerade as small gnocchi and are feather-light. Broccolini, smoked madadamias, brown butter and feta complete the ensemble piece. Deceptively simple but a joy to behold.
The Wine
Our trio sipped an excellent Non-Vintage Terra Viva ‘Bio’ Prosecco from Veneto, a ‘23 Pascal Reverdy ‘Terre de Maimbray’ Sancerre from the Loire Valley and for me, maybe less exotic but just as delightful – a ‘23 Mulline Rosé from Geelong. The wine, spirits and cocktail list is compact but very well considered, with one of the best selections by the glass I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s also served without pretension but with style – each glass poured at the table from small carafes with the bottle also running tandem.
Dessert
At The Clareville, dessert is not an option; it’s mandatory. Although it’s challenging to imagine chocolate mousse, liquorice ice cream, raspberry, elderflower and charcoal-infused meringue all working together, this is one of the most interesting combos of flavours and textures that’s both modern and nostalgic all at once. Perhaps it’s a play on raspberry bullets? On the plate (actually in the bowl), the raspberry ‘granita’ sits under a garden (no mere sprinkle or garnish here) of locally foraged and fragrant elderflower.
Local Avalon honey, wattleseed and blood orange is the most glorious mix. Honey yoghurt mousse, wattleseed ice cream, toasted sponge and rice puffs with the scent and citrussy spike of blood orange and ‘honeycomb’ biscuits is nothing short of genius.
These desserts and every dish we tried before them show a chef who knows when to keep on tinkering and also when to stop. He fashions, embellishes, crisps, and softens each dish until it is precisely how he wants it.
How best to describe The Clareville? ’Cosy Coastal’ comes close. Tucked away in one of Sydney’s still best-kept secret suburbs, it’s a relaxed, fine dining experience that shows off Chef Dickson’s skills without showing off at all.
Disclaimer: TML was hosted by The Clareville.
