FOREST, REIMAGINED
Tucked well off Byron's main drag, inside 45 acres of subtropical rainforest at Crystalbrook Byron, sits a restaurant many locals have long assumed was for resort guests only. It never was. Forest has just finished a full refurbishment, and it is well worth the detour.
The room feels lush and light — marble-topped tables and timber-and-rattan chairs sit beneath a cluster of pale sculptural pendants, while paperbark trunks push straight up through the verandah, a reminder that this room was built around the forest. Bifold doors open into the shaded deck, cicadas humming through the afternoon, frogs taking over at dusk, the greenery close enough that you can hear it. It does half the work of settling you in before the first course arrives, away from the noise of town.
The other part comes down to the powerhouse team at the helm: Food & Beverage Manager Daniela Combochi oversees the floor, working alongside Restaurant Manager Katherine O'Brien, while her sister, executive chef Lizzie O'Brien, leads the kitchen. The sisters grew up in Byron, spent years in Melbourne, and are now back home, part of the same team, bringing a warmth and familiarity that flows through to a floor staff who clearly love what they do.
Lizzie trained classically in France, translating that discipline into a menu built on what's grown nearby, every dish plated like a work of art. The herb garden is a short stroll from the pass. Four beehives sit on the grounds. Onsite composting turns kitchen scraps back into soil. Provenance here isn't a line on the menu, it's how the whole operation runs, end to end, made from scratch wherever possible.
On the plate, that means dishes built around Northern Rivers ingredients: a finger-lickingly good, twice-baked Nimbin Valley Monte Nardi cheese soufflé with caramelised truffle leek and velouté, torched slipper lobster brightened with preserved lemon and a salted caper macadamia crumb, and the prettiest grilled Ballina king prawns.
For mains, the chef's cut steak with king brown mushrooms, puy lentils and bordelaise sauce needs no dressing up at all. Vegan and gluten-free diners aren't an afterthought either — a pickled persimmon and heirloom beetroot dish sits beside the seafood, and a lion's mane mushroom dish with cannellini purée makes plant-based dining feel considered.
Dessert is a white chocolate crémeux with wattleseed sponge and honeycomb from the resort's own hives, plated beneath a spun honeycomb tuile and scattered with honey pearls and native flowers — almost too pretty to eat — or the show-stopping Wategos Bonfire, a Bombe Alaska that tastes like a pine lime splice, with all the nostalgia of a beach bonfire, rum included.
Speaking of which, the cocktail list reads like a love letter to Northern Rivers spirits. The Forest Margarita pairs Tromba tequila with Lord Byron Falernum and finger lime, while the Sea-salt Martini leans on Never Never Oyster Shell Gin and ice-plant, alongside a wine list strong on premium by-the-glass options.
Forest was always here, at the end of that leafy drive. Now, with a light-filled room, a menu worth celebrating, and a trio of dynamic women running the show, there is every reason to stop.
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