Jun 19, 2026 – 5.00amDon’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.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Jill DupleixFood writerJill Dupleix is AFR Magazine's culinary editor.Fetching latest articles