Amarilla

Be prepared to be gobsmacked by the view. Amarilla is perched at the end of Terrigal’s iconic The Haven, right on the water, with sweeping views across Terrigal Beach and the adjacent village. The breezy, upmarket restaurant focuses on Spanish fare and comes from chef-owner Scott Price, whose former Yellowtail restaurant, also in Terrigal, was once adorned with a chef’s hat.

The menu at Amarilla does some of the expected tapas in croquette variants (the snapper and gribiche more subtle and elegant than cheese and sobrasada), tangy mussels with potato and espelette, sweet scallops on cauliflower with dashes of pancetta plus a more substantial kingfish swimming in nutty ajo blanco peppered with jalapeno and tomatillo for uplift.

Peri peri spatchcock is a worthy main, and comes with suede-textured, smoky romesco sauce and cooling yoghurt and guindilla peppers. Cocktails lean into the fruity and fun, the wine list jazzed up with Spanish staples of frisky whites in albarino and txakoli alongside bright reds of tempranillo, garnacha and mencia. This is the long, lazy lunch spot with the showstopping, aquamarine outlook that the Central Coast was missing.

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