The selected restaurants have been divided into five categories: Gourmet, Business, Trendy, Budget and Personal Recommendations. The restaurants are listed alphabetically within these different categories.
The restaurants have been grouped in four different price categories:
$$$$ (over A$150)
$$$ (A$100 to A$150)
$$ (A$50 to A$100)
$ (under A$50)
The price categories are for an average three-course meal for one and half a bottle of house wine or equivalent. They also include Sydney’s 10% GST (Goods and Services Tax) but do not include a service charge or tip. Many
restaurants in Sydney are unlicensed but operate a BYO (Bring Your Own) policy and charge a corkage fee.
On public holidays many establishments add a 15% service charge to the bill. Tipping is commonplace in Sydney restaurants with 10% of the total bill being the norm.
GourmetCatalina Rose Bay
Catalina Rose Bay
is a must for lovers of seafood and ocean views - every year, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begins under the very noses of its patrons. Japanese and Spanish influences alternate over a range of fish and shellfish creations that melt in the mouth, such as
crépinette of crab and snapper and sea scallops with smoked quail. Closed Sunday night.
1 Sunderland Avenue, Rose Bay
Tel: (02) 9371 0555.
Website:
www.catalinarosebay.com.au Price: $$$$
Guillaume at Bennelong
The only Sydney restaurant that is also a world architectural icon, Guillaume at Bennelong
is the smallest of the three soaring structures making up the opera house. Under the direction of Guillaume Brahini, a three-Michelin-starred chef, the restaurant’s menu embraces local produce cooked with French techniques. The chef’s signature dish is the mouth-watering basil-infused tuna with mustard seed vinaigrette. Booking well ahead is essential. Closed Sunday.
Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point
Tel: (02) 9241 1999.
Website:
www.guillaumeatbennelong.com.au Price: $$$$
Quay
Located in the Overseas Passenger Terminal, a meal at Quay is as much about the location as it is about Peter Gilmore’s food - particularly if you’re fortunate enough to get a table in the Tower section, which has 320° harbor views. The innovative dishes include mud-crab-stuffed zucchini flower, poached quail with truffle custard and a heavenly five-textured Valrhona chocolate cake.
Overseas Passenger Terminal, West Circular Quay
Tel: (02) 9251 5600.
Website:
www.quay.com.au Price: $$$$
TrendyBill’s
There’s no better start to a Sydney day than a Bill’s
breakfast - ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter, sweetcorn fritters and deliciously creamy scrambled eggs (acclaimed by the
New York Times). Lunch and dinner are also winners with spicy squid salad, fillet steak sandwiches and crisp free-range chicken with sautéed cavolo nero all jostling for space on the menu.
433 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst
Tel: (02) 9360 9631.
Price: $$$
Glebe Point Diner
This laid-back diner is the epitome of casual cool and serves up sumptuous dishes that won’t leave you begging the bank for an overdraft. Everything is made from scratch; that includes the butter, the bread and the lemonade, and the produce is almost entirely organic or biodynamic. The food is quite simply delicious and the honey and rosemary panna cotta with roast quince in particular is a winner.
407 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Tel: (02) 9660 2646.
Price: $$$
Hugo’s Bar Pizza
Pizza-lovers should look no further than Hugo’s Bar Pizza, where the pizzas are so good they’ve even won prizes. Choose from a range of toppings that include pork belly, pumpkin and salmon in addition to the more traditional pepperoni. There are both outdoor and indoor seating options and dinners here tend to go on late into the evening - no doubt aided somewhat by the extensive wine and cocktail menus.
33 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross
Tel: (02) 9357 4018.
Website:
www.hugos.com.au Price: $$$
Icebergs Dining Room & Bar
If the sweeping views of Bondi Beach don’t tempt you then the menu certainly will at this iconic restaurant that sits above Sydney’s famous swimming pool. The menu is a mixture of fresh seafood and steaks cooked on the grill, including the popular Wagyu Rib Eye. The bar is popular with Bondi’s beautiful people and makes an excellent spot for a drink.
One Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach
Tel: (02) 9365 9000.
Website:
www.idrb.com Price: $$$$
Longrain
Housed within a converted warehouse space, this Asian-style restaurant simply oozes cool. Long wooden dining tables, polished floorboards and a DJ make a meal at Longrain a unique Sydney dining experience. The menu is a blend of Thai and Southern Chinese influences with dishes such as softshell crab with a green mango salad and peanut curry of braised wagyu beef being particularly popular. Dinner bookings are not taken so arrival before 1930 is advised.
85 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills
Tel: (02) 9280 2888.
Website:
www.longrain.com Price: $$$
BudgetArthur’s Pizza
Nothing satiates the hunger after a day’s shopping in the chi-chi boutiques of Paddington like a big traditional pizza or pasta at Arthur’s Pizza. All the classics are served here, along with unusual combinations such as duck sausage with provolone and potato. If the place is full (and it often is) staff are prepared to come and fetch patrons from the pub next door when a table becomes free.
260 Oxford Street, Paddington
Tel: (02) 9332 2220.
Website:
www.arthurspizza.com.au Price: $$
BBQ King
Peking duck hangs in the window and it is Peking duck that attracts the crowds to the authentic if slightly tatty BBQ King
on the northeastern border of Chinatown. Open until 0200, the menu includes a superb suckling pig and plenty of out-there Chinese delicacies. Frills are not to be expected, although a great meal can.
18-20 Goulburn Street
Tel: (02) 9267 2586.
Price: $$
Bill & Toni’s
Old school charm and a no frills menu keep the punters coming back to this East Sydney institution. Generous portions of pasta, schnitzel and meatballs are served up in a dining room that looks like something out of
Goodfellas. The downstairs cafe pours steaming cups of rocket fuel-strength coffee throughout the day.
72-74 Stanley Street, East Sydney
Tel: (02) 9360 4702.
Price: $
Bodhi
Positioned between the church and the swimming pool in Cook & Phillip Park is this Asian eatery that serves up tasty yum cha by day and mod-Asian by night. Set outside under a canopy of fig trees, it’s a world away from the hustle and bustle of traditional Asian restaurants. The vegetarian menu features all the usual suspects in addition to a few signature dishes such as sweet Japanese pumpkin and fresh snowpeas.
2-4 College Street, Cook & Phillip Park
Tel: (02) 9360 2523.
Price: $$
Harry’s Cafe de Wheels
Not a restaurant but a waterfront meat pie stand, Harry’s
has been serving the Aussie staple of pies with peas, mash and gravy to sailors, hoodlums and late-night party casualties since 1945. Consequently, it has become a tourist attraction and is decorated with photographs of famous visitors - including, oddly enough, Colonel Sanders. And the pies? Bloody good tucker, mate. Harry’s
is open until 0400 Friday and Saturday.
Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo
Tel: (02) 9357 3074.
Price: $
Personal RecommendationsBilly Kwong
Always busy, this restaurant owned by celebrity chef Kylie Kwong churns out delicious Chinese-inspired food of fantastic quality. The dishes are based on traditional Chinese recipes but Kwong adds her own contemporary twist that appeals to a hip, young audience. The signature dish of crispy-skin duck with plum sauce is out of this world but you won’t go wrong whatever you choose from the menu.
3/255 Crown Street, Surry Hills
Tel: (02) 9332 3300.
Price: $$
Manna
Sometimes you want the vaunted Sydney cuisine without the Sydney attitude. That’s when a trip down Parramatta Road to this cosy bistro is a welcome respite. This former corner shop has excellent staff whose laid-back welcome puts you in exactly the right mood for a quartet of lightly seared scallops topped with crunchy string chips followed by a classic prawn, garlic and chilli linguini. Closed Monday.
Station Street (Corner of West Street), Petersham
Tel: (02) 9568 4644.
Price: $$
North Bondi Italian
Positioned on the northern end of Bondi Beach is this bustling restaurant that’s a favorite with locals and celebrities alike. Although it can get noisy at times, the laid-back atmosphere and excellent food make for a very enjoyable night out - especially if you manage to grab one of the tables outside. The modern Italian menu features dishes such as parmesan crumbed flathead and farfalle with braised game, porcini and peas.
118-120 Ramsgate Avenue, Bondi Beach
Tel: (02) 9300 4400.
Website:
www.idrb.com Price: $$$
Oscillate Wildly
Oscillate Wildly offers a high-quality dining experience at absurdly cheap prices. Tucked away just off the boho bustle of King Street, Newtown, this tiny art deco dining room serves up modern Australian fare, such as wild barramundi with pancetta and red wine butter, and some of the best value desserts in town. The service is expert, even if the one waiter is rushed off his feet at times.
275 Australia Street, Newtown
Tel: (02) 9517 4700.
Price: $$$
Seans Panaroma
Seans doesn’t look like much from the outside but it’s the beach cafe feeling that makes this place so special. This cosy restaurant is packed to the doors and the old photos and beach memorabilia make it seem more like a friend’s beach shack than a restaurant. That said, the food is excellent. Wholesome and hearty, the modest menu features dishes such as King George whiting, organic chook and Greenham grass fed scotch steak. Open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday and lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Booking essential.
270 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach
Tel: (02) 9365 4924.
Website:
www.seanspanaroma.com.au Price: $$$
Thai Pothong
King Street in Newtown seems to have more Thai restaurants than Bangkok but Thai Pothong
still stands out as the biggest and the best for value. Standards such as chicken cashew nut and
tom yung soup, are as good as they come, the service is swift and attentive, and there’s the happy buzz of contented diners who know they’re getting great food for very reasonable prices.
294 King Street, Newtown
Tel: (02) 9550 6277.
Website:
www.thaipothong.com.au Price: $
Nightlife:Oxford Street, the heart of Sydney’s gay area, buzzes with cafes and clubs (gay, straight and mixed) while the established red-light district of Kings Cross continues to cater for the seedier side of life. The Rocks was the original drinking heart of the city and in the early 20th century it was the raucous setting for the ’six o’clock swill’, when workers would drink as much as possible before the pubs shut at 1800. Today the period pubs have been cleaned up for the huge tourist clientele and drinks at the harborside terraces are expensive but worth it for the views.
Sydney’s night owls are predominantly designer clad. Bouncers at the more fashionable clubs enforce strict dress codes and ID checks. The days of the six o’clock swill are long gone - Sydney’s licensing hours are extremely relaxed. At any hour of the day or night, someone somewhere is serving drinks to anyone over the legal age of 18.
For up-to-date listings, free weekly entertainment guides
Drum Media (website:
www.drummedia.com.au) and
3D World (website:
www.threedworld.com.au) are available at most city-center bookshops and record stores, as is the gay and lesbian
Sydney Star Observer (website:
www.ssonet.com.au). The arts and entertainment magazine
Time Out (website:
www.timeoutsydney.com.au) has recently launched in Sydney and is an excellent guide to what’s on in the city. The
Sydney Morning Herald (website:
www.smh.com.au) also carries a comprehensive entertainment guide, ’Metro’, in the Friday edition.
Bars: The Establishment, 252 George Street, lives up to its name as Sydney’s
de rigueur after-work drinking place. Chic and enormous, it incorporates the exclusive
Hemmesphere cocktail lounge.
Middle Bar, 383 Bourke Street, plays host to many beautiful young things.
East Village, 234 Palmer Street, offers a sophisticated take on the classic Sydney pub, as does the beautiful art deco
Civic, 388 Pitt Street.
ECQ, 69 Macquarie Street, has stunning views of the Harbour Bridge - and equally as stunning prices. The
Victoria Room, 235 Victoria Street, fills its cavernous space with British colonial décor and sophisticated drinkers.
The Colombian, corner of Oxford Street and Crown Street, offers the best of both worlds: straight upstairs and gay downstairs.
The
Stonewall, 175 Oxford Street, is another good place to start a gay night out in Sydney - there are DJs, drag shows and friendly faces galore. The
Darlo Bar, 306 Liverpool Street, the
Green Park Hotel, 360 Victoria Street, and the
Bank Hotel, 324 King Street, are where the younger inner-city crowd converge for pool and beer.
Clubs: Sydney takes clubbing very seriously. It is always safer to dress up rather than down and be prepared to queue.
Home, Cockle Bay Wharf (website:
www.homesydney.com), has four different sections featuring funk, techno, two-step and disco.
Tank, 3 Bridge Lane, is part of
The Establishment complex, 252 George Street (see above).
The Chinese Laundry, 1 Slip Street, combines a blistering sound system with mock East Asian décor.
Sydney’s well-connected society clubbers go to
Cave, Pirrama Road, while the old stand-by,
Q Bar, 44 Oxford Street, is a reliable choice for mid-week clubbing. Other notable venues include
Soho, 171 Victoria Street (website:
www.sohobar.com.au), and
The World Bar, 24 Bayswater Road (website:
www.theworldbar.com). The gay dance scene revolves around
Arq, 16 Flinders Street (website:
www.arqsydney.com.au).
Live Music: The
Hopetoun Hotel, 416 Bourke Street, and the
Annandale Hotel, 17 Parramatta Road (website:
www.annandalehotel.com.au), are the best centrally located venues for up-and-coming bands, while leading Australian and international acts perform at the
Sydney Entertainment Center, Harbour Street (website:
www.sydentcent.com.au), the
Metro, 624 George Street (website:
www.metrotheater.com.au), and the
Enmore Theater, 130 Enmore Road (website:
www.enmoretheater.com.au). Jazz fans can find world-class performers at the
Basement, 29 Reiby Place (website:
www.thebasement.com.au).
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