Food and Dining in Sydney

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, which serve as guidelines rather than absolute definitions of the establishments.

Sydney has a Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 10%. It is highly unlikely that the GST would be added to the bill as an extra at the end and menus will usually state: ‘Prices include GST’. However, on public holidays, many establishments add a 15% service charge to the bill. Tipping is still far from obligatory in Sydney but good service should be rewarded with a gratuity of up to 10%. If the service has been unsatisfactory, it is not necessary for diners to tip.

The prices quoted below are for an average three-course meal for one and a bottle of house wine or equivalent; they include the GST but do not include a service charge or tip. Many restaurants in Sydney are unlicensed but operate a BYO (Bring Your Own) policy. This, including the relevant corkage fee, is listed below.

Gourmet

Catalina 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. The wrap-around glass windows compliment a fresh, nautical decor. Japanese and Spanish influences alternate over a range of fish and shellfish creations that melt in the mouth, such as crepinette of crab and snapper and sea scallops with smoked quail. Sydney’s current fascination with pork is represented in a terrine of roast pork with crackling served on diced mango. The food’s presentation rivals the architectural elegance of this terrific restaurant. Closed Sunday night.

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. Jørn Utzon’s vision has been fulfilled in this vaulted room, with exposed concrete rafters or ‘ribs’. Chocolate tones and amber lighting create a warm and sensual space. Under the direction of Guillaume Brahini, a three-Michelin-starred chef, the restaurant’s menu embraces local produce cooked with French techniques, such as ballotine of ocean trout, roasted Glenloth chicken on ravioli of duck foie gras, and his signature dish, basil-infused tuna with mustard seed vinaigrette. Local dining doesn’t get much more glamorous than this, although booking well ahead is essential. Closed Sunday. A three-course pre-theater menu, available from 1730-1900, is good value at A$65.

Quay

Quay won the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Restaurant of the Year’ award for the second year in 2004. Tastefully decorated in a sombre palette of pastels and greys, it’s famous for world-beating views of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge - diners should try to reserve a table in the Tower section, which has 320° harbor views. Noted for his geometric presentation, chef Peter Gilmore’s offerings include mud crab stuffed zucchini flower and ravioli of braised quail. Patrons should be sure to leave room for dessert, as the five-textured Valrhona chocolate cake is heavenly.

Salt

A fugue of white plastic and metal, Salt contrasts severity of design with sumptuousness of menu. Imaginative combinations are chef Luke Mangan’s forte: roasted venison with corn custard and chocolate sauce is a recent talking point. Game, such as tempura of quail or roasted rabbit loin, is another specialty in a venue that has attracted gourmands and serious business folk (as well as the achingly hip) since opening in 1999. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Tetsuya’s

Tetsuya Wakuda’s name is the alpha and omega of Australian haute cuisine and his 12-course degustation menu of Japanese/French delights is something no serious gourmand can visit the continent without trying (bookings must be made well in advance). His beautiful restaurant, ranked 13th best in the world by Restaurant magazine, is done up in a modern Japanese style with dark wood and chocolate carpet, Arne Jacobsen chairs and calming glimpses of a Japanese garden. The set menu consists of small dishes, such as the now famous confit of Tasmanian ocean trout with ocean trout roe, as well as lobster ravioli with seaweed vinaigrette and shellfish essence or double-cooked deboned spatchcock with braised daikon (a variety of radish) and bread sauce. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Business

Bayswater Brasserie

More than one ex-Prime Minister has been spotted at this Kings Cross stalwart which for 22 years has kept abreast of Sydney dining trends without losing its friendly, elegant atmosphere. The menu is modern Mediterranean with highlights such as roast fig and prosciutto tartlet, braised lamb shanks, and a decadent blue swimmer crab lasagne. Features include a leafy outdoor dining area, an oyster bar and cocktail bar, where the imbibing continues well into the early hours on weekends.

Edna’s Table

When the craving for emu tartare, crocodile sushi or kangaroo fillet gets too much, Edna’s Table beckons. Comfortable modern decor, Aboriginal artworks and authentic bush ingredients, including bunya nuts, Kakadu plum and eucalyptus oil, contribute to Edna’s truly unique style. A Native Australian degustation menu is also offered with a selection of Australian wines for A$135. Located in the CBD, this restaurant is perfect for visiting business folks who want to try something a bit different, and sample native meats (and atmosphere).

Longrain

A meal at Longrain is like a visit to the halls of Valhalla - its converted warehouse space has long wooden dining tables, polished floorboards and a Scandinavian ambience, despite the modern Thai menu. The food is fit for demigods - betel leaves topped with trout roe and crispy Barossa chicken are two of the highlights. Lunch is served Monday to Friday 1200-0230 but dinner bookings are not taken, so arrival before 1930 is advised. However, the bar is a stylish place in which to wait and the ’stick drinks’ (crushed fruit cocktails) go down a treat.

The Summit

Claiming to be the world’s largest revolving restaurant, The Summit has 360-degree views of Sydney, retro-futuristic design based on the space station in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a good-times atmosphere. The menu is more than adequate, if a tad overpriced, with such dishes as grilled snapper fillet, venison loin baked in pastry and seafood risotto. A seafood buffet is available for Sunday lunch and dinner, costing A$62.

Sushi e

Do not be fooled into believing the ubiquitous conveyor belt sushi bars are all that Sydney has to offer in the raw fish department. Part of The Establishment complex (see Bars), Sushi e is a world-class sushi bar ideal for both a quick business lunch or a protracted gourmet evening. The 28-seat bar is contemporary in design with marble-top counters and a warm dark wood ambience. Chef Shaun Presland offers a constantly evolving menu but there are must-haves such as the soft shell crab rolls and the wafer-thin snapper sashimi topped with a lime and sea salt dressing. A rich Balmain bug (crayfish) tempura is another highlight.

Trendy

Bill’s

There’s no better start to a Sydney day than a Bill’s breakfast - ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter, famously creamy scrambled eggs (acclaimed by the New York Times), towering muffins and fresh fruit platters. A large communal table is covered with magazines and, thanks to recent renovations, there are enough extra tables for everyone. Lunch is also available, with items ranging from a spicy squid salad to a fillet steak sandwich, and in 2004 Bill’s finally opened for dinner as well (Monday to Saturday): try the crisp free-range chicken with sauteed cavolo nero.

Fratelli Paradiso

Be sure to brush up your Italian and dress in your best La Dolce Vita blacks. Fratelli Paradiso is where the smart inner-city set converge for cucina Italiana the way it’s meant to be. The risotto is plain and perfectly al dente; rings of calamari Sant’Andrea are lightly fried and superbly tender; and there’s a luscious lasagne al forno with parmigiano. Featuring a mural of Rolling Stones lips eating pasta, the restaurant encompasses a pasticceria, and the cakes and pastries are every bit as lip-smacking as the savouries.

Icebergs Dining Room and Bar

Icebergs caused a sensation when it opened in Bondi in late 2002. Built on top of the old Bondi Icebergs swimming club, the venue raised the bar for drinking and dining in the beachside suburb. Offerings include neo-Mediterranean dishes, such as the signature warm salad of King Island crayfish with kipfler potatoes and fresh peas, or Umbrian truffles with hand-cut tagliatelle. Icebergs is also a feast for the eye, from the blue banquette seating and polished aluminum screens designed by renowned Australian architect Carl Pickering, to the jaw-dropping views straight across the famous beach and out over the Pacific. Closed Monday.

XO

Chef Neil Perry is renowned for simple but perfectly executed Asian cuisine and his moderately priced venture, XO, is no exception. The fried salt squid is crunchy and spicy, the duck in tamarind sauce tender and sweet and the combination omelette falls open to reveal crisp sprouts and fresh prawns. There’s also an ever-changing sashimi menu. The restaurant reopened in 2004 in premises formerly occupied by MG Garage, with a fresh contemporary design and a private dining room for up to 30 people. No bookings are taken, except for groups of over six, but the stylish bar serves a mean Beetroot Martini and smiling staff will look after patrons until a table is free. Closed Sunday.

Yellow

In the early 1970s the ‘Yellow House’ was a bohemian hangout for hippies, celebrities and artists such as Brett Whiteley. Relaunched in 2003 as apartments and a gallery, the premises are also home to this top-flight bistro where an unpretentiously great fish and chips can be enjoyed alongside a superb confit of duck leg with sweet potato puree. Pastrycook Lorraine Godsmark’s date tart comes highly recommended.

Budget

Arthur’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. Jim Jarmusch film posters fittingly adorn a restaurant that is dark but cheery.

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.

Bill and Toni’s

The word ‘institution’ doesn’t really cut it for this cheery East Sydney trattoria that has been offering pasta, schnitzel, meatballs and not a whole lot else for a quarter of a century. Big baskets of bread and orange cordial are free, while coffee in the downstairs cafe is probably the best and most potent in Sydney.

Chinta Ria The Temple of Love

A gigantic Buddha forms the centerpiece to this large-scale Malaysian eating experience in Cockle Bay Wharf. A shrine to good, inexpensive laksa (a spicy sour soup) and noodles, the restaurant serves them up in a carnival atmosphere of chattering diners and steaming woks.

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, 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.

Personal Recommendations

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. A former corner shop opposite a sleepy park, decked out with a mish-mash of old chairs, Manna has adept staff whose laid-back welcome puts you in exactly the right mood for a quartet of lightly seared scallops topped with crunchy string chips. Follow it up with a classic prawn, garlic and chilli linguini and round it off with a tangy ice-cream terrine and you’ll likely agree that Manna is a godsend. Closed Monday.

Oh! Calcutta!

Despite the vaudevillean name, Oh! Calcutta! won the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ award, eight years in a row (1995-2003). Why? A captivating menu of unusual dishes from North India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern China; the best local produce and exotic meats from camel and goat to kangaroo and crab; stylish mosque-meets-minimalism design; and a charming host.

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.

Thai Pothong

King Street, Newtown seems to have more Thai restaurants than Bangkok does but Thai Pothong is 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 the restaurant is filled with the constant buzz of people who know they are eating well at a very reasonable price. The restaurant has a graceful East Asian style, with soft lighting complimenting a collection of Thai antiques, pretty parasols and flower arrangements.

Wasavie

An intimate Japanese restaurant with a Francophile bent, Wasavie boasts sashimi served with a ‘hot rock’ for self-service searing, and a slice of caramelized pork belly so tender you can dismantle its juicy flesh with chopsticks. There’s also a range of delicious dessert mousses. Like many of Sydney’s new ‘gastro-budget’ eateries, Wasavie does not take bookings after 1900. Closed Monday.

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, with its wharves and warehouses, was the original drinking heart of the city and in the early 20th century, the rowdy scene of the ritual ’six o’clock swill’, when workers would drink as much as possible before the pubs closed at 1800. Today, the period pubs have been cleaned up for the huge tourist clientele. Drinks at the harbor-side terrace across the bay, at Bennelong Point, under the curves of the Sydney Opera House, 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. The price of a drink is approximately A$4-10.

For up-to-date listings, free weekly entertainment guides Drum Media and 3D World are available at most city-center bookshops and record stores, as is the gay and lesbian Sydney Star Observer . The Sydney Morning Herald 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 out its cavernous space with British colonial decor 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.

Casinos: Star City Casino, 80 Pyrmont Street , is a A$60-million casino, theater, restaurant and hotel complex on the site of a former wharf. Dress code is smart-casual and the gaming section is restricted to persons who are 18 years and over. A passport or other proof of age is required.

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, 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 decor. 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, The World Bar, 24 Bayswater Road, and Gas, 467 Pitt Street. The gay dance scene revolves around Arq, 16 Flinders Street.

Comedy: Open from Tuesday to Saturday, Sydney’s premier venue showcasing local, national and international stand-up talent is The Comedy Store, Fox Studios, Lang Road. Monday night is comedy night at the Fringe Bar, Unicorn Hotel, 106 Oxford Street . The Laugh Garage, located in the Agincourt Hotel, corner of George Street and Harris Street , is open from Friday and Saturday.

Live Music: The Hopetoun Hotel, 416 Bourke Street, and the Annandale Hotel, 17 Parramatta Road, 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, the Metro, 624 George Street, and the Enmore Theater, 130 Enmore Road. Jazz fans can find world-class performers at the Basement, 29 Reiby Place, and the Side-On Cafe, 83 Parramatta Road, Annandale.