The 100 Essential Restaurants in NSW and ACT right now

Contemporary 15/20 (One Hat) $$

One of the city’s finest steakhouses, dressed as a neighbourhood restaurant

An ironbark-fuelled grill overseen by former Rockpool Bar & Grill exec chef Corey Costelloe and his team lies at the heart of this backstreet restaurant, where precisely cooked steaks are the centrepiece. An eye of chuck (one of several steaks, including a strong allocation of David Blackmore wagyu) is coaxed into peak flavour, and slicing through it with a kitchen-sharp steel knife is as rewarding as the texture on the palate. It’s joined by a jalapeno hot sauce that hums with cumin and acidity, and a sticky, sweet gochujang sauce.

Order a side of golden, well-seasoned chips and an ice-cold martini for maximum joy. Clever sides include a Rockpool-esque corn puree, while produce thoughtfully sourced from the Hawkesbury’s Stix Farm – such as slices of buttery ham alongside jammy cubes of pineapple – is another highlight.

Forget Americanisms or chophouse tropes, 20 Chapel is entirely its own: a very Sydney steak restaurant set in the suburbs.

Must-order: While the hot sauces are terrific accompaniments, the wagyu gravy is a rich broth with shreds of slow-cooked beef that’s prime for pouring all over your chips

20 Chapel Street, Marrickville, 20chapel.com.au

Middle Eastern 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Spice, glamour and invention at the top end of Martin Place

It would have been tempting to step into Aalia and pick up where the Good Food Guide’s 2025 Chef of the Year Paul Farag left off. But Adam Wolfers, in the hot seat since August, had other ideas. Figures, this is a chef with immense experience, known in Sydney for his sold-out Etelek pop-ups and more recently for his work at Gerard’s Bistro in Brisbane.

A few Farag classics remain, including a fattoush spun into a cracker for snacks, and the lamb collar to pull apart and tuck into pillowy saj. But then how about a plate of just-set swordfish in Yemeni spice, served just-warm in a beguiling broth of whole lemons? Or shredded celeriac with tarator and perfect pepita crunch? Incredible, with just the right amount of acid.

Expect drinks that draw on the Levant, smooth service and guests that dress for dinner, but mostly, expect cooking that’ll leave you wanting more. When can we go back? 

Good to know: Planning a steak dinner? Aalia has several cuts designed to share

25 Martin Place, Sydney, aaliarestaurant.com

Japanese 15/20 (One Hat) $$$

Sleek and intimate Australian-Japanese wine bar

Step into this beautifully designed space, with its dark timber counter anchoring an open kitchen, and it immediately feels like an escape from hectic Oxford Street outside. Aenza is the younger, larger sibling to hatted sake bar Amuro, and it’s where chef Joy Liu wants to flex her creativity rather than focusing on regional Japanese cooking.

Start with sashimi (perhaps bluefin tuna lightly dressed in bonito-infused soy sauce), and a wedge of tomato marinated in umeshu and topped with miso cream-cheese and white anchovy – so much freshness, umami and acidity in one bite. Grilled Murray cod is everywhere these days, but it doesn’t get much better than Liu’s rendition, featuring crisp, charred skin and giving flesh, and served with shiso chimichurri. Later, Basque cheesecake with poached pear has a jiggly texture close to chawanmushi.

Sequels, they say, are never as good as the original, but this bucks the trend. 

Good to know: Liu commands both the pass and the drinks list, and of 120 bottles, more than a quarter are available by the glass

7/90 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, aenza.au

Thai-Chinese 14.5/20 $

An all-day noodle bar with a difference

What’s the perfect restaurant, anyway? Maybe it looks a lot like Ama, a place where comfort and deliciousness are the starting points but by no means the finish. Walk in any time and the scents of Chinese five-spice and long-simmered beef broth linger. Diners from the Surry Hills set perch on stools and swipe spoons through bowls of gently spiced jok – or rice porridge – topped with pork meatballs, liver and threads of ginger.

The headline bowl is the beef noodle soup, featuring brisket and rib and beef balls, its richness cut with vinegar and chilli. But then the menu has slowly expanded, with more specials, soups and buns than you can possibly tackle in one visit.

Sheer curtains filter light over a room that feels as personal as it does functional, the coffees and Thai teas are exceptional, and then there’s the caramelised molasses mor gaang flan to think about. Like we said, pretty much perfect.

Good to know: Look out for the Ama team’s latest Surry Hills opening, Yum Club, specialising in the food of Thailand’s Isan region

Shop 1/47 Cooper Street, Surry Hills, instagram.com/ama.surryhills

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Innovative listening bar where the quality of the sake is rivalled only by the small plates

Somehow Ante even makes waiting for a seat feel like part of the experience. Leave your phone number, grab a drink nearby (King Street has plenty of options, after all), then head back over when you get a text to say your table’s ready. Once you’re seated, sake is mandatory; odds are if you’ve drunk great sake around town it came via owner Matt Young’s import business, Black Market, so Ante is ground zero for junmai.

But drinks are only half the story, with one of the sharpest teams in town overseeing a menu of creative snacks and small plates. Case in point: a soft white-bread sandwich slipping tempura mustard leaves between shiso and pickled daikon. Saucy tagliatelle turned through house-fermented shiitake oozes umami, while grilled pork neck gets a kick from puntarelle and anchovy.

Settle in, admire the sound system, talk shop with the bartenders, and whatever you do, don’t give up that stool.

Good to know: The cocktail list is an adventure in itself, featuring classics made with yuzushu, aged umeshu and more

146 King Street, Newtown, ante.bar

Contemporary 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

Top-tier Australian produce is just the beginning at Matt Moran’s flagship

For decades, the debate over who had the best view of the Opera House raged. Quay, over the water? Aria, straight up the line of the sails? Suddenly, with Quay’s closure, there’s only one answer. Now is a fine time to reappraise Aria, to appreciate not only its longevity but how it continues to feel relevant.

Maybe it’s the spring in the step of the service team, or how chefs Tom Gorringe and Matt Moran continue to expand the definition of “modern Australian” cooking across prix fixe and tasting menus, plus snacks, including a fried quail leg finished with egg yolk and caviar that’s all but mandatory. Chawanmushi is bright with herbs and native lime. Wollemi duck breast has sheen for days. Murray cod is shatteringly crisp. And at every turn the garnishes are as distinct and detailed as the wine service. Been a while? It’s time to go back.

Must-order: It’s a throwback, sure, but the souffle is an Aria classic for a reason

1 Macquarie Street, Sydney, ariasydney.com.au

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$$

A brand-new look for a well-loved restaurant puts Bourke Street back on the dining map

There’s something about chef Tristan Rosier’s cooking. It’s old school. Personal. And at the risk of sounding a little hokey, very honest. It’s also now more accessible at Arthur, which recently renovated, increased the seating to 55 to allow them to welcome walk-ins, and ditched the tasting menu-only experience for diner’s-choice freewheeling fun.

Want to get one of everything and three rounds of dirty martinis? Go for it. Meeting someone new for a casual bite and a glass of wine? Oysters can be ordered by the piece. A whole steamed globe artichoke has its heart filled with a little pool of mandarin oil, and there’s a moreish abalone and shimeji mushroom skewer resting on whipped pork fat.

If you want to go larger, there’s lamb rack with blood-orange marmalade, and wagyu rib-eye with mustard, but consider the quail parmie, stuffed with ham, crumbed and fried, and garnished with soft herbs.

This is a restaurant with a strong sense of identity, led by a chef cooking with balance and harmony.

Good to know: The vibe might be relaxed but it’s a dining experience executed with skill and care. The acoustics have even been tailored to prioritise table conversation

544 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, arthurrestaurant.com

South-East Asian 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

Bold, brooding newcomer with a maximalist energy

How much flavour is too much? What’s the upper limit for salt and acid and fat and fire? Eat at Ashe and there’s an ever-present threat it’ll crash through the ceiling, but more likely is that you’ll leave with your head spinning from some of the city’s most inspired cooking. Indomie-like noodles raked through house-made XO, scattered with crackled chicken skin. Chef Khanh Nguyen’s signature pâté en croute with flavours of grilled pork banh mi.

Melburnians may recognise threads from Nguyen’s previous restaurants, Sunda and Aru, but Ashe – backed by Bentley’s Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt – is the chef advancing the plot. See the cuttlefish in sour orange curry topped with pipis, or the fried oxtail rendang dumplings with smoked bone marrow, checked by the heat and acid of fermented chilli sauce. A wood-grilled pork cutlet is a must, as is digging into Hildebrandt’s stacked wine list. Too much? It’s never enough.

Must-order: Nguyen’s impossible cake has been a sellout success. Follow it with a Chartreuse slushie at sibling bar Vespertine next door

4 Ash Street, Sydney, bentleyrestaurantgroup.com.au

Wine Bar 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Chic Euro-leaning restaurant-bar hybrid run by a team to watch

“The erbaluce is like an Italian sunset,” says the charismatic waiter when asked which wine to order. That’s the kind of delightful description you get at Attenzione!, which has, since opening in 2024, quietly matured into a place with a unique point of view – something that’s exciting in a city that increasingly seems to have a copy and paste approach.

Everything is humming: service is tight, the front dining room is even more stylish thanks to the addition of beautiful new curtains, and the food – which leans Italian – has a distinct, modern sensibility. An octopus ragu with trottolo and lime zest has the richness of slow-cooked meat but is lighter and more textural. Sugarloaf cabbage gets a glow-up with a smooth salsa verde and chicken-skin crumb, and pipis are piled on yesterday’s sourdough swimming in a triumphant buttery, garlicky sauce. Here’s to more independent restaurants.

Good to know: There’s a fun monthly trivia night held in the back dining room

180 Redfern Street, Redfern, attenzionefoodandwine.com

Indonesian 13/20 $

Heat, spice and crunch from a Kingsford classic

This family run, fuss-free joint has fed loyal fans Indonesian-style chicken for almost 30 years. You can get (very) sticky-fingered with three kinds: paha goreng, deep-fried thigh in a turmeric marinade; paha goreng kalasan, a sweeter deep-fried Javanese-style chook; and paha bakar, crispy and charcoal-charred with a glistening caramelised skin. There’s no “must order” – you do you – but the heat and funk of house-made belacan is essential on the side.

Beyond the signature chooks, street-food classics include rich satay skewers, fried noodles and oxtail soup, and a beef rendang that melts like butter on the tongue. Chill out with rose syrup drizzled over shaved ice topped with black and green jelly, and afterwards take a walk down Anzac Parade to work out where your next meal will be on this dynamic strip of ramen, dumplings and excellent Malaysian.

Good to know: Factor in a short wait for a table or takeaway at peak times; this is popular chicken

464 Anzac Parade, Kingsford, ayamgoreng99.com

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Sophisticated new-wave Sydney food served in a fun, energetic and kitsch warehouse

When Baba’s Place opened in 2021, not many people were talking about Sydney’s “third-culture” dining scene, but the restaurant’s co-founders Alex Kelly and Jean-Paul El Tom blazed a trail with this kind of cooking, exploring the intersection of their Macedonian and Lebanese roots and their suburban south-west Sydney upbringings. Of course you don’t need to know this to enjoy this fun, buzzing warehouse restaurant (and Good Food’s 2025 inaugural Bill Granger Trailblazer winner), dressed up with granny-core touches including plastic tablecloths and no shortage of doilies. You just need to know that half a decade on, it’s as delicious and creative as ever.

Barbecued Sommerlad chicken, served with toum, pickles and chips is a signature staple, and just that plus a mandarin gimlet is a rollicking time. But why limit yourself? Add snacks, focaccia and the house-made labne rolled in sumac, lemon myrtle and Aleppo pepper served with caldoons and mint, then finish strong with a cardamom-spiked Valrhona lava cake. With a newish head chef, Fabio Khalil, it’ll be exciting to see what Baba’s does next.

Must-order: The signature tarama on shokupan toast with whey-pickled cucumbers

20 Sloane Street, Marrickville, babasplace.com.au

Contemporary 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Timeless seaside dining with renewed energy in the kitchen

With respect to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Bondi in general, this is the most “Sydney” view in Sydney. Clarion-blue water, ivory sand and headlands on the horizon; craggy rocks, ancient eucalypts and strutting fitness freaks who wouldn’t dare consider visiting Bathers’ for its knock-out millefeuille layered with pear and bay leaf cream. You should though, because chef Aaron Ward cooks the most innovative and precise food on the North Shore, the service team is properly rehearsed, and the dining room is plush with striped cushions and modern art.

Recent menu highlights include steamed mud crab with a subtle yuzu sauce that doesn’t overpower; nutty, savoury claypot rice textured with bone marrow and tomato dashi-poached calamari; and smoked duck of triumphantly crisp honey-glazed skin sharpened with blackberry vinegar jus.

Uncork a semillion, sit back and think, “This is as good as Sydney gets”.

Good to know: There’s a fun section of larger dishes for groups including aged rib-eye, while Bathers’ Bistro and Betel Leaf share the building, offering more casual dining and Thai

4 The Esplanade, Mosman, batherspavilion.com.au

Indian 14/20 $$

A casual celebration of old and new India with great booze

A modern Indian wine bar in a Northern Beaches industrial zone. It’s like someone pulled a random location, cuisine and concept out of a hat and voila! Bazaar & Bar was born. But Brookvale is popping off with new breweries and bars, and owner Kabir Arora saw a gap in the market for good wine and food that wasn’t buffalo wings.

B&B’s small streetside terrace is the right place for an amaro spritz and Shark Bay scallops sparked up by green chilli chutney. Vital spices in a laal maas curry include single-origin green cardamom and black pepper, and its pasture-raised goat has a beautiful length of flavour underlined by smoky-sweet Mathania chillies.

Meanwhile, crunchy Kashmiri chilli-spiced beef croquettes come topped with green apple and ginger chutney. Try them with a chilled cinsault from Chile – anyone who reckons wine doesn’t go with Indian food needs to come to Brookvale and have their tastebuds checked.

Good to know: With a mix of emerging organic producers and familiar names, plus a few Indian whiskies, this is one of Sydney’s best short drinks lists north of the bridge

10 Orchard Road, Brookvale, bazaarandbar.com

Burmese 14/20 $

One of the few places in Sydney serving the unapologetically bold cuisine of Myanmar

This cheerful eatery opened in May 2025, initially with Korean, Japanese and Thai desserts before introducing Burmese dishes a month later. You could easily get lost in the barrage of options, but co-owner Andie Nokhong walks newcomers through the menu with patience and enthusiasm.

Warm split-pea tofu noodles are a must – the ultimate Burmese comfort food, amped up with chicken, coriander and soy. Tea-leaf salad, or lahpet thoke, is “Burma on a plate” according to chef Tommy Young, and surprisingly refreshing with its tumble of fermented tea leaves, crisp cabbage, fried beans, roasted peanuts and dried shrimp. Boer goat curry is unbelievably good, its slow-rendered galangal base creating a rich gravy, while the range of sweets almost outweighs the savouries.

Shwe yin aye is one of the few Burmese desserts on the menu, a goliath-sized glass mug of fresh coconut milk teeming with sago pearls, cendol pandan noodles, jelly and coconut flesh.

Good to know: More Burmese food can be found at Queen Cafe in Lakemba and Mum’s Home in Blacktown

238 Forest Road, Hurstville, instagram.com/blueheaven_hurstville

Vietnamese 14/20 $$

Exciting. Inspired. Flexible. Fun. This all-day cafe and wine bar is built for the here and now

What happens when someone whose family has run Vietnamese restaurants for decades combines their talents with someone who’s had a hand in some of the city’s seminal openings, including ACME and Bar Brosé? The answer is Ca Phe Mai, one of Sydney’s most inspired new openings, from partners Cindy Mai and Ed Loveday.

The brief? A snack-led, drink-led cafe and bar where the broth in your bowl has as much depth and complexity as what’s in your glass. That broth might be in the crystal-clear pho ga, sunny with spice. That drink might be the subtly skinsy Occhipinti SP68 Bianco, or Single O coffee sweetened with condensed milk underneath a salted-cream float.

The sausage and steamed egg muffin rules breakfast. The paint-thick laksa rules lunch. The bo la lot and the crudo of tuna in a coconut water crush rule snacks and dinner. What a win for the eastern suburbs. 

Good to know: Give the Song Cai Bong Bong a go, a yellow-rice sparkling wine made in Hanoi

Shop 1, 377 New South Head Road (enter via Kiaora Lane), Double Bay, caphemai.com.au

Contemporary 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

An industry favourite pairing culinary exactitude with inner-west approachability

Chances are, Cafe Paci is your favourite chef’s favourite Sydney restaurant, but this isn’t just a hospitality hangout. Midweek, the leather banquettes are at capacity, staff focused and flitting between bistro tables. Finnish owner-chef Pasi Petanen maps his culinary journey to the plate, weaving the big flavours and technical prowess gained over a career spanning Marque and Lankan Filling Station into a menu of uniform excellence and wine bar sensibilities.

Everyone orders the staples; heady slices of potato bread painted in sticky-sweet molasses; rye tacos, soft and saucy with ox tongue; and potato dumplings in caramelised trout XO.

Stray to the specials scrawled on the mirror for fresh takes on trends like raw tuna on toast, here presented as delicate layers of crudo sheathed in lardo, sharpened with horseradish.

Petanen has a penchant for unexpected pairings, but there’s comfort, too, in those final spoonfuls of a strawberry rhubarb tart with toasty hazelnut sauce.

Good to know: Book ahead. Yes, even on a Monday

131 King Street, Newtown, cafepaci.com.au

Cantonese 13/20 $

The food lives and breathes at this suburban restaurant with roots in 1980s Macau

Not every soup has been recognised internationally for its intangible cultural heritage, but Canton Noodle House’s soup has. Does that sound a little abstract? Just go to Riverwood and order it. Egg noodles nestle in the bottom, steam rises. You pick out a dumpling and the slipperiness of the wrapper gives way to the sweetness of hand-cut pork mince and the crunch of fresh prawn. You sip the sweet, clear stock, then move to the brisket, which collapses at first bite, all heft and juice and satisfying chew.

This isn’t a temple: chairs are scuffed and stacked by the entranceway, tables are chipped. But it’s lived-in and efficient, waiters rushing you through the menu, families and groups of wizened uncles occupying the larger tables, drinking tea and spinning crisp pork ribs and live lobster on the lazy Susan.

The sheer volume means there are misses – “pipis” in watery XO turn out to be clams – but salt-and-pepper calamari is gorgeously pale and dry and the Shandong chicken is golden-skinned, the flesh soaking up sweet-sour vinegar dressing. Start there, add dumplings, dry noodles and a soup, and leave happy.

Good to know: Try the Hurstville outpost too; it’s the original site and the menu and fitout are unchanged, even with new owners

Unit 1/204 Belmore Road, Riverwood, instagram.com/cantonnoodlehouseriverwood

PUB OF THE YEAR WINNER

Pub dining $

A real pokie-free community hub

Now, here’s a place you can go where there’s no bouncer rope. No queue. No complicated dance to order a drink. No themed decor, no dress code. People are nice to you, the schooners are cold and the food is everything you want pub food to be (that is, a massive parmigiana, garlic-forward chicken Kyiv, and a beef-and-Guinness pie with vintage cheddar).

The Carlisle Castle Hotel, which had been family-owned-and-run for the past 60 years, was recently sold to Universal Hotels, the same group behind Redfern’s tastefully renovated Bat & Ball Hotel. They’ve applied a similarly gentle touch here, meaning the pressed-metal ceilings have stayed, as has the dining room that opens up into the outdoor courtyard. But now there are negronis, fancy rum and colas and Charlie Chaplins; the short wine list is strong and inner-west beers are on tap, including Young Henry’s, Grifter and Philter.

Importantly, staff remain friendly and relaxed and happy to help, whether you’re there for Friday night footy or a $20 midweek lunch special. Where, once upon a time the skinny front bar would be occupied by a handful of locals reading the form guide, it’s now elbow-to-elbow with old and new mates eating counter meals. It feels like a return to what a pub can be if people with strong values and integrity get behind it: a real pokie-free community hub.

Good to know: Daily specials include a Thursday-night martini and cheeseburger with fries for $35 (the ultimate grown-ups’ happy meal)

17-19 Albermarle Street, Newtown, carlislecastlehotel.com

Italian 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Seaside luxury, from day to night

When Alessandro Pavoni and the fleet of pros behind Ormeggio at The Spit decided to launch a trattoria beachside in Manly, we should have known they’d go big. But this big? Look around. There’s the sky and sea right out the windows. Here’s a light-flooded dining room with cut-out archways opening into the next space and the next. There’s the bar, the pizza oven, the gelateria for goodness’ sake.

It’s some kind of setting for lunch, and don’t the locals know it, filling their tables with limoncello spritzes, swiping garlicky pizzetta bianca through chickpea and bean dip under grilled globe artichokes or smearing brick-red ’nduja onto Sardinian flatbread. Pasta is a worthy detour, but the wood grill is where it’s at, whether you’re thinking steak or a tranche of dry-aged swordfish, served just rare in the centre.

Now a dilemma: dessert here, or a scoop of gelato and a stroll on the sand?

Good to know: Cibaria Caffetteria offers breakfast daily from 7am

55 North Steyne, Manly, cibariamanly.au

Mediterranean 14.5/20 $$

CBD diner with the heart of a local

In an era where menus are often created with aesthetics rather than flavour in mind, and restaurant interiors can be generically designed to feel like movie sets, Clarence and V is wonderfully unique. The menu is small and seasonal, with a smart, food-friendly wine list.

Spatchcock comes jointed and swimming in a brown broth, not a garnish in sight. It may not be pretty, but it sure is delicious. Trevally fillet psarosoupa – another stellar broth from chef Stella Roditis – is similarly unadorned, but somehow the restraint adds more, not less. Bougatsa, consisting of filo wrapped around semolina custard, is served hot, and flakes and oozes in the best way possible.

Owner Vito Mollica greets patrons like old friends in a small dining room crammed with contemporary art from his own collection. This is what hospitality looks like: warm, unpretentious and more concerned with comfort than with image. If only more restaurants could be this quietly confident.

Good to know: Mollica ran Darlinghurst’s ever-popular Latteria, so you know you can count on the coffee and breakfast

2/191 Clarence Street, Sydney, instagram.com/clarenceandv

European 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Wine bar downstairs, restaurant up – this spot from gun sommeliers is revitalising Stanley Street

Claret clubs are a British thing; members-only societies that are partly about drinking Bordeaux but are more about exclusivity and elitism. This Claret Club is the opposite. Everyone’s welcome here, whether it’s downstairs for a snack and a glass or two of wine drawn from the personal collection of owners Bridget Raffal and Harry Hunter, or upstairs in the dining room.

It’s here that the menu comes into its own, prioritising simplicity and nourishment over flashy technique or contrived plating. Risotto, tinted red with nebbiolo, turned through bitter radicchio and topped with oozing scamorza, say, or fried sweetbreads in peppercorn sauce, followed by a chocolate cremeux for sweets.

Come back next week, sit downstairs with friends and an aperitivo. Crunch through gnocco fritto topped with anchovy and sage. Dip back into the wine list, see what’s new. Was there ever a better way to while the evening away?

Good to know: The downstairs counter meal changes weekly, perfect for repeat visits

77 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst, claretclub.com.au

Hungarian 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

A refreshed Sydney institution with one eye on the past, another on the future

Last year’s Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year winner continues to be thrilling, from the generous hospitality led by manager and sommelier Alice Tremayne and the comfortable, picture-lined dining room, to food that’s simultaneously homely yet not. The crews behind Baba’s Place and Sixpenny took over Corner 75 in 2025 and, as the new custodians of the then-40-year-old restaurant, restored it.

Their plan was simple: preserve the foundations, but electrify it with “Sydney 2026 dining” energy. That means chef Carley Scheidegger doesn’t mess with classic Hungarian dishes, but recalibrates them with top produce and clever techniques. Pork schnitzel becomes a crumbed-to-order puffed-up masterpiece, while duck liver is whipped and piped onto fried potato and topped with orange zest – it’s a small parfait triumph. The flatbread is a textural delight; crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle and enlivened with garlic butter.

Dined here in 1995? The food is still recognisable, but it’s also very coded for right now. And gee it’s delicious.

Must-order: Getting the schnitzel? Add creamed spinach and nokedli in brown butter – it’s considered the “holy trinity” order

75 Frenchmans Road, Randwick, corner75.com.au

Korean 14/20 $

A singular, small-scale Korean restaurant inspiring queues for its handmade tofu

Once you make it through Dubudang’s queue, you may never reach for mass-produced tofu again. Founded by Hyunjoon “Leo” Joo, who grew up in his parents’ tofu shop in Busan, Dubudang’s specialty is freshly pressed, hand-crafted bean curd. It’s revelatory on its own, but the real highlights are in how co-owner Jiwon “Ellie” Kim (Joo’s wife) transforms the finished slabs – into jumbo tofu slices pan-fried in understated perilla oil, say, or ultra-crisp sweet and sour tofu.

The curd is the word, but pork headlines many dishes, including the platter of slow-cooked pork jowl, the slices fanned out with plain tofu, and plated with tangy grilled spring onions, raw garlic, green chilli and radish kimchi.

Banchan – pickled lettuce stems, sesame-sprinkled spinach – and rice bolster the meal, and the cabbage kimchi is aged for weeks, a counterpoint to the just-pressed tofu slabs on the plate. One represents freshness, Joo says, the other, time.

Good to know: Dubudang will also shake up your ideas about soy milk, made daily here

Shop 27/74 Rawson Street, Epping, instagram.com/dubudang_sydney

Lebanese 14/20 $

An OG suburban stronghold for a taste of Beirut

You’ll quickly get the sense that very little has changed at El Manara since it opened back in 1989. And why should it, when the falafel are exemplary, the fattoush is crunchy and colourful, the chicken shish arrives juicy as all get-out, and the ultra-creamy foule delivers all the earthy comfort of long-simmered chickpeas and fava beans?

This is no-nonsense cooking with generosity and value at the fore, a magnet for tradies grabbing kebabs, as well as local families and longtime regulars who treat it like a second home, swiping Lebanese bread through smoky baba ghanoush and picking at the unmissable house sausages with reckless abandon.

All the while, owner-chef Amir Sayah’s gentle smile and abiding presence in the gloriously retro time capsule of a room amp up the feel-good factor tenfold. Old school – and good school – in all the right ways.

Must-order: At $28, the remarkably bountiful mixed plate is a real steal

143 Haldon Street, Lakemba, elmanaralebaneserestaurant.com.au

Grill 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$

A nostalgic play on the grand-old steak and seafood grill

Can we just talk about the condiments? If you order a 250-gram O’Connor scotch fillet – savoury, herbal, charred, juicy – out will come a glorious array of silver pots of mustard and jugs of bearnaise, as if you’re at Downton Abbey. It’s these little things that give dining such a sense of occasion at Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt’s flagship restaurant in the city.

It’s the big things, too – the magnificent interior of the former bank, the marble columns, the fathoms-deep wine cellar, the personable staff.

Savage is a whiz at reinventing tired-but-true dishes, transforming duck-liver parfait, ravioli, fish pie, Chateaubriand and chocolate cake into sophisticated, luxurious things of contemporary beauty. Hildebrandt runs a no-rules policy with wine pairings and drinks, and the grand piano is not just there for show (nor is the creaky trolley of locally made rums).

Best for: Winning friends and influencing people

11 Barrack Street, Sydney, bentleyrestaurantgroup.com.au

Contemporary 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

A genre-defining institution that pulls no punches

It’s near impossible to imagine a Sydney without Ester: the timeless lure of the archway-framed room; those rock oysters soused in chicken fat hot from the wood oven; that standard-setting list of lo-fi wines, interesting aperos and artisan sake.

If the novelty of it all has waned after 13 years, the kitchen’s certainly hasn’t. Just clock the bracing bitterness of a radicchio salad dressed with pulverised whole oranges. Or the way milky horseradish cream intensifies a deftly seasoned dairy-cow tartare.

And if you’ve forgotten just how good a dessert can be when pushed to its savoury limits, call for the longstanding salted-caramel semifreddo with a rubble of roasted black sesame seeds and be reminded. Pioneering, and still pushing.

Good to know: The recently opened neighbouring wine bar Pig Mary doubles the fun

46-52 Meagher Street, Chippendale, ester-restaurant.com.au

Contemporary 17.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

A 100 per cent wood-fired restaurant fuelled by precision cooking

Cooking over coals may be increasingly common in Sydney, but Firedoor’s commitment remains unmatched: every single ingredient is still cooked or heated by flame, right down to the water. Score a spot by the kitchen and it’s a ringside seat to chef-owner Lennox Hastie working the ovens, raking the coals and smoking dashi (served with raw tuna belly) or charring lettuce over glowing embers.

The rest of the room wants for spectacle, but the skill is undeniable: see how a fillet of Murray cod is softly set, its skin shatteringly crisp. Wherever you sit, it pays to consider the steak – yes it’s a $65 add-on to the six-course set menu, but it’s a headline act, full of miso-like depth from 200-plus days of dry-ageing.

A spark in the air, waitstaff and drinks that are on song, a little whimsy – this is a package deal. Consider the scent of ironbark smoke on your clothes a souvenir.

Good to know: Don’t want to commit to a full tasting menu? A la carte is an option at Friday and Saturday lunch

23/33 Mary Street, Surry Hills, firedoor.com.au

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Once you pop you can’t stop

Ever since Firepop started selling skewers (“pops” in their words) as a food truck in Chinatown in 2019, it’s been impossible to stop at just one. Since they opened on Enmore road in 2024, it’s only gotten harder.

Here’s the “OG” signature butter cube, threaded with full-blood wagyu; there’s the cumin lamb, featuring fatty, juicy meat from the rear leg as well as backstrap, crusted in secret cumin-sesame spice. Both are classics, but since putting down roots, the menu has grown to include an accordion-cut steak that picks up char at every fold, as well as compelling sides, such as warm herbed potatoes in yoghurt butter and a crisp iceberg salad.

Snacks and smalls go far beyond things on sticks, with a seat overlooking the grill the best way to get around the scope. But whether it’s here, or in the moody dining room upstairs, count on wanting to squeeze in just one more bite.

Good to know: Alina Van’s formidable wine list is packed with personality, from grand cru riesling to Georgian reds

137 Enmore Road, Enmore, firepop.com.au

Italian 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

The couple behind Pilu at Freshwater take inspiration from Italy’s coastline in Circular Quay

Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini walk into the Pullman Quay Grand hotel with a brief. What to do? What if, they said, we looked at the harbour, then took the ebb and flow of Italy’s port cities as inspiration? Napoli, Cagliari, Venezia, Genova, Palermo. Pick four dishes from each, add an (excellent) crudo bar, and cap it off with a “no burrata, no tiramisu” rule. For some it might be a straitjacket, but for the Sardinian chef, it’s liberating. What’s more, it’s more everyday than the flagship.

For antipasti, try toasts wearing a sweep of baccala mantecato (Venezia). Or mozzarella in carrozza (Napoli), the crisp cheese-filled sandwiches topped with a single anchovy. Crudo-wise, there’s kingfish layered with preserved lemon and Taggiasca olives (Genova). Pasta? Pick the spaghetti, sweet with spanner crab, fragrant with lemon myrtle and rich with bottarga.

Rimmed porcelain keeps things humble among sweeping joinery and stone, while ripples of mascarpone echo the water outside. Can you bottle a sun-bleached summer on the Italian coastline? Flaminia can.

Good to know: Special occasion? Consider splitting the half suckling pig ($595; pre-order only) between a table of five

Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbour, 61 Macquarie Street, Sydney, flaminia.com.au

Italian 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Neighbourly vibes meet a masterful menu that you’ll be dreaming of long after you leave

Fontana is one of those spots where “if you know, you know”. Take its locale, hidden in plain sight up a flight of stairs on Redfern Street. The team, Daniel Johnston and Ivey Wawn – of beloved Italian pop-up Don Peppino’s fame – who greet the locals with big bear hugs.

And the garlic bread. Oh man, that revelatory garlic bread – toasted rolls oozing with salty-sweet confit garlic that’s refreshingly cut with an order of house-made ricotta.

The secret to the maccheroni maiale al latte’s savoury punch? It’s not only the pork slow-braised in milk until it collapses, but also a subtle lacing of pork fat.

Tables are jammed quite close together so it can feel like you’re on a double date with the strangers next to you, but when the food is this good, you’ll just be happy to be in the club.

Must-order: The garlic bread may just change your life

133A Redfern Street, Redfern, clubfontana.com

Italian 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Sophisticated trattoria with excellent pasta and people watching

The question regulars ask: should we get the scampi today? It’s hard to resist – the sweet crustacean is simply cooked, topping al dente spaghetti that’s stirred through a beautifully rich tomato sauce amped up with butter. Effortless and fabulous.

Those two words could be used to describe Frat Paz in general. It’s an institution. A long lunch hot spot. A destination unlike any other in Sydney. Yes, the people-watching enhances the experience, but when the kitchen is firing, it’s also one of the city’s great dining spots.

While most start with the crisp fried calamari, the ascolane (stuffed fried olives) should be considered equally essential. As is a glass of something Italian from the excellent vino list overseen by wine director Caitlyn Rees. For those who chase the carbs, chef Trisha Greentree’s “dirty pasta” – a mashup of all’amatriciana and carbonara – is lush, while her veal saltimbocca, served on the bone, is juicy and satisfying. 

Good to know: Brothers Gio and Enrico Paradiso also own spin-off wine bar Paradise, and have just opened Caffe Paradiso nearby

12-16 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, fratelliparadiso.com

Chinese 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

So much to savour, just don’t miss the dumplings, alright?

The prawn and jellyfish salad tells you all you need to know about Grandfathers. Cool slippery ribbons from the sea, juicy prawn and the tingling hum of Sichuan peppercorns create a what-the-hell-just-happened moment that transforms nostalgic “Friday night Chinese” into something fresh and new.

Glass tanks filled with decorative fish, half-moon booths, cabaret lamps and a clubby New York bar set the scene. Chefs Dan Pepperell and Mikey Clift and manager / wine guy Andy Tyson built hot spots Pellegrino 2000, Neptune’s Grotto and Clam Bar before turning their hand to Chinese, mashing Sichuan spice into Cantonese and Hunan classics and even into cocktails.

The dumplings spark joy, whether sea-sweet or pork-rich, and Peking duck is carved to order and laid out on crisp prawn crackers, ready for its pancake close-up. In a typical twist, lotus leaf rice is transformed into the sticky toffee pudding of your dreams.

Must-order: The dim sum dumpling platter, or else

Angel Place, Sydney, grandfathers.com

Grill 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

A long-luncher focused on relaxed luxury

More people should eat bavette. If it’s your first time in the company of the long, flat steak with its robust, beefy flavour, lucky you. Secondary cut veteran? You’ll no doubt know that treating the slightly richer piece of meat with a nicely acidic salad and plenty of hot English mustard is the way to happiness. That’s how it’s done here at this flashy dining room and terrace, made for long Friday lunches.

Start with a nettle gimlet or bergamot martini, a fried prawn sandwich and a stuffed chicken wing. Move onto Port Lincoln garfish, grilled till the flesh is just set, dressed with a sweet-sharp chimichurri.

Service is white tablecloth all the way, down to the Russian honey cake with clotted cream finished tableside. Opulent wine service seals the deal.

Good to know: This kind of cooking doesn’t come cheap, but there is a well-priced burger

Level 9/25 Martin Place, Sydney, internationalsydney.com

Vietnamese 14/20 $$

A bright spark on Canley Vale’s main drag for street-style Vietnamese cooking and unrivalled flair

Fiery, fragrant, fresh and textural, eating at Hai Au Lang Nuong engages the senses in ways few restaurants manage. But the most remarkable aspect of this street-food specialist isn’t the cooking, it’s the space, and its ever-present owner, Ben Nguyen, who over a quarter of a century has poured every ounce of his personality into the corner site.

Among the chaos of wall-to-wall paraphernalia, the food is an anchor. Organic chicken, say, grilled in banana leaves then served with sticky rice. Bo la lop nuong than, a platter of minced beef wrapped in betel leaves and grilled, is one of many tactile dishes, the table set with rice paper wrappers, vermicelli and herbs.

Inside or out, families and friends flood the tables and the footpath, clinking Coronas, loading tables with pipis, swishing silver perch from the live tanks through sweet-sour soup. Join them, and it’s for one of Sydney’s most singular experiences, with more to uncover every visit.

Best for: The menu has over 100 dishes, so take a crowd and share

48 Canley Vale Road, Canley Vale, instagram.com/haiaulangnuong

Malaysian 15/20 (One Hat) $$

A boundary-pushing menu, born in an amah’s humble Malaysian kitchen and remixed with bold flavours

Junda Khoo’s cooking is almost musical. That’s partly because Malaysian cuisine harmoniously balances sweet, salty and sour, but the chef also creates space to play. Khoo attributes his love of food to his grandma, and while the Strathfield and Haymarket Ho Jiak outposts pay tribute to that Nyonya foundation, the plus-sized neon-framed Town Hall location extends on the traditional.

Spoon-tender beef rendang fills a roti-topped pot pie; gold-standard char kwai teow is embellished with hand-picked mud crab; laksa lemak is a punchy bath for prawn and chicken dumplings. Hot-and-sour abalone soup crams a tremendous amount of flavour into one small bowl (praise be to the power of shiitakes and Tabasco), and you can go high-low with live lobster and Indomie instant noodles. If you only order one vegetable-based dish, make it the belacan kangkung: shrimp paste-enhanced morning glory and cuttlefish where Khoo really turns up the funk.

Good to know: Make the time to stick around for impressive cocktails and youtiao churros

125 York Street, Sydney, hojiak.com.au

Greek 14.5/20 $$

A contemporary indoor-outdoor eatery grounded in tradition and primed for good times

A utilitarian mash-up of stainless steel, concrete and Scandi furniture continues local stalwarts Harry and Mario Kapoulas’ vision for lively, crowd-pleasing dining. But the brothers have levelled up here, enlisting AP Design House to craft this contemporary-cool 100-seat corner eatery bringing Athens to The Shire.

On the table, that vision manifests in modern Greek cuisine, grounded in tradition but delivered with playful panache – for instance, the rooster stifado cigar takes the humble chicken and onion stew and houses it in a slender, flaky filo cylinder served with Sriracha aioli. Whether it’s octopus or chicken slow-roasted off the grill, the accompanying “Greek aftershave” – translating to a zesty lemon, oregano, garlic and olive oil garnish – both harnesses and cuts through the souvla char.

Friendly staff echo the accessibility of the menu, backing a matriarchal generosity with the exuberant momentum of a party-ready soundtrack.

Must-order: Something from the list of well-presented cocktails and well-priced Greek wines

3/3 Surf Road, Cronulla, homerroguetaverna.com.au

Northern Chinese 13.5/20 $

Home-style comfort food made to share in one of Sydney’s most delicious suburbs

There’s so much going on in Burwood that it’s tough to pick just one place to visit. But Homeway’s fried eggplant – an achievement in culinary engineering – is a good reason to put it high on your list. Coming in a stack of thick sticks, the outside of each piece breaks like a corn chip – brittle but solid – but the centre remains gooey, as if its been roasted without the skin. It’s all coated with a sticky, sweet, aromatic glaze, each bite containing every texture all at once.

This kind of cooking is a Shandong tradition, a renowned and saucy cuisine in China that, in Sydney, is about as rare as Sierra Leonean food.

It’s not all textural theatre at this alley-thin restaurant of course, most tables also host huge platters of shredded flatbread, stir-fried like a southern noodle dish, and bone-on chicken stewed in vinegar, soy and chilli, all served alongside dense hunks of bread for sauce soaking.

Good to know: Cool off nearby with a tea-flavoured gelato at Ice Kirin Bar

195 Burwood Road, Burwood

Middle Eastern 14/20 $$

Modern, busy and more than just a good-looking space

This popular spot in a new residential and retail complex feels more like a dining room in cashed-up Dubai than anything on Merrylands’ modest main streets. Interior designer Matt Woods has merged recycled timber and handmade bricks with cork, marble, travertine and clay to create a striking space that still feels inviting.

Iftar founder Jeremy Agha’s cooking, meanwhile, rises to meet the fitout. “Shawarma tacos” feature slow-cooked lamb, pickled onion and tahini on crisp and slightly puffy tortillas, and you could simply team them with a garlic-forward ful medames stew and leave happy and nourished. Fried pita brings crunch to a refreshing fattoush that’s best mates with juicy harissa-spiced chicken shish, while blistered wood-fired bread comes in handy for the Malfroy’s wild honey sweetening pan-fried halloumi with caramelised figs and walnuts.

Iftar is doing many right things to build on tradition and create something new.

Good to know: A young floor team is happy to guide newcomers through the menu and drinks list, which is booze-free and juice heavy

1 Main Lane, Merrylands, iftar.com.au

Pizza 13.5/20 $

Pizza quite unlike anything you’re likely to try in Sydney

Ever heard of Serbian-born chef Saša (Sasha) Smiljanić? He’s one of Sydney’s most accomplished pizzaiolos, having worked as head pizzaiolo at Bella Brutta and as group pizza chef at The Point Group (The Dolphin, Shell House).

In February, Smiljanić launched a pop-up pizzeria at Future Brewing, overlooking Camdenville Park. The 11-strong pizza menu features his signature style of contemporary Neapolitan, using pre-fermented, medium-high hydration dough, fermented for a 48-hour stretch. In real terms: it’s impossibly light, with a light char, and about as soft as it could be while still retaining chew.

Order a hazy pale ale or a limited-edition brew before putting in your pizza order, perhaps an elevated take on pepperoni featuring LP’s smoked salami cotto, or the salsiccia affumicata, inspired by Smiljanić’s home and pairing Balkan flavours such as ajvar and LP’s kransky with San Marzano tomatoes, fior di latte and stracciatella. Oof.

Good to know: As if you needed extra incentive to finish your crusts, there’s cold-pressed olive oil on hand, perfect for gentle dunking

Future Brewing, 82 May Street, St Peters, ilbarbutopizza.com.au

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$$

Still think the revolving restaurant at the top of Sydney Tower is a tourist trap? Think again

Mark Best pays attention to detail more than almost any chef, so it’s surely no accident that a snack listed as “potato and duck liver fritter” leaves so much unsaid. When it lands, it’ll tear your eyes away from the city spinning slowly below you and redirect them to what’s on the plate: two hulking Robertson potato scallops (oh, fritters is a reference to Best’s South Australian roots), set down with a pot of parfait. The high and low, the hot and the cold collide in a clash of textures.

There’s no questioning the technical side of the cooking here, whether it’s the tenderness of loligo squid over ink risotto or the lacquer on dry-aged duck breast with smoked rainforest plum sauce. But Best’s biggest challenge, he says, has been changing people’s perceptions of what a revolving restaurant can offer. Improved service and a new a la carte offer mean that mission is reaching its end. The next? Bringing the buzz.

Good to know: Infinity offers one of the city’s most comprehensive all-Australian drinks lists, from classic to next-gen

Sydney Tower, Westfield Sydney, Corner Pitt Street Mall and Market Street, Sydney, infinitysydneytower.com.au

Northern Chinese 13.5/20 $$

A standard bearer for a cuisine offering warmth and comfort in equal measure

The Dongbei connection is apparent at a glance at Jilin, where owner Michael Zhang serves the food of his home town, in China’s north-east. The walls tell the story of the region, and Zhang says with pride that the cuisine isn’t focused on presentation but warmth, comfort and home.

It’s a philosophy that’s apparent come nightfall, when groups gather around vast iron pots set into the tables to scoop up cockerel and hazel-mushroom stews, and prise soft cornmeal buns from the surface (make a point to pre-order; the dish takes 45 minutes to prepare). Dumplings are filled with preserved cabbage, shredded tofu skin is dusky and full of satisfying chew, and the guo bao rou, thinly cut into sheets and gloriously sticky, is like sweet and sour pork on steroids.

A raucous, uniquely delicious experience, offering hits and deep cuts from a cuisine slowly gaining ground in Sydney.

Good to know: Like this? Also try Taste of Changbai Northeastern Cuisine in Chinatown

Shop 5, 18-26 Anderson Street, Chatswood

West African 14/20 $$

A smoky, spicy jollof rice that brings people together

Who makes the best jollof rice? The fiery debate, known as the jollof wars, has raged between West African countries for years. In Australia, though, the argument has already been settled. The best jollof rice comes from Jollof Junction in Merrylands.

Owners Frank Koroma and Sonia Sobonie blend spices from their home country of Sierra Leone with seasonings from Nigeria and Ghana to create the signature dish, a deeply aromatic tomato and capsicum rice, that manages to win over all sides with its sweet smoky flavour.

Chicken wings are thickly crusted in a paprika-heady blend of eight African spices, while egusi, a curried stew of ground melon seeds thick with lamb neck and tripe, is served alongside a soft, pliable ball of fufu (cassava dough) for dipping.

Having just moved from a food truck in Guildford West to a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in Merrylands, there is now a lot more capacity to grill tilapia with acheke (granulated cassava) and simmer Nigerian stews.

Must-order: Jollof rice and marinated chicken wings

1/18 McFarlane Street, Merrylands, instagram.com/jollof_junction_

Korean 13/20 $

Joy to the inner-west: JFC is back online

After a long-anticipated reopening, Sydney’s most queue-inducing chicken shop has moved from Chippendale to Enmore Road’s dining nexus. Loaded with a bigger space and more hands, owner Kay Hwang and his team are now fully equipped to feed their fan base with Joy’s signature triple-fry that locks in spices from a three-day brine.

Juicy goodness is preserved down to the bone, and the exterior is a masterpiece of craggy micro-ridges retaining glaze without compromising on crunch. Sauces include a fun maple, chilli and Sichuan pepper option, and burgers are boosted by a gochujang mayo that melds with American-style cheese to coat a whopping hunk of breast that manages to stay incredibly tender.

A true-blue local business worth lining up for.

Good to know: The kimchi rice ball is a beaut accompaniment to your chook

212 Enmore Road, Enmore, instagram.com/joy.koreanfriedchicken

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Hotel dining that feels anything but

When Good Food reviewed Kiln at the Ace Hotel last year, we wrote about the new menu by Noma alumnus Beau Clugston, who was flying between Sydney and his own restaurant in Copenhagen. But Clugston didn’t renew his contract, leaving the boutique hotel’s culinary director Isobel Whelan-Little to take on executive chef duties at Kiln and wood-fire all the delicious meats. Spatchcock sharpened with kumquats; dry-aged duck served with its own sausage and a rhubarb glaze; a big ol’ rib-eye bolstered by beef-fat mayo. Come on up.

Textured with cosy fabrics against recycled timber and bold stone, the rooftop space lends itself to relaxed group dinners, but solo diners are also in fine hands with snacks such as mussel and tarama tart popping with acid and clean flavour, and tempura-style pumpkin with comte custard and an inspired whack of black cardamom.

One of Sydney’s most exciting restaurants to watch; Whelan-Little is only getting started on making Kiln the best it can be.

Good to know: Get to dinner early – the downstairs lobby bar at Ace is one of our top 20 bars

Level 18, 53 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney, kilnsydney.com

Korean 14/20 $

Restorative cooking that’s worth the wait, from simmering broths to kimchi udon and home-style bibimbap

The charm is apparent immediately: there’s the fragrance of simmering broths, the traditional decorations, the sense that everything is in its place. Kim’s Bop is cosy and resourceful, the handiwork clear in every detail of the 16-seat space.

Whether you’re sat at the counter or spilling onto the footpath, expect your noodle soup (soopi guksu on the menu) to feature an elegant broth layered with sesame seeds, creamy soy milk and salty flourishes of doenjang, nutritional yeast and soy sauce. Like many dishes here, it’s ceremonially presented on a tray with extras such as soy-flavoured shiitake mushrooms, braised tofu and daikon pickles.

Noodles or rice anchor the menu, from udon with thinly sliced pork and dry-roasted perilla to two versions of home-style bibimbap, but each additional element – seasonal kimchi, say, or house-made hot sauce – adds to the whole. Expect to queue, and expect to leave happy.

Good to know: BYO starts from just $3 per person

Unit 1/325 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, kimsbop.com.au

Bengali 14.5/20 $$

Regional Indian cooking that builds on tradition

Ahana Dutt is on a mission: to bring the food of her heritage into the spotlight in a city that has typically expected every Indian restaurant to serve butter chicken. There’s no butter chicken at Kolkata Social. Instead, Dutt offers Bengali cuisine that’s, in her words, seen through a third-culture lens.

So it is that the hallmarks of the cuisine – the taste of mustard oil, say – ripple across the menu, but then here’s Davidson plum sharpening the alu’r dom Hasselback potatoes, and again in the chutney served with the fish shingara, Kolkata’s answer to samosas. The kosha sees retired Meredith Dairy goat cooked in a slow braise, dark and deeply spiced. And there’s no better opener than a bowl of jammy eggs under salmon roe and ultra-crisp aloo bhaja, the potatoes resembling matchsticks. Wine is forward-thinking, the doughnut-like jilipi – flambeed in rum – is incredible. Bring friends.

Good to know: Kolkata Social was opened as a social enterprise with backing from Plate it Forward, but with their support, Dutt has now taken on ownership herself

528 King Street, Newtown, kolkatasocial.com.au

French 15/20 (One Hat) $$

An instant classic right in the thick of Challis Avenue

The Goodies Hospitality group has made a habit of opening restaurants that are all too easy to play on repeat, from Bar Copains to Bessie’s to Vin-Cenzo’s. La Buvette has that same knack.

This week, sprawl on the outdoor tables with the rest of the neighbourhood, pop a crackling gougere filled with comte custard, then drag up the dregs of the molten Cafe de Paris butter saucing the snails with A.P Bakery baguette smeared with Beurre de Baratte D’Isigny.

The next, perch at the counter and split a steak au poivre – blush-red wagyu striploin, juicy as you’d like – with depth and bite from Kampot peppercorn sauce. Add a side of frites finished with duck fat-crisped tarragon, then double down with a duck-neck sausage, sweet and supple right up to the head.

Where to from here? Follow the lead of the cartoon goose sipping champagne on the carte des vins and order wine – a chilled Beaujolais-Villages will work, plus a two-scoop creme caramel to finish. Is trad-French cooking back? Join the throng, order a Suze and tonic, and see for yourself.

Good to know: There are nine bookable stools at the counter inside, but the walk-in streetside tables are where it’s at

35 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, labuvettesydney.com

Chilean 13.5/20 $

A western Sydney institution for next-level hot dogs and lots of caramel

Sydney’s oldest Chilean bakery pretty much caters to any sweet or savoury hankering you might have, from soft, cornflour alfajor de maizena biscuits, fuzzy with coconut sprinkles to empanadas – the pastry is deep-fried until it crackles – filled with a jackpot of mozzarella.

Hot dogs are what bring many first-timers to the homey, no-frills location, and the “completo” option with palta (mashed avocado) is a maximalist, jaw-challenging wonder loaded with sauerkraut and diced tomato, finished with swirls of mayonnaise so elaborate they resemble cake frosting.

You should be ordering any dessert flavoured with manjar, too. It’s the Chilean version of dulce de leche and this fudgy caramelised milk is dolloped and rippled throughout most cakes and biscuits you’ll see in the pastry cabinet. Try the chilenito blanco, a Chilean classic, lining thin wafer biscuits with manjar and creamy meringue.

Must-order: Milhojas, meaning “a thousand leaves”, a manjar-loaded dessert that can be traced back to the millefeuille

Shop 1/9 Barbara Street, Fairfield, instagram.com/la_paula_syd

Chinese 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Polished CBD sequel to a beloved Melbourne institution

When it first opened in Melbourne in 2013, Lee Ho Fook was quietly revolutionary. A young Chinese-Australian chef, Victor Liong, took the food of his heritage, brought in threads from his career in high-wire fine diners in Sydney and created something thoroughly refreshing.

More than a decade later, Lee Ho Fook Sydney is Liong as peak restaurateur. Dishes are layered, detailed, textured, from cucumbers filled with the numbing crunch of Sichuan chilli crisp and piped with cashew cream, to Peking duck with impossible lacquer, to steamed toothfish that collapses into silken tofu.

A Josper-powered grill section is a Sydney exclusive, but it only adds to the aura, especially when the steak course is a slab of short-rib, rippling with fat, plated alongside short-grain rice, herbs and bibb lettuce for wrapping.

There’s grace in how Liong credits his entire team on the menu, poise on the wine list, subtlety in the tea pairing. What a win that it’s finally ours.

Good to know: The tasting menu is a sure bet for first-timers, while groups should look to the live seafood section

Level 1/203 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, leehofook.com.au

Mediterranean 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Like long-lunching at an old friend’s house on a spring afternoon

Paul Kelly on the stereo. Ouzo lining a Sazerac. Greek rosé on ice and a view to Redfern Park. At the former Moon Park site, Lo Presti’s feels very Sydney, very “now”, but it’s also not hard to imagine you’re swiping sesame focaccia through the terrific charred eggplant dip and it’s one of those carefree summers of the 1990s.

In partnership with front-of-house gun Rachael Trewin, former Baba’s Place head chef Michael Lo Presti was influenced by the warm community-focused vibes he experienced growing up in his family’s Darlinghurst espresso bar to open his first restaurant, except the food here goes well beyond red sauce and lasagne.

Roasted capsicum is dehydrated (just slightly, to fortify the flavour) and dressed with a reviving pedro ximenez vinegar; vine leaf-wrapped mulloway on roasted fennel and onion tastes like a weekend in Hydra; grilled pork chop is liberally covered in white wine, coriander and pipis. A side of toasted rice with garlic and spinach soaks up all the delicious juices left on plates, and then it’s time for bay-leaf creme caramel. Turn up the Hoodoo Gurus and chill.

Good to know: The house cocktails are excellent, developed with talent from Enmore Road’s Bar Demo

Level 1, 34B Redfern Street, Redfern, loprestisrestaurant.com

Contemporary 17.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

Highly creative fine-dining still making waves on Pyrmont Bay

With the closures of Quay, Oncore and Bentley in 2026, there was hushed worry in hospitality circles that LuMi would be next. Not so. In spite of (or perhaps because of) those fine-diners calling it a day, Federico Zanellato’s Japanese-Italian flagship has been packed with guests still keen on a tasting menu where luxury, innovation and steely-eyed technique combine.

The opening volley of tightly composed snacks is almost disorientating. Bang! A tartlet of raw scampi and whipped foie gras underlined by pickled white strawberries. Snap! Short-spine sea urchin topping a gunkan sushi roll with the surprise of creamy stracciatella. Boom! Oscietra caviar on wagyu tartare.

But then you settle in, cared for by staff with unwavering flow, and take the time to wonder, “How do they get such a delicate texture on the toothfish glazed with sake lees butter surrounded by oyster foam over poached spanner crab and pickled turnips?” Sydney has waterside restaurants with more sweeping views, but none of them sparkle like this.

Good to know: Zanellato sends out the most epically flavoured and layered snacks in town, so go all the way and book the longer omakase menu

56 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, lumidining.com

Mexican 15/20 (One Hat) $$

A singular take on regional Mexican cuisine

Sure, Maiz can still facilitate a respectable flat-iron steak with huitlacoche bearnaise, but to skip the plant-based dishes would be to miss chef Juan Carlos Negrete Lopez’s most rousing, nurturing cooking.

Start with esquites, a corn sort-of salad served from food carts across Mexico, in a broth of epazote (the pungent, minty herb) boosted by a mayonnaise harnessing 10 types of chillies. Flautas (that’s “flutes” in Spanish) are rolled tortillas filled with potato and guajillo chilli adobo, spangled with a crunchy mix of amaranth, pepitas and sesame seeds; and the tetela is a triangular corn pocket stuffed with confit fennel, braised chayote (read: choko) and a pepita-based green mole bright with tomatillos, coriander and epazote oil.

Indigenous Mexican masks proudly decorate one side of the room and bar seating is available if you just want a quick margarita made with pandaninfused tequila. This is a rousing celebration of Oaxaca, Puebla, Baja California – and corn.

Good to know: Gluten-free diners, go forth. You can eat pretty much everything here

33 Enmore Road, Newtown, maizmexicanfood.com

Contemporary 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$

The beating heart of Neil Perry’s Double Bay empire has some new tricks

Slowly, then suddenly, Margaret has transformed into one of the country’s finest steakhouses. This shouldn’t be surprising – this is Neil Perry, founder of Rockpool Bar & Grill, after all – but still, the scope is striking. Beasts are sourced from producers such as David Blackmore or CopperTree Farms, broken down and dry-aged in house, before hitting the menu, perhaps to be served with red-curry butter, tarragon bread salsa, or in the case of a half-kilo grass-fed bone-in sirloin, beautifully unadorned.

Perry has the eye of a classicist and the palate of a pioneer, a fact in evidence across the 30-or-so non-steak dishes, too, from woodgrilled John dory plated with peanut, chilli and tomato salsa to South Coast bluefin tuna tossed with gochujang and set to scoop up with gem lettuce.

A love of producers, a full dining room, a stacked wine list, waiters that just get it. This is old-school stuff, but somehow it never gets old.

Must-order: The Memories of a Mirabelle Tart is hard to beat for dessert, but then so is the flourless chocolate cake

30-36 Bay Street, Double Bay, themargaretfamily.com

Seafood 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

A smart-casual seafood bar to suit any landlubber

Short of a peg-legged pirate singing sea shanties, this lively little fish shop from Paisano and Daughters (the team also behind neighbouring Continental Deli, Joe’s Tavern and Osteria Mucca) couldn’t be more nautical if it tried. From the curved, wood-panelled roof and seafaring knick-knacks to Fisherman’s Friend drink coasters, there’s more maritime than you can shake a harpoon at.

Settle your sea legs at the bar with a briny oyster shell gin martini and enjoy wild-caught barramundi empanadas with house-made hot sauce, or punchy shishito peppers stuffed with yellowfin tuna sausage and served with zippy chimichurri. Raw wild kingfish with vibrant tomatillo vinaigrette and peppery puntarelle is fresh, clean and firm, while French-inspired ling and kingfish quenelles in blue swimmer crab bisque are sweet and rich.

While chef Måns Engberg is serious about his fish sourcing and cooking, Mister Grotto knows how to have a lot of fun. Ahoy!

Good to know: Home of the best fresh-shucked oyster service in the inner-west

208 Australia Street, Newtown, paisanoanddaughters.com.au

Taiwanese 14/20 $

This decades-old lantern-adorned eatery in a Haymarket mall has still got it

Mother Chu’s Taiwanese Gourmet has been a constant during unpredictable times, but when the 35-year-old Chinatown restaurant recently announced major changes to ensure economic survival, it was a reminder: never take any place for granted.

The 14-page menu is now one laminated sheet. All-day breakfast cuts off at 2pm. Certain labour-intensive dishes are gone. But Alan Chu, the restaurant’s second-generation owner, has kept the hits his late father made great: beef noodle soup and Taiwanese breakfasts; soft, golden youtiao crafted by hand and fried until they’re puffed and tanned all over – perfect with congee or a cup of fresh soy milk.

Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to discover new favourites, from sesame-crusted black pepper pork buns reminiscent of those found in Taipei’s famous Raohe Street market, to addictive curry fried rice. It might have downsized, yes, but thankfully its fan club continues to grow.

Must-order: Hot-and-sour soup, dark and tangy, sharp with white pepper and swirling with cloud-like egg whites

1/86-88 Dixon Street, Haymarket, instagram.com/mychumama

Cantonese 13/20 $$

RSL club Chinese that rivals the city’s biggest and best players

There are live seafood tanks, then there are those at Ocean Treasure, attached to Club Blacktown, where the row of tanks sit on top of larger tanks normally found in wholesale seafood shops. And they’re not just for show: owner-chef Stevenson Su has extensive high-end experience cooking seafood in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, and his team excel at it.

Order the steamed grouper and the flesh flecks off the bone, while the fattier parts almost melt. The soy-based sauce, meanwhile, is delicately balanced and rivals the Cantonese powerhouses in the CBD. Stir-fried live lobster is tender, bouncy and easy to pry from its shell. The platter of salt-and-pepper whitebait and squid is a must, but it’s not all about seafood.

Take the steamed pork belly with mustard greens, a classic southern dish that Su fashions into a sweet, glistening pyramid, or Cantonese-style roast duck with crisp, fatty skin. Poached free-range chicken is properly tender and juicy.

This is a place for the people: loud, energetic and unique, with discounted yum cha for members to boot. What are you waiting for?

Good to know: Su is an abalone master, but it requires at least six hours notice if you’re keen to indulge

40 Second Avenue, Blacktown, clubblacktown.com.au

Greek 15/20 (One Hat) $

Choose-your-own-adventure meats and mezedes, all made from scratch

The odyssey to a perfect bite begins with the meats: salted, brined, marinated for days. Or, for the lamb kontosouvli, wrapped in a lace of caul fat that renders as it’s grilled over coals for up to six hours, caramelising the crust while basting the meat for a lush centre.

From there, you build. A carb to carry it: sourdough pita, always fired in the wood oven to order, or triple-cooked chips fried in beef tallow and sprinkled with citrusy Nostimini seasoning. Something to smush into, like earthy fava dip or the Athinika salata – a retro Athenian salad of king prawns, squash and shallots in creamy mayonnaise tinged with taramasalata. Then, toursi to cut through: snappy house-made pickles of bursting pepperoncini and thick aniseed cucumbers.

Backed by his Peloponnese heritage and experience at Sydney’s top butcheries, chef-owner Timothy Cassimatis brings years of work to the plate – an epic journey that makes queuing well worth the wait.

Good to know: BYO for $8 per person, or enjoy Mediterranean-leaning wines by small producers from Crete to Merimbula

12 Dudley Street, Marrickville, olympicmeats.shop

Greek 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Taverna feasting in one of Sydney’s most beautiful courtyards, with plenty of swish and spectacle

Are we in the heavens, dining with deities on nectar and ambrosia? It feels that way, sipping on Greek wine beneath a sweeping glass oculus open to the sky, a lush bougainvillaea casting dappled shade on pale travertine and stone. Everything is abundant and sublime – much like chef Özge Kalvo’s food.

Grilled sardines doused in olive oil, lemony rice and summer purslane, cooked down until tender, say, or lamb leg skewers charred over fire, glistening in their own juices. Both pair well with the village salad, true to tradition with crunchy, thick-cut vegetables at their peak and a generous slab of feta.

There are contemporary takes too, like the memorable kokoretsi – sweetbreads, liver and belly wrapped in shattering filo with a drizzle of sharp mustard.

Take your pick from more than 40 dishes, alongside bright, breezy cocktails by drinks master Matt Whiley – fresh, herbaceous and finely tuned to the food. The glamorous bounty here is yours for the taking.

Good to know: The wine list runs deep with Greek producers, but there’s also a top selection of Australian, French and “party” bottles

Wunderlich Lane, 2 Baptist Street, Redfern, olympusdining.com.au

Japanese 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

Superlative sushi from a master of his craft

You expect the “gunkan maki”, or battleship sushi, to be good at the omakase counter at Prefecture 48, a converted heritage-listed warehouse with no less than four restaurants. Chef Akira Horikawa spent 15 years honing his skills at Ginza Kyubey, the legendary Tokyo honten where this style of rice wrapped in nori was invented. And it is good. It’s very, very good. Horikawa serves his gunkan with Hokkaido sea urchin, cold and creamy, and the perfect foil for gently warmed rice and crisp seaweed. It’s an outstanding bite in a tour de force of a tasting menu by a richly experienced chef with innate understanding of balance and rhythm.

Horikawa’s nigiri, using classic chutoro and otoro tuna alongside specialties such as coral trout and scampi, are outstanding. But his zensai, or appetisers, are where the true genius lies, varied and yet complementary, subtle and yet memorable. Lightly coal-grilled imperador, say, served with dashi flavoured with just kombu and clams.

This gem of an omakase has been somewhat flying under the radar, though that surely won’t last. 

Best for: The ultimate treat-yourself experience

230 Sussex Street, Sydney, p48.com.au

Sardinian 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$

This beachside institution is as vital as ever

Every visit to Pilu, there’s a dilemma: order the suckling pig, or branch out? However hard you try, the pig usually wins. The maialetto has had many iterations over its tenure. But two truths remain: crisp, burnished skin and tender, almost milky-sweet meat. Today, it’s served with sheep’s yoghurt and sweet pickled cabbage to gently cut the richness.

It’s a special setting, the heritage-listed beach house overlooking Freshwater Beach, and the proud Sardinian connection only makes it more remarkable, from tonno alla Carlofortina – here a crudo finished with pine nuts, pesto and gazpacho – to the wine list. Culurgiones, Sardinia’s answer to ravioli, are stuffed with potato and onion and folded to resemble a plump ear of wheat, and seadas for dessert – fried pastry filled with whipped ricotta sweetened with Mona Vale honey – are essential.

This is a restaurant that rewards time. Set aside an afternoon, take the ferry, take a stroll. No dilemmas here.

Good to know: The tasting menu (seven courses for $195) showcases the house favourites

Moore Road, Freshwater, pilu.com.au

French 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

Ground zero for choux farci gets bigger and better with age

Troisgros. Guerard. Bocuse. Hill? You won’t find co-owner Nik Hill’s name on a “Great French Chefs of the 20th Century” list, but that’s only because he was born in the wrong country a few decades too late. The bistro Hill runs with Matt Fitzgerald has been Sydney’s favourite hangout for terrine, pâté and gougeres (and the occasional whole guinea fowl served over three courses) for the past five years.

But since turning the former P&V bottleshop below the restaurant into wine bar L’Avant Cave, Porcine feels more confident and precise without losing the charm. Note the composure of a vol-au-vent rich with veal sweetbreads and slipper lobster in a sunset-orange sauce Americaine. Behold the exquisite rim of fat on a Berkshire pork chop. Scoff those stupidly crunchy frites.

With Hill set to represent Australia at France’s prestigious Bocuse d’Or cooking contest in 2027, there’s never been a better time to book for textbook galantine. Paris. Roanne. Lyon. Paddington.

Must-order: The tableside duck-press service, at least once in your life

268 Oxford Street, Paddington, porcine.com.au

Thai 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Inventive and fiery flavours of Central Thailand

Even in a city with a strong Thai food scene, Porkfat stands out. In part it’s down to co-founder and chef Narin “Jack” Kulasai’s menu, which is broad but with a Central Thai inflection, drawing on the flavours of Kulasai’s hometown, Saraburi. Boonyalit “Boon” Boonprakong’s presence on the floor is another factor. And the rest has to do with the vibrancy of the dishes.

Take the pork belly that’s simultaneously crisp and juicy. It comes confetti-ed with coriander, red onion and chilli, and a zippy, lime-forward nahm jim, while a hot and fragrant green curry with grilled pork jowl has luscious jolt.

It’s not all pork, though: fried rice is fluffy, strewn with sweet spanner crab and packing serious wok hei. A small, considered wine list plays well with spice and the namesake lard underscoring many dishes, but BYO ($30) means the scope is wide.

Space is limited, so book ahead, either upstairs where things are more cloistered and calm, or downstairs, which rings with the clatter of woks.

Good to know: There’s plenty of firepower on the menu, but the creamy coconut ice-cream is gloriously refreshing

33 Ultimo Road, Haymarket, porkfat.com.au

Argentinian 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Handsome grillhouse firing top-shelf steaks

While Elvis Abrahanowicz has been largely occupied opening restaurants in Newtown of late (see: Osteria Mucca, Joe’s Tavern) his day-one business partner Ben Milgate keeps the mothership’s charcoal grill burning bright.

Porteno classics are accounted for (wood-fired blood sausage, crisp-fried Brussels sprouts, that wonderful banana Old Fashioned), but with head chef Matt Fox in charge of the dry-ageing fridge, this warm-lit, black-and-white-tiled space is now one of Australia’s great steak restaurants. Wagyu from top-shelf producers such as Robbins Island and Shimo is treated with care and precision for beautiful length of flavour, and with some hand-cut fries and a good malbec you may not want for anything else.

Except you don’t want to miss the sherry-sharpened abalone and pork cheek skewers, or the charred octopus piled with a restorative butter bean and soft herb salad, or the Jersey milk flan with its frill of creme diplomat. This is all to say, come hungry and often.

Must-order: Are the tallow-fried beef empanadas, still made daily by Abrahanowicz’s dad, Sydney’s best version of the form? Yes. Yes, they are

Shop 3, 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills, porteno.com.au

Thai-Chinese 14/20 $

Aromatic soup noodles that will alter your brain chemistry

Named for a historic district in inner-city Bangkok, where many Chinese merchants first set up businesses in the early 20th century, Ratchawat Thai Beef Noodle celebrates the area’s renowned Thai-Chinese cooking with a clipped menu centred around its most revered dish: slow-braised beef noodle soup with flavour and texture for days.

Chef Varittha “Toki” Vatthakul has spent years perfecting the recipe, and you can taste it in the broth: a pure elixir of cinnamon, five-spice, star anise, coriander root and melted beef fat, with depth and body from long-braised beef and hum from white pepper.

On the noodle front there are two soups and two soupless bowls, each customisable with up to five cuts. Pick meatballs for bounce, brisket for tenderness, tendon for chew. Expect queues, expect comfort, and expect the fried chicken – Hat Yai-style from southern Thailand – to crackle and crunch to the bite. One more testament to Sydney’s ever-expanding Thai scene.

Good to know: The teas and coconut pudding make it a meal

Shop 6-8/728-738 George Street, Haymarket, ratchawat.com.au

Grill 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$

A grand night out in Gotham City

Suited maitre d’. Soft but audible jazz. Fat hissing on hot coals and art deco panache. Everything remains luxury steakhouse business as usual at Rockpool Bar & Grill, a temple to expense accounts and the cow since 2009.

The menu champions Australia’s best fishers and farmers, with pristine crudo from the “cold bar” up top, a side of speck-fortified mac-and-cheese at the bottom, and a ferocious amount of meat, salad and seafood in between. Pasta has long been a strong point, especially the semolina noodles sparkling with prawn oil, Moreton Bay bug and smoked tomatoes. The open kitchen grills fish (perhaps coral trout, served with clams and lime leaf) with stunning precision, but we’re all here for the steaks, right?

Expect well over a dozen options from the likes of David Blackmore and CopperTree Farms, butchered in-house and full of strong, beefy flavour. Egalitarian hospitality. Crunchy potatoes. Soaring columns that feel like a set from Batman Returns. Rockpool Bar & Grill forever.

Good to know: The crisp, charred steaks love a dab of bearnaise, which comes from a kitchen that really knows how to make bearnaise

66 Hunter Street, Sydney, hunterstreethospitality.com.au

DRINKS LIST OF THE YEAR WINNER

Seafood 18.5/20 (Three Hats) $$$$

A decade in, the little restaurant that could is reaching the top of its game

Saint Peter has gone deep on seafood ever since it opened. Exactly 10 years later, what’s remarkable is how every other aspect has evolved.

Josh and Julie Niland are now full-blown restaurateurs, overseeing an in-house drinks program, a team of waitstaff who’ll nail the timing on coordinated drops, and a world-class wine list. The jazz could be less generic, but the room feels lived-in, the presentation feels confident and there are whimsical touches throughout that stop things from getting too serious.

Make no mistake, though, this is serious cooking: fish bones are ground into noodles served in bull-kelp broth; the charcuterie course features a pinwheel of tarts almost too pretty to eat; a loin chop of coral trout is plated with fish maw and vadouvan.

At every turn, provenance, sustainability, deliciousness and technique take precedence, from the oyster service to the mackerel to the bergamot-scented citron tart for sweets. Masterful. And somehow, it feels like they’re just getting started.

Good to know: Lunch is prix fixe, dinner is a 10-course tasting and the front bar offers full a la carte

The Grand National Hotel, 161 Underwood Street, Paddington, saintpeter.com.au

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Modest surfside bolthole that’s been welcoming guests for more than three decades

In a world that feels like it’s shifting fast, Sean’s remains a rock. Little has changed since it opened in 1993 – there’s always a focus on produce grown with care, and stepping into the charming, art-lined dining room feels like visiting an old family friend.

The menu, written on the blackboard, lists three entrees, mains and desserts – there’s always roast chicken and a pasta, often a soup (if so, order it), and, to finish, a cheese plate and pudding.

In autumn, the glorious Sommerlad chook might come with mushrooms and brown-rice stuffing, but in January, when the beach across the road is heaving, it could well be teamed with summer squash.

The seasons matter here, as does the service. Staff verbally describe the entire menu, a delightful trait that’s helpful when you can’t decide between blue swimmer crab dusted with flour and fried, or a quail salad with pickled cherries and radicchio.

While it can be a tad hectic in December and on Saturday afternoons, few things are more “Sydney” than a long lunch at this stalwart.

Good to know: Forever one of the best places to bring your own wine

270 Campbell Parade, North Bondi, seansbondi.com

T2 TEA RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR WINNER

Contemporary 18.5/20 (Three Hats) $$$$

Personal, highly poised dining in a quiet corner of Stanmore

Since Quay’s February closure made Sixpenny Sydney’s most senior three-hatter, this fine-diner in sleepy Stanmore has seemingly resolved to meet the moment. 

An August refresh saw them renovate the kitchen and knock through a wall, topping the remaining counter with spotted gum and opening the pass to the public. In the dining room, they actually reduced capacity to give guests more space to breathe. And there’s fresh art on the walls too, from local artists including Jonny Niesche and Rodney Evans.

On the floor, restaurant manager Ruby Maddison and sommelier Vincent Griffiths have continued to raise a bar set by general manager George Papaioannou. And then there’s the cooking, where owner Dan Puskas has progressively handed control to head chef Tony Schifilliti, whose fermentation odyssey has unlocked previously unseen layers of flavour.

On their own, the depth of the coral-trout paste brushed onto marron or the brightness of raw scallops in a dressing of fermented green tomato and almond milk are striking. But the trick is in how the team builds natural peaks into the tasting menu.

Here’s a pretty plate of vegetables – puntarelle, reindeer kale, crystal ice plant – each piece brushed or smeared or stuffed with a delicious fermented cream, paste or oil. There’s a soft milk bun alongside the marron, set to stuff with the shellfish. With the Cowra lamb rump? A plate of ribs finished with a sticky oyster glaze. Even the signature raspberry and mead custard dessert has gotten a glow-up.

Suburban up-and-comer? That’s so 2012. The Sixpenny of today has come of age, and with it, a whole generation.

Best for: Special occasions in one of Sydney’s most soothing dining rooms

83 Percival Road, Stanmore, sixpenny.com.au

OCEANIA CRUISES CHEF OF THE YEAR WINNER

Contemporary 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Intimate space run by folk who care dearly about hospitality and produce

The St Peters end of King Street has long been a destination for pubs and takeaway, but surely there’s also a market for hyper-seasonal European dishes executed with beautiful technique? Yes, says the team at South End. Hussein Sarhan and Alex Tong lead the kitchen, while hospitality gun Paul Guiney works the floor, taking guests through his small-producer-led wine list. Tablecloths are ironed and flatware is gold rimmed, but good-humoured staff keep the vibe easy-going, and there’s usually a few stools free for walk-in guests. Salads are a highlight, such as tomatoes from Living Earth Farm in Young, purple basil, and white peaches of exact ripeness, and fish and meat courses are cooked with precision (cross your fingers for an appearance of the pasture-raised lamb rump, marinated in rosemary and thyme, and roasted to deep, consistent pink). The chefs know how to layer a crepe cake, too, but if you only order one dessert, make it the ethereal sabayon-folded chocolate tart “a la Bernard Pacaud”, a tribute to the haute cuisine master behind Paris restaurant L’Ambroisie.

Must-order: The seasonal soup, perhaps a Sommerlad chicken consomme, perhaps a chilled almond, melon and cucumber ajo blanco, smooth as sea glass

644 King Street, Newtown, southendrestaurant.com

Cantonese 16/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Sydney’s hottest new spot for live lobster on the water

After several years cooking in Los Angeles and Queensland, former Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year Louis Tikaram has returned to Sydney to open this 210-seat Manly Wharf version of the Cantonese restaurant he runs in Brisbane. The look is grand Hong Kong, mixing plush late-’70s styling and chinoiserie with beachy approachability. Sit outside on the deck and watch the ferries come in while splitting a dim sum platter (don’t miss the scallop siu mai with gossamer-thin skin) over a cold beer; book a table indoors for the sounds of people keen for a good time, and the scent of toasted cumin wafting off lamb ribs. Start with Moreton Bay bug spring rolls before something plucked from the tanks, such as coral trout, or eastern rock lobster, or delicate steamed snow crab dressed in soy and ginger. The Peking duck takes five days to prepare, resulting in the juiciest of meat covered in crisp, beautifully roasted skin, and while the floor staff are friendly and attentive, the wine service here is a cut above.

Good to know: The bottle of Kikkoman on every table is a tribute to Tikaram’s Fijian-Chinese grandmother, who would only use that brand of soy sauce in her kitchen

East Esplanade, Manly, stanleyrestaurant.com.au

Hong Kong 13/20 $

All-out comfort with a side of nostalgia at this 30-year-old favourite

Not many cafes have a row of bronzed, lacquered ducks hanging in the window, but then this institution, also known as Sun Ming Coffee Lounge, is no ordinary cafe – this is a cha chaan teng. That means you’ll find many classic breakfast and lunch dishes true to any Hong Kong diner, leading into a generous list of hot pots and barbecued meats. If the name sounds familiar, it might be because of the relation to Sun Ming Restaurant in Hurstville, which in recent years has attracted a cult following thanks in part to the magnetic personality of its second-generation owner, David Chan. But Sun Ming Parramatta has its own 30-year history, with Raymond Chan, David’s cousin, now at the helm. Come for Spam and omelette sandwiches, stacked peanut-butter French toast and soft, soothing congee – one of the best versions you’ll find this side of Causeway Bay. Loud, lively, and as vital as ever.

Best for: A quick solo lunch, or dinner with friends and family

145/149 Church Street, Parramatta

Japanese 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

One of Sydney’s finest omakase experiences, where the fish is at the forefront

For years, Sushi Oe was an open secret. A world-class omakase in sleepy Cammeray, its six seats locked behind an infuriating monthly lottery system. But since chef Toshihiko Oe has moved to the new Sydney Fish Market, things are different. Not only can you book online, there are almost double the number of seats, meaning it’s more accessible than ever. Even regulars appreciate the move: the room is bespoke, the wood counter spotlit, with textures of steel, paper and stone. At its centre, the chef holds court, and since there are so many first-timers, his presentation and explanation of the 30-or-so courses is more detailed. Onigiri is the main event, made on two varieties of rice with peerless texture, topped variously with imperador belly, flounder, storm clam, and several cuts of tuna. But extras, including a salt-roasted tuna collar, also bring the house down. Get clicking.

Good to know: Arrive early, the entrance can be hard to find

Sydney Fish Market, Glebe, gyokuu.com

Indian 13/20 $

An institution in the heart of Harris Park

Where do you eat in Sydney’s “Little India”, anyway? Do you stop for smashed samosas and snacks at Shri Refreshment Bar? Head straight to Chatkazz for Mumbai street food? Make for biryani or dosa or Nepalese dumpling specialists? All are good options, but continue further down Wigram Street, past the grocers selling curry-leaf plants, and you’ll spot Taj Indian Sweets and Restaurant. Opened in 2003, Taj is one of Little India’s originals, with regulars dedicated to the epic, all-vegetarian menu. There’s plenty of chaat, including winning pani puri, and the thalis – northern or southern style – give an entry point to the venue’s curry offer, complete with rice, bread, pickles and pappadums. Don’t leave without grabbing a sweet from the stacked front bar either – unless, that is, you’ve got your heart set on golden, twisted jalebi, fried to order streetside and drowned in sugar syrup from Jaipur Sweets. One street, endless possibilities.

Good to know: Dosa Hut is ground zero for dosa, but Taj’s version hits the spot, too

91 Wigram Street, Harris Park, instagram.com/tajindiansweets

Filipino 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Innovative young chefs pushing Filipino flavour forward

Who would have thought that one of the best martinis of the year would be at a small Filipino restaurant a few doors up from Una’s? Dry gin, served many degrees below zero, with bay-leaf oil and a kick of brine from atchara (pickled green papaya). Thrilling stuff. Takam is full of smart twists like this, and after three years and a direction change or two, the menu feels right where it needs to be: satisfying Filipino community cravings while showing the rest of Sydney that food from The Philippines has endless potential for innovation and deliciousness. Inihaw na tenga (soy- and calamansi-glazed grilled pig’s ear) skewers are a riot of smoke, char and chew; deftly grilled bream punches with well-seasoned, garlic-forward tausi sauce; and a sweet-salty-sharp balikutsa dressing enhances pork belly with a crackling that would be the centrepiece of any Christmas Day lunch. Staff are very happy to help guests navigate the menu too, if you don’t know your palabok from pimiento.

Must-order: Coal-roasted chicken inasal marinated in lemongrass and hit with spiced vinegar and calamansi (also: rice. Lots of rice)

324 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, takam.au

Singaporean-Malay 13.5/20 $$

Efficient, home-style cooking backed by decades of know-how

This cult favourite is always pumping, whether it’s lunchtime in the high-gloss dining room or outside on a Saturday night, after braving a queue 20-deep. It’s a loud, tightly packed, high-turnover dining experience but remarkably calm waitstaff maintain an air of practised grace, even as the dishes come thick and fast. Hainanese chicken rice lands within minutes, the delicately poached breast served slightly below room temperature, as Singaporean style demands. Laksa Singapura follows, featuring a thick coconut-based broth rich with shrimp paste and brimming with sweet prawns and chicken, and a half-Hokkien, half-rice noodle option for those who can’t decide between the two. Roti canai is a standout – hot, pliable, lightly charred, with an aromatic curry sauce – though a watery bean sprout and cucumber tahu goreng is one to skip. Temasek is fast, efficient and fit for purpose, yes, but it’s also always memorable – one more reason it’s stood the test of time.

Good to know: There are no online reservations, so book by phone or email

2/100 George Street, Parramatta, temasekrestaurant.com

Indonesian 14/20 $

Vibrant venture from the owner of Medan Ciak that broadens the brief

You may know Medan Ciak from its Sussex Street or Mascot locations, and its menu inspired by chef Harjo’s hometown. At Temu Kangen, he pulls focus from Medan to offer dishes from all over Indonesia. The set-up is similar – a bain-marie of ready-to-serve dishes at the entrance; a table lined with takeaway boxes of snacks and desserts – but the big difference is a complete absence of pork so Muslim-Indonesians can eat everything.

Nasi kuning – cone-shaped towers of rice tinted yellow with turmeric – can be spotted at most tables, but what you really need is the nasi gurih pandan, a fragrant parcel of pandan coconut rice finished on the grill. Ayam bakar is one of the biggest sellers, with your choice of chicken breast or thigh grilled with sweet-spicy marinade, and the sambal squid is soft and yielding with garlicky green chilli. Tie everything together with sup sapi, a clear soup brimming with hunks of beef, potato and carrot. Sweet, beefy, soul-reviving stuff.

Good to know: No, there isn’t an association with the online marketplace you’re thinking of. “Temu” means “to meet” in Indonesian

33 Ultimo Road, Haymarket, temukangen.com.au

Persian 15/20 (One Hat) $$

A singular offering, evolved from takeaway shop to transportative experience

Tida offers a glimpse into a world Iranian restaurateurs Parya Zaghand and Milad Amiri cannot return to. Their small, saffron-yellow dining room recalls the warmth of a Persian family home, filled with plants, mid-century furniture and vintage silver. Zaghand is the perfect host, balancing attentive service with familiarity and ease; Amiri makes mast-o-musir, the creamy yoghurt dip infused with wild Persian shallots, to accompany the tahdig bowls, each parcel of saffron rice topped with a dimpled cap of golden crunch. Tida’s tahdig comes layered atop mains including khoresh fesenjan (tender chicken stew, sweetened with pomegranate molasses) and juicy, ground lamb koobideh kebab. Even unassuming dishes, such as soup-e jo (barley soup on citrusy lamb broth) or pistachio baklava featuring crisp filo curled into roses are beautiful, satisfying, and full of flavour – thanks, in part, to specialty ingredients sourced from the centuries-old farming communities of their homeland.

Good to know: This is an ideal spot for an intimate group dinner; book ahead and BYO

304 Penshurst Street, North Willoughby, tidapersianfood.com.au

Thai 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$$

Likely the most aromatic restaurant in Sydney

This is the closest thing to dining in a Thai pavilion in the back streets of Bangkok and yet it feels so Australian. The sweetness of jasmine rice and earthy aromas of pounded spices hit you on arrival, as Annita Potter, the Good Food Guide’s 2023 Chef of the Year, greets and seats you, then moves easily back to the charcoal grill and the simmering sauces in the central open kitchen. Whether you order three, five or eight courses, it will be a rollercoaster ride through ginger, chilli jam, garlic, pennywort, pickled ginger and palm-sugar caramel. Skull Island tiger prawns are tangled with shallots, galangal and lemongrass, and a richly sauced roast red duck curry is floating with red and green chillies like half-submerged crocodiles. A highly accomplished excursion into Thai banquet-level dining that feels like a uniquely personal expression of craft and flavour – and aroma.

Good to know: You can BYO wine every Wednesday night, and lunch service Thursday and Friday (corkage is $35)

41 Crown Street, Woolloomooloo, viand.club

Italian 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

A spiritual successor to Bar Vincent from the team behind La Buvette and Bar Copains

There are the hot restaurants, the new restaurants, the ones where everybody goes to see and be seen. And then there are the all-timers, the restaurants we live in and return to again and again. Vin-Cenzo’s, surely, belongs to this category. It’s the kind of place where candles flicker slowly over white tablecloths, where a perfect sphere of fior di latte gelato melts slowly over a warm fig and olive oil cake, where time extends and stretches out.

Waiters live and breathe it, too. Ask for a steer and they’ll build you a meal – marinated olives to start, a lightly toasted finger sandwich of veal tongue and scamorza to snack on, an interlude of chicken and mortadella agnolotti suspended in golden broth. Chicken under a brick? Duck lasagne with a hint of liver? Each plate has depth and detail for days. When can we come back?

Good to know: The one-page wine list is just the beginning – ask to see the cellar list if you’re serious

174 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, vin-cenzos.com

Korean 15/20 (One Hat) $

New address, same honest flavours and best-in-class bone soups

Despite a move to Eastwood late in 2025, little has changed at Yeodongsik. Sure, the chic, streamlined space is a touch larger and brighter, but the viral buckwheat noodles in perilla oil have endured; so, too, the queues that form like clockwork, even on a weekday afternoon. The six-strong suite of gukbap – or soups with rice – remains the main event, each a quiet lesson in refined complexity. The thick and milky gomtang doubles down on beefy richness with generous slices of brisket, while the kongnamul-haejangguk proves a rewarding deviation from the meatier options, anchored in a nuanced prawn-and-anchovy broth. For an extra protein hit, start with suyuk that’s as good as plainly boiled pork belly gets – and better still with the ravishingly fresh kimchi salad alongside and the sweetly spiced ginger-cinnamon punch as a chaser. Still very much worth the wait.

Good to know: There’s no takeaway, but heat-at-home soups are available for purchase

15 Railway Parade, Eastwood, jkbc.com.au

CRITICS’ PICK OF THE YEAR WINNER

A couple of years ago, the tiny kitchen perched outside the Ovolo Canberra made waves as Fekerte’s, a canteen specialising in comforting Ethiopian fare. Fekerte’s may be no longer, but the next incarnation of the space – AK’s Diner – has more than taken up the mantle. 

Run by Anand Kumar “AK” Ramakrishna, former chef-owner of fusion fine-diner XO, AK’s offers a handful of daily specials served over rice, but the depth of flavour in each disposable bowl is all-but unmatched. 

Make a beeline for dishes that draw on both Ramakrishna’s Tamil-Malaysian roots and the flavours of South-East Asia, from slow-cooked chicken prepared to his amma’s recipe to crisp, giving sweet-and-sour fish. Sides might include XO green beans cooked to the point of collapse.

The list of extras, meanwhile, add more delicious dimensions, including roti canai and house-made pickles, plus the occasional black-rice pudding or longan and monkfruit iced tea. 

Still, things change quickly: already, spring has seen deep, fiery Chettinad pork neck varuval and cumin-scented Jeera chicken grace the menu.

This is a lunch-only, weekday-only affair, but the queues keep coming, spurred on by collaborations with name chefs such as Christine Manfield and frequent pop-ups around town.

Modern spins on classics? Tick. Old family recipes? Big tick.

“Soul food, good tunes and great vibes”, reads the sign. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Must-order dish: The curry puffs for snacks are a must

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra, instagram.com/aksdiner

Wine Bar 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Welcoming wine and cocktail bar as Canberran as Telecom Tower

For the past decade, Bar Rochford has been wildly popular with anyone into gamay, Gary Numan and Grace Jones. There’s a working fireplace and racing-green booths, and potato galettes topped with goat’s cheese and honeycomb. Records run from Townes Van Zandt to Austrian downtempo, and chef Alisdair Brooke-Taylor delivers on the wine-bar comfort brief with farm-championing produce and confident flavour combinations.

Lamb shoulder is slow-roasted with rosemary and Geraldton wax, and deftly finished over charcoal; grilled king oyster mushroom skewers double down on the umami with a sheen of prawn oil; and a juicy ballotine of Sommerlad chicken with truffles (in winter, at least) is doused in a jus gras of requisite stickiness. The view from Rocco’s commanding arch window might be clogged with the chaos of light-rail construction at the time of publication, but what’s inside is more vital than ever.

Good to know: The drinks list treats wine, beer, cider, cocktails and spirits with equal consideration, which is much rarer in Australia than it should be

Level 1, 65 London Circuit, Canberra, barrochford.com

Contemporary 15/20 (One Hat) $$$

A gleaming beacon of fine dining set in one of Canberra’s architectural icons

Anticipation builds as you leave the suburbs behind, climbing up the winding drive flanked by gums and bushland. The road levels out as you reach the summit of Red Hill, revealing a towering dodecagon-shaped, spaceship-like structure. It’s a stunning setting for sure, the polished dining room boasting panoramic views over Canberra. But it’s chef Tristan Rebbettes’ modern Italian-leaning menu that captures the limelight.

A pretty textural snack of ocean trout rillettes delicately sandwiched between potato chips is a strong start, then wood-fired Goolwa pipis packing the gentle, persistent heat of fermented chilli and friggitelli peppers. Coal-crisped mackerel and zucchini are lifted with rich roasted-chicken cream, while maiale al latte (milk-braised Borrowdale pork belly in this case) comes silky-tender on saucy tomato fregola. A quenelle of parsley sorbet, the herbaceous notes balanced with sweet diced pear, honeycomb and a jaunty meringue hat, caps off the refined offering, as dramatic and bewitching as the moon this fine diner is named after.

Good to know: Aperitivo hour at sunset, downstairs at Lunetta Trattoria, is also not to be missed

Upstairs, 60 Red Hill Drive, Red Hill, lunetta.au

Fiji Indian 14/20 $$

A one-of-a-kind suburban experience, celebrating 35 years

Thirty-five years in, Rama’s is an intergenerational institution. Glance around the room and longtime regulars are pulling the cork from their BYO Penfolds and spilling fiery lime pickle on white tablecloths. By the entrance, the proprietor Mini Gaundar is serving a couple of twenty-somethings sharing the pet-nat they packed in the car. Once these tables have scorched their fingers with turmeric-tinted pakoras and crunched through the bubbly pastry encasing the potato-and-pea-filled samosas, odds are they’re sharing the Fijian pork curry. Made with onion, capsicum and a mix of cuts, each bite reveals a different texture: the belly collapsing into sweet fattiness, the shoulder dense and meaty. Extra turmeric and a thwack of fenugreek add warmth and fragrance to a coconut base.

More dishes than not are in keeping with other everyday suburban Indian restaurants, and they’re worth trying (the lamb saag especially), but the plates representing Gaundar’s lived experience are most memorable, from jhinga nariel of prawns to goat curry to mango chicken that draws on Fiji-Indian flavours but adds an Australian accent. Plus the ’90s-coded atmosphere is hard to beat. A restaurant for our times, even after all these years.

Good to know: Plan ahead to take advantage of free corkage, or pick something up at the bottleshop across the way

Shop 6, Pearce Shopping Centre, Hodgson Crescent, Pearce, ramas.com.au

Contemporary 15.5/20 (One Hat) $$

Just the place for whatever and (almost) whenever you fancy

In the way of clever Canberra restaurant names, Such and Such, from the team behind two-hatted Pilot in Ainslie, is a fun one. It’s also pretty apt for a place suited for anything from drinks and snacks to a girl-gang dessert gathering or a celebratory set menu. Service is smart and switched-on, the room an arty mix of styles and substance – a coloured glass-tubes installation at the entrance, boucle banquettes and high-voltage glam photos.

Plus, whatever you order is pretty delicious, including some interesting local-wine collaborations. Under a well-flavoured slice of cured tuna sits diced kangaroo on toast in a cream-ish base – a wild take on surf-and-turf and so easy to eat. Slippery potato-stuffed agnolotti riff on the chip-based combination of sour cream and chives, and pork belly is zippy with “taco” spices. Dessert has to happen, whether Neapolitan ice-cream balls or a crazy cream-filled Polish Carpathian mountain cake, miso butterscotch and all.

Must-order: The signature duck crown with fish-sauce caramel

Constitution Place, 220 London Circuit, andsuchandsuch.com

Wine Bar 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

Byron’s best pours and produce, served by a kitchen full of tricks

Bar Heather, with moody pendant lights and shelves brimming with bottles, is most definitely a wine bar – but hold the burrata and crudo. Here, a golden curry puff splits apart to reveal tender bites of octopus in its own ink; what looks like a tangle of noodles turns out to be North Stradbroke cuttlefish, sliced thinly and slicked in a peppery sauce, with organic snake beans from Boon Luck Farm bringing crunch.

Such is the playful sleight of hand by chef Ollie Wong-Hee, whose menu pairs European and South-East Asian flavours. You might start with a potato chip, topped with delicate manchego custard and ultra-fresh raw shiitake, then move to fried sweetbreads done larb-style with roasted rice powder, zingy chilli-lime seasoning, and a beautiful bundle of Thai basil and mint.

Or, you know, just pop in for a glass or two: let clued-up staff guide you through the impressive list shaped by owners James Audas and Tom Sheer (Lo-Fi Wines). Heather leaves you in very good hands.

Good to know: Booking is encouraged for live jazz night on Thursdays – check Instagram for the schedule

G9 Jonson Lane, 139 Jonson Street, Byron Bay, barheather.com

Contemporary 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$

A taste of Melbourne in Murwillumbah

Murwillumbah may have a population of just under 10,000, but it may well have the finest omelette in the state. This country town, of course, is home to Bistro Livi, a “Laneway City”-cool snack bar and restaurant housed in an art deco building and run by Melbourne expats Ewen Crawford, formerly head chef of MoVida, and twin sisters Nikky and Danni Wilson.

The food is precisely prepared, simply plated and stupidly delicious, built around produce grown nearby, including angled gourd, a long, ridged squash from Boon Luck Farm, lightly pickled to add cool, tangy crunch to oil-drenched anchovy fillets. Toasted focaccia is spread one-inch thick with pâté and served with guava paste, and then there’s The Omelette, sweet and buttery, rolled in the French-style around Clarence River spanner crab. Drinks are equally impressive, from classic cocktails to Etna Rosso by the glass. Small, yes, but perfectly formed.

Good to know: Try the barrel-aged saison, a farmhouse ale made by Murwillumbah’s own Caldera Brewing and Blending Co

Corner Brisbane Street and Proudfoots Lane, Murwillumbah, bistrolivi.com

French 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Newcastle neo bistro that expertly balances old school and new school

Classic lines, a historic site of sandstone and cedar, and a menu of French staples. You’d be forgiven for thinking Bistro Penny was just one more wannabe brasserie, peddling worn-out favourites. Far from. Just look at that tart, in which raw tuna, fennel and citrus are dressed with pastis, or that sauciere, brimming with chicken-fat bearnaise to pour over wood-grilled sirloin, blush-red in the centre and finished with lemon and olive oil.

The more familiar fare is equally striking, be it artichokes piled over lentils vinaigrette, or cinnamon-scented duck a l’orange with golden skin. Frites are fantastic, staff are superb, and a strawberry granita with flavours of licorice and coconut is about as refreshing as the rest of it. Call for one more glass of Beaujolais then consider a bombe Alaska if you can squeeze it in.

Must-order: Get your steak with sauce verte so you can save the chicken-fat bearnaise for where it’s needed most: spooned over grilled scallops

8-10 Bolton Street, Newcastle, bistropenny.com.au

Mediterranean 15/20 (One Hat) $$

A contemporary culinary expression of small-town charm

If Bruno were a person, he’d welcome you to his weatherboard cottage with the familiarity of an old friend. Come, sit by the fireplace in winter, feel the balmy air on the balcony in summer, settle into the comfortable hum of conversation.

Have a glass of that NSW wine you love, and order two serves of flatbread – charred from fire, soft and steamy as you pull it apart. It disappears fast with seasonal dip, today a blend of Jerusalem artichokes welled with melted paprika butter and a crunch of sunflower seeds.

Slow-roasted lamb ribs are locals’ go-to, so tender the meat falls from the bone, bright with zhoug and pickled onion. Try the pork belly, too, buttery flesh crowned in caramelised fat and sticky orange glaze, paired with bittersweet layers of radicchio and persimmon. The goodbye is bittersweet too, but the memories and flavours will linger.

Best for: A midway rest stop on your Sydney to Brisbane roadtrip

2 Oak Street, Bellingen, brunosbellingen.com.au

Contemporary 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

Moodlit fine-diner for cutting-edge cooking in wine country

The restaurant Emma and Frank Fawkner started in 2015 has done it the long way, moving from Oakvale Wines into Pokolbin Village, adding a bakery-cafe, then going all-in on fine-dining. This is cooking that’s on the level of any big-city tasting menu, but still feels wholly Hunter Valley from a chickpea tartlet with duck-liver parfait enhanced by brown butter, rosella jelly and Branxton-grown pecans, to dry-aged, roasted and barbecue finished Redgate Farm duck (one of the constant headliners of a seasonally changing menu) glazed with local honey and orange zest.

A good deal of the deliciousness comes from ferments, vinegars and braises – not to mention the hard work of farmers with beaut soil – but the kitchen is also well practised in classic technique, meaning Murray cod loin comes in a pool of the silkiest beurre blanc slicked with wild fennel oil. Confident service and considered wine pairings complete one of the Hunter’s most special nights out.

Good to know: The Saturday-only summer lunch service is a terrific way to escape the regional heat

2188 Broke Road, Pokolbin, exprestaurant.com.au

Italian 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Orange’s original farmhouse restaurant, revitalised by the next generation

If you stumbled on Fiorini’s right here and now you’d be forgiven for thinking it was little more than a tin shed. But there’s a glow behind the windows here that, once you step inside, transforms into a steady hum. It’s rustic, but refreshed, with a sense of vitality that comes courtesy of new ownership and a crack team of chefs, who in the past couple of years have reinvigorated the restaurant to make it one of the Central West’s essential bookings.

The menu? Think farm-to-table with spark, whether it’s raw local venison served with onion cups piped full of smoked eel and garlic whip or mezze maniche coated in rubbly, rust-coloured wild-boar ragu. Dressings are bright, greens are just wilted, sirloin – finished with truffle mustard – has heft and chew, and the one-page wine list is a gem. Something’s clicked.

Good to know: Tiramisu, tinted green with pistachio, to finish

816 Canobolas Road, Canobolas, fiorinis.com.au

Wine Bar 15/20 (One Hat) $$

Perfectly pitched drinks and snacks, with a love of local produce and a jolt of youthful energy

Orange’s skinniest wine bar has far more going for it than the fact it manages to pack so much into such tight dimensions, but let’s acknowledge it just for a second. Here’s the counter, stools on one side, chefs on the other, running a full menu in plain sight. There’s a mountain of white rice miso-whipped butter, made with cream from Dubbo, perched on the bench. The turntable is spinning, the hutch – sourced second-hand, like most of the furniture – holds the plates, wine is stored on shelves reaching up to the ceiling.

But Hey Rosey is hardly makeshift, in fact every aspect feels deliberate, none more than the cooking: pickled eggs sourced from a local duck farmer, loaded with trout roe; oysters in magnolia vinegar; Murray cod terrine, wrapped in nori; a syrupy poached fig to finish. Add drinks that look far beyond Orange, and it’s a lock.

Good to know: Just want to drop in for snacks? The deli menu is overloaded with cheese, charcuterie and tinned fish

301 Summer Street, Orange, heyrosey.au

Mexican 14/20 $$

Fresh and fun taqueria, with fish caught by the chef himself

The guy at a nearby table is onto his sixth taco in 10 minutes. Who can blame him? The tortillas are rolled, pressed and grilled daily, fresh as can be. The fish, too, caught by former Fleet chef Josh Lewis himself: Spanish mackerel one day, bonito the next. Whatever he hauls in might be cured in lime and paired with pickled melon on a crunchy tostada, or fried in batter for a taco drizzled with smoky garlic salsa.

Look beyond the usual taqueria fare, too: the woodfire-charred jalapenos are a fiery surprise, plump with spicy pork sausage and molten queso cotija (a briny aged cheese, something like feta via Mexico). Even dessert delivers a kick: a churro doughnut oozing chocolate custard, the whole thing coated in an orange-ancho glaze with sweet, fruity heat.

With pink walls and a breezy courtyard – packed with sandy-footed folk fresh from the beach – this little cantina sure knows how to have fun. Why not stick around and see what else Brunswick Heads has to offer?

Good to know: Order beer as a michelada, spiked with citrusy salsa roja

5/3 Fawcett Street, Brunswick Heads, lacasita.com.au

REGIONAL RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR WINNER

It’s been a bumper year for new regional restaurants backed by big money, from the Three Blue Ducks two-hatter near Bowral to Shannon Bennetts’ attempt to “disrupt” fine dining in Byron Bay at Feu. But this award isn’t for the most expensive build, it’s for a restaurant forging deep connections to its region, while delivering a dining experience to build a long weekend around.

Troy Rhoades-Brown has championed Hunter Valley producers for the past 17 years at Muse and, more recently, realised a long-held dream to expand his own home garden so it can inform the six-course tasting menu. 

Indeed, your first course is titled “Troy’s Garden”: a cornucopia that might feature fresh purple daikon, scarlet turnip, breakfast radish, ivory kale, purple oxalis and heirloom peas spritzed with roasted bunya-shell vinegar (plus pecan-shell-smoked salmon gribiche for pickled-zucchini dipping). 

Next, a claypot holding speckled blue grouper, its loin rolled around mousse made from the tail, belly and black truffle, while the fish bones and head are smoked for a dashi poured over koshihikari rice at the table.

Everyone on the floor is wholly invested and informed, and local wines are championed with a cellar-door map on departure. 

With a dining room refresh of warm timbers, new tables and leather upholstery underway, Muse is set to be one of the state’s most special night outs for a long time to come.

Good to know: Sommelier Melinda Beswick plays all the hits, but also runs a Ladies of the Hunter pairing to spotlight women winemakers in the Valley

2450 Broke Road, Pokolbin, musedining.com.au

Contemporary 17/20 (Two Hats) $$$

Polished Pottsville diner that celebrates a sense of place

“Waste paste” has absolutely no business being this tasty. In a neat ring of Japanese hidabeni turnip, baby purple daikon and chantenay carrot sits a green blob, earthy, umami-rich and surprisingly moreish, made from blitzed-up vegetable tops. It’s the perfect introduction to Pipit, where owners Ben Devlin and Yen Trinh source produce from surrounding farms, turning every last scrap into something worth savouring.

Duck breast is glazed in malty-sweet sourdough amazake caramel, the trim stuffed into sausage and pressed into salami. Spanish mackerel gets similar treatment, the fillets milky-soft in a tangy native tamarind broth, the spines smoked for dashi, the offcuts salted and fermented for garum.

The wine list is all-Australian. The ceramics are made using ground-up fish bone and grill ash. And the food is so good, you won’t leave anything behind either.

Good to know: The sustainability action plan available on their website breaks down exactly how Pipit reduces waste and gives back to the community

Shop 4/8 Coronation Avenue, Pottsville, pipitrestaurant.com

Seafood 13.5/20 $

One of the best places to eat fish and chips in New South Wales

Get in the car, roll down the windows and drive south. Let the sea breeze flow in as you track down the escarpment, snake along Sea Cliff Bridge, pull into Coledale and join the line at Rosie’s.

Behind the counter, Ben Sinfield slips fillets of flathead (or snapper, or latchet) into yeasted batter aerated with beer and soda water, then drops it into shimmering beef tallow. The coating puffs and crackles, hardening into an amber crust. In the next fryer, the chips – peeled and cut from the boxes of potatoes piled up outside – go in for a second dunk. The package is wrapped in paper to take to the beach, and there’s lemon, dill-flecked tartare and Sarson’s malt vinegar to cut the fat.

Meanwhile, the always-changing salads are super fresh, the crushed peas appropriately minty, and the non-battered fish options (octopus, mackerel) are grilled with precision. 

Good to know: The Rosie’s team also runs the bistro at Coledale RSL, serving prawn rolls, parmies and more grilled seafood

757 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Coledale, rosiesfishandchips.com.au

Contemporary 14/20 $$

A seaside shack with a difference

You might have wandered into this weather-worn shack at the edge of New Brighton Beach looking for a Streets ice-cream, only to stumble upon one of the best casual dining spots in the state. Surrounded by old-growth forest halfway between Byron Bay and Pottsville, The Salty Mangrove is a legendary local hangout co-owned by star chef David Moyle, formerly of Franklin in Hobart, with a lo-fi wine selection supplied by leading importers including Giorgio de Maria and Godot Wines.

Join the cheery, sun-kissed crowd on the deck, where classic surf tunes drift over the sound of tinnies being cracked (not Carlton, but Spangled Drongo Lager from nearby Murwillumbah). The fried snapper sandwich is a brill post-swim snack (get it with or without crunchy, skin-on chips), while coal-grilled skewers are more refined, threaded with chilli-butter lamb neck or perhaps swordfish finished with green-chilli salsa. Team it with a brine-splashed “saltini” and roll with the tide.

Good to know: Doors open at 6.30am for coffee and breakfast

50 River Street, New Brighton, thesaltymangrove.com

Contemporary 16/20 (Two Hats) $$

A gun chef doing proper farm-to-table in Berry that’s as appealing to locals as daytrippers

The bees have stopped swarming, says Alex Prichard, as he leads you around the garden. The chef probably anticipated a few problems when he quit Bondi for Berry and started planting out Moraea Farm with marigolds, nasturtiums, puntarelle and fennel, but swarms weren’t one of them. Still, since moving from leading the kitchen at Icebergs, Prichard has become an expert at putting out fires.

One fire he and chef Lewin White are stoking, though, is the wood-oven. It’s here where Shoalhaven sand whiting is crisped in Cafe de Paris butter; where a duck-fat potato galette flavoured with elephant garlic is given a final flash; where potato ciabatta rises and sets. But the cold stuff is just as appealing. Pair that bread with a plate of kangaroo mortadella, then order Jen’s salad, a sunny plate of wild kingfish and tuna with fresh and pickled radishes, tossed with chilli and a plum dressing. Dessert? Honey cake, of course.

Good to know: Staying local or in a Linnaeus Collection holiday home? You can pre-book a return transfer to your accommodation

Moraea Farm by Linnaeus Collection, 450B Coolangatta Road, Berry, saradining.com.au

Wine Bar 15/20 (One Hat) $$

The kind of wine bar you don’t expect to find in a country town

There’s no Best Courtyard Award in the Good Food Guide, but if there was, it would probably go to Stonefruit. This smart, heritage-brick restaurant and wine bar sits on the main street of Tenterfield, and opens to a lovely suntrap out back, where picnic tables sit beneath a canopy of grapevines.

Owners Alistair Blackwell and Karlee McGee have created a lovely little spot for a quick focaccia sandwich (there’s a $30 sanger and spritz special) or you can go down the snacking path, with boquerones draped over sliced baguette, and blistered peppers, smoky against cooling curds. Larger plates might carry a generous portion of local lamb shoulder with skordalia, or Yamba-caught mulloway with vermouth veloute.

To drink, the wine list runs far and wide, with Egly-Ouriet champagne alongside the local “Granite Belters” – with plenty of options to fill a slow afternoon.

Dessert leans on the region’s celebrated stonefruit, layered over a custard tart or baked into a free-form galette. Out of season, you might get lucky with the strawberry ice-cream made on Stanthorpe fruit – that one, you’ll want to eat in the sun.

Good to know: Since you’re in the area, Essen Restaurant is also a must, just over the border

204 Rouse Street, Tenterfield, stonefruit.bar

NEW RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR WINNER

Contemporary 16.5/20 (Two Hats) $$$$

A ceramic cup of clarified chicken broth – made with the bones of big healthy chooks who spent a good life running (relatively) free – sets the tone for a highly comforting three hours in the hands of invested staff at the Ducks’ Burradoo Park restaurant inside a beautifully restored Southern Highlands farmhouse.

Next, the crunchier part of puntarelle, pickled in sake vinegar and stuffed with raw red-spot prawns. Cheffy stuff, to be sure, and very different from the Three Blue Ducks offerings at Byron Bay and Rosebery.

It’s not a total surprise coming from Darren Robertson, though, given he was once in charge at Tetsuya’s. While Robertson tends to other Ducks ventures, former Quay head chef Troy Crisante runs the kitchen here with Rhys Connell, who held senior roles at three-hatted Sepia. Fine-dining Avengers, assemble!

A cover crop salad inspired by Burradoo Park’s regenerative farming practices is an early signature, warmed with a blanket of fermented-turnip-boosted beurre blanc and garlic-chive oil, while Australian White-breed lamb (raised with their mothers 200 metres from the restaurant) is fashioned into one heck of an assiette with sheep’s-milk yoghurt and shiso.

You could, if you really wanted to, be cynical that it’s part of an agritourism enterprise owned by billionaire Annie Cannon-Brookes, but when the super-rich also care about farming and soil and future generations, good things – highly delicious things – can happen.

Best for: Relaxed yet refined farmhouse dining

Burradoo Park Farm, 6 Railway Road, Burradoo, threeblueducks.com