The 10 best new restaurants in NSW this year, according to Good Food Guide critics

For a moment there, things were looking grim for NSW dining. The closure of two three-hatted restaurants – Quay and Oncore by Clare Smyth – in February was followed by two-hatted Bentley calling it a day in the CBD, and much-loved Ursula’s pulling up stumps in Paddington.

There were a couple of excellent openings at the end of 2025, but it was looking unlikely we would have 10 cracking spots to nominate as the Good Food Guide’s New Restaurant of the Year.

But then, bang! A volley of new bars, cafes and restaurants opened in June, some led by veteran operators pouring decades of experience into passion projects, others – such as Lo Presti’s in Redfern – led by young guns making sure NSW will be the best Australian state for eating and drinking for generations to come. Melbourne might have more three-hatted restaurants at the time of writing, but Sydney has South End’s chocolate tart and dim sum platters by the water.

The winner of New Restaurant of the Year, presented by Aurum Poultry Co., will be announced at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards on Monday, October 26.

South End, Newtown

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).

644 King Street, Erskineville, southendrestaurant.com

Ashe, CBD

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 pate en croute with flavours of grilled pork banh mi. Melbournians may recognise threads from Nguyen’s previous restaurants, Sunda and Aru, but Ashe – backed by Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt – is the chef advancing the plot.

4 Ash Street, Sydney, bentleyrestaurantgroup.com.au/ashe

Dubudang, Epping

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.

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

Flaminia, 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 at Flaminia, 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. Pasta? Pick the spaghetti, sweet with spanner crab and rich with bottarga.

61 Macquarie Street, Sydney, flaminia.com.au

Stanley, Manly

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 over cold beer; book a table indoors for the sounds of people keen for a good time, and the aroma of toasted cumin wafting off lamb ribs. Start with Moreton Bay bug spring rolls before something plucked from the tanks, such as coral trout, eastern rock lobster or delicate snow crab.

E Esplanade, Manly, stanleyrestaurant.com.au/manly-wharf

Sara Dining, Berry

The bees have stopped swarming, says Alex Prichard, as he leads you around the garden at Sara Dining. 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 bees weren’t one of them. Still, since moving from leading the kitchen at Iceberg’s, Prichard has become an expert at putting out fires. One fire he’s stoking, though, is the wood oven. It’s here that Shoalhaven sand whiting is crisped in Cafe de Paris butter; that a duck-fat potato galette flavoured with elephant garlic is given a final flash; that potato ciabatta rises and sets. Dessert? None other than honey cake, of course.

450B Coolangatta Road, Berry, saradining.com.au

La Buvette, Potts Point

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 Cafe de Paris butter saucing the snails with A.P Bakery baguette. The next, perch at the counter and split a steak au poivre then double down with a duck-neck sausage, sweet and supple right up to the head.

35 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, labuvettesydney.com.au

Lo Presti’s, Redfern

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 roast 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.

Level 1/34b Redfern Street, Redfern, loprestisrestaurant.com

Ca Phe Mai, Double Bay

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? The answer is Ca Phe Mai, one of the city’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 Single O coffee sweetened with condensed milk underneath a salted-cream float. The paint-thick laksa rules lunch. The bo la lot and the crudo of tuna in a coconut water crush rule snacks and dinner.

Shop 1, 377 New South Head Road, Double Bay, caphemai.com.au

Three Blue Ducks, Burradoo

A ceramic cup of clarified chicken broth 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. This is very different experience from the Three Blue Ducks offerings at Byron Bay and Rosebery, and 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.

6 Railway Road, Burradoo, threeblueducks.com/venues/burradoo

The winners of the 42nd Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards will be announced on Monday, October 26, presented by Oceania Cruises and T2 Tea. The awards ceremony will be live-blogged via the Herald from 3pm; the Guide reviews will be available on the Good Food app from 8pm. Pick up a free 56-page Good Food Guide liftout in the Herald on Tuesday, October 27.

The home of the Good Food Guide, the app is free for premium subscribers of the SMH and also available as a standalone subscription. You can download the Good Food app here.