David Matthews

Sydney's CBD possesses one of the best bar scenes in the country, from underground hideaways to cool-as-hell speakeasies to lofty cocktail lounges with mixology maestros at the helm. You can drink life-changing wines, the freshest ales, and fruity elixirs made from seasonal harvests – and sometimes you can do it all in the same place. When you're out and about in the CBD and feeling thirsty, these are the very best places to take an elbow and indulge in a few drinks in the heart of Sydney, curated by Time Out Sydney's critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure. So, who's getting the first round? Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.  RECOMMENDED READS: Want more? Check out the best rooftop bars here. Plus, these are Sydney's best beer gardens.

No one is pretending that cocktails are a cost-effective way to relax or party in Sydney. In a city where a $25 cocktail isn't an uncommon price tag, you really want to know that what's in your glass has been shaken and stirred by the best in the business. Here, Time Our Sydney critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have put together a list of the best places for cocktails in Sydney that you can always trust to give you an outstanding drink in exchange for your hard-earned. You're welcome.  Want something a bit stiffer? Try one of the the best bars in Sydney. Or still hungry? Try one of Sydney's best cheap eats. Or head up to one of Sydney's best rooftop bars.

Autumn 2024 update: Hey autumn, so glad you’re here, with your still-pleasant weather, fresh air and gorgeous leaves. Sydney’s dining scene is as red-hot as ever, and this guide is the place to start. Here's our list of Time Out's best restaurants in Sydney right now, from hot newcomers to time-honoured institutions, curated by our expert local editors and critics who have tasted their way through Sydney, including Time Out's Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure.  How did we narrow it down to the very best? When deciding, we considered fun, flavour, creativity, value for money – and 'wow' factor. So yes, of course, you’ll find a fine diner inside the Sydney Opera House here, but you’ll also find neighbourhood pasta, hole-in-the-wall Thai and venues right by the sea. Our picks right now include the hot new diner from the Bentley crew, King Clarence, seafood haven Saint Peter, NY-style steakhouse Clam Bar, fiery Thai joint Pork Fat, and gorgeous trattoria Palazzo Salato. (Be sure to check out our guide to Sydney's best new restaurants, too.) Happy dining, Sydney. RECOMMENDED READS: After a drink? Check out our favourite bars in Sydney. Or: Our list of the best cheap eats.

There’s no doubt about it, Sydneysiders can’t get enough of Italian food. And who can blame us? There’s something about a bowl of perfectly al dente pasta paired with a luscious, rich ragu that just hits the spot. And white Italian cuisine differs throughout the 20 incredible regions – broadly speaking the northern regions eat more rice and polenta, and down south they feast more on seafood – Italians share a love of beautiful, seasonal produce, choosing simplicity rather than overcomplicating dishes, and cooking food with soul. No wonder we love it so much. Luckily, there are a wealth of excellent options to choose from when it comes to Italian dining in Sydney. Time Out’s editors and critics, including our Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have picked our favourite eateries covering all bases – from casual red-sauce joints and classic pizzerias to fine dining restaurants – so no matter what mood you're in, there's something here for you. Not in the mood for pasta? Here are our picks of the best spots for Greek and French food in Sydney.

Virtually every suburb in Sydney can boast a world-class eatery (or several), but none rival the CBD for the sheer number of exceptional dining options on offer. Time Out Sydney's critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have cherry-picked the best tables to book in the heart of the city, whether you're stepping out for a business lunch, a pre-show bite, or a swanky degustation. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.  RECOMMENDED READS: Want something a little more casual? Check out our guide to the best cheap eats in the city. Nightcap anyone? Polish off your meal with a drink at one of these fine cocktail bars. 

Autumn 2024 update: Happy autumn, folks. If you’re craving a chilled beer, steak and chips and a relaxed vibe, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ve rounded up Sydney’s very best pubs, where everyone is welcome. There's a lot that goes into making a great pub. They need to furnish you with an excellent meal and friendly service, and a game of pool or darts doesn't go astray. On a sunny day, it's all about having a welcoming beer garden. There are a lot of rock-solid pubs in this city, and these are our picks of the bunch, pulled together by Time Out Sydney critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure. Cheers. For something a bit less pubby, a bit higher end, see our picks of the best bars in Sydney. Hungry? Check out our ultimate guide to Sydney's best restaurants. 

Autumn 2024 update: The cooler weather may be on its way but that doesn’t mean we’re keen to stay home. Whether you’re heading out on a date, want an after-work tipple, or in for a long session, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to rocking bars in Sydney. Below, you’ll find the very best ones. This list represents our picks of the best bars in Sydney right now, from fresh faces to tried-and-tested temples of great drinks, ranked by our local editors, critics and fellow booze hounds including Time Out Sydney's Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure. We’re looking for quality above all, with fun, flavour, atmosphere, creativity and options at every price point. Currently, we're obsessed with Sydney's hot new spot, The Caterpillar Club, debauchery den Pleasure Club, killer sake bar Ante, Darlinghurst's newest bar tinged with nostalgia The Waratah, and PS40 for excellent cocktails. Cheers to you, Sydney. After a watering hole that's a bit more casual? See our list of the best pubs in Sydney, here. After a meal? Check out our best restaurants here.

There’s always time for a tipple when you’re travelling around Australia. Our thirsty country is swimming in stellar watering holes that are loved by locals and tourists alike. We’ve even got a handful of contenders on the World’s 50 Best Bars list to back us up. Whether you’re looking for the best spot for cleverly crafted cocktails or a natural wine bar with superb snacks, drink your way through our selection of the best bars in Australia. After a meal? Check out the best restaurants in Australia here.

Japanese food isn't just made to be eaten. It's an art of vibrantly coloured cuts of fresh fish, delicately layered condiments and the showmanship of an itamae (a sushi chef dishing up umami bites right in front of your table). And so it’s good that, thanks to all of the incredible Japanese chefs gracing our shores, we are never short of options here in Sydney. From the sushi roll lunch-run to the full sashimi-laden dego, Time Out Sydney's critics, including Food & Drink Writer Avril Treasure, have found the best of the best – here’s where to do Japanese in the city. Keep the culinary experience going with this list of Sydney's best ramen. Feel like heat? Check out our guide to the finest Thai spots around town.

The enclave of Potts Point is home to some serious dining gems, be it mainstays like Fratelli Paradiso or the Apollo; game-changing plant-based restaurant Yellow; or mod-Asian joints like Ms G’s and Cho Cho San. Plus, drop-dead gorgeous spots Parlar and Franca. Our Time Out Sydney editors and critics have eaten our way through Macleay Street and beyond, curating this list with the top places to eat and drink in the 2011 postcode. So, have a read and get exploring.   After a drink? Check out our guide to the best bars in Sydney Want more great eats? Here's our guide to the best restaurants in Sydney

Meaning “I’ll leave it to you”, omakase experiences are not new to Australian shores, with eateries like Chaco Bar delighting visitors since 2014. However, this theatrical style of dining has finally entered the mainstream with new omakases seemingly opening weekly in Sydney. Usually ranging from five to 20 courses, omakase-style dining is a once-in-a-while way for foodies to indulge. If you’re on the hunt for a truly special eating experience, omakase is the thing for you – who needs dinner and a show when dinner is the show? However, with the maximum number of punters per sitting usually remaining in the single digits, omakases will often have very long waitlists, and some only release reservations once a month, so you’ll need to have some lightning reflexes when a spot becomes available. So you know where to look, we’ve rounded up the best omakase diners in Sydney. On your marks, get set, book!  The fresh fish and umami flavours don't stop here. Check out our guide to the best Japanese restaurants in Sydney.

Whether it’s a simple spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli, ravioli stuffed to the high heavens, or lovingly layered lasagne, few foods give us the feels quite like pasta. Let’s be real – Sydney’s Italian restaurant game is seriously strong on all fronts, but when the hour calls for carbs, these are the spots that turn flour, eggs and water into small miracles.  Need an aperitivo before you chow down? Knock back a cocktail at one of the best bars in Sydney.

Don’t think of Una Más as a restaurant. Think of it more like sitting in the beachside dining room of a rich friend while the help pour drinks and prep dinner. A sea breeze drifts through the arched windows, ceramics fill the shelves, 20th-century portraits and still lifes – is that a Picasso? – hang carelessly on the wall. A Spritz lands, but it’s a new thing your host is trying, with sherry vermouth instead of Aperol, and pét-nat to top up. Nice. You secretly prefer the original, but of course you’d never say it. Glance at the kitchen and a Josper oven is running hot. On the marble counter, bread boards and artfully chipped bowls heave with plus-sized lemons, tomatoes and oysters on ice. Jamón legs swing lazily overhead. The only thing missing is the Smeg x Dolce & Gabbana fridge. Except you’re not at a house, you’re at Coogee Pavilion, Merivale’s multi-floor beachside behemoth. Downstairs kids jump and scream; upstairs 18-plusses do the same. But here in the middle it’s soft touches, ocean views and a new kind of fantasy, one where the line between restaurant and home is blurred magnificently, and luxury is sourcing outstanding ingredients then leaving them well enough alone. Step into Mimi’s, the flagship fine-dining restaurant across the hall, and this looks like caviar, mud crabs and Grand Cru Chablis. At Una Más, it looks like an homage to Iberian tapas bars. Not the stand-up, two-bite kind chef Jordan Toft apes at Bar Topa, but the sit-down, plate after plate, three-o

Black is a theme at Kuro. It’s there in the gleaming marble tabletops, in the food and in the cocktails. Take a seat at the bar, order a Never Say Never, and the focus is not on how the tropical fruit flavours meld subtly with yellow Chartreuse, Pocari Sweat and bitters, but on how the drink is coloured jet-black save for a sprig of mint protruding from the ice. Order the fried chicken and the coating is as pitch dark as the chiffon cake on the snacks menu. Kuro means ‘black’ in Japanese, so the colour play is fun, but it’s far from the most interesting detail. Better to focus less on the colour of the cocktails, for example, than on the skills of bartending duo Yasuhiro Kawakubo and Fumiamku Michishita whose sharp movements and striking uniforms (white coat for one; vest and button-down with sleeve cuffs for the other) do plenty for the cause of craft Japanese cocktail-making in Sydney. Or, better still, on the moves of the kitchen, which aims to evolve Japanese tradition into something more current. That second task falls to executive chef Taka Teramoto and his head chef Nobu Maruyama. Both have worked at restaurants that marry Japanese and Western ideas, and they continue the thread here. In practice this means turning something like super-fluffy Japanese chiffon cake into blini-like bases for nori crème fraîche and marinated salmon roe; or taking chicken karaage in more of a chicken-tenders direction by using breast in place of thigh then topping it with sour umeboshi an

Pick any day from the last 20 years and Serge Dansereau will have been doing the same thing. He’d be on the floor of Bathers’ Pavilion, shaking hands, ushering diners, checking the pass. The chef is as much a part of the setting here as the catamarans scooting past the heads or the children digging in the Balmoral sand. Today, though, it’s different. Not because Dansereau isn’t around (he is, look), but because we’re in a new cycle, one prompted by a tussle for the Bathers’ lease that inspired a full refresh. On the building side, winning the tender meant gutting the insides – adding a chef’s table and lounge, converting the café to an all-day bistro and opening the rooftop terrace to the public –while retaining all the louvres, parapets, arches and pilasters that give this 1920s icon its Mediterranean charm. It’s conceivable, now more than ever, that whole days could be whiled away in a beachside fantasy made real by so many blue-and-white stripes and so much walnut detailing. Hit the bistro for breakfast and the hum of the coffee machine plays backdrop to fluffy omelettes generously stuffed with ricotta and to crisp, golden French toast. For locals recovering from one too many Espresso Martinis, a greasy fried rice prefaced with a Bloody Mary – tall, not soupy – is the right kind of tonic. Next Generation energy flows through the site, peaking at the terrace that trades in Champagne and Spritzes. The Bathers’ Spritz, for one, improves the classic, swapping Aperol for sweet

If you’re not into offal there’s still plenty to occupy you at Chaco Bar. Skewers of chicken thigh, each piece interspersed with a slice of onion, slow-grilled over charcoal. Exceptionally tender Wagyu tri-tip given extra impact with anchovy butter. Or chicken wings cleverly stuffed with minced chicken and pork, fried crisp to mimic gyoza. All are varying degrees of excellent, but if you’re not eating the parts at Chaco you’re missing out. Order the gizzard (known as zuri or sunagimo; the muscle chickens use to grind their food) and be rewarded with a glazed skewer of appealing bounce and crunch. Pick the liver and marvel at the way the carefully charred exterior gives way to a blushing centre in a stick that delivers both iron-rich flavour and delicate texture. Go the crackling and enjoy ruffles of chicken skin rendered sweet and crisp.  None of this is new, mind. Owner and director Keita Abe has been serving this food since 2014, and his style of Fukuoka-influenced yakitori is revered throughout Sydney. What’s changed is the venue. Where once skewers were passed out of a poky Darlinghurst kitchen to a cramped room with space for 25, they’re now ferried from a central grill in one built for 75. The U-shaped room (once Jimmy Liks) channels the original – bunting strung high, diners knocking elbows – but there’s more polish, and a sense of being purpose-built. (Back in Darlinghurst the original has gone single-focus, too, specialising in Chaco’s deservedly popular ramen.) Sit

Take some of the biggest trends of the past five years or so: natural wines; a nascent obsession with amaro; an interest in lesser-seen pasta shapes; the resurgence of fat; strong, graphic branding; a preference for snacking; Spritzes; Negronis; cacio e pepe; anchovies; butter. Ragazzi, the third venture from the people behind Love, Tilly Devine and Dear Sainte Éloise, ties them all together. For the cynical, it might look like trend-servicing. For the rest, it just looks like a good time.  Step into the squeezy space on Angel Place and the bar’s full, the banquettes are jammed, and there’s a buzz amplified by the close quarters. At one table, a couple preface a show at City Recital Hall next door with vermouth on ice and pasta fritta. At another, twentysomethings snap flat-lays of pasta complemented by coasters shouting CIAO and RAGAZZI in bold red typeface. Lights are low, a mirror is backlit, the room dressed, like so many models in this year’s fall catalogues, in shades of caramel, coffee and camel.  When chef and co-owner Scott Williams cooked around the corner at Bacco Osteria, his snacks and pasta were always highlights. At Ragazzi, they’re almost the whole menu. It’s a concept as easy to get behind as a plate of al dente spaghetti tossed in a sauce of pecorino and pepper bound with pasta water and butter. It’s a cacio e pepe with good levels of warmth and sharpness, plus some sweet heat from Espelette pepper. A glorious goat rotolo, meanwhile, sees the braised meat ro

There are pubs, and those are fine – the locals built for cheap beer, sport on the flatscreens, decent schnitzels, stained carpet and colour-dyed tip jars. The ones where you drop in on a Tuesday night for a $10 steak with your mates and buy into the meat raffle not because it’s anywhere special, but because it’s not bad, and you can walk home. Public House Petersham? It’s a public house. It says so in the name, then backs it up with the kind of spirit that draws in not only locals but people who’ll cross town to get here.  The most appealing part is that this place is not doing anything your local isn’t, it’s just doing it better. Want craft beer? It’s on tap. But wait, is that Marrickville's Batch Brewing Company setting up with a nano-brewery in the carpark? Want to bring [insert dog name here]? Go for it, and let him jump onto the seats while you’re at it – PHP takes being dog friendly (and cat friendly, for that matter) seriously. Want to soak up the sun in the summer? Do it in the sprawling courtyard to a soundtrack of Dire Straits and Blondie, then cool down when the mist machines fire. Want to shoot pool? Go ahead, then have a round on the pinball machines for good measure.  There’s no agenda here. No one trying to push their vision. Which is another way of saying PHP is a place for everyone. The ham and pineapple pizza on the kids’ menu comes out of the same woodfire oven as the Margherita (the “Famous Original”) for the adults. And no one’s going to judge anybody fo

At the end of a service alley, a step back from the CBD bustle, gold light spills out onto the asphalt. There’s a scent of lime in the air, the sound of Boston shakers, and somewhere behind it, just a hint of danger. This is Cantina OK, the standing-room-only bar that since February of 2019 has plied Sydney with good, clean, sort-of illicit fun fuelled by mezcal and backed up by one of the sharpest bar teams in the city. Pick a day – any day – and the Cantina will be rocking it, two or three tenders ably servicing the 20 or so drinkers who cram in at any one time from when the roller door opens till close at 2am. In times where so many venues can stock their backbars with rare and obscure spirits, Cantina makes a niche out mezcal, a spirit for which the phrase ‘rare and obscure’ could have been invented. Cantina OK is owners Alex Dowd and Jeremy Blackmore and group operations manager Alex “Happy” Gilmour’s follow-up to Tio’s Cerveceria. Here, the focus – and dimensions – are tighter, and Gilmour has licence to sate his insatiable thirst for agave-based liquor with frequent buying trips to the far reaches of Mexico. This is a bar that takes you straight to the grindstones and the pit ovens, in everything from the striking travel-book-style menu to staff who’ve been schooled by Gilmour then consolidated the knowledge by going straight to the source. There’s no preaching, but if you ask, the team will run you through the multifarious species of agave, like papalome or vicuishe,

If everything was as it seemed, the Cove Deli would be one of the tiniest, most exceptionally finished, most obscurely located smallgoods businesses around. But at this pocket-sized space in a nondescript alley set back from the Corso, the real trick is what lies beneath. Pull at the 1920s fridge door in the corner, slide down the spiral staircase and step into the Cumberland: Manly’s very own underground speakeasy, complete with flickering candlesticks, fluted glass, scalloped banquettes and brass, copper and bentwood for days.   The mood might be set to European Golden Age, but the city and its history are front of mind on the list from GM Pete Ehemann (ex-Merivale) and creative consultant Petr Dvoracek (ex-Merivale and the Barber Shop). The bar takes its name from the County of Cumberland, the zone encompassing much of central Sydney, and the six cocktails in the section labelled ‘19th Century County Tipples’ are each named for a surrounding county, with the core ingredient relating to that county’s major export.  Obscure? Sure. But with the Camden (export: wool), it gives the team licence to combine Hartshorn sheep’s whey vodka with an olive-leaf tincture and white vermouth and serve it in a glass with a clip of wool pegged to the stem, Heston Blumenthal style. It doesn’t need the potent drop of truffle oil floated on top, but in this place, with this sort of flair and panache, it seems to make sense. See also the Cumberland (export: wood), which brings together Glenlivet