Lara Lee

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.

Leafy and buzzing Surry Hills might just be the neighbourhood with the very best of what this city has to offer in terms of eating and drinking. Whether it’s homestyle, hole-in-the-wall Indonesian or an all-out chef’s menu from a kitchen with nothing but open flames, each and every price point and palate is catered to on these streets, from the fringe of the city down to the bottom of Crown. Time Out Sydney's editors and critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have chosen their favourite picks from the 2010 postcode (and the home of Time Out Sydney HQ!). Go forth and eat well.  After a bargain? Check out Sydney’s best cheap eats

We know the rising cost of living is on everyone's minds at the moment – it's on ours, too. But, as a champion for good times, good food and good drinks here in Sydneytown, we also don't want to stay indoors each evening. So, Time Out Sydney's critics, including Food & Drink Writer Avril Treasure, have done the hard yards and rounded up the very best happy hour deals here in Sydney, where you can snag a schooner for $6, snacks for $5 and cocktails for $10. It's fun you can feel good about.  We say have a squiz, head out, and we hope you have a happy time at these happy hours. We sure have.  After more fun for less? Here's our guide to the best free things to do in Sydney, the best op shops, and (of course) Sydney's best cheap eats. Thirsty for more? Here are the best bars in Sydney right now.

Listen up, thrifty folk – if you’re on the hunt for the best op shops in Sydney, look no further.  If you're feeling overwhelmed by the rising cost of living and growing climate anxiety, shopping secondhand is the perfect place for you to be. Affordable, fresh and always surprising, op shopping is better for your wallet, better for the Earth, and (arguably) better for your style.  That said, it's tough to decipher which op shops in Sydney are worth the trip or best to skip. Between just Salvos and Vinnies alone, there are more than a thousand stores across the country, and with one or the other on most high streets, it’s hard to know where to start.  The question remains: where are the best op shops in Sydney?  Whether you're coming from the north, south, east or west, we have you covered with our comprehensive guide to the best Vinnies, Red Cross and Salvos stores in Sydney city that you may (or may not) have heard of. Picked by an expert for their cheap prices and quality clothes and furniture offerings, all of these op shops are stacked with treasures that you've got to see to believe.  Whether you’re after secondhand furniture, vintage threads, or a brand-new wardrobe for beautiful prices, peruse our pick of the ten best op shops Sydney has to offer.  After all, as Peter Allen once sang, everything old is new again.  Stay thrifty with our guide to the best cheap eats in Sydney right now and then keep in an ethical state of mind with a trip to one of the coolest independen

Warike isn’t just a dining experience, it’s a cultural one. I can hear the soft chatter of Spanish speakers when I enter. It’s an excellent sign when a restaurant is embraced by its own community. This one is filled with South Americans proudly tasting their heritage. Peru is expressed in every detail. Adorning the walls are traditional Quechuan woven textiles. Peruvian music pulses the room with a melodic, rhythmic beat. A colourful mural on the wall pays tribute to Inca warriors and ceviche, the country’s national dish. There’s a sense you’ve stumbled upon a best-kept secret at Warike. The word “warike” means a secret place to eat food in Quechua, the language spoken by ancient Incans and eight million people throughout the Andes today. It’s the only contemporary Peruvian restaurant in Sydney, with a different offering to Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Nikkei (and Warike's sister venue, Lima) or the more traditional La Hacienda in the CBD. We are greeted with warm smiles and a palpable excitement from wait staff and Peruvian owner Luis Guzmán, as if we are entering their very home. This may be owed to Warike’s beginnings as a supper club in Guzmán’s home at the end of lockdown in 2020. He first relocated to Sydney from Lima in 2010 and longed to eat Peruvian food again. When he couldn’t find it in Sydney, he recreated it himself. Now Peruvian Hector Chunga leads the kitchen. He brings influences from his time cooking at the Peruvian Embassy in Japan, and you can feel Peruvian

Found in the middle of the suits and skyscrapers of North Sydney is Rafi, a 300-seat restaurant and bar and a recent offering from Applejack Hospitality (also the Taphouse, Bopp and Tone, Forrester's). Orange umbrellas line the foliage-filled outdoor terrace, and an exquisite semi-alfresco glasshouse overflows with lush plants and patterned window frames. It’s a feast for the eyes, a rare sanctuary sprung from the beige urban surroundings.  The interiors, designed by Luchetti Krelle, echo Applejack's mantra to "look bar, act restaurant", exuding youthful energy. And while the acoustics make it hard to hear your guests during busy times, it certainly adds to the buzz. The menu is as inventive and vibrant as the interiors. Puffed pillows of their signature sourdough wholemeal pita are served to the tables around us. We’re eager to order and get in on the yeasty joy but we feel overwhelmed by choice. Our waitress is dutiful but a little ambivalent, so we refrain from asking for recommendations.  The menu is rooted in New South Wales’s coastal influences, co-designed by Applejack’s head of culinary Patrick Friesen (ex-Queen Chow Enmore and Ms G's) and Rafi executive chef Matias Cilloniz, who came recently from one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants – Central in Peru.  The raw platter for two is a popular choice to start, but we go for the oysters with leche de tigre granita, the bright spicy citrus-flavoured marinade for Peruvian ceviche. We are served Sydney rock oysters from Me