Sydney bar and pub reviews

Update: Surry Hills' you-can-make-friends-with-salad-here stalwart, Yulli's, is now completely vegan – and they even have vegan wines. They also offer a separate gluten-free menu, making it a solid choice if you're dining with a big group of friends. The menu draws inspiration from South East Asia and the Mediterranean – we're fans of the fresh and crunchy san choy bow, and the steamed leek and ginger dumplings with plum sauce. – Avril Teasure  ***** There seems to be two approaches in Sydney’s vegan dining scene. The first tries to replace and replicate the meat, dairy and egg with faithful recreations. The other school of thought seems to go along the lines of ‘vegetables are fucking awesome’ and lets plants take all the lead roles in the dish. Yulli’s approach is the latter. This long-standing vegetarian eatery on Crown Street also has a dedicated, and expansive, vegan menu, including vegan wines. Order the coconut and edamame moneybags: $14.50 for three golf-ball sized crunchy parcels densely packed with shredded coconut and mashed soy beans means they’re not the cheapest snack in town, but they are so damn delicious we do it every time. Follow it up with a clutch of flash-fried asparagus with a black sesame dressing, fresh tomato slices, pine nuts and tempura saltbush; or a big horseshoe of roasted pumpkin with cashew cream, charred cauliflower florets, crisp, fried capers and a mild, funky cabbage kimchi.  – Reviewed in November 2016 Stay in the loop: sign up for...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. It’s just after 9pm on a Monday and three thoughts come to mind. First, Joji shimmers as much as the jewellery found below in the Cartier flagship store. Second, the DJ’s seamless transitions from funky house to disco beats are on point. And third: wow, there’s a line of people waiting to get a seat inside the city’s newest rooftop bar. On a school night. I suddenly feel an urge to tell everyone who thinks Sydney’s nightlife is dead that they couldn’t be more wrong. Joji opened in the second half of 2024 at 388 George Street, on level five. It’s the first foray into the bar world for the Esca Group, though their CV is strong, with Middle Eastern, Martin Place-diner Aalia, pretty-and-pink Nour, modern Japanese spot Ito and pan-Asian restaurant Lilymu under their wings. The inside is polished and glamorous, with warm lighting, earthy tones, a shiny silver DJ station, sleek wooden bar and plush curved booths. There’s indoor seating and a wraparound terrace, and on this warm evening, I reckon that’s the ticket. It’s also apparent that Gucci may be out of stock because every bag in Sydney is here. The cocktail menu draws from the Japanese principles of simplicity, imperfection and creativity. My pick is the Geisha, made with fresh yuzu gin, nashi pear, passion...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. When you enter The Bristol, you feel less like you’ve stepped into a pub, and more like you’re inside a multi-layered hospitality precinct. From its unassuming entryway on Sussex Street, where CBD traffic chugs to a standstill and glass building close out the sky, The Bristol’s stock-standard taproom opens out to chic Greek eatery Ela Ela at the back, a full-blown sports bar and games room below, and yet three more distinct venues on the storeys above. As you ascend a staircase set with rattan mirrors and portraits of mid-century pool parties, you’ll glimpse Calypso nightclub on level one and Midtown Bar and Lounge on level two. Then there's the sprawling, Med-style rooftop at the summit The top-floor venue has two open-air balconies at either end of a breezy indoor dining room: the larger of the two is dwarfed by neighbouring skyscrapers, while the smaller (and nicer) space overlooks a slither of Darling Harbour and the Maritime Museum. It’s a far cry from The Bristol Arms, its predecessor, which closed its doors in 2020. The heritage-listed institution was built in 1898, and became known in more recent years as a daggy watering hole with a retro club night. Oscars Hotel Group – a serial pub landlord, and, as of last month, owner of Luna Park – claimed...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here.  The Sydney suburb of Haberfield famously has no pubs. When a man named Des Middleton tried to open one here in 1948, more than half of the suburb’s population (that was 4,238 residents, at the time) voted against it. Over the years, some Haberfield restaurateurs have even struggled to secure liquor licenses for their eateries. So, to this day, this little Inner Western suburb full of heritage homes is still without a pub. Despite the area’s Italian-ness, it doesn’t even have a wine bar. We’d say it doesn’t need a pub when it has UTS Haberfield Rowers The club house – located on the popular Bay Run, over the water at Iron Cove – has housed various restaurants over the years, but in May 2024, it was taken over by hospitality pro Con Dedes (of Flying Fish and Sala), who has rebranded the venue as Regatta Club. In a nod to what seems like Haberfield’s pub-free policy, the staff have the words ‘REGATTA PUB CLUB’ written on the back of their T-shirts. Cute. This new venue has an easy, breezy, always-summery vibe, and it’s the perfect place for an afternoon or balmy-evening drink (and yes, the only place in this ’hood where you can have a drink without eating).  As you walk up the stairs, there’s a big hand-painted mural on the wall – drawings of rowing-club...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. As you take the elevator up to the 26th floor above the modern Skye Suites apartment tower from the corporate-leaning Macquarie Street, Parramatta, it’s hard to imagine you’re about to enter a glamorous, Art Deco-style cocktail and Champagne bar. But as you step out, you launch into another world – it’s the world of Nick and Nora, the murder-solving, soirée-throwing New York duo from the novel (and films), The Thin Man. Nick & Nora’s is made up of a big, indoor area, sandwiched between two outdoor terraces. From the terraces you look out onto the contemporary Parramatta cityscape and far beyond, yet each piece of furniture and design detail – including the Art Deco-style light shades dotted around the room – screams old-world glamour.  Every little detail has been considered, not a corner cut The bar itself is the centrepiece of the room – there are rows and rows and rows of bottles of spirits, all lit from behind so they glow with a warm golden light. You can sit along the green, marble bar on dark wooden stools, at one of the many tables or booths inside, or you can look out at the view from a rattan stool or lounge on the terrace. The service also comes with vintage charm – the bartenders are dressed smartly in crisp, white shirts and forest-green...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. I’m sitting in The Seidler Room with a glass of bittersweet, amber-hued Amaro della Donna Selvatica from Italy’s Piedmont region, and I don’t want to leave. For one, it’s absolutely bucketing outside – one of those wild, sideways-rain storms – and I left my umbrella at home. The plush-carpeted, mid-century-inspired part of The Wine Bar – an ode to Austrian-Australian architect Harry Seidler – feels intimate, classy and cosy. But mostly it’s because the night has been so good that I don’t want it to end It’s been a big time for 25 Martin Place. Last November, the building welcomed The International, a three-in-one mega venue by hospo group The Point, who are behind the Architectural Digest-worthy Shell House, the energetic Dolphin Hotel, Orange’s Hotel Canobolas and the can’t-wait-for-you-to-open Fort Denison venue. The mega establishment is located in the wings of Seidler’s iconic skyscraper, the heritage-listed MLC Centre, and right next door to his mushroom. Walking up the stairs feels like an event in itself – like you’re heading to something special I first see the outside courtyard, a 60-seat space filled with butter-yellow curved chairs, snow-white umbrellas and afterworkers. If the brief was balmy-afternoon sipping and snacking, they’ve nailed it....

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. Two-and-a-half hours. That’s how long I waited in line to try Bar Nestor’s famous tortilla. Located in San Sebastian's Old Town, the tiny bar and restaurant specialises in the sunshine-golden simple dish, and if you don’t get there early enough to put your name down for a slice, you miss out. Soft eggs, tender potatoes and sweet onions come together to make something truly greater than the sum of its parts. Would line up again. The great news is that I don’t have to, and neither do you, because there's a tortilla nearly as delicious on the menu at Letra House, the new underground wine bar from the Love Tilly Group. It’s cooked beautifully: caramelised on the outside, jammy in the centre, with plump little prawns scattered throughout. The accompanying fermented chilli, garlic and tomato sauce adds a bold and fiery dimension. Bloody hell, it’s good What’s also seriously good is a glass of 2023 Sommernat from Poppelvej in McLaren Vale, poured tableside. Butterscotch in colour, it tastes like a tutti frutti fizz and summertime house parties. Our waitress tells us Poppelvej is the name of the street in Denmark where the winemaker Uffe Deichmann grew up. Cracking stuff. Yes, I would love another, please. Letra House opened at the end of last year in peak silly...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. The waiter recommends a $135 Negroni and it turns out they’re not kidding. “You won’t get one like this anywhere else,” they say. So Bobbie’s is a little fancy. It’s a plush refuge from the hectic New South Head Road that screeches through Double Bay. Through a curtained doorway, soft table lamps flick off marble surfaces and gold leaf trimmings. Mixologists judder shakers in bow ties and all-white uniforms. Somewhere pictures are sketched into cocktail foam. The co-owner has something of a name around these parts. Neil Perry – who also owns Bobbie’s next-door neighbours Margaret, Next Door, Baker Bleu and Song Bird – has risen to celebrity status in Sydney’s hospo scene since opening the OG Rockpool back in the eighties. For his first foray into the bar world, Perry has also joined forces with his wife, Samantha, and longtime friends Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, known for their acclaimed Dante bars in New York and L.A. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bobbie’s (@bobbies_doublebay) Bobbie’s is named after Pride’s late grandfather – disc jockey and broadcaster Bob Rogers – who is credited with introducing Top 40 hits to Australian radio in the late fifties and eventually became the nation’s longest-serving radio...

✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. There’s a reasonable explanation as to why the décor at Disco Pantera feels like a Saturday Night Fever dream. It’s because interior designer Cass Siow has beautifully articulated the vision of brothers Ross and Gordon Purnell (Hawksmoor, Panda & Sons): to capture the nostalgia of a New York cocktail bar from the 1970s. Siow struck gold with her delivery of the convivial venue, which features electric-blue leather banquettes, chrome bar stools, oxblood walls and Nick Dahlen screenprints that pop off the back bar. Add to this the vintage lighting, floor-to-ceiling Picasso tapestry, deadstock vintage tiles, Walt Disney art illustration studio lamps and a glittering disco ball and you have yourself an excursion to disco utopia. To venture into this vortex in Quay Quarter Laneways is to become part of an eclectic crowd keen to bop along to everyone from Kylie Minogue to Lenny Kravitz, David Bowie and Blondie. Prepare to be transformed by the music – curated by a rotating roster of weekly DJs – as well as the food and drinks brandished by charismatic venue manager Andy McCorquodale (ex-Old Mate’s Place, Tio’s), who deserves big-ups for his A-grade banter. Apart from the great disco vibe going on at the bar, the venue feels very inclusive and welcoming thanks to...

The Gidley burger has got a lot of attention this year – it was named the world’s ninth best burger by the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants – so it’s no wonder it’s something that’s attracted people to The Rover, since they started serving it up, too. But that’s not all that draws people to this neighbourhoody cocktail bar. The Rover has a lot going for it. The fisherman’s pie, for one (more on that later). The Rover is a dimly lit cocktail bar in Surry Hills’ Hollywood Quarter (the section of Sydney named the coolest in 2024 by Time Out). If you go to this little intersection of Cambell and Foster Streets, you know you’ll have a good time – perhaps dinner at Pellegrino 2000 across the street, then drinks at The Rover. Or just skip Pellegrino altogether and eat your way through The Rover’s delicious menu, with a couple of cocktails or some wine. My friend and I start with the burger, of course. It’s double-beef patties made from Riverine sirloin chain meat; Coppertree farms retired dairy cow chuck and brisket, dry-aged at the in-house butchery at one of Liquid & Larder’s other steak venues, Alfie's. Basically, these guys know their meat (as well as Alfie’s and 24th best steak restaurant in the world, The Gidley, they also run Bistecca). The milk bun is perfectly round on top like in the photos; it looks polished, almost shiny, and we don’t really want to have to cut it in half. They’re thin, smash-style patties – crowd-pleasing because they’re not served rare like they...