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Cocktails at PS40
Photograph: Anna Kucera

Sydney bar and pub reviews

Looking for somewhere great to drink in Sydney? Check out the latest reviews from our bar and pub critics

Written by
Emily Lloyd-Tait
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The Lansdowne Hotel
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Pubs
  • Chippendale
  • price 1 of 4
March 2023 update: Beloved live music venue the Lansdowne Hotel reopened after closing for a hot minute, and then reopening again, after being saved by the legends from the Oxford Art Factory. Refreshed and revitalised, the new Lansdowne is still the same pub you’ve always loved, now just with a new retro-inspired rooftop, a New York deli-style menu from an award-winning chef and a late-night free music program. Sounds pretty good to us. Sporting rainbow umbrellas, blue AstroTurf and big wooden tables, the new rooftop is an inner-city oasis where you can soak up the sunset over chilled drinks before heading downstairs for a gig. Now to the food. New head chef, Eugene Novikov, formerly of the award-winning restaurant Amisfield in Queenstown and Qualia at Hamilton Island, has curated a New York-deli-style menu, which is available now. Get your hands on a classic Reuben with pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and Russian sauce on a rye sourdough; or 'The Meatball' with housemade meatballs, provolone, rocket and parmesan. Other plates include Chicago-style hot dogs, waffle fries, and fried chicken wings with Frank's hot sauce, all of which are perfect with an ice-cold beer before dancing with your mates. “The Lansdowne was an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how food, music and culture can all come together as the city comes back to life with activity,” says Novikov. And be sure to head there on a Friday night for the Lansdowne Hotel’s free live music program
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
After intermittent pandemic-led closures over the past few years, Kittyhawk is well and truly back, and celebrating its revival with revamped food, wine and cocktail menus. Jared Merlino of Lobo fame took over the corner of Bent and Phillip Streets in Sydney's financial district with this 1940s-themed French-American bar. It's a place with that olde-worlde luxury vibe that means you feel right at home in your tailored work wear.  Nowadays there's more focus on food. The head chef is from Paris, and hopes to revive both classic and more obscure French dishes by giving them a modern twist. The menu is fun, unpretentious and made for sharing. If you're after snacks, you can get oysters, cheeses, or shaved meats – along the lines of coppa and parma ham – served with pickles. For mains, there's a deliciously sticky slow-cooked beef brisket, or a lemon-crusted baked fish of the day, which both pair perfectly with the oak lettuce salad and frites. The design of the space is inspired by Liberation Day in Paris (August 25, 1944), and, more specifically, by the Rum and Rye Old Fashioneds, of which they have many, all of which infuse different varieties of each spirit, along with Angostura bitters, orange bitters, brown gomme syrup and a boxy ice cube. We let the bartenders choose our spirit mix and are presented with a cocktail that tastes of soft caramel with a whisper of orange. It’s boozy as hell but you’d hardly notice over the smooth, dried fruit flavours. There are also plenty of
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Stitch Bar
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
  • price 1 of 4
It’s a whole lot of fun to pop through the faux-dressmaker’s shopfront and head down the stairs to Stitch Bar, where it feels like you’re drinking in the belly of a frigate. The dark timber, hanging lanterns and wooden barrels evoke a time of pirates and doubloons, but happily there’s a lot more than salted pork rations on the menu. Eats take their cues from the US, with hot wings, a Southern fried chicken burger, and tacos (from agave pork belly to octopus tacos). But the standout dish is the rib-eye, which is a beautiful, tender piece of meat that’s been pan-fried.  The team has even launched a late-night smorgasbord if you’re looking to soak up some sins or keep the party rolling. Think mac and cheese balls, hot wings, jalapeño poppers, slaw and all the fries. It’s designed for groups of six, priced at $36 per person, and available Sunday to Thursday from 9-11pm and Friday to Saturday 9pm-12.30am. The venue scores good grades on the drinks front too. The Cuba Calling #2 is a sharp, bright take on a Daiquiri, made with the citrusy punch of pineapple. Or for something that takes a little more consideration, order from their in-house barrel-aged spirits list.
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Pubs
  • Newtown
  • price 1 of 4
There’s nothing about this old boozer that we don’t like and we are not alone in that sentiment. We suspect if anyone ever tried to refurbish the Courthouse Hotel there’d be rioting in the streets. This old pub is like a well-worn jumper – warm, comfortable, and big enough to fit anyone and everyone. And like any cherished piece of outerwear, it may be a little scuffed and faded, but that’s what happens when you love something with force. The beautiful thing about this old boozer is that it’s a pub designed to facilitate a good time on your terms. Want to sit up at the bar with a huge plate of fish and chips and watch back-to-back AFL games? This is the best place for it. Prefer to sink your tip money in pinball machines while you annihilate jugs of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale and Young Henrys Newtowner? Right this way. They’ve even got two separate outdoor areas so that smokers and diners can both enjoy the sunshine, and they let you bring your dog (on a lead) or kid (no lead required, probably). It’s the little details that count with a pub feed, like the perfectly layered nachos to ensure optimal crunch to cheese ratio, or foregoing a predictable chicken burger and making things interesting with a lamb, mint and yoghurt burger instead. Plus, there’s a whole lot more on the menu here for veggos than your average pumpkin salad – praise be for the edamame and eggplant salad. You know how the Courty got so awesome? Practice. They’ve been perfecting the art of the pub session fo
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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Breweries
  • Marrickville
Suspend your reality for a moment. Imagine it's 1980s Australia and you're a True Blue Bruce. This is truly your time. On the cusp of its five-year birthday, Hawke's Brewing Company, the brewery co-founded by former prime minister Bob Hawke, has thrown open the doors of a flagship venue, housed inside its newly built 2,100 square-metre brewery in Marrickville. Dubbed the Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre in honour of the company’s late namesake, the club is a cathedralesque space adorned with enormous brew tanks, museum-like pool rooms, and a nostalgic RLS-style Australian-Chinese bistro from one of Sydney's top chefs. The venue is delivering a full service bar, fronted by ten taps pouring Hawke’s core range beers, plus a rotation of new “One Hit Wonder” limited release styles. The addition of the venue’s Chinese-Australian bistro rounds out the Leisure Centre’s quintessential '80s-pub and community club experience. If your mind is immediately cast back to your childhood of sizzling black bean steak, honey prawns, san choy bao and deep-fried ice cream – in this case, an equally '80s-tastic Vienetta – you're spot on. Developed by chef Nic Wong (Cho Cho San, CicciaBella), the restaurant, the Lucky Prawn, is serving up RSL classics made for a 2022 palate. Everything is designed to be shared across a Lazy Susan, with tank-fresh beers to wash it all down. If you want the true '80s Australiana experience though, bust out the golden microphone, aka Crown Lager, available for a lofty $
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
For a Sydney bar to be considered as having a great view, it's usually mandatory to have the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the line of sight. Or at the very least, an unobstructed glimpse of some water. But at Dean and Nancy on 22, its seemingly duff location, surrounded on all sides by CBD skyscrapers, is very much part of the appeal. Summoning the spirit of a 1960s New York cocktail lounge, you could very well mistake Sydney’s city blocks for those of Downtown Manhattan (if you don't look too closely). Sure, it may not be quite Madison Avenue, but George Street will still do. Created by the team behind multi-award-winning cocktail bar Maybe Sammy, this lofty lounge isn’t just resting on the laurels of its penthouse perch, 22 storeys up atop the A by Adina hotel tower. George Livissianis’ interiors are a glossy timewarp of tiger-striped carpets, dusky-veined black marble, leather upholstery and brushed brass accents that mirror both the amber sunsets that dance off every polished surface in the afternoon and the golden illuminations that light up the double-height ceilings after dark. It’s Vegas. It’s Mafia-chic. It’s the Rat Pack and Mad Men and Frank Sinatra crooning to Monroe and Kennedy. But (somewhat astonishingly) it’s not a cliche. This is largely thanks to the tongue-in-cheek charisma that underpins the vision for this bar, reminding you that, for all its luxe finery, it doesn't take itself too seriously. Far from being the sole haunt of the New York elites of ye
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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Newtown
  • price 2 of 4
Bartending is in many ways the study of party alchemy – mixing drinks to lift you up, cool you out and caress your soul if it’s in need of a little TLC. A well-made Singapore Sling can send your tongue on an exotic getaway, even if the rest of you has to stay right here and pay the bills; a Daiquiri has the power to convince your hips you’ve got the rhythm in you; and an Old Pal can be your best friend after a long day in the salt mines. And there’s nowhere we prefer to pull up a stool and bend the elbow in the Inner West than at the long, sturdy, timber bar at Earl’s Juke Joint. Before your dreams of playlist domination get out of hand, we should tell you there are no jukeboxes here. But you don’t need one when owner Pasan Wijesena has programmed a specialty mix of ’90s hip hop, swampy rock and blues for your listening pleasure. The bar team here is one of the best. You’ve got veterans of the trade passing on their skills to a clutch of up-and-comers who’ve earned their stripes over long, hard shifts at one of Newtown’s favourite cocktail haunts. There is no rockstar shift – your drinks are in safe hands on a Tuesday or a Friday. This is a bar you want to be a regular at – they even have merch so you can declare your allegiance to the world – but be warned if you’re hungry that nuts are all they’ve got. Given you won’t want to relinquish that big table up the back, or the coveted window seat, cocktails can often become dinner here. We’re OK with it. Our livers maybe not so m
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Modern Australian
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
It’s not as if Potts Point wine bar Monopole needed a glow-up. The moodily lit perch for night owls from the deft hands of empire builders, chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, had no shortage of fans. But by our metric, the new Monopole is the superior offering in many ways. We’ve all spent more than enough time inside, so the fact that the windows that run the length of the new room on Curtin Place can be folded back to create an airy terrace feel is nothing but good news for the day trade. They’re here for a business lunch that’s a cut above, but not an excessive fiscal leap for the accounts department to approve later – a rump cap with sauce bordelaise sauce maxes out the price point at a modest $49. That leaves a lot of fun and flavour hovering around the half-way mark, like a three-bite sweet white roll with chunks of tiger prawn playing the adjudicator in a tug of war between yuzu’s sharp citrus and mayo’s velvety embrace. Or maybe you fancy a trip to the Middle East with skewers of tender smoked pastrami, dried thyme and charred white onion. But as is often the case with talented chefs, the snack offerings are strong and far more creative than heftier mains. Take, for instance, a crisp brioche toast with piped comté custard, topped with pretty tendrils of chervil. At night, when the brief is more wine bar than bistro, the small eats dress up for a date with a glass of something extremely likeable, like the WA Savagnan from Heretic, which is also an extre
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WyNo x Bodega
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Spanish
  • Surry Hills
  • price 2 of 4
A slender, loud, dimly lit room perfect for a pre-dinner tipple, this Surry Hills wine bar andbottle shop has gently shapeshifted over the years, but the general concept has alwaysremained the same. Snacks to share and excellent wines. Always a winning combination.When Bodega closed in 2019, it wasn’t for long. In fact, they just kind of shifted sideways into WyNo (tucked just around the corner) and renamed the space – WyNo X Bodega – to reflect the merging of the two venues. So, if you have a booking at sister restaurants Porteño or Bastardo, or tickets to see a play at Belvoir Street Theatre, you can grab a glass of wine and the infamous ‘fish fingers’ – garlic rubbed toast soldiers topped with kingfish sashimi and cuttlefish ceviche to kick off your evening.Because of the shape of the space, the original layout from the 121BC days remains. If itain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say. The long communal table is also the bar, seats up to 27,and fits any configuration of guests; although it feels a little squashy until our neighboursdepart for their dinner booking. The decor is a bit cluttered–although it turns out that theapparently random jumble of framed images are actually made up of the old Bodega mural(“barriga llena corazón contento” – full belly, happy heart) which is symbolic of the re-workingand legacy of the old tapas restaurant, and nice in theory but in practice feels kind ofoverwhelming in such a small space.To the left of the table is Sydney’s skinniest bottle
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Wine bars
  • Darlinghurst
If you've found yourself delving into the world of natural wine at any point over the last decade or so in Sydney, you probably have one man to give thanks to. Co-founder of Rootstock and now fully fledged bricks-and-mortar businessman Giorgio De Maria has gone and opened a wine shop/bar/restaurant in a poky two-level space on the Darlinghurst end of Oxford Street.  With partners Enrico Tomelleri – hailing from little-known Sydney ventures like Ragazzi, Alberto's Lounge and 10 William Street – as well as Mattia Dicati of Vino Mito Wine Imports, it's safe to say you're going to be in very good hands when you walk through the door. Whether it be for a drink and a snack in the bar downstairs, or a more structured dinner service reserved for the second storey, everything at Paski is about quality: quality wine from quality winemakers and exceptional ingredients pulled together to pack real punch. Take, for instance, Tomelleri's pappalá: a crimson spread made of milk-soaked cod, bread and tomato, his version of a pappa al pomodoro combined with baccalà mantecato. Dusted with dehydrated tomato powder for sharp zing and deep, rounded savouriness, it's a strong start. The earthy tones continue with a beetroot sabayon with warm roasted hazelnuts, which we could take or leave, and a showstopper of whipped garlic-heavy sausage atop a crunchy crostini with bitter wilted cime di rapa, which is worth the price of admission alone.  Take a stroll along the wine shop wall, floor-to-ceiling ir
Absinthe Salon
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Surry Hills
  • price 1 of 4
There is a demonic gargoyle on the bar at the Absinthe Salon, a poster of Marilyn Manson on the wall and our waitress is wearing a tight, leather corset. The bar itself, just beyond the bottle shop you pass through upon entering, is aiming for La Belle Époque – French-style café seating, a green fairy splashed across one wall – but the overall feel is a little more Rob Zombie than Moulin Rouge. And we can get down with that. Especially when a pre-dinner drink at the Absinthe Salon is so much fun. Once you're seated, one of the waitresses working the floor will float over and explain what absinthe is (anise-flavoured spirit, highly alcoholic, made more complex with different herbs); what absinthe isn't ("it is not a hallucinogenic, but it will make you feel amazing"); and how to drink it. Here, she will demonstrate: ice is placed in the lamp-like absinthe fountain on your table, along with water; a cube of sugar is sat on an absinthe spoon above your glass; and a faucet on the fountain is turned so that water drips onto the cube, slowly dissolving the sugar as it trickles down into your glass of absinthe below. The green liquid grows cloudy and you begin to smell the herbs. It's an elaborate process, so reserve time if you're popping in. And do take their advice: while the more potent absinthe varieties here are more interesting and complex (up to 75 per cent proof), start with something milder (like the Francois Guy, from Pontarlier, 45 per cent proof) if, like us, you're a
Angel Hotel
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
The Angel Hotel in the CBD is a time capsule for old-school inner-city drinking. Don’t get us wrong. Come 5pm our city’s workforce still hit the bars with undiminished ferocity, but with the influx of small bars, cocktail caves, craft beer barns and high-end establishments, the old-fashioned boozer slinging pints and pies is a dying breed. They like the old ways at the Angel so we get called sweetie when we order a frosty schooner of Coopers, but we’re not sweet enough to get access to the 100 Pints Club. The engraved glasses hung above the low wooden bar are all that remains of this defunct, and no doubt merry, club. The bar is laid with beautiful, ornate tiles and the windows out onto Angel Place are the kind of rippled stained glass that wouldn’t look out of place in a Victorian manor. There’s a dedicated sandwich menu at lunchtime; after work you can get a pie or sausage roll from the warmer behind the bar; or there’s always a bag of crisps. They keep things similarly stripped back on the taps. There’s Coopers Green, Heineken, Super Dry, New, James Squires Pale Ale and a cider. It’s not a huge range but they are cold, clean and properly poured. Below ground is where they keep the gaming lounge and upstairs is a worn-in lounge bar with red velvet chairs, chesterfields and ornate lampshades that look like they were borrowed from a Parisian cat-house. Never change, old friend.
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  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Circular Quay
In the basement of a heritage warehouse in Sydney’s CBD you’ll find a Sicilian-inspired cocktail bar named for the ill-fated wife of Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 mobster masterpiece, The Godfather. But don’t let that put you off. For those of us who have been lying about having seen The Godfather their whole lives, good news. Every page of the drinks menu will run you through the storyline (spoilers lie within, but it’s literally been 50 years) so you can impress your date with cinematic knowledge while sipping on a Letter Never Sent, a standout concoction of wheat vodka, honey liquor, pineapple, clove, housemade almond syrup and fresh nutmeg, shaken and served over ice. Dimly lit and dramatic as the movie itself, Apollonia is, by sheer geography alone, a triumph. Carved into the sandstone bedrock of Customs House, the hand-chipped, 150-year-old walls have been ambitiously transported to the 21st century, with accents of marble bars, deeply stained wooden finishes, mismatched tiles and red leather banquette seating. The vibe is sophisticated and plush, a naturally cosy cave with dark carpeted flooring that we suspect this will be a top after-work date bar for years to come. With gold and velvet finishings and abundant in (oh, so flattering) candlelight, Apollonia is a little bit fancy with an effortlessly cool and approachable atmosphere that makes you feel like you’ve been let in on a secret. From the friendly hostess greeting you behind velvet curtains at
Arcadia Liquors
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Redfern
  • price 2 of 4
One of Redfern’s original small bars is still as loud, fairy-lit and friendly as ever. And cheap. Where else can you get a eminently drinkable semillon sauvignon for six bucks and a grilled ham cheese and tomato sandwich for a fiver, other than student housing? There is a wonderful reliability to any visit to Arcadia. It’s always full but somehow you can manage to rustle up a bar stool or one of those vintage metal chairs, or find a spot out in the brick courtyard featuring many hanging plants and all the nautical paintings available at Vinnies. Since the smoking laws changed the back is saved for the smokers – if you’re hanging out for a chicken or ham and salami sarnie off the fancy toastie menu, stick to indoor seats. They haven’t changed much since first opening – if it ain’t broke and all that – which means there’s still three beer taps featuring something German and two local brews – Tooheys was not invited to this party. You can also still get a $14 Negroni or Manhattan, because apparently bar owners Dave Jank and Brett Pritchard refuse to be hostages to inflation. Or maybe they’re just really busy over at their second venue just across the road, a Euro-style trattoria called Redfern Continental with another cracking little bar out the back. Early Rolling Stones are on the stereo, but they’re almost drowned out by the hubbub of animated chat ricocheting off the exposed brick walls – this is not the place for a quiet catch-up, it’s where you add a little sparkle to your
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Archie Rose
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Rosebery
  • price 2 of 4
Ever since they pulled the dust cloths off the shining copper stills in the distillery back in March of 2014 and started pumping out gin, vodka, rum and white rye we’ve been singing the praises of this impressive operation located on Rosebery’s most innovative block. Not only is it one of Sydney's most beautiful bars, the local edge and carefully crafted spirits do nothing but add to the romance. Under the watchful eye of head of hospitality, Harriet Leigh (ex Hazy Rose and Henrietta Supper Club) you can be sure they're stirring up a five-star house gin Martini with a precise brine balance. You are in very good hands here. A gutsy cocktail list is ever evolving and playful, with tipples like the Papaya Don't Preach; a concoction of Archie Rose Native Botanical Vodka, blood orange, lime, papaya, peach, pineapple and chili salt; The Pear Necessities that combines Archie Rose Distiller’s Strength Gin, bergamot, lavender, lemon, pear and sparkling wine; or the Baby Got Mac – Archie Rose White Rye, citrus, coconut, wattleseed, macadamia and mango. As well as investing in the use of native botanicals, the crew at Archie Rose don't shy away from a dizzying number of collabs with other local legends. A glance at the cocktail list boasts input from the Sydney Opera House, Blasphemy Coffee and even the Sydney Cricket Ground. The room is the last word in industrial elegance. It’s separated from the distillery by a heavy-duty metal grille and a wall of spirit barrels. On the bar side, th
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Paddington
Officially, this little pub on Oxford Street is called the Arts Bar. However locals and old timers will often refer to it as the Rose Shamrock and Thistle, or even the Three Weeds: it depends on who you’re talking to. Arts Bar makes sense, given its proximity to the College of Fine Arts. Though it’s housed in a beautiful Art Deco Building there’s nothing hifalutin about this public house. It’s got the cream mottled tiles and multiple doorways opening out onto the street of your classic corner boozer and the floor inside is a mix of concrete and tiles – you could easily hose the whole place out if needed. Inside it’s all green and yellow tiles, glowing orange and yellow light boxes, tall stools, swivel chairs and old orange vinyl chairs. They pull a pretty mixed crowd, with young and elastic students talking earnestly about their ‘practice’ and making plans for surfing adventures while retirees sit opposite and share a little late night ice cream out of a curled glass bowl. The variety might be due to the very friendly staff who adopt a more-the-merrier approach, or perhaps it’s the Tuesday special of slow-cooked lamb that’s pulling people through the doors. They pour a decent Kilkenny if you like Irish cream ale, but for our money we’ll take a pint of Young Henrys, Stone and Wood or Murray’s Angry Man instead. They tick the boxes on all the pub food staples, and also do bananas in rum and a chocolate pudding that comes highly recommended by our smiling barman. The Arts Bar is
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Ash St Cellar
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
You may well be able to lob a tennis ball from George Street to this quiet pedestrian alley but you wouldn’t know it from the relaxed pace of the punters stopping in for a glass of wine at this little bistro. Decompress out in the breezy laneway or up at the bar where French house featuring atmospheric horns keeps the vibe on a low simmer and devote all your remaining energies to the wine menu. They have an internationally diverse, by-the-glass list that lets you sample the wines of Austria, Romania, South Africa, Greece, Argentina, Germany, the US, Chile and Slovenia, in addition to Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand. And the best part is they offer tasting glasses for half the price of a full pour so you take a little tour without breaking the bank. Depending on the weather and the day you’ve had they might steer you towards a bright, fruity Domaine de Beavernay gamay from Beaujolais, or possibly a ribolla gialla from Friuli. There’s not much to the operation here. The open-plan space spills out into the lane and the wine is stored up high in black timber racks. The kitchen can sort out a serious hunger with lamb cutlets or grilled spitchcock, but a rich, golden toastie with jamon and truffled gruyere will also stop hunger in its tracks.  Time Out Awards 2010Best Wine Bar View this year's Time Out Bar Award winners  
Assembly
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
In case of fire, assemble at the designated meeting spot. In case of thirst, go get cocktails at Assembly. You might not expect an ace bar to be hiding down on the lower ground floor of what is ostensibly a hub of Asian cheap eats, but the buzzy precinct behind the KFC on the corner of George and Bathurst Streets has many secrets. Not only can you get a kooky soft-serve in a halo of fairy floss from Aqua S; a fragrant char kway teo from Sedap Malaysian Kopitiam; and a king’s ransom in rice paper rolls from Miss Chu – there’s booze too. This must be what heaven is like. When something gets an award everyone wants to get involved – especially if it’s delicious. Sullivans Cove French oak barrel-aged single malt sold out after they won a world whisky award in 2014, and people are still queuing for a taste of the mandorla affogato gelato from Cow and the Moon. And at Assembly you can order a stack of award-winning cocktails. The Linda Russian, crowned by a 2014 Stoli comp, proves you don’t need an ingredient list a mile long to make a good drink. Almond syrup is an excellent foil to the zingy punch of fresh pineapple juice – and with a glug of vodka in the mix you’ve got a summer refresher that demands an encore. The up’n’go qualities of a Vodka Espresso are perfect fuel before a gig over at the Metro, but these guys have chucked out the vodka and are shaking up rum, Frangelico, Kahlua and cold drip coffee, and the results are excellent. There are a ridiculous number of dining opt
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Australian Hotel and Brewery
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Western Sydney
  • price 1 of 4
There’s something to be said for setting up your brewery and pub in the North West of Sydney – there’s a lot of space out this way. The Australian Hotel and Brewery (conveniently located next door to Bunnings, FYI) is set on a massive block just off Old Winsor Road. From the outside it looks like a warehouse with an enormous parking lot. But inside it’s a pub-lovers Disneyland. It’s been kitted out in good Australian fashion with exposed brick, warm lighting, raw timber and rusty iron decorations. In addition to housing the brewery itself they’ve got a spacious bistro, sports bar, pokies lounge and games room, plus an enormous bar operating at the centre of everything. Love watching sport but hate sitting on a bar stool? They’ve got cushy leather recliners lined up like a mini sports cinema. Brought your ankle biters with you? Here they have a dedicated kids club with a jungle gym and a super-soft play area for really tiny humans. They even host kids birthday parties. When you have the same amount of space as a standard Chippendale block you can do whatever you damn well please. They keep a collection of standard lagers on tap but the interesting stuff here is the brews they make on site. Their Mexican lager served with fresh lime is a light, summery glass of refreshment, but if you aren’t afraid of some forceful flavours go the extra hoppy ale – a coppery amber ale with a fresh, bitter finish. They also make a pilsner, pale ale, strong Belgium golden ale, steam ale, amber la
Bacco Wine Bar and Pasticceria - QVB
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
At Bacco, you can eat, drink or simply get some pastries to go. But we like to drink. The cocktail list will be right up your alley if you like floral, fruity drinks but you can totally ignore the list if your tastes run to straighter stuff - the bar staff are incredibly accomplished and can make anything you hit them with. If you do order off the list, try the Caesar's Cup - served long, it's a mix of gin, red wine and house-made mint lemonade, garnished with a wedge of grapefruit and a wedge of cucumber. The Giorgio il Bello involves a glass rolled in rhubarb sugar and filled with a mix of Aperol, St Germain elderflower liqueur and pinot grigio, topped with more of that house-made lemonade. Sweet? Yes. Deadly? Most certainly. The L'Arrogante is the winner off the list: tequila, house-made sweet vermouth and fresh squeezed grapefruit served short. If cocktails and spirits aren't your thing, Delicado's Ben Moechtar has put together the wine list. They also give you little snacks (spuntini) through the night. They're gratis, and delicious. The space, designed by Michael McCann, is all warm wood, low, long booths and tinkling, grape-shaped purple lights. Sit up at the bar, admire the huge booze selection, marvel at the cold larder filled with cured meats and raise a glass to Bacchus - the guy that loved a drink.
The Lansdowne Hotel
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Pubs
  • Chippendale
  • price 1 of 4
March 2023 update: Beloved live music venue the Lansdowne Hotel reopened after closing for a hot minute, and then reopening again, after being saved by the legends from the Oxford Art Factory. Refreshed and revitalised, the new Lansdowne is still the same pub you’ve always loved, now just with a new retro-inspired rooftop, a New York deli-style menu from an award-winning chef and a late-night free music program. Sounds pretty good to us. Sporting rainbow umbrellas, blue AstroTurf and big wooden tables, the new rooftop is an inner-city oasis where you can soak up the sunset over chilled drinks before heading downstairs for a gig. Now to the food. New head chef, Eugene Novikov, formerly of the award-winning restaurant Amisfield in Queenstown and Qualia at Hamilton Island, has curated a New York-deli-style menu, which is available now. Get your hands on a classic Reuben with pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and Russian sauce on a rye sourdough; or 'The Meatball' with housemade meatballs, provolone, rocket and parmesan. Other plates include Chicago-style hot dogs, waffle fries, and fried chicken wings with Frank's hot sauce, all of which are perfect with an ice-cold beer before dancing with your mates. “The Lansdowne was an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how food, music and culture can all come together as the city comes back to life with activity,” says Novikov. And be sure to head there on a Friday night for the Lansdowne Hotel’s free live music program
Old Mate's Place
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
One hundred and two steps. Rooftop bars are not for the faint of quad. But all that thigh-burning just primes you for the reveal: swing open the door at the top and there you are, in a lushly planted oasis in the Sydney skyline. A smiling bartender hands you a VB throwdown while you flip through the menu. A bowtie is slung around their neck unknotted, Rat Pack-style. It might only be a quarter past six down on street level, but up here, it’s always time to take it easy.  Flip through the list: there’s smarts enough behind the smiles to handle whatever classics you might fancy. And where bars on rooftops in other parts of the world might call to mind sun-bleached bottles of Bombora and lychee liqueur, the back bar at Old Mate’s is quite a different matter – the arrangement of malts, Caribbean rums and fine tequilas is nearly as luxuriant as what’s in the planter boxes. Don’t let the VB palate-cleanser fool you: while this is a place where a person can drink a beer in peace (or indeed a glass of wine), Old Mate is all about the cocktails.  Dre Walters (an alumnus of Kittyhawk and Lobo Plantation) and Daniel “Noble” Noble (a friendly face to anyone who has clocked flying hours at Ramblin’ Rascal) have put together a list that marches to the beat of its own drummer, throwing curveballs of toasted poppyseed (the Predecessor), pistachio (the Pistacia) and dehydrated basil (the Retox). They roast peaches to enliven the gin Sour they call Corky’s Lady Killer #2, and do a Strawberry B
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The Baxter Inn
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
When Shady Pines Saloon opened in 2010, we thought we’d met the bar we wanted to spend the rest of our lives in. Then we met its little brother, the Baxter Inn, and there was a serious challenger for our eternal affections. Of course, we weren’t the only ones enamoured with the backlit wall of whisky, accessible only by scrolling library ladders or by having your well-coiffed bartender climb along the counters like some sort of arborial gentleman. The lines of admirers stretched from outside the tatty door in an old loading dock in the city and almost back out onto Clarence Street. This is the kind of whisky collection that would make a strong man weak at the knees. The menu board starts at the ceiling and the three-column list eventually sneaks down under the counter and out of sight. Every Islay, Speyside, Highlands, Lowlands and Campbelltown distillery you can’t pronounce – and the small collection you’re confident with – is there, including rare bottlings and unusual releases. What room is left goes to Japanese and Australian spirits, and blends. The liquid assets in this bar could probably buy you property in Sydney. It’s easy to go amber blind in here and forget that you are sitting in front of some of the best bartenders in the city – but not ordering a cocktail is a squandered opportunity. They have confidence and swagger behind the bar, but it’s been hard earned. They’ve mastered the classics for people who know what they like (Old Pals and Trinidad Sours all round!)
The Lobo
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
This underground rum bar below Clarence Street is named after Cuban sugar baron Julio Lobo. A cluttered but cohesive mix of flamingo tiles, rattan chairs, banana palms and crumbling patina surfaces provide weathered Cuban charm. But the real visual focus is the bartenders. They create with precision. And fire, if you order the Old Grogram. Slip into the Chesterfield booth seating and prepare for a fabulous tiki mini-break for your mouth (the kitsch cocktail illustrations on the menu will help you decide on a destination). The White Negroni Daiquiri is tart, puckered perfection, made with white rum, Lillet Blanc, Suze (a herbal, bitter spirit from France that’s gaining popularity in Sydney bars), lemon juice, simple syrup and bitters. Coco’s Old Fashioned is a creamy pick for rum heads with a sweet tooth, as is the Rum and Rye Old Fashioned, especially if you choose the Fiji-spiced rum as the starring booze. And the Bajan Julep – a Bramble-Mojito lovechild with practically a whole mint tree pressed in – is very refreshing. The bar snacks are hella good, too. The empanadas are spicy little pillows of deliciousness and the three-cheese papas rellenas are smoky and soft. If you need something big and filling, order the house take on a Cuban sandwich that is packed with ham and pulled pork, cheese, mustard and pickles. There’s a whole lot of talent behind the bar here, and they take pride in a job well done. The bottom line? Make tracks to this plantation paradise, stat.  Time Ou
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The Imperial Hotel
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Erskineville
  • price 1 of 4
The Imperial was first ordained a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community when Dawn O’Donnell, the mother of gay Sydney, bought it in the '80s. It has opened and shut with many different faces in the years since then, but at its heart it has always been a place for queer identities to thrive on the sticky carpet of the much loved pub. So it follows that punters who have been sashaying into the Imperial since 1983 might be a little shell shocked at the latest edition: the pool table in the front bar is gone, the gilded Venus statue has been moved to the roof and downstairs is clean as a whistle. But unlike so many refurbished institutions, the team here obviously care for the building’s storied history. The first level is like walking into Liberace’s first bachelor pad out of home – it’s opulent, but with an accessible warmth and some comforting rough edges. The front bar gleams with posh touches but any night of the week you’re likely to find a drag queen sassing into a mic, with stilettos stomping among the schooners of New. Head through to the back and you’ll find Priscilla’s, a restaurant with a veggie-heavy menu – there’s vegan ceviche made from coconut and cauliflower and broccoli "wings" with ranch dressing – though steaks and roast pork also feature. Drag ‘n’ Dine happens every week from Wednesday to Sunday, so your zucchini noodles will be accompanied by one of Sydney’s star drag kings and queens: on Thursdays your dinner comes with a side of the Aussie Pole Boys, Sydn
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Newtown
  • price 2 of 4
Bartending is in many ways the study of party alchemy – mixing drinks to lift you up, cool you out and caress your soul if it’s in need of a little TLC. A well-made Singapore Sling can send your tongue on an exotic getaway, even if the rest of you has to stay right here and pay the bills; a Daiquiri has the power to convince your hips you’ve got the rhythm in you; and an Old Pal can be your best friend after a long day in the salt mines. And there’s nowhere we prefer to pull up a stool and bend the elbow in the Inner West than at the long, sturdy, timber bar at Earl’s Juke Joint. Before your dreams of playlist domination get out of hand, we should tell you there are no jukeboxes here. But you don’t need one when owner Pasan Wijesena has programmed a specialty mix of ’90s hip hop, swampy rock and blues for your listening pleasure. The bar team here is one of the best. You’ve got veterans of the trade passing on their skills to a clutch of up-and-comers who’ve earned their stripes over long, hard shifts at one of Newtown’s favourite cocktail haunts. There is no rockstar shift – your drinks are in safe hands on a Tuesday or a Friday. This is a bar you want to be a regular at – they even have merch so you can declare your allegiance to the world – but be warned if you’re hungry that nuts are all they’ve got. Given you won’t want to relinquish that big table up the back, or the coveted window seat, cocktails can often become dinner here. We’re OK with it. Our livers maybe not so m
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Cantina OK
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
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,
Double Deuce Lounge
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
A cocktail joint named after a dive bar in a cult Patrick Swayze flick with a ’70s aesthetic inspired by the Golden Age of Porn. It sounds like a cockeyed concept that, in most hands, would go terribly, painfully, catastrophically awry. But “Cosmo” Soto, Dardan Shervashidze and Charlie Lehmann are not most hands – they’re Baxter Inn alumni, the rabble-rousers who glorified “shit tins” and shirtless overalls at the Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern and two-time winners of the Time Out Bar Award for Best Bar Team. These are the right guys for the job. Things are thoroughly cheeky at their second venture, down in a booze-stocked, retro-panelled bunker straight from Boogie Nights, with a soundtrack to match. The crew, too, look every bit the part – rocking bowling shirts, booty shorts, tennis socks and slick quiffs, all too eager to hand you a VHS case with a risqué cover that turns out to be the drinks menu. Elsewhere you might find yourself flipping through pages of punny names, garish descriptions and outlandish illustrations before landing on something you’d consider knocking back, but not here. There are just ten cocktails on the tariff, all $20, and much like the vibe, they’re designed with no-nonsense good times in mind. Lean into the theme with a thoughtfully updated Cosmopolitan, punched up with pomegranate, apricot and rosella for extra pucker. Or perhaps kick things off with a BabyCham, a fizzy number modelled after the daggy sparkling perry of the same name, bolstered by Calvado
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Bentley Restaurant and Bar
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Australian
  • Sydney
  • price 3 of 4
It must be very tempting as a restaurateur to put your original venue on standby mode so that you can focus on a hot new concept. It must be especially enticing when your flagship restaurant has been around for 13 years. But that’s what makes Bentley Restaurant and Bar so exceptional – it’s remained a truly great destination for its full term on the dining scene.  Of course, change has come over time. Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt moved the restaurant from Surry Hills to the CBD, and then reworked it yet again in its primo corner inside the Radisson Blu Plaza hotel on O’Connell Street. And they might just be doing their best work yet.  You can approach the venue in full fine-dining glory and get the $180 tasting menu, and it’s an especially good call if the company card will be taking the hit for both the food and the high-cost-but-high-return wine list. Hildebrandt has one of the best cellars in the city, so there’ll be no attempts to sell you the wine equivalent of nosebleed section seats for top dollar. You’re getting the really good stuff here – exciting locals, elegant Europeans and tasting notes that read like love letters to the vineyard.  But the highest value proposition here is the lunch menu. Two courses will cost you $65 and three is a mere nudge higher at $75 – it’s got to be one of the city’s best fine dining hacks, along with Momofuku’s bar menu.  We’re sure the oysters are best in their field, but potatoes on a fine dining menu is a baller move that challe
Shady Pines Saloon
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Darlinghurst
  • price 2 of 4
The party never stops at Shady Pines. Open the unmarked door off a dark lane in Darlinghurst. Open the second door (sound proofing proved necessary once it became clear just how popular this bar was going to remain) and descend into a sunken saloon where at any moment you could find yourself in the middle of a wobbly sing-a-long to American Pie cranked right up – and that’s on a Wednesday.   This is the place where Sydney got its taste for booze and fresh apple juice. You somehow never feel like you’re really hitting the sauce if your drink is this fresh and foamy. Surely it’s repairing whatever damage you might be doing as you go along? Other thing to love about this place, and the list is extensive, is that if you squeeze up to the jam packed bar and order a beer and a shot they won’t ask any questions, just line up a nip of George Dickel Old No. 8 Tennessee whiskey and a tinnie of Coopers lager and send you on your way to join the impromptu dance circle that’s formed in front of the door to the bathrooms. Mostly this is a quick fire bar, but being the original Swillhouse venue, you might recognise staff from the Pine’s whisky-soaked little brother, the Baxter Inn. This means you can exchange your hard earned for a five star cocktail. Seems fair. They haven’t changed much over the last five years – they didn’t need to. This was a thoroughly realised bar from day dot and the taxidermy, mounted fish heads and novelty beer trays (they did it first) are all exactly where you le
The Lansdowne Hotel
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Pubs
  • Chippendale
  • price 1 of 4
March 2023 update: Beloved live music venue the Lansdowne Hotel reopened after closing for a hot minute, and then reopening again, after being saved by the legends from the Oxford Art Factory. Refreshed and revitalised, the new Lansdowne is still the same pub you’ve always loved, now just with a new retro-inspired rooftop, a New York deli-style menu from an award-winning chef and a late-night free music program. Sounds pretty good to us. Sporting rainbow umbrellas, blue AstroTurf and big wooden tables, the new rooftop is an inner-city oasis where you can soak up the sunset over chilled drinks before heading downstairs for a gig. Now to the food. New head chef, Eugene Novikov, formerly of the award-winning restaurant Amisfield in Queenstown and Qualia at Hamilton Island, has curated a New York-deli-style menu, which is available now. Get your hands on a classic Reuben with pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and Russian sauce on a rye sourdough; or 'The Meatball' with housemade meatballs, provolone, rocket and parmesan. Other plates include Chicago-style hot dogs, waffle fries, and fried chicken wings with Frank's hot sauce, all of which are perfect with an ice-cold beer before dancing with your mates. “The Lansdowne was an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how food, music and culture can all come together as the city comes back to life with activity,” says Novikov. And be sure to head there on a Friday night for the Lansdowne Hotel’s free live music program
Old Mate's Place
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
One hundred and two steps. Rooftop bars are not for the faint of quad. But all that thigh-burning just primes you for the reveal: swing open the door at the top and there you are, in a lushly planted oasis in the Sydney skyline. A smiling bartender hands you a VB throwdown while you flip through the menu. A bowtie is slung around their neck unknotted, Rat Pack-style. It might only be a quarter past six down on street level, but up here, it’s always time to take it easy.  Flip through the list: there’s smarts enough behind the smiles to handle whatever classics you might fancy. And where bars on rooftops in other parts of the world might call to mind sun-bleached bottles of Bombora and lychee liqueur, the back bar at Old Mate’s is quite a different matter – the arrangement of malts, Caribbean rums and fine tequilas is nearly as luxuriant as what’s in the planter boxes. Don’t let the VB palate-cleanser fool you: while this is a place where a person can drink a beer in peace (or indeed a glass of wine), Old Mate is all about the cocktails.  Dre Walters (an alumnus of Kittyhawk and Lobo Plantation) and Daniel “Noble” Noble (a friendly face to anyone who has clocked flying hours at Ramblin’ Rascal) have put together a list that marches to the beat of its own drummer, throwing curveballs of toasted poppyseed (the Predecessor), pistachio (the Pistacia) and dehydrated basil (the Retox). They roast peaches to enliven the gin Sour they call Corky’s Lady Killer #2, and do a Strawberry B
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The Cumberland
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Manly
  • price 2 of 4
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
The Baxter Inn
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
When Shady Pines Saloon opened in 2010, we thought we’d met the bar we wanted to spend the rest of our lives in. Then we met its little brother, the Baxter Inn, and there was a serious challenger for our eternal affections. Of course, we weren’t the only ones enamoured with the backlit wall of whisky, accessible only by scrolling library ladders or by having your well-coiffed bartender climb along the counters like some sort of arborial gentleman. The lines of admirers stretched from outside the tatty door in an old loading dock in the city and almost back out onto Clarence Street. This is the kind of whisky collection that would make a strong man weak at the knees. The menu board starts at the ceiling and the three-column list eventually sneaks down under the counter and out of sight. Every Islay, Speyside, Highlands, Lowlands and Campbelltown distillery you can’t pronounce – and the small collection you’re confident with – is there, including rare bottlings and unusual releases. What room is left goes to Japanese and Australian spirits, and blends. The liquid assets in this bar could probably buy you property in Sydney. It’s easy to go amber blind in here and forget that you are sitting in front of some of the best bartenders in the city – but not ordering a cocktail is a squandered opportunity. They have confidence and swagger behind the bar, but it’s been hard earned. They’ve mastered the classics for people who know what they like (Old Pals and Trinidad Sours all round!)
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Employees Only
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 3 of 4
“Excuse me sir, is this where the psychic is? “Nah mate, this is a bar called Employees Only.” So much for speakeasy subterfuge. Back in New York in 2004, when Employees Only opened, the neo-Prohibition aesthetic was getting a head of steam. Drinks were strong, waistcoats were big, moustaches were waxed. Opening behind a clairvoyant shopfront on Hudson Street, it was an essential part of the craft cocktail revolution, and joined the dots between the spareness of Milk & Honey (set behind a blank door on a residential block) and the richer production values to come with the likes of PDT (accessed via a phone booth in a hotdog shop). Fourteen years later and even without the help of an indiscreet bouncer it’s safe to say the secret is out. The bar has outposts in Singapore, Miami, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Walk down the stairs off Barrack Street in the Sydney CBD into the first Australian branch, and chances are you’ll find the place pumping, the bar thronged, the larger dining area packed and the tarot-reader by the door plenty busy. Fortune teller there may be, but in many ways EO is less about looking into the future and more a love-letter to the heyday of mid-oughts bartending. The stock on the back-bar isn’t wildly extensive or deep (at least not by the standards set by near neighbours the Baxter Inn and Lobo Plantation), and the drinks under the EO Classics section of the list read fresh and fruity: the vodka, elderflower liqueur and blackberry purée of the Amelia, say, o
Door Knock
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars
  • Sydney
  • price 2 of 4
On Pitt Street near Hunter, when you wander down two flights of concrete stairs beside a coffee shop, you don’t find Wonderland or Narnia, but you will discover a cellar cocktail bar that's equal parts timber ship’s hold and fairy bower. Door Knock is the latest addition to the rogue's gallery of Sydney’s hidden bars, conjuring up the illusion that you are in on a secret. Of course, while we all love a bit of ceremony, a bar that makes it too hard to get in can get tiresome, which is why the initial idea of unlocking the door for everyone who knocked the brass pineapple three times ended up getting traded in for an automatic system that keeps the door unlocked – but by all means, knock away. Down here you feel utterly detached from the world above, and the room bears all the trappings of modern bar design: fairy lights, fake vines, hanging ropes, little hide rugs under the tables, rough-cut stonework for that rustic vibe, and lights that look like haute couture crab pots. It’s a little bit Song of the Sea, and a little bit timber speakeasy, and the overall effect is a nice, gently moody spot for an after-work drink.  And on that note, looks can be deceiving, so while the Puritan might appear pure and straight-laced, that clear mix over perfect hand-sawn ice is hiding a potent mix of gin, sherry infused with pineapple skins and Yellow Chartreuse, for a drink that’s equal parts rich, herbal and astringent. They’ve also got a rich and sturdy cocktail on tap made with Maker’s Mar
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Millers Point
March 2023 update: This rooftop cocktail lounge at the top of Hotel Palisade has introduced a Sunday Bottomless Brunch menu to pair with some of the very best views in all of Sydney. Head chef Cian Mulholland's sharing menu features crowd-pleasers such as marinated pipis and kingfish ceviche, as well as innovative and eclectic treats like potato with abalone sauce and pork floss, and a cold-cut spiced pork neck with ginger and scallion oil and black vinegar dressing. Wash down the luxe picnic-style feast with bottomless prosecco, mimosas and beer for $120 per head, or with Henry Deane's signature cocktails, wine, et al for $160. See the full menu, here. If you want to go bottomless, you have to book here. Read on for our original review of Henry Deane, from all the way back in March 2016. ***** There’s no denying we live in a really ridiculously good looking city. Sydney possesses a truly indulgent amount of waterfrontage, plus iconic architecture, world-class green spaces and carefully preserved industrial landmarks as a reminder of times past – all this and we haven’t even left the harbour yet. And you can see it all from the two-tiered cocktail bar at the top of the Hotel Palisade. You take the elevator up from the heart of the recently refurbed pub downstairs, but drinking at altitude is a popular pastime in this city so there might be a wait list. Although they’ve named the bar Henry Deane, after the engineer and architect who designed the hotel above the original Palisa
The Rook
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Sydney
  • price 1 of 4
Rooftop bars are all about the big reveal. You go into a plain foyer, like so many other uninspiring entranceways to the city’s workspaces; you press the ‘R’ button in the lift, bypassing the private business college and a community college. You’ve got something way more fun in store than learning. Then the doors open and you step out into a timber-lined bar cranking the Dixieland jazz and ’60s pop. It’s basically the 18+ version of entering Willie Wonka’s factory after a long journey through industrial London. Instead of candy trees and a chocolate river, here it’s about cocktails, lobster and burgers. It’s a really specific Venn diagram, but people are loving it – there’s not a free table to be had at 7pm on a Tuesday night, and we’re told the lunchtimes get equally crowded. You should book ahead. Save your visit for a clear night when they can retract half the roof and all the heat and chatter can disappear out into the night sky. Summer is made for drinking Kentucky Coolers (bourbon, peach tea, Amaro Montenegro and lemon juice) in the evening breeze, perhaps with a round of lobster lettuce cups bulked out with lentils, carrot and finely diced onion. They’re kind of like a fancy French take on a sang choy bow. Need something substantial? The Uncle Sam burger is a rich, salty and slightly sweet hunger buster that comes with a side of dark golden chips doused in truffle oil for fans of the synthetic savoury. We’re pretty suspect on the Dom Hemingway that takes your classic H
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The Imperial Hotel
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Erskineville
  • price 1 of 4
The Imperial was first ordained a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community when Dawn O’Donnell, the mother of gay Sydney, bought it in the '80s. It has opened and shut with many different faces in the years since then, but at its heart it has always been a place for queer identities to thrive on the sticky carpet of the much loved pub. So it follows that punters who have been sashaying into the Imperial since 1983 might be a little shell shocked at the latest edition: the pool table in the front bar is gone, the gilded Venus statue has been moved to the roof and downstairs is clean as a whistle. But unlike so many refurbished institutions, the team here obviously care for the building’s storied history. The first level is like walking into Liberace’s first bachelor pad out of home – it’s opulent, but with an accessible warmth and some comforting rough edges. The front bar gleams with posh touches but any night of the week you’re likely to find a drag queen sassing into a mic, with stilettos stomping among the schooners of New. Head through to the back and you’ll find Priscilla’s, a restaurant with a veggie-heavy menu – there’s vegan ceviche made from coconut and cauliflower and broccoli "wings" with ranch dressing – though steaks and roast pork also feature. Drag ‘n’ Dine happens every week from Wednesday to Sunday, so your zucchini noodles will be accompanied by one of Sydney’s star drag kings and queens: on Thursdays your dinner comes with a side of the Aussie Pole Boys, Sydn
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Bars
  • Newtown
  • price 2 of 4
Bartending is in many ways the study of party alchemy – mixing drinks to lift you up, cool you out and caress your soul if it’s in need of a little TLC. A well-made Singapore Sling can send your tongue on an exotic getaway, even if the rest of you has to stay right here and pay the bills; a Daiquiri has the power to convince your hips you’ve got the rhythm in you; and an Old Pal can be your best friend after a long day in the salt mines. And there’s nowhere we prefer to pull up a stool and bend the elbow in the Inner West than at the long, sturdy, timber bar at Earl’s Juke Joint. Before your dreams of playlist domination get out of hand, we should tell you there are no jukeboxes here. But you don’t need one when owner Pasan Wijesena has programmed a specialty mix of ’90s hip hop, swampy rock and blues for your listening pleasure. The bar team here is one of the best. You’ve got veterans of the trade passing on their skills to a clutch of up-and-comers who’ve earned their stripes over long, hard shifts at one of Newtown’s favourite cocktail haunts. There is no rockstar shift – your drinks are in safe hands on a Tuesday or a Friday. This is a bar you want to be a regular at – they even have merch so you can declare your allegiance to the world – but be warned if you’re hungry that nuts are all they’ve got. Given you won’t want to relinquish that big table up the back, or the coveted window seat, cocktails can often become dinner here. We’re OK with it. Our livers maybe not so m

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  • Bars
  • Cocktail bars

We scoured the city to find the best drinks, greatest chat, most perfectly crafted playlists, tastiest snacks and top vibes to be had in Sydney. We put our livers and our sleep patterns on the line to bring you, dear reader, a comprehensive guide to the best bars in town.

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