The best bars in Surry Hills

You know what a guaranteed fun time used to be? Smashing wines and Italian snacks at 121 BC. You what’s still fun? Smashing a slightly more international wine list and snacks at Wyno, the same-same-but-different wine bar where 121BC used to be. The Porteño crew, whose Argentinean restaurant is on the adjoining street, took over the beloved wine bar and honestly, the only change is that there’s less Italian stuff on the menu. 

Don’t kid yourself, just because it’s calling itself a bar doesn’t mean you’re not going to drop a chunk of cash grazing your way through the snacks menu at Poly. It’s less a slippery slope and more a delicious slide that starts off with a discus of bread puffed up like a soufflé pancake on the grill so that top and tail are charred. It's fated to be the bronzed chariot for the creamy salt cod dip that accompanies it. 

Once you tuck yourself into one of the tables at the Dolphin Hotel's Side Bar, prepare to go home with an empty wallet and full to bursting with vinous delights. This is the kind of place that can turn your whole understanding of wine upside down by pouring you a Chilean skin-contact muscat that’s as savoury as an antipasto board. 

The Rover is the bar from the crew that started one of Sydney's first ever small bars, the now-closed Grandma’s. Summoning the bustling charm of yesteryear and the sophistication of a dapper New York cocktail bar, the Rover retained its former good-time Irish heritage with an added lick of polish that gives it a chic wine bar feel. There's now also a Rover (seafood-focused) restaurant upstairs from the bar. 

Some of the best booze action in Surry Hills is the hardest to find. This Japanese whisky bar tucked off Commonwealth Street on Belmore Lane is certainly not going out of its way to draw attention to itself.

What do you get when you cross a couple of Shady Pines barkeeps with a metric eff load of tequila and a whole lot of owls? You get Tio’s, a Mexican party shack where the holiday vibes are on overdrive and even your can of beer comes with a salt rim and lime.

What we love about this place is that it’s pitch perfect for mid-week drinking. The line between restaurant and bar here isn’t so much blurry as it is indistinguishable. Come for a drink, but we bet you stay for dinner.

When it opened, this was the first distillery dedicated to rum on Sydney's streets in over 20 years. It's an all-in-one inner-city distillery, cellar door, bar and eatery looking to restore rum’s forgotten reputation. Perch at the handsome bar that forms the centrepiece of the vast and open space, and choose from 120 bottles of rum from all over the world.

Yes, there’s another American-ish bar bathed in the glow of red neon at the old Sticky Bar site. But what’s good about this bar isn’t the vintage booze advertising, hobby paraphernalia and charity shop art that cover the exposed brick walls, or the fact that they’ve got Coors and PBRs to accompany your barbecue platter and chilli cheese fries. It’s that there's Clamato juice in the fridge – Bloody Caesars for all.

It was a mammoth job transforming the old Tailors on Central into a Japanese booze and snack palace. But they successfully banished the last vestiges of that dreary tavern and now Goros stands as a low-lit bar decked out in splashes of rainbow neon, figurines, lanterns and bamboo.

There’s something pretty wonderful about a bar stripped back to the bare essentials. Turns out that if you can get your hands on a cold room, kegs, basic furniture, glasses, beef jerky and a string of fairy lights, you’ve got the key ingredients to make a small bar in Sydney, as proven by this tiny craft beer attic sitting up above Oxford Street.

You know what happiness is? It's sitting down to a Gruyère, pastrami, sauerkraut and pickle toastie, with a maple pecan Old Fashioned on the side in the Golden Age Cinema’s subterranean bar. You don't even need to be there for a film, the Art Deco vibes are drawcard enough for a night out.

Dreaming of rum cocktails and jerk chicken but can’t quite muster the cash for a Jamaican getaway? On Crown Street there is a brightly coloured restaurant and bar that is bringing island vibes to Surry Hills to save you a trip, with excellent rum and good grub.

The Whisky Room at the Clock Hotel is a warm, low-lit enclave shut off from the hubbub of the rest of the hotel by two swinging saloon doors. And once inside, the amber glow of a bar stocked with over 200 bottles of the demon drink draws you in like moths to a highly combustible flame.