Restaurants & Cafés
Your guide to breakfast and brunch, fine dining and cheap eats in Sydney
Time Out Sydney Food Awards: Winners
We awarded the best of the best at this year's 2016 Time Out Sydney Food Awards. Here are all the winners, and your ultimate hit list.
Time Out Talks: The Politics of Bushfood Now
Our second Time Out Talk will discuss the best ways for Australians to honour First Nations people when it comes to consuming and cultivating native ingredients.
The best healthy deliveries in Sydney
It’s so easy to just head up to your local Thai and get pad see ew for lunch isn’t it? And when you’re home late from work, or suffering the after-effects of too many Negronis, who doesn’t want to order a pizza? We feel you. But there's also space in these hectic times for healthy choices, so we’ve compiled a list of our favourite healthy deliveries right now.
The best fried chicken in Sydney
It’s official. Sydney is obsessed with fried chicken. Are we in the American Deep South? No. Are we surround by the sky scrapers of Seoul? Not really. Does that matter? Maybe. Are we doing it anyway? You’re damn right we are.
Sydney's top restaurants
The best new restaurants openings in town
If it seems like there's a new restuarant opening in Sydney every other week, that's because there is.
The best restaurants in Sydney
Behold: our eat-and-destroy list, a guide featuring some of the best new restaurants you need to try, along with some old standbys still doing things right. Go forth – and eat all the things!
The best burgers in Sydney
What could be more perfect than finely ground meat placed between two sweet slices of bread with cheese and pickles? Nothing, that's what. Whether you like them stacked to the nines, fat-rich and salty, veggie or vegan, here are the best burgers in Sydney.
The best Sydney cafés
The best hot chocolate in Sydney
Like heat? Like chocolate? Lucky you – we scoured the streets of Sydney to find the best hot chocolates in town. And we're still on a jittery sugar high. From thick and rich to smooth and creamy, these five drinks will make any winter's day a whole lot sweeter.
The best bacon and egg rolls in Sydney
Whoever first put cured, fried pork and soft, melty eggs together deserves a seriously prestigious award, in our opinion. Stuff them between two layers of soft white bread, spread on a heap of butter and you’ve pretty much got food nirvana right there. So we took it upon ourselves to traipse the streets of Sydney to find you the best bacon and egg rolls to fix any hangover, heartbreak or hard-earned snack. Man, it’s a tough job.
The best gelato in Sydney
Ever since Messina opened back in 2002, Sydney has been head over heals in love with gelato. Which we always should have been, really, given that we are a seaside city that’s also stinking-hot half of the year – because what do beaches and heat equal? That’s right: ice cream. There are a thousand places to get it – from the gummy, overly saccharine crap, to smooth, silky excellence. Rest assured, though, that these ten are all in the latter category. Here are our top ten favourite gelaterias in Sydney right now:
The best kid-friendly cafes in Sydney
Let them run amuck at the playgrounds, farms and kids’ areas in these child-friendly cafés around Sydney. Maybe treat them to a babyccino too.
You're loving
Est
Thank the dining Gods this mainstay's great service, excellent food and don't-wanna-stop-drinking wine list
Yellow
Are vegetables the future of food? Yellow certainly seems to think so
LP’s Quality Meats
Chippendale’s temple to woodfired meat is a reminder of all the reasons we go out for dinner – and it's our Best Casual Diner of 2015
Continental Deli Bar Bistro
Sydney’s raddest restaurateurs kill it again (twice) at their new dual-purpose eatery
For the sweet tooth
The best patisseries in Sydney
We’re pretty lucky that here in Sydney we have some of the best darn pastry chefs in the country. From the genius that is the strawberry watermelon cake at Black Star Pastry, to that ginger tart at Bourke Street Bakery, here’s where to get a lil’sweet stuff in Sydney.
The best desserts in Sydney
We don’t know about you, but dinner ain’t dinner for us without dessert. Sometimes it’s a bowl of silky, melting gelato, or it could be a maple syrup-drenched pudding or a good old fashioned passionfruit pav. Damn it, sometimes it’s an ornate plate of food made to look just like the brittle twigs on the forest floor (that’s when we’ve got the coin to get into Sepia). Regardless, it’s the traditional way to finish a meal, and we intend to keep up that tradition for as long as our waistbands can take it.
The best high tea in Sydney
Sydney is obsessed with high tea, and with good reason – we do some seriously good baking in this here city. Here's our hotlist of venues for tea, scones, petits fours and civilised conversation.
The best chocolate shops in Sydney
Looking for a perfectly delicious gift? Or a night's supply for a serious splurge? These top shops will satisfy the world's most famous craving.
The best macarons in Sydney
Sydney’s obsession with macarons sees no signs of slowing down. So Time Out asked three formidable sweet fiends – incidentally three of our greatest chefs – to judge the best of the best.
Sydney food events
Shanty Club
You don't need to leave dry land to join a rowdy round of sea shanties at a Redfern local
Dead Ringer
Surry Hills' suave new bar is finally here, and as a reward for your patience they've brought five star drinks and eats with them
Trunk Road
Subcontinental food that’s as affordable as it is delicious, with cocktails on the side
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Sydney's local favourites
Stellar service and optimum convenience is the order of the day at these local favourites. It doesn't matter if you're ducking in for a quick fix solution, or you don't even know what you're looking for, they're going to help out. And when it comes to the cash register, they're savvy enough to let you pay the way you want to, with no worries and no minimums.
Sunday Tex-Mex Brunch at El Camino Cantina
Tex-Mex food has put zing into café menus Australia-wide. Now Tex-Mex experts El Camino Cantina in the Rocks have a brunch special that will perk up your Sunday like a proverbial jumping bean. From 11am to 2pm every Sunday, $29 gets you a breakfast item plus unlimited beverages (Bloody Marys, Margaritas, draught beer and soft drinks) for an hour. Those brekky selections include a Breakfast Burrito packed with scrambled eggs, chorizo, diced potatoes, bacon and cheese with arugula salad; Huevos Sopes, namely poached eggs on fresh corn and chilli fritters with smoked pork and chipotle hollandaise; and Huevos and Chorizo – build-your-own tacos with flour tortillas, chorizo, scrambled eggs, pico de gallo, crema, black beans and guacamole. And if you’re lucky, there might even be a mariachi band playing. El Camino Cantina is a big, bold venue at 18 Argyle Street (right next to the Argyle) that also offers Happy Hours Sunday to Friday (with free chips, salsa, queso and drink specials), Ghost Chilli Mondays (a burger and a beer for $20) and Wing Wednesdays (with a dozen wings for $15). Book your visit at the website.
The Bank held a backyard barbecue party and we bet you're sorry you missed it
Can you think of a better way to send off winter and let the spring come in than with a Latin American barbecue cook out in a freshly re-done beer garden? Neither can we, and neither could the Bank, which is why on the 31st of August, they invited DJ Gonzo to take over the decks, and held a good old fashioned cook off, with barbecue corn, pinto beans, and plenty of charcoal chook to go around. They invited the whole neighbourhood down to celebrate and sample the new menu, and there was much feasting, drinking, and even a spot of dancing. Sorry you missed out? Don't be. That party may have been a good one, but it was just a warm up to what'll be happening at the Bank every day this spring and summer. The Bank in Newtown has been a drawing crowds to the Inner West for decades. With a famous beer garden, live music at Waywards bar where entry is always free, and craft beer bar Uncle Hops, the Bank is a one-stop party shop. Now the Bank has unveilied a new charcoal barbecue in pride of place in the venue’s famous beer garden. It's operated by a new head chef, Zac Smart (SoCal in Neutral Bay), who has devised a fresh menu based around the flavours imparted by barbecue techniques. But don’t expect the American style of barbecue that’s all too familiar to Sydney pub goers. Smart is more interested in the Latin American side of the equation, with flavours like house-made chimichurri and romesco sauce, chancaca and chillies. The menu features dishes such as cauliflower an
Liveworks
Liveworks festival is the main event in Performance Space's annual program, showcasing local, interstate and international artists pushing the frontiers of art and performance. In 2016, artists include dancer/choreographer Kristina Chan, who offers a meditation on impermance in the era of climate change, 'A Faint Existence'. Mish Grigor (of the collective post) will give 'The Talk' – in which she re-enacts awkward conversations about sexuality she had with her family members. Visual artist Ross Manning will transform CarriageWorks' public spaces into a psychedelic landscape with his installation 'Melody Lines'. Meanwhile Indigenous acoustic outfit the Stiff Gins will give a music-based performance about Indigenous artefacts held in museums.Experimental musician and composer Jon Rose will showcase his extraordinary collection of hand-built instruments for 'The Museum Goes Live'. Taiwanese performance artist River Lin will ask visitors to nominate 'unclean' parts of their bodies in a work titled 'Cleansing Service'. And there's more besides: check the website for the complete line-up. For a limited time CarriageWorks is offering an Earlybird discount of 20 per cent off all tickets for Liveworks.