Restaurants & Cafés

The latest reviews from our team of experts across the city.

Maximise the bang for your buck.

For when you need to impress.

When the hour calls for carbs, these are the spots that turn flour, eggs and water into small miracles.

Here's our guide to the best coffee in the Sydney CBD, from Circular Quay up to Wynyard, to Town Hall, Barangaroo and everywhere in between. 

Whoever first put cured, fried pork and soft, melty eggs together deserves a seriously prestigious award, in our opinion. 

From the best cheese toastie around to that liquorice bread, here's our list of where to go and what to order at the best cafés in Sydney.

In a suburb where morning runs, dawn surfing and AM yoga are part of your daily routine, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.

In January of 2015, Brody Petersen, a Sydney-based restaurateur, walked into a junk shop in Long Beach, 37 kilometres south of downtown Los Angeles. Petersen and a friend were looking for items of Americana to decorate a new Sydney restaurant they planned to open, and were in the process of filling a rented truck with beer posters, artworks, knick-knacks and tchotchkes to ship back across the Pacific. An item in the store immediately caught Petersen’s eye: a big, yellow neon sign flashing a frosty beer mug, a Martini glass with an olive, and an eight ball.   Petersen loved it, so he went to unplug it, unthinkingly placing his thumb on the bent earth prong. “I electrocuted myself,” Petersen says with a laugh. “I had a numb arm for about eight hours... I got the neon sign for half price because they thought I was going to sue them. It’s such a funny memory.” Going the extra mile to bring North American things to Sydney is one of the recurrent themes in the life of Petersen, a twinkly-eyed, dark-bearded Canadian in his thirties who owns and runs three Sydney venues: Riley Street Garage (in Woolloomooloo), the Village Inn (in Paddington) and Stanton and Co (in the Cannery building in Rosebery). Born in Vancouver, Petersen first came to our shores as a teenager in the early 1990s when his father, who worked for Pepsi, was transferred here. He went to school at Redlands in Neutral Bay, and on graduating decided to move back to Canada under his own steam.  “I wanted to be a ski

Filipino food is influenced by a variety of culinary cultures from around the world, taking cues from Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish cuisine. But make no mistake, the dishes that are born and bred in the Philippines have a distinct deliciousness all their own. For example, there’s the famous adobo (meaning ‘marinade’ in Spanish), a dish of either chicken or pork, marinated in a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar. And then, of course, there’s halo halo (meaning ‘mixed together’ in Filipino), a cheeky dessert containing ice shavings, evaporated milk and trimmings like sweetened beans, coconut gel and ube ice cream. And don’t even get us started on crispy pata – a perfectly deep-fried pork leg, served with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce – or sinigang, a delicious sour broth of vegetables and meat of your choice. The list truly goes on and on...  Luckily, Filipino food seems to be making its way to the mainstream (and rightly so), which means if you haven’t already, it might be time to jump on the jeepney and give these places a try. On the hunt for a bargain? These are the 50 best cheap eats in Sydney.

Naturally Sydney’s “second CBD” Parramatta has a thriving food and drink scene. Thanks to the delicious cuisines of the many diverse communities who call it home, Parramatta is bursting at the seams with hole-in-the-wall eateries, heaving family restaurants, and a new in-flux of uber cool cocktail bars. But where to start? Never fear, we’ve got some hot food tips under our (expanding) belts for you. Kickstart your Parramatta food trip with robust coffee and memorable brekkie. Circa Espresso has got the breakfast goods with their signature Ottoman Eggs – a Middle Eastern-inspired egg and eggplant dish given that extra zing from garlicky labneh and crispy fried sage and leek. Try a caffeinated brew with a view at the riverside Armory Wharf Café with their Sriracha eggs – a blue swimmer crab laden breakfast of champions. Top it off with a mid-morning sweet treat and ignite your Instagram likes with one of Bay Vista dessert bar and café’s towering desserts. Parramatta (and neighbouring Harris Park) is so rich with fantastic Indian restaurants we devoted an entire feature to it. Head to Billu’s Indian eatery for their signature tandoori chicken and classic thaalis, or hunt down our pick for the best biryani in Sydney from Hyderabad House. Finish your tasty trip into ‘Little India’ with a rainbow-hued treat from Chatkazz sweets or a delightfully sticky gulab jamun from Taj Indian Sweets and Restaurant. As the sun sets take your full belly to one of Parramatta’s fun bars and brew