Make it dinner and a show during Sydney Festival with Festival Feasts

Where: Shop 2-4 /330 Church St, Parramatta 
Handy for: Riverside Theatres

Alex&Co is the restaurant and bar that brings playful energy and contemporary dining to Parramatta's riverside. Dressed with chic timber furnishings, Alex&Co has carved out a reputation as a go-to catch-up spot among locals for its friendly ambience and classic cocktail menu. The $55 set menu offers up a taste of the restaurant's Australian/Italian fusion. The offerings include woodfire flatbread, marinated olives and cured meats to start, followed by heritage tomato salad, grilled king prawns and your choice of woodfire pizza, organic potato gnocchi or penne chicken. You'll also get a classic cocktail of your choice to accompany your meal.

Where: Bays 1 & 2, 2 Locomotive St, Eveleigh 
Handy for: Carriageworks

BrewDog is a haven for craft beer lovers, featuring more than 20 craft beers on tap. Even better is the menu of 'farm-to-table junk food' that pairs perfectly with a pint. BrewDog's $55 Festival Feasts sharing menu includes a taste of their classic Buffalo chicken wings and southern fried chicken strips that'll be dished up with a side of cleaver-smashed cucumbers and fries. To wash it all down, you'll also get two schooners of BrewDog IPA.

Where: Customs House, 5th Floor, 31 Alfred St, Circular Quay
Handy for: Sydney Opera House

Café Sydney encapsulates everything that comes to mind when one thinks of harbourside dining: opulent views, lashings of seafood and an al fresco setting. The menu centres around fresh Australian fruits of the sea with must-eats such as Sydney rock and Pacific oysters, Moreton Bay bugs and Coffin Bay octopus served alongside quality cuts of meat from Sydney’s top suppliers. Throughout the festival, Café Sydney’s menu will feature a daily selection of à la carte specials, with a focus on quality meat and seafood. Expect delights such as chilled crustaceans, freshly shucked oysters and grilled ocean fish.

Where: 62-64 King St, Newtown
Handy for: Seymour Centre

Calle Rey embodies King Street's cool factor with a modern plant-based menu that pulls together Mexican, Peruvian and Japanese cuisines. The Diablo Pisco Bar situated within showcases an exciting range of cocktails based on Pisco brandy, revealing the potential of this lesser-known Peruvian spirit. The Festival Feasts offering is a five-course set menu which includes BBQ Cauliflower Wings, a Maki Furai Sushi Roll, a choice of two tacos and a dessert of your choice – all for $30. You can also opt to add in the special Sydney Festival ‘Antarctica’ cocktail (based on the opera epic) for an extra ten bucks.

Where: Shop 12, Regent Place Shopping Centre, 501 George St, Sydney
Handy for: Sydney Town Hall 

Chefs Gallery is an award-winning Chinese restaurant that combines traditional Cantonese food with pan-Asian influences and contemporary flair. Each dish is designed to create a 'gallery' of Asian cuisine by showcasing rich and unique flavours from across the continent. Take your tastebuds on a tour with the $30 festival feast that includes a main meal choice between signature noodles or fried rice, drink, and Asian-inspired ice cream dessert.

Where: Shop 2, 100 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo 
Handy for: Barangaroo

Chi by Lotus fuses the stimulating sensations of Chinese street food with an upscale, luxe interior in the picturesque precinct of Barangaroo. The open kitchen and bar bring a theatrical style to the restaurant, with fiery bursts erupting from woks, sizzling pans and a heady scent of chargrill. For $55 you can enjoy a delicious six-course Shanghai street food set menu designed to share, accompanied by a beverage of your choice.

Where: Shop 2, 1 Locomotive St, Eveleigh
Handy for: Carriageworks

Eat Fuh is Sydney's go-to for casual Vietnamese cuisine made from scratch using fresh ingredients. With authentic flavours and stellar customer service, the Locomotive Street restaurant promises to turn pho lovers into 'fuh-natics'. There are also plenty of vegan options available – the vegan fuh has found favour, even among a meat-eating crowd. Eat Fuh's Festival Feasts special sits at $30, and includes any entrée, bánh xèo (crispy Vietnamese pancake) and any non-alcoholic drink.

Where: Hotel Palisade, 35 Bettington St, Millers Point
Handy for: The Cutaway

Henry Deane is a contemporary cocktail lounge atop the Hotel Palisade that provides uninterrupted views of the harbour across two levels. It's the perfect place for settling into a plush couch with a cocktail and enjoying exquisite views of the water framed by the Harbour Bridge. Dine in style with a $55 five-course banquet, curated by head chef Cian Mulholland. The set menu allows you to pick two snack options, one vegetarian/fish dish, and one meat main course. Lastly, you'll select a dessert of your choice. For the ultimate experience, pair it with a special Sydney Festival cocktail for $18 to sip while you take in the water views.

Where: 16 Phillip Lane, Sydney 2000
Handy for: The Weary Traveller

Kittyhawk is a lively French-inspired restaurant and cocktail bar that will transport you from Sydney to Paris – and about a century back in time. The menu is a modern take on traditional French fare with an interior inspired by Paris's Liberation Day (the bar’s emphasis on Old Fashioneds also helps to set the mood). With a great drinks menu, food and a cheerful ambience, you're bound to be celebrating like it’s 1944. Festival Feasts' offering is a $55 oyster and whisky pairing where you'll sample three different types of oysters, masterfully paired with a corresponding dram of Scotch whisky. Merveilleux!

Where: 8 Loftus St, Sydney
Handy for: Sydney Opera House 

Londres 126 is named for the home address of renowned artist Frida Kahlo. The menu draws inspiration from the dynamic food scene of Mexico City, bringing it to life using the finest seasonal Aussie produce. With a spectacular immersive biography of the artist coming to the Cutaway as part of Sydney Festival, a meal at Londres 126 is only fitting! It's made all the more enticing with a flavoursome three-course set menu for $55. You'll start with Street Corn with ancho sauce and orange Taji before a serving of Al Pastor Swordfish pinchos with pickled vegetables, fennel salad and flour tortillas. Finish up with your choice of steak with chimichurri and fries, or crispy flautas with mashed potato, queso fresco, cos lettuce and crème fraîche.

Where: The Galeries Lvl 1, 500 George St, Sydney
Handy for: City Recital Hall

Lotus the Galeries is a cosy yet upscale restaurant that showcases the very best of Shanghainese cuisine with a nod to Cantonese cooking. As part of their Sydney Festival collaboration, the Lotus is offering a $55 set menu that features six courses of delicious Shanghai street food. Course highlights are Chongqing chicken with chilli, garlic shoots and Spanish onion and signature spring rolls with king brown mushrooms.

Where: 2 Locomotive Street, Eveleigh 
Handy for: Carriageworks

Lucky Kwong is an Australian-Cantonese cafeteria-style eatery dishing up rustic noodles, dumplings and other iconic dishes. Restaurateur Kylie Kwong breathes personality into the eatery, infusing it with the things she loves in life: community, collaboration and life-giving food. The $55 Festival Feast gives diners a snapshot of Lucky Kwong’s classics. You'll get to taste crispy Tasmanian scallop wontons, steamed spanner crab and prawn dumplings, and caramelised pork belly with Australian-Cantonese coleslaw, as well as three other delicious dishes and a drink to wash it all down.

Where: 106 George St, Redfern
Handy for: Seymour Centre

Misfits is the inner-city bar that draws upon the groove and sensuality of the 1960s and '70s – denoted by a giant mural of Twiggy and an upbeat soundtrack that's bound to get anyone in a cheerful mood. Keep it casual, and soak up the good vibes with Misfits' festival offering – $30 for two glasses of wine and a charcuterie board to nibble on.

Where: Shop 4, 1 Locomotive St, Eveleigh
Handy for: Carriageworks 

Thai food is a universal favourite and Pepper Seeds South Eveleigh elevates the much-loved cuisine with a modern twist, employing unique spice combinations, specialised cooking techniques and fresh Australian produce. Enjoy a taste of boutique Thai dining with the Festival Feast set menu, where you’ll start off with an entrée of grilled scallops or tangy prawns. Mains will follow, offering you the choice between stir-fried eggplant wonder or hung lay beef curry with a side of rice and a drink – all for $30.

Where: Shop 8, 2 Locomotive St, Eveleigh 2015 (Parking at 2 Central Avenue)
Handy for: Carriageworks

Re is the world's first no-waste bar, weaving sustainability into every facet of the bar from the food to the light fixtures (which, you'll find, are actually made from mushroom fibres). The food draws upon secondary cuts and would-be waste to craft a menu that's every bit as delicious as it is inventive. The $55 set menu features whipped chicken liver with chicken skin cereal and fermented stone fruit, whole beast butchery beef with oyster mayo, pickled lettuce and a side of triple-cooked chips. For drinks, you can enjoy a French Martini Seltzer Ketel One Vodka, Tepache or Beeswax BlackBerry Soda. Waste never tasted better.

Where: Park Hyatt Sydney, 7 Hickson Rd, The Rocks
Handy for: The Neilson

Located on the edge of the Harbour, with the Sydney Opera House looming across the water, the Hyatt's signature restaurant showcases the Emerald City at its very finest. The menu is inspired by regional and coastal ingredients, which change just as often as the seasons do to utilise the very best of Australian produce. During the festival, a daily selection of à la carte specials will be on offer, guaranteed to delight just as much as the view.

Where: 339 Pitt St, Sydney 
Handy for: Kimpton Margot Sydney

This 1930s-style lobby lounge charms with its stylish, art-deco interior and ambience of soothing jazz that all but beckons one to enjoy an evening tipple. Here, great cocktails are a given, and the food is equally impressive with cuisine created by legendary Australian chef Luke Mangan. Sink into one of the velvet seats, and enjoy two courses of flavour-focused dining for $55.