The best restaurants in Parramatta

If you enjoy a bit of Asian fusion, you'll love Lilymu's extravagant reimagined classics. They boast a wide array of tasty dishes including kingfish ceviche, black garlic mi goreng and banana leaf roasted barramundi. If you’re after something to really blow your mind, we’d recommend the ricotta dumplings, served with toasted sesame and a peanut chilli crisp. Lilymu doesn’t only offer delicious food – their cocktail menu is up there with Sydney's best. Their signature drink, the Chow Sour, combines vodka, soho lychee, yuzu and lemon. Bottomless drinks more your style? Think free-flowing Espresso Martinis and Sake Spritzes with tasty share plates for 90 minutes – weekend sorted.

One of the newest additions to Parramatta, Al Aseel is well-known across Sydney for their authentic Lebanese food. Their hummus is so good you’ll want to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you’re visiting with a few friends, go for the feast option. At only $59 per person, you’ll be able to try a taste of most of their menu.

This is the most popular Indian restaurant in Sydney, according to many Indian people. The hype, queues and Friday evening bustle are due to the fact that Chatkazz serves street food as it’s done in Mumbai, and they were the first in Sydney to do so. Expect to find soft white bread rolls buttered to high-heaven and plated up with rich chickpea stews, puffy flat breads crisped on a hot grill and samosas. Or maybe just bits of fried dough, smashed and splattered with yoghurt and tamarind syrup.

The hugely popular Malaysian eatery tucked into a little pedestrian laneway in central Parramatta doesn’t go in for frippery or frills – they would only distract you with the flavours in your bowl, and they deserve your whole-hearted attention. The beef rendang will quiet all those tiresome people who come back from a Malaysian holiday only to moan about how nothing here compares. Love laksa? These guys are famous for their creamy noodle soups that come densely packed with fresh bean sprouts, fat prawns and deep-fried tofu wedges.

Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing venue in Parramatta, Willo has it all. This opulent restaurant sources produce from local growers, has a cocktail list longer than most bars, and will have you day-dreaming about your meal for weeks after your dining experience. Their menu is designed to be shared. Our picks? Start with the stuffed zucchini flowers, dive into the housemade ravioli with blue swimmer crab, and end on a high, with the signature Willo Espresso Martini.

If you’re after the most authentic North Indian Mughlai cuisine, head to Gingers Indian Restaurant on Wigram Street in Harris Park. Don’t let the quaint cottage facade trick you; this home-style cooked food will transport you to the streets of North India in a mouthful. Their butter chicken is rich and creamy, with a touch of sweetness. Vegetarians, go the baingan bharta – this smoky roasted eggplant dish pairs perfectly with their cheesy garlic naan.

We take great joy in finding something in the last place you’d expect it to be. Appearing like a cheerful mirage in a wasteland of municipal buildings and parking stations, Circa is a sight for sore eyes. This coffee shop brightens up the dreary brickwork and abandoned lots of this utilitarian street with beautiful murals and the smell of strong coffee hanging in the air. Yes, it's a café, which means it's a lunchtime only affair, but it's also excellent so put it on your hit-list.

A good beef noodle soup can bring you back from the dead. The combination of full flavoured beef broth, thin slices of beef, flat rice noodles and green onion, cut with a squeeze of lemon and brightened with torn basil leaves and crunchy bean shoots is enough to revive the sick, the depraved and the downright hung over. But before the beef soup we plump for Pho Pasteur’s super-sized spring rolls. Served with half a head of iceberg lettuce and pile of mint, the idea is to wrap the spring roll in the greens then dip in a mix of palm sugar, fish sauce and chilli. 

PappaRich is designed as a modern version of the traditional Malaysian kopitiam (coffee shop). But it's not just the sugary coffee that diners at the Parramatta outlet are queuing for – this is where to get your nasi lemak and laksa fix in what is now Sydney’s second CBD. The eatery, located outside the bus concourse, is crowded with commuters, local business people, and a significant number of Malaysian Australians, which is always a good sign. Given there are now a fair few PappaRich outlets in Sydney, it seems they’ve hit on a formula for success – affordable, no-frills hawker-style food and drinks. 

This is definitely the best biryani in Parramatta. The best biryani in Sydney, probably. The Hyderabad House secret (a tradition from the central Indian city) is to cook all the rice, meat and spices layered in a pressure cooker. The result is a more aromatic and less punch-you-in-the-face savoury hit. They're so serious about the quality of the biriyani coming out of the kitchen that they cook fresh batches of biryani every 60 minutes, noon or night.

Sometimes, all you need is a gigantic bowl of pasta and an extensive cocktail list. Meet new kid on the block, Frankie B’s. Aesthetically pleasing, this Instagrammer’s heaven is a mix of Italian meets international cuisine. Known for their enormous food servings (think a bowl of pasta to feed four people), Frankie B’s is an extremely popular brunch, lunch and dinner spot. If smoking cocktail towers are more your thing, you have to try their Ocean Smoke drink. Large enough to share with four of your closest mates, this delicious concoction combines Alizé, blue curaco, white rum, lychee and elderflower for a taste sensation.

We’re all for cheap eats, but sometimes you want to dress up, drink expensive red wine and indulge. Enter, the Meat & Wine Co. This Australian steakhouse is anything but ordinary, offering its patrons five-star treatment on the edge of the Parramatta River. Inspired by their African Heritage, the Meat & Wine combines an Afro-centric design with ultra-modern interiors, resulting in a distinctly warm and inviting atmosphere. It’d be a crime not to order steak at a steakhouse – the Wagyu rump comes with a marble score of +6 (aka melt in your mouth). We’ll take three, please.