The best restaurants in Potts Point

The Apollo has been serving some of Sydney's tastiest Greek food for more than a decade now, with nearly as many hits as Dua Lipa. Take for example, the saganaki: a dish of golden and piping-hot cheese, drizzled with honey and fragrant oregano. Or, Apollo's crowning glory: an oven-baked lamb shoulder with perfectly tender, fall-off-the-bone-meat. Order with a side of garlicky roast potatoes and a fresh village salad and you’ve got yourself one heck of a brilliant Greek feast.

You've probably had at least one 'a-ha' moment with Dan Pepperell’s cooking. The pretzel with whipped bottarga that may never leave 10 William Street’s menu, perhaps? Or was it the triumphant chicken fricassée or gutsy kimchi gratin at Restaurant Hubert? Odds are, you're likely to have another one at his other venture, Bistrot 916. Especially if you order the duck frites. It’s not the most elaborate dish you’ll ever see, but it doesn’t have to be – not when the fat underneath the dry-aged bird’s rugged skin is so carefully rendered; the breast meat itself both rosy and preposterously juicy; the just-crisp shoestring chips seasoned to a tee. Then there’s the sauce: a mustardy, herb-heavy butter emulsion with walnuts, Worcestershire and anchovies that puts the red wine jus you might have expected to shame.

This simple dining room with a giant chalkboard on one wall stands staunch in its consistency in the face of a dining scene fixated on the hot new trend. This is the kind of Italian fare that makes a 24-hour flight seem worth it, but you can get it for an Opal fare to Kings Cross Station. The menu rarely changes and walks a righteous path of carbs, cheese and meat. There’s usually a ragu delivered under a fresh snowfall of cheese. There’s probably a one-serve lasagnetta on the menu, the curly-edged pasta sheets barely holding in a bursting core of bolognaise, but it’s a toss-up whether it wins a place over a crumbed veal cutlet.

The walls at Parlar are adorned with three striking tapestries by artist Alexander Calder, but in our opinion the real art here is executive chef Jose Saulog’s faultless cooking. A feather-like snack of churros topped with creme fraiche and an anchovy dusted with lemon myrtle are the perfect ways to start the night. Next, a dish of kingfish crudo with caviar, sweet orange and smoked tomato oil; as well as an asparagus tart, topped with delicate scale-like slices of zucchini and paired salty chorizo are both almost too pretty to eat. Even if a trip to Catalonia isn’t on the cards, at least you can travel there for the night at Parlar.  

Nick and Kirk know how to run a banging restaurant – they’ve run crowd-favourite Ezra (Ashkenazi, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours) in Potts Point for years. Now they’ve opened Teddy, a “modern Aussie bistro” in the former Raja site next door. Nick tells us that they’re having a bit of fun with Teddy, serving up nostalgic menu items with a mod twist. Starters include a prawn cocktail, a French onion dip with chopped radish, and pork and crayfish sausage rolls with “fancy tom sauce”. Think: sophisticated takes on the types of things granny used to whip up for a cocktail party.

Looking for a vibey date-night spot or a place to snack and sip with a friend? Head to 9 Ward Avenue, where you’ll find French-ish wine bar and diner, Caravin. There’s a carefree European feel here, with street-drinkers joyously swilling bottles on short stools and pre-drinking during Caravin’s late-afternoon Apéro Hour. And just like the wine, the food is great too.

We expect vegetables to be part of a great tasting menu in Sydney, but it’s rare to see them demand the spotlight like a diva hitting the high notes and refuse to relinquish their starring role. This is what makes Yellow such an extraordinary restaurant. The team have seismically shifted how we frame fine dining in Sydney, and we love them for it.

At Franca, dressed-up French brasserie mainstays and modern Mediterranean cooking come together in a dazzling Potts Point dining room that's spared absolutely no expense. Move over Paris – it’s midnight on Macleay Street.

If you’re not into offal there’s still plenty to occupy you at Chaco Bar. Skewers of chicken thigh, each piece interspersed with a slice of onion, slow-grilled over charcoal. Exceptionally tender Wagyu tri-tip given extra impact with anchovy butter. Or chicken wings cleverly stuffed with minced chicken and pork, fried crisp to mimic gyoza. All are varying degrees of excellent, but if you’re not eating the parts at Chaco you’re missing out.  

A luridly pink neon sign tells you that the little corner terrace house is not a share house or hostel, but rather a 90-seat restaurant importing Tel Aviv's street food culture – heavily influenced by Palestinian and other Middle Eastern countries' cuisine – to a city sorely in need of faraway adventures. The swish Potts Point eatery does a modern riff on Middle Eastern cuisine, and the result is tops.

To dine at Cho Cho San is just as much about feasting the eyes as the taste buds. Order it all to share, try something you’ve never tried before from the drinks menu and brush shoulders with the breezy and beautiful clientele, any day of the week. Time Out tip: Cho Cho San's set menu is a steal at $65 per person, and it comes with all the hits. Order that.

Occupying the old Commonwealth Bank site on MacLeay Street, this copper-clad, honeycomb-tiled 120-seat French bistro is more ambitious than your average local, but no less neighbourly. The chefs have taken a solid line-up of bistro classics and given them a lighter, more Mediterranean spin. At Rex, butter and cream-based sauces are often swapped for olive oil and citrusy dressings. But old school bistro fans can still get their steak tartare fix accompanied by dark malt crackers or a slice of porcelain smooth chicken liver parfait topped with sweet and sour jelly cubes, instead of the usual sauternes jelly.

We’ve all been there – so hungry that you’ll offer your shoes, your bank balance or even your first born for a little snack and something to drink. And Dear Sainte Eloise gets it. Hell, the Love Tilly Group named the Potts Point wine bar for that moment of blood sugar crisis when George Orwell, while Down and Out in Paris and London, prayed to what he thought was a saint for a little supper. Luckily for you and your progeny, all you need is cash, and the makings of a perfect evening will wend their way to your wooden table top over the course of a very enjoyable few hours in this classically styled perch. 

Ms G’s has been keeping the good people of Potts Point well fed with delicious and playful food, and hydrated with fruity and refreshing drinks, since it opened with a bang in 2011. And while the venue may be in need of a freshen up, Dan Hong’s menu still slaps with big flavours and all the fun that made you fall in love with the joint all those years ago. Cheeseburger spring rolls, we’re talking about you. 

Cured diner Chester White has smart format: a small handful of dishes to support a larger cured meat menu. There are extra sides if you want them when you order – say, the papery slices of culatello (“the king of cured meats”) – but each meat plate comes locked and loaded with chunky house-made pickles, a jacket potato, Sicilian green olives, some slices of asiago cheese and bread. This is picking food, the sort of thing you’d order with a Negroni. It’s an attractive little place. Most of the inside is taken up with a grand counter of glossy tiles lined with big comfy retro diner chairs lit by '40s-style frosted glass shades which hang overhead, plus lots of hanging salumi.

The Butler in Potts Point has pretty great views of Sydney's city skyline. And its open deck, dotted with lush greenery and cane furniture, is the perfect vantage point. Come for a long lunch and dine on slow-braised pork empanadas with citrus, achiote (orange spice) and habanero, and tasty tacos. 

Owner Michael Mu Sung, alongside head chef Jacob Riwaka (Rising Sun Workshop) have kept things simple at this 20-seat hole in the wall diner. The Bones Ramen menu features lacto-fermented nuka pickles; smoked chilli and egg yolk potato salad; and the crowd pleasing fried Bannockburn chicken thighs with yuzu mayonnaise for starters. There are four ramen bowls of pork broth with chashu, soy egg, watercress and menma; chicken paitan with whole chicken chashu, soy egg, shallots and menma; scallop silks, ebi shinjo, shallots and nori; or the vego friendly bowl of Jerusalem artichoke, celeriac chashu, shiitake and oyster mushrooms with roast tomato. It may just be eight dishes, but there's a whole lot going on in this kitchen and attention to detail is incredibly high.