The best restaurants in Redfern

You might walk right past Fontana. But it's there. Atop a carpeted staircase that fades into the facade between two takeaway shops on Redfern Street, there’s a small red-trimmed restaurant that hums to cool jazz and the lively chatter of excited diners. (If you haven’t been yet, you might know this concealed location from its previous inhabitants, Ron’s Upstairs, which closed its doors in 2022.) Come to Fontana for delicious share plates, cracking pasta, and a damn good time. If you can find it.

Every family has a favourite Chinese restaurant. One where the owner knows you by name, and the team has your order down pat. Well, Redfern’s shiny new Chinese restaurant may knock your favourite off the top spot. It's by star restaurateurs and partners Hamish Ingham and Rebecca Lines. Come for modern Chinese classics like steamed fish with ginger and spring onions; stir-fried beef fillet with pepper and lemon; and wok-tossed iceberg lettuce with cucumber, black fungus and oyster sauce. The must-try dish is the aptly-named redbird, of course. While the bird itself will change regularly from chicken to duck or pigeon, it will always be poached in a classic, aromatic Cantonese red braise.

Bart Jr is exactly the kind of neighbourhood wine bar and restaurant you want in your hood. Cosy and colourful, with killer vinos and even better plates of food, and an atmosphere that makes you feel good. Here, the chefs don’t hold back on flavour, and it results in some seriously tasty bites. Share plates here run the gamut from anchovy toast to  polenta with ragù, and the haloumi with burnt honey is a real home run. Keep an eye out for them on Instagram, where they share delicious mid-week specials that you will want to get around.

It's always fun at the Sunshine Inn. Found on Redfern Street, the cosy wine bar and restaurant peddles tasty vegan and vego eats such as eggplant with tahini, chickpeas, pickled green beans and harissa butter; and a mighty tofu burger with cabbage slaw and miso mayo. Vino lovers are in for a treat: the wine list highlights emerging natural wine-makers around the country, but with classics for good measure. It's the kind of list, says owner Dan McBride, on which you'll find something both "for your hipster mate, and your favourite shiraz-swilling aunt." And, come in on Tuesdays and make the most of the $10 pasta deal. We sure have. 

The queue starts forming well before the doors swing open, and once that steaming hot bowl of noodles and tonkotsu broth arrives in front of you, you'll understand why. Owners Katie Shortland and Scott Gault spent serious time in Japan, pursuing the perfect ramen recipe, and if the endless crowds here are anything to go by, it looks like they found it. Prefer to keep it plant-based? They've got a knockout vegan version, too. 

Top chef and cookbook author Michael Rantissi brings the flavours of the Mediterranean and Middle East to Kepos Street at this neighbourhood institution that’s cultivated a fiercely loyal clientele over the years. Breakfast regulars come for some of the best baked eggs in town, but when lunch time comes, it's all about the hot smoked salmon salad with kipflers, olives, dukkah, soft boiled egg, and the meatball sub with a tomato ragù, grated haloumi and pesto.

The team at Bush is big on using native Aussie ingredients and sustainable produce. You'll see things like smoked eel pikelet with cultured cream and chilli jam; roo carpaccio with rock oyster cream and grissini; and warrigal greens, basil, and pistachio pesto pasta on the menu. Australians tend to cringe and shy away from depictions of their own culture, but this place feels like an honest celebration of the beauty and nostalgia of an Australian tuckshop in the ’90s. And we bloody love it.

Come here for a little slice of Japanese culture: hardcore devotion to nailing one thing, monastic attention to detail and all the beauty that comes along with it. Here, that thing is rice bowls, four of them to be exact. They're all quite pretty, layered, complex, textural and technique-driven, and the range of teas served alongside makes them even better. Just so darn lovely.