The best restaurants in Sydney for a long lunch

This little beachfront restaurant looks like a coastal café but has the heart of a fine diner, and for 30 years it has been setting the standard for thoughtful modern Australian cooking. Owner chef Sean Moran was all about local produce long before it was cool, and with views out over Bondi Beach it's the best place to spend a chunk of your weekend on memorable food and great wine.

Pro tip: Be sure to order the perfect golden roast chook on Sean's three-course menu – it's a signature dish for a reason.

It can be easy to overlook the old guard in favour of the new, but we can't think of many better ways to spend an afternoon than gazing at Freshwater Beach, pretending you're in Sardinia and eating Giovanni Pilu's delectable Italian food.

Pro tip: Freshwater is a short Uber from Manly, which means you can add a ferry trip to double down on waterfront views. 

While a meal at any time of the day at top chef Phil Wood’s upscale Paddington restaurant Ursula's will surely be memorable, we reckon that during the day is when the venue truly shines its brightest. From the plush, caramel-coloured carpet to the Maison Balzac glassware and splashes of cobalt blue, the dining room is an interior lover’s dream. Food lovers will be chuffed with Wood’s seriously delicious cooking, too.

Pro-tip: The Moreton Bay bug pasta with a luscious crustacean butter continues to live rent free in our mind, years on. Order that.

Mimi's is something of a chip off the old block (Merivale's Bert's did fancy coastal bistro first), but it's also its own fancy beast. With a prime position right on Coogee Beach, it's worth making it a day trip for the beautiful views out those huge, arched windows. Dress for the occasion and treat yourself – if there was ever a time to order bumps of caviar and vodka, it's now.

Pro tip: Merivale pretty much specialise in long lunch venues, so take your pick from Bert's, Totti's, or Fred's.

Chef Neil Perry's swansong restaurant is one of his most personal ventures. Margaret feels very much like a family affair. Step inside and Perry’s daughter, manager Josephine Perry Clift, might be the first to greet you. Look towards the open kitchen, and you’ll spot executive chef Richard Purdue on the pass, who began working alongside Perry more than 30 years ago as an apprentice at Rockpool. The menu is pure Perry: Mediterranean and Asian flavours refracted through a contemporary Australian lens, bolstered by namechecked produce that’s some of the finest in the land.

Pro tip: Scan the cocktail list, and you’ll discover the perfect Martini was “quintessential” to Margaret, Perry’s late mother, after whom the restaurant is named. Seems only fitting, then, to start with one.

From the nautical, elegant-yet-relaxed dining room to the well-paced produce-driven set menu and the old-school polished service, Bathers' Pavilion was made for long lunches. This is the kind of place where four hours can pass you by blissfully and seamlessly like a surfer riding a wave. Except instead of ocean droplets, you’ll be knocking back after a glass of crisp white wine.

Pro-tip: Stretch your legs after lunch with a stroll along the pretty Balmoral Promenade. Also, parking is notoriously expensive in this neck of the woods. Leave the car at home and catch an Uber.

Reviews of LuMi often allude to a quote – “You are confined only by the walls you create” – that’s etched onto the sliding glass doors that surround the handsomely appointed dining room. On a warm summer night you’ll find those doors flung open, and the irony isn’t lost. It's a fitting metaphor for a technically faultless dining experience with no constraints, one of the city’s very best, where the only rule seems to be that there aren’t any.

Pro tip: If you can't make a lunch opt for the late sitting to luxuriate in the tasting menu.

Pro tip: Book a table on the balcony to soak up that sunshine and good vibes. 

Let’s face it, drinking Spritzes among ocean views and a corps of Sydney’s most beautiful people at neighbouring tables will never go out of style. Even if the water is so cold you can hardly feel your face, we still like to be near it, which is what makes Icebergs such a great time. 

Pro tip: Do the turn by heading through to the bar afterwards for cheeky drinks and maybe even a fashionable (chair) boogie.

When you sit down at the beautiful marble topped counter that runs the length of the Paddington eatery it’s not a simple matter of ‘what do you want to eat?’, but rather, ‘what can you not afford to miss?’. Take it from us, Saint Peter has transformed the expectations of seafood dining in Sydney.

Pro tip: Go hard on the starters – the seafood charcuterie is unlike anything else you can eat in Sydney, maybe Australia.

The Northern Beaches is a top pick for a long and lazy lunch by the sea and the Newport is an outstanding choice for families and friends alike. With great pub grub, stunning views and flowing drinks, why not settle in and really make a day of it?

Pro tip: There's an exciting kids area to keep the little ones entertained while you grab that extra glass of bubbles.

In terms of lunch real estate, it doesn't get much better than Manly Pavilion. The gorgeous, heritage-listed building is literally perched over the water in Manly, so you can soak up panoramic ocean views. Throw in a crowd-pleasing menu and cool drinks and that sounds like a pretty great day to us.

Pro-tip: Shimmy on down for happy hour 5-7pm weekdays, and if you feel like a dance, DJs hit the decks each Friday from 5pm.

Imagine if you were going to spend the rest of your life at one bar and restaurant. You’d need it to be the complete package.  We’re talking incredible drinks, great service and enough cheese to kill a man. An ace steak wouldn’t hurt and if they could also have an impressive canned goods store that would last you through an apocalypse, that’d be the cherry on top. At Continental you’re looking at your future life partner, in venue form.

Pro tip: One of Continental's most popular signatures is its canned cocktails. Order one for the puns (will it be a Mar-tinny to start?) and several more for the flavour.

This glitzy Woolloomooloo spot is known for being a wharfside runway for stars and the go-to for long lunches. With its postcard-worthy location and packed tables, Otto isn’t short on buzz. For an Italian restaurant to be making one of the best vegan menus in town, they're not short on talent either.

Pro-tip: In tandem with a specialty vegan menu Otto offers the most flavourful vegetarian menu, too.

Overlooking Chiswick's lush gardens with a glass of rosé in one hand and a spoonful of delectable food in the other is what we like to call Sydney-heaven. Plus there are loads of big tables if there's a big group involved, and it's the perfect window to order the famous Moran family slow-roasted lamb.

Pro-tip: If you've got a group of four or more opt for the set menu, which includes plenty of tasty bits from the garden.

Found in Sydney’s CBD, the historic clocktower building is home to four gorgeous venues. While each venue has its own personality and identity – red-hued Art Deco style Clocktower Bar, we’re looking at you – the jewel in the house is no doubt the Dining Room & Terrace, found on the ninth floor. Designed by Anna Hewett, the sun-lit room features a large open kitchen, cream lamps and beige curved seating – though the space is anything but beige. Outside, a wrap-around terrace dotted with fruit trees and cityscape views has long, boozy lunches written all over it.

Pro-tip: After lunch, be sure to head up to the showstopping Sky Bar for one last drink.

Roasted ducks, whole mud crabs and rock lobsters might hog the limelight at Mr Wong, but smart players know to make it a lunchtime occasion. It's only during the daylight hours that they have their dim sum menu available, and it's some of the finest dumpling work in town.

Pro tip: You can still get the big ticket proteins at lunch time so it's a win all round.

Lunch at Lankan Filling Station will see your tiny table so laden with flavours, spices and colours that it’s like dining inside a kaleidoscope. A delicious one at that. It's open on Friday and Saturdays only for lunch, so book ahead.

Pro tip: Buy some of the house-made curry powders and sambols to take home and tide you over until next feast.

We might be a city of forever shifting dining whims, but our love of scampi, split and grilled in their shells, next to a tangle of spaghetti wearing vermillion tomato sugo and chopped parsley like edible couture never falters. That’s why it’s always a roll of the dice for how hard it’s going to be to get a table at Fratelli Paradiso for lunch on a weekend. 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.

Pro tip: The wines by the glass are a great time, but by the bottle the range opens out to something a whole lot more fun and diverse.

Bennelong offers you everything to love about the city bundled up into one extravagent dining experience. Yes, the fine dining scene in Sydney has quite the reputation for serving teeny-tiny portions that leave you in desperate need of a maccas run on the way home. But with dishes like Bennelong's much-loved sashimi scallops served with oyster cream, pickled white turnips and black vinegar laver, an overwhelming kick of flavour and depth will leave any thoughts of hunger totally KO'd. We recommend ordering the glorious chocolate crackle for dessert. You won't regret it. 

Pro tip: A walk around the Botanic Gardens is socially distant, beautiful and a great way to finish your love affair with the city.

New Zealand import Botswana Butchery is found in Martin Place's insane $170 million hospo hub at the foot of the Siedler-designed MLC tower. The sprawling 300 seat diner comes with a rooftop space for 350 above two floors of restaurant space that's almost always bustling with crowds. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows and tucked-away niches add to the venue's relaxed indoor-outdoor atmosphere. The entire lush fit-out is complete with velvet wingback chairs, making for quite the swish experience indeed. 

Pro tip: Given the name, it's unsurprising that the menu at Botswana Butchery is heavy on the meat, so make sure everyone in your party is a card-carrying carnivore.