Sydney sometimes gets overlooked on the world’s culinary stage, but while your attention has been elsewhere, it has been quietly building itself into a formidable city for excellent dining. Here are eight outstanding restaurants you need to check out on your next visit
Saint Peter
No part of a fish is wasted at Josh Niland's Saint Peter
Josh Niland is the sort of chef who only comes along once or twice in a generation: a laser-focused prodigy who doesn’t just cook food in a new way but upends everything you think you know about an entire class of produce. That produce is seafood, and Niland thinks – and probably dreams – about every minute of its journey to your plate, from its sustainable provenance to its on-site dry aging, storing and butchering to the way it’s cooked and served. In Niland’s hands, parts of fish that would ordinarily land in the garbage shapeshift into limitless possibilities: fish eye ice cream pressed into a kelp-flavoured choux bun, say, or bones used to make noodles. In mid 2024, Saint Peter will move to a new home, with more seating, greater ambitions and even its own luxury accommodation. But its central mission – namely, take-no-prisoners, whole-seafood cooking that pushes boundaries you didn’t even know you had – will remain rock solid.
362 Oxford Street Paddington NSW 2021
@saintpeterpaddo
Ester
The blood sausage sanga is one of Ester's must-orders
Ester, in the partially industrial suburb of Chippendale, began life as the quintessential neighbourhood restaurant. Eleven years later and a good chunk of Sydneysiders will tell you it is their favourite restaurant. In a city that gets easily dazzled every time the next big thing comes along, this is no small victory. The secret is that while Ester’s offering may have sharpened and matured over the years, its nucleus has not changed: a central wood-fired oven that has a part to play in every plate that leaves the pass. The non-negotiable dish is their famous blood sausage sanga (that’s Aussie for sandwich) but anything you order will be heightened by flame, enlivened by fermentation and almost certainly be the best thing you eat that day. Add a rockstar team of industry veterans, including executive chef-owner Mat Lindsay and head chef Nathan Brindle, and a wine list that is as organic and natural as fire itself, and you have one of Sydney’s greatest places to eat.
46-52 Meagher St, Chippendale NSW 2008
@ester_au
Baba’s Place
Dishes at Baba's Place take inspiration from a plethora of international cuisines
Everything about Baba’s Place, a joyful amalgamation of cultures and cuisines inside a warehouse in the inner west suburb of Marrickville, feels bright-eyed, heartfelt and sincere. A young, collaborative team headed up by two childhood friends – chef JP El Tom and creative director Alexander Kelly – has created a touching homage to the Australian immigrant experience, specifically the often-overlooked food they grew up with in sunburnt suburbia. Dishes here aren’t constrained by geography or tradition; you might find thick curlicues of Greek taramasalata on Japanese shokupan toast, or pickled mussels playing footsie with Italian panzanella. Meanwhile, the bar magics up clever cocktails based around rakija, beetroot or Lebanese herbs. Even the space has a nostalgic, mismatched feel to it featuring floral crockery, lace tablecloths, and furnishings and artwork collected from friends. The anchor that secures it all is El Tom’s exceptional feel for flavour, making a visit to Baba’s at once charming, profound and deeply delicious.
20 Sloane Street Marrickville NSW 2204
@babasplace__
Margaret
Local legend Neil Perry opened Margaret in 2021 as an independent venture
If you had to drill Sydney dining down to a single word, it would have to be ‘freshness’. Not just freshness of produce, though that is as fundamental to good Australian dining as plates or cutlery, but a freshness of attitude. You sense it in the love of bright, open dining spaces and in the sociable, relaxed way staff interact with guests. Chef Neil Perry helped pioneer all these things when he headed up legendary Sydney restaurants like Rockpool and Spice Temple. His open-kitchen, open-hearted Margaret is not only his first fully solo venture, but also the apex of all he’s achieved. Margaret celebrates Perry’s devotion to quality produce, such as perfect King George whiting served with little more than locally-grown olive oil, and his long-standing love of Asian flavours like his Thai-stye crab, pork and green mango salad. As Australian as sunshine and salty air, Margaret feels fresh from cocktail to coffee.
30-36 Bay St, Double Bay NSW 2028
@margaretdoublebay
Porkfat
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Thai food is a bedrock of Australian cuisine thanks to the country’s considerable diaspora and geographical proximity to Thailand. Some of the most punchy is being cooked at the delightfully compact and infinitely welcoming Porkfat in Sydney’s Haymarket. Chefs and co-owners Tanya Booprakong and Narin ‘Jack’ Kulasai spent much of their careers cooking for Australian Thai food legend David Thompson, before opening their own place in 2022. It draws from their own culinary experience as well as the cooking of Booprakong’s grandmother, Khan-Thong. Essential dishes, served on modern interpretations of ancient Chiang Rai earthenware, include the fragrant Phuket curry, which gets its deep flavour from Queensland prawn heads, and the formidable grilled pork jowl with smoked chili nam jim. The coconut ice cream, speckled with tiny treasures like candied pumpkin, is one of the city’s best desserts.
33 Ultimo Rd, Haymarket NSW 2000
@porkfatsydney
Sixpenny
Seasonal Australian produce is the order of the day at Sixpenny
The team at Sixpenny want you to feel like you’ve arrived at your best friend’s place for dinner, and they’re letting you sit in the fanciest room. ‘Quiet luxury’ is a good way to describe this serene, deceptively unassuming restaurant tucked into a vintage former shopfront in the sleepy suburb of Stanmore. Everything from the soft colour scheme to the floor staff’s understated service feels as premium as cashmere. But the sense of gentle cocoonment ends once you taste the food. Co-head chefs Daniel Puskas and Tony Schifilliti lead you through a seven-course, seasonally driven degustation that has so much surprise and excitement packed into each bite that you’ll wonder how the room can contain its energy. Wines are poured from all over the globe, but if you’re specifically interested in exploring the nuances of Australia’s multiple growing regions, you’ll find some of the best examples here.
83 Percival Rd, Stanmore NSW 2048
@sixpenny_au
Ormeggio at The Spit
Order the caviar-topped scampi brioche for a picture-perfect bite
If you visit Sydney and don’t eat beside the water at least once, you might just have your visa revoked. Long lunches beside the gentian-blue of the world’s most famous harbour or overlooking a sparkling stretch of coastline are a non-negotiable Sydney experience. The elegant Quay is a great place to do the former, while Icebergs Dining Room and Bar takes care of the latter, but there is a third way. Jump on a water taxi and zip over to Middle Harbour, and straight into the artful, Amalfi Coast stylings of Ormeggio. Executive chef-owners Alessandro Pavoni and Victor Moya approach their seafood-only Italian menu with a playfulness that verges on daring, like their three-fish bolognese, as meaty as mama’s ragu, or tuna ‘cotoletta’. The Italian-leaning wine list provides hundreds of very good reasons to ask that water taxi to wait a bit longer before ferrying you home.
D’Albora Marinas, Spit Rd, Mosman NSW 2088
@ormeggio
Oncore by Clare Smyth
Oncore delivers on both style and substance, with a breath-taking view to match
In the beginning, Sydney was hesitant about Oncore. What place did cooking from the ‘motherland’ (as the UK was once known) have in modern, resolutely multicultural Australia? But when Clare Smyth’s technique-driven, romanticised take on her favourite childhood food arrived, and the city saw hers and head chef Alan Stuart’s deep respect for Australian produce, it all made sense. The fact that it is presented with the sort of precise service that would make a corps de ballet weep with envy, plus matchless, sky-high views of the entire city, signals that Sydney has entered a new era in fine dining. Today, Oncore runs two concurrent menus; one that sticks to Smyth’s ‘core’ vision, and a second ‘seasonal’ offering that includes a playful take on a classic Aussie barbie and a brilliant version of steak tartare made with Western Grey kangaroo.
Crown Sydney, Level 26/1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000
@oncorebyclaresmyth
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