10 Great Restaurants in Sydney

Restaurant Hubert brings a decadent slice of Paris to a wood-panelled basement in Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD), complete with live jazz, vintage posters, and plenty of gleaming brass and red velvet swag. On the menu, expect classic French cooking peppered with Asian-inspired dishes such as a kimchi gratin and Pomme Anna with a miso beurre blanc.

Restaurant Hubert has 3 bars, several private dining rooms, and an in-house ‘Theatre Royale’ art house cinema. Enjoy pre-dinner cocktails in the Pincer Bar, whilst drooling over the dinner menu. Don’t miss their famous Chicken Fricassée or, if it’s a special occasion, why not treat yourself to the Petit or Grand Banquet tasting menus?

Aria, in Sydney’s central business district (CBD), has been one of Australia’s leading fine dining restaurants for more than 2 decades, and boasts show-stopping views over Circular Quay and the Opera House. Hyper-seasonality is the name of the game here, and you will find local producers on the innovative menu, as well as unique Australian ingredients such as Spanner Crab and Dusky Flathead fish.

Pick from a la carte or the tasting menu—which also includes dedicated vegetarian, vegan, and dairy-free options. If you’re dining on a budget but still want to try this famous restaurant, make an early reservation for the less expensive pre-Theatre menu.

Bennelong offers up a unique chance to enjoy modern Australian fine dining inside the world-famous Sydney Opera House, overlooking Circular Quay.

Australian wine and local produce, such as super-creamy Tasmanian butter and Maremma pasture-raised ducks, are the stars of the menu. Choose from the indulgent 3-course a la carte menu or sit at the counter and enjoy 2 courses with side-by-side high bar seating. At night, you’ll be treated to glittering views of the harbour and bridge.

Quay is arguably Sydney’s (and therefore Australia’s) best restaurant, situated on the 2nd floor of the Overseas Passenger Terminal on Circular Quay West, overlooking the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Sister restaurant to Bennelong, a tasting menu at Quay offers a chance to experience Australian fine dining at the top of its game.

Indulge in the 6 or 8-course tasting menu or make a reservation for weekend lunch to try the fractionally less decadent 4-course menu. It offers diners White Coral, a super-aerated white chocolate ganache frozen with liquid nitrogen, which has been winning rave reviews.

LuMi Dining is a tasting-menu-only restaurant at Wharf 10 in Pyrmont. It offers innovative, award-winning, seasonal modern Italian food with a Japanese twist, with a focus on seafood. Uncompromisingly modern, with chic minimalist décor, glass walls and a ceiling of starry pendant lights, LuMi Dining is tucked away from the bustle of the city, and overlooks the superyachts moored outside.

Italian Japanese fusion comes to life with chef Federico Zanellato’s creations such as hand-cut tagliatelle with Moreton Bay bug and a scampi XO bisque. There is a full vegetarian tasting menu, and most dietary requirements can be accommodated if you give them a few days’ notice when you make a reservation; however, they currently do not cater for vegans or dairy-free diners.

Mr. Wong is a bustling split-level restaurant in the 5-star Establishment Hotel, in Sydney’s CBD, serving up modern dim sum for lunch and more substantial Cantonese favourites for dinner. With more than 80 dishes on the menu and a weighty 40-page international wine list, Mr. Wong is a winner with boisterous groups looking to taste their way around the delights of Southern Chinese cuisine.

House specials include barbecue duck—they have a whole room dedicated to it. The local rock lobster and mud crab are cooked fresh from the tank.

Fred’s, in the heart of Paddington, is a cosy, unpretentious, produce-driven restaurant combining old-world Mediterranean flavours with innovative modern Australian style. The house-baked fougasse and grilled leg of lamb are staples on the ever-changing, seasonally driven menus—don’t miss these fan favourites!

Order up a signature cocktail and sit back on one of the well-cushioned chairs to watch the team cook in the open plan kitchen. Alternatively, take a seat at the counters book-ending the kitchen to get a better look at the show.

Ester is an innovative restaurant with a menu driven by seasonal ingredients. Located in the Chippendale neighbourhood, it features a creative wine list that showcases organic and biodynamic wines from around the world. The menu of mostly wood-fired small sharing plates adds deliciously gourmet touches to simple fare such as ricotta gnudi with tea-smoked tomato and parmesan or their ‘blood sausage sanga’, a fan-favourite steamed bread with a flavourful boudin noir.

The set menu offers up excellent value and a chance to eat your way around Ester’s current hits. Put yourself in the hands of your sommelier and ask for their suggestions for wine or cocktails as the menu features lesser-known small producers.

Yellow is a tasting-menu-only vegan restaurant and wine bar in a converted 1950s art gallery in Potts Point, which celebrates seasonal local ingredients and features vegan wines. Heirloom vegetable varieties are the stars of the multi-course menu, which features Asian-inspired creations such as smoked carrot with whipped tofu, and black garlic.

The tasting menu changes with the seasons and gives you a chance to try the finest, freshest produce available from local farmers and growers. Yellow was the first vegan restaurant to be awarded the prestigious 2 Chefs Hats in Australia’s Good Food Guide.

Saint Peter is a small 22-seat sustainable seafood restaurant in Paddington. Diners overlook the kitchen from their seats at the long marble counter that runs the length of the room. If you’re looking to dine a la carte, try out their lunch time menu, but dinner is where adventurous diners are rewarded. Discover 7 exceptional courses of flavourful seafood, safe in the knowledge that not one piece of fish, from fin to scale, was wasted.

The innovative approach to sustainable seafood and on-display cooking lets you watch as chefs remove pin bones and grill aged fish skin into crisp crackling. You can even quiz the chefs on where your mackerel fillets came from and how they were harvested!