It’s been a busy six months in Sydney with restaurant and bar openings. It seems new venues have sprouted up in the city and its surrounds every other day. They range from an eight-person Korean omakase (Matkim), to a bar above Cartier’s flagship store (Joji) and a Euro-Japanese restaurant (Five) in an entirely new CBD precinct (Prefecture 38).
With all the new options, deciding which to check out can be overwhelming. Particularly when you realise that just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s good. So, to help you determine which new venue is for you, here’s an edit of 10 new Sydney restaurants and bars we consider the best in the bunch. Whichever you choose, it’ll be worth your while.
Fior
Fior opened in Gymea in the Sutherland Shire in May this year. It’s an Italian restaurant by the same duo behind Surry Hills venues Jane and Arthur. On the menu are antipasti, pasta and mains. Highlights include focaccia paired with a creamed almond dip, mafalde corte (a short and curly pasta) with pesto and stracciatella and whole market-fresh fish.
Tilda
Tilda is one of four venues in the revamped Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, run by House Made Hospitality and opened in October. The ground-floor restaurant serves modern Australian with ingredients from small-scale producers. Meat and seafood are cooked over charcoal and they’ve got pasta too. You can’t miss the ‘bread and butter’ service, which sees a tray arriving tableside, loaded with saltbush focaccia, chives, spring onions and Jersey milk cheese, and the dish being prepared in front of you.
Comedor
Opened in July, Comedor is a Mexican restaurant housed in a 100-year-old warehouse in Newtown. Seating choices are at a stone bar where you can watch chefs prepare your meal, timber banquette seating along the walls or a big communal dining table at the front. The restaurant has high ceilings with industrial black beams and white-painted brick walls. Dishes are beautifully plated and served on earthen tableware.
Attenzione! Food and Wine
Attenzione! Food and Wine is by four guys who’ve owned and worked at much-loved Sydney venues Ragazzi, Fabrrica and Yellow. Opened in July, the Redfern eatery and bar serves snacky Italian plates, alongside a long list of local and international wines. The restaurant has become known for its unusually shaped pasta, including a mochi-like pico, but it’s also got great meat and seafood.
Duk Inn
Neon lights, muralled walls and shelves of Maneki-neko (lucky cats) feature at Duk Inn on Newtown’s King Street, which opened in July. Founded by a third-generation Cantonese barbecue chef, the restaurant specialises in peking duck and snacks, including steamed scallops, deep-fried bread buns and Hong Kong-style chicken wings. If you want to try the mud crab or lobster, order 24 hours before. The restaurant seats just 34.
Benny’s
The Shire has stepped up its dining scene game this year, with the opening of Bobby’s, Fior, Pino Vino e Cucina and, in September, Benny’s. Located along the waterfront in Cronulla, overlooking Gunnamatta Bay, the restaurant serves Mediterranean-Australian, with simple recipes that let the fresh produce shine. Think corn ribs with curry leaf butter and grilled lime, rigatoni pasta with beef ragu and Queensland barramundi fillet with clams. They’ve got steak, too, including a Jacks Creek rib-eye on the bone.
Matkim
The smallest of Sydney’s new restaurants, Matkim in the Sydney Place dining precinct seats just eight. The restaurant is omakase-style, so the chef chooses what he’ll make for you and, thanks to an open kitchen, you can watch all your dishes being made. Ingredients are locally sourced or, in some cases, imported from Korea. The restaurant is open for dinner six nights a week.
Joji
Joji sits above Cartier’s flagship store with a wraparound terrace that looks out onto office buildings and George Street below. The venue is by the same team as restaurants Aalia, Lilymu, Nour and Ito. In addition to the terrace, it also features a cocktail lounge and dining space. The menu is Japanese-inspired with mostly snacks like sashimi, scallop and bug sando and chicken with fermented chilli. Joji is open until 2am seven nights a week.
Five
Five is in a new, three-floor precinct in Sydney’s CBD, which opened in October. Called Prefecture 48 — or P48 for short — it also houses three other restaurants (Garaku, Omakase and Ibushi), a patisserie (Dear Florence) and a whisky bar (Whisky Thief). Five’s menu blends European classics with Japanese flavours. You can choose from three, four or six course set menus.
Teddy
Teddy is a bar and bistro by the same owners as Ezra, taking over Raja’s location in Potts Point. Its menu is filled with reimagined classic comfort foods — think dinner rolls, king prawn cocktail and pork schnitty — that you can enjoy to the soundtrack of ‘80s bangers. Come on a Wednesday night and take advantage of a pasta and wine special. Mondays are BYO with no corkage fee.
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