Where we ate in Sydney

(updated Dec 2023)

We've spent six months in Sydney since the end of the Australian border closure and have eaten a lot of tasty things in that time. Overall the food scene felt a lot like San Francisco – great Asian food, lots of emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients, some old holdovers from our Anglo-European roots, along with some fresh imports. You can get dim sum (aka yum cha) for breakfast, a delicious banh mi for lunch (with a VN iced coffee made from locally-roasted beans), have salt and pepper squid (the national dish of Australia) with a pint at the pub after work, hit the birria truck for dinner, have sticky toffee pudding for dessert, go clubbing and then scarrf down a halal snack pack as your booze mop before going to bed. And then you'd be as fat as I am :)

When I say 'great Asian food', I mean better than New York. Better than San Francisco. Better than Los Angeles. Until I can go on a random Tuesday and get me a salty dou jiang, a hu jiao bing, and a Shanghai-style meat moon cake in one of those cities, Sydney stays on top in my book. 

TIP 1: Zantac and Pepcid AC are prescription-only in Australia, so bring some with you if Tums isn't strong enough for you.

TIP 2: My Chase Sapphire seemed to honor most of its bonus categories in Australia (travel, restaurants, etc) but my Amex did not (no grocery bonus at Coles or Woolies and almost no restaurants got dining bonuses, YMMV).

As with my other food guides, I don't mention famous/Michelin-starred places because everyone already knows Firedoor and Saint Peter are good. Here's some of our slightly-off-the-beaten-path faves:

Westwood's pizza is fantastic. I love the marinara pizza served with a tin of anchovies.

hu jiao bing in Sydney at Mother Chu's Taiwanese Gourmet
胡椒餅在悉尼!

yum cha / dim sum at The Eight. The lines are LONG but they move!

Spicy Joint for amazing Sichuan (definitely get the cold chicken with chili sauce)

Tasty Uyghur at Kiroran (the cold noodle with stir-fried lamb was amazing)

Laksa from Malay Chinese. DEFINITELY get a big dollop of that skunky sambal.  

I'd been wanting to eat Kylie Kwong's food forever! Her Lucky Kwong is perfection

Everything, but especially these crab dumps, from New Shanghai 

Beautiful ferry ride out to Queen Chow in Manly. Try to get a table by the window and definitely order the pippies with XO sauce. (They have a second location in Enmore)

1915 Lanzhou Beef Noodles in Burwood. They're spicy and rich and halal – definitely worth the trip.
Get a bottle of suan mei tang plum tea to cut the heat. (Second location in Chinatown)

Piña's XO tofu scramble was so good it made me angry. So was Kelly's BEC.

Sydney Cebu Lechon – amazing roast pork! definitely upgrade to the garlic butter rice

the caramelized pork banh mi at Alex N Rolls is amazing.

Beach Club at Watson's Bay (great stop en route to/from the gay nude beach)

Monday night at Cafe Paci felt like I was eating a staff meal at a great restaurant. Get the Brian wine!

tasty tacos (with salsa macha - the OG chili crisp!) and watermelon beer at the Rico's Tacos location inside the Grifter brewery.

the smoked duck and the mushroom sandwich at Rolling Penny

Israeli cafe Shenkin has the best coffee and delicious shakshuka... oh and their bacon egg and cheese bourekas!

A.P. Bakery in Newtown. the Szechuan lamb flatbread and the macadamia thyme croissant were both life changing. (Second location in Surry Hills)

Ante for innovative Japanese with an amazing sake list

Poly has an amazing wine list and some fun stuff to eat with it. Fresh cheese curds and garlic confit, sesame whip with fermented potato bread

crack open that urchin and make it into sushi for me at Sydney fish market (and it's BYOB!)

great bagels at Lox, Stock, and Barrel in Bondi

"jewish penicillin" aka matzo ball soup from 21 Espresso

The MCA museum cafe - same view as Cafe Sydney with a much lower price tag

MuMu for modern Asian/Fusion and cocktails. The eggplant is other worldly. 

My own contribution to Australian cuisine: vegemite congee (it wasn't half-bad!)

If you want to taste Sydney food without the long flight, visit Chinese Tuxedo in NYC's Chinatown. Definitely order the burrata in strange flavor sauce. 

sticky toffee / date pudding at Macelleria

For desserts we had several favorites so Dr. K got a cake "charcuterie board" for his birthday:
Saga Enmore (closed mid-2023), Tokyo Lamington, Black Star Pastry, and Azuki.
Bake Bar and Shuk both make good Hamentaschen for Purim!

A note about coffee

I always say "It's not that Paris has the best croissants, it's that you're 3 blocks from a decent one everywhere in the city." That's kinda how Sydney felt with coffee. Nothing revolutionary (seriously, a small ristretto no-foam latte existed long before they nicknamed it a flat white), but most places that bother to serve coffee actually bother to make it good. Even the Singapore Airlines lounge at the airport had a live barista and a digital scale grinder rather than one of those robotic espresso machines you see everywhere else. It felt like being in Seattle to me. 

other stuff

• I’m briankusler on Instagram and I basically only post food pix with corresponding restaurant check-ins
• My Montreal food page is here.
• My Tokyo food guide is here.
• My Taipei page is here.
• My New York City food page is here.
• My Mexico City page is here.