The Best Restaurants in Sydney Right Now

Sydney's restaurant scene is genuinely world-class and genuinely competitive, with a concentration of talent, produce access (the Sydney Fish Market, the Hunter, the Southern Highlands), and a diner population demanding enough to ensure that quality is the minimum requirement rather than the differentiator. These are the rooms that the city's most demanding eaters consistently return to.

Quay — Peter Gilmore's Quay at the Overseas Passenger Terminal remains Sydney's most decorated restaurant and one of the world's significant fine dining destinations. The Snow Egg dessert (now off the menu but culturally embedded), the harbour views, and the precision of the kitchen's Australian modernist cuisine place Quay in the rare category of a restaurant with a genuinely unique contribution to world cuisine.

Bentley Restaurant and Bar — Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt's CBD restaurant continues to represent the best of Sydney's wine-forward, produce-driven contemporary dining. The wine list's breadth and the kitchen's intelligence make Bentley the dining room of choice for food professionals and serious eaters for whom wine and food must be equally excellent.

Ester — Mat Lindsay's Ester in Chippendale, with its wood-fired cooking philosophy and the natural wine list that anchors the room's identity, represents the best of Sydney's more casual but no less serious end of the dining spectrum. The flatbreads, the ferments, and the produce-driven simplicity of the menu have made Ester one of Sydney's most consistently excellent restaurants since opening.

Tetsuya's — Tetsuya Wakuda's kaiseki-influenced tasting menu in the Kent Street house remains one of Australia's most significant restaurants: the Japanese-French synthesis Tetsuya developed over 35 years is unique, and the service and wine list match the kitchen's ambition.

Nomad — in Surry Hills, Nomad's Middle Eastern-influenced share plates, the wood-fired cooking, and the natural wine programme represent Sydney's best mid-market dining with genuine ambition and consistency.

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