The best restaurants in Sydney right now

Sydney's dining scene operates at a level that makes international visitors recalibrate their assumptions about Australian food culture. The seafood, the Asian-Australian fusion, the wine list curation, and the waterfront settings that no other city can quite replicate combine to make Sydney dining an experience worth planning for.

Quay

Peter Gilmore's Quay Restaurant on the Overseas Passenger Terminal has held its position as one of Australia's definitive fine dining experiences for more than two decades. The harbour views, the snow egg dessert, and the produce-led tasting menu make it the Sydney booking for significant occasions.

Tetsuya's

Tetsuya Wakuda's restaurant in Kent Street remains one of the most distinctive dining experiences in the country — the Japanese-French harmony that Wakuda created in Sydney in the late 1980s is still surprising decades later, delivered in an exquisitely calm room with a Japanese garden that you walk through on arrival.

Ester

Mat Lindsay's Ester in Chippendale is the Sydney restaurant that every food professional points to when describing the contemporary Australian restaurant at its most creative. The wood fire cooking, the natural wine list, and the genuinely welcoming dining room make it the table that's hard to book and worth the effort.

Momofuku Seiōbo

The Australian outpost of David Chang's Momofuku empire at the Star has evolved beyond its New York DNA to become one of Sydney's most original fine dining experiences, with a tasting menu that draws on both the Chang playbook and the Australian ingredient environment in ways that reward every visit with something unexpected.

Poly

The smaller sibling of Ester, Poly on Foley Street in Chippendale focuses on wine and snacks that deserve better than the "bar food" label — the smoked eel bao, the chicken liver parfait, and the rotating by-the-glass natural wine list make it one of Sydney's best casual evenings.

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.