A local's guide to Bronte and Tamarama

This Euro-leaning diner is possibly the best in the neighbourhood – home to a beautifully designed 75-seat dining room, a six-seat bar for post-beach Spritzes, and a semi-private dining room with a round marble table and burnt-orange chairs, that deserves a page in Architectural Digest. Order the spaghetti.

You’ve probably broken Iggy Ivanovic’s bread at one of Sydney’s top restaurants. This is bread you need to work at: the thick, chewy crust of the sourdough is a workout for the jaw, giving way to a slight earthy, sour flavour and incredible texture. Iggy’s bread deserves the best butter you can find, and that’s about all you’ll want to put on it. Open Tuesday to Sunday, from 7am until sold out (read: get in early).

Passeggiata is the neighbourhood Italian trattoria every suburb wants and needs. Sure, Sydney has plenty of places for spaghetti and a Spritz, but few also offer fresh focaccia, hand-rolled parpadelle and a 100 percent Italian wine list. You'll find it just up the road from Bronte Beach – the perfect spot for a big long dinner after a day in the sun.

Come to this hole-in-the-wall spot in Tama for excellent coffee and stunning floral arrangements. On Friday and Saturday nights, it transforms into one of Sydney's sexiest seaside wine bars. 

This comfy, sun-soaked neighbourhood café is a fave for locals who want to settle in with their laptop and a good coffee. And as great as it is as an office-away-from-home, it's also an excellent choice for brunch with friends – the Sri Lankan curried eggs have stayed on the menu for years, and other equally tasty, creative options rotate on and off. The green smoothie is the best in the city, if you ask me.

It's worth visiting this busy corner café for the coffee alone (always served with a perfectly chewy cube of chocolate brownie), but come hungry and settle in for brunch too. 

Eating out isn't getting much more wholesome and nutrient dense than the spread available at Bronte's Broth Bar and Larder. Not only can you stock up on activated nuts, cacao power bars and raw sokolata, kim chi, pâté, stock and tallow from Star Anise Organic Wholefoods, you can also sit down to a hot cup of broth in four flavours (chicken, beef, fish or vegetable) that you can opt to add flavour bombs to (coconut milk, ginger, cumin etc). 

Hot tip for new players: on Sunday Bronte Beach is a madhouse. On those days during summer a sea of fluoro-pink nippers and their parents floods this petite beach for junior surf lifesaver training. Instead, you want to head down here for a sunrise swim, or after the lunch rush. That way it’ll be a breeze when you rock up to the jaunty blue-painted kiosk for a smoothie, coffee or slushie. They also do fish and chips and burgers, like all good canteens should, and you can surf a sugar wave after you’ve battled the breakers with cookies, killer pythons and ice creams.