Myffy Rigby

There’s no doubt about it, Sydneysiders can’t get enough of Italian food. And who can blame us? There’s something about a bowl of perfectly al dente pasta paired with a luscious, rich ragu that just hits the spot. And while Italian cuisine differs throughout the 20 incredible regions – broadly speaking, the northern regions eat more rice and polenta, while down south they feast more on seafood – Italians share a love of beautiful, seasonal produce; they choose simplicity rather than overcomplicating dishes and cook with soul. No wonder we love it so much. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent options for Italian dining in Sydney. Time Out’s food writers and editors – including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, who has eaten her way through Sicily, Sorrento, Rome and Florence – have picked our favourite eateries, covering all bases. The only catch? They just need to provide a feel-good environment and dishes you’ll want to come back for. From casual red-sauce joints and classic pizzerias to fine-dining restaurants, you’ll find them all here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Not in the mood for pasta? Here are our picks of the best spots for Greek and French food in Sydney.

Whether it’s a simple spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli, ravioli stuffed to the high heavens, or lovingly layered lasagne, few foods give us the feels quite like pasta. Let’s be real – Sydney’s Italian restaurant game is seriously strong on all fronts, but when the hour calls for carbs, these are the spots that turn flour, eggs and water into small miracles. Time out Sydney's food writers and pasta lovers – including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure – have smashed their fair share of pasta in town, and here are our favourites. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Need an aperitivo before you chow down? Knock back a cocktail at one of the best bars in Sydney. After a slice of two? Here are the best pizza joints in Sydney.

Whether it’s a five-buck-number from your local servo or a smooth and silky scoop from an artisanal store, there’s no doubt about it, ice cream is happiness in one cool refreshing bite (or lick, because, well, sensitive teeth). On a balmy afternoon or evening, a scoop of gelato or ice cream brings pure simple joy to those that hold it, and Time Out Sydney’s food writers have rounded up the best in town. Cool down with a two-scoop cone and lap up this delicious, sweet treat. You deserve it. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED READS: These are the best cheap eats in Sydney right now Make a meal out of it: These are the finest fish and chips in town

Located on a sparkling harbour and fringed by idyllic beaches, Sydney is a true seafood city. We’re home to many cracking waterfront restaurants, and our fish and chips are top-notch. So, where are the best spots for enjoying the ocean’s gifts? Whether it’s a perfect piece of fish with a squeeze of lemon and olive oil at Margaret, Josh Niland’s legendary tuna cheeseburger at Saint Peter’s bar, or a waterfront feast that’s nearly as good as a trip to Italy at Ormeggio at the Spit, I’ve rounded up the best seafood restaurants in Sydney. The only catch? The seafood has got to be fresh-as, bro. Cast your net and dig in. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Want more? Check out our guide to the best Sydney restaurants.

Sandwiches? Well, they're the best thing to come out of slicing bread. Here, the criteria is pretty simple: very good things in between two very good slices of well-sliced bread. No burgers, bagels, scrolls and banh mi (they’re a league of their own). No half-hearted strings of romaine here, no siree. I'm pretty passionate about sandwiches and spend my weekends hunting down my next crush. Below, you’ll find the most delicious sambos in town, from rainbow salad sandwiches to monster Reubens and classic chicken numbers. 'Wich on, friends. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Want more budget food? Here are the best cheap eats in Sydney right now. Heading our later? Check out our ultimate guide to the best restaurants in Sydney.

Summer 2024 update: The cicadas are chirping, the ocean is calling your name and your calendar is chock-a-block. That can only mean one thing: it’s officially silly szn. Whether you’re planning an end-of-year party or a lunch with friends, we’ve rounded up the best spots to wine and dine in Sydney. Here's our list of Time Out's best restaurants in Sydney right now, from hot newcomers to time-honoured institutions, curated by our expert, on-the-ground editors and food writers who eat and drink their way around Sydney, including Time Out's Food & Drink Editor, Avril Treasure. How did we narrow it down to the very best? When deciding, we considered fun, flavour, creativity, value for money – and 'wow' factor. So yes, of course, you’ll find a fine diner inside the Sydney Opera House here, but you’ll also find neighbourhood pasta, hole-in-the-wall Thai and venues right by the sea. Happy dining, Sydney. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED READ: Still hungry? Check out our guide to the best cheap eats in Sydney.

For devotees of genuine Mexican fare, it's a great relief that Sydney is no longer only served by the tacky Tex-Mex, stand-and-stuff, burrito-centric eateries that were once the sole expression of the cuisine readily available here. There's now an exciting new wave of Mexican diners sweeping Sydney, with nary a pinata, sombrero or lucha libre mask in sight. We're not saying there isn't a time and a place for a bowl of liquid queso and a dorito or two – there really is – but with a culture and cuisine that spans thousands of years and dozens of regions, it's a crime to assume that Old El Paso and a cartoonishly large frozen Margarita is anything close to 'authentic'. Prime your palate for the true flavours of Mexico with our guide to the best Mexican eateries in Sydney, curated by Time Out Sydney's critics including Food & Drink Editor and Mexico-lover, Avril Treasure. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED READS: Keen to get around some killer spots for an arvo tequila or two? Check out Sydney's best rooftop bars Love spice? Check out our guide to Sydney's hottest Thai restaurants Thirsty? Have a look at the best bars in Sydney right now

Summer 2024 update: Hey summer, we’re so glad you’re here. Whether you’re craving a B&E roll after an early ocean swim, a matcha during your morning walk, or a spot to relax on Sunday with hot coffee and buttery scrambled eggs, there’s a café here for you. Sydneysiders are café people. We're constantly on the hunt for the city's best coffee and we love nothing more than donning our finest sport-luxe activewear and catching up with mates on a weekend morning over eggs, fritters and crusty artisan sourdough. So, whether it's a reward for tackling one of Sydney's most beautiful walks, an indulgent hangover fix after a night at one of the city's best bars, or a workday coffee stop, these are the best Sydney cafés, according to our in-the-know Time Out Sydney writers, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure. We'll have one B&E roll, please.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Is it lunch time? Check out our guide to Sydney's best restaurants right now.

Summer 2024 update: Life is already expensive but it gets turned up a notch at this silly and joyous time of year. But the good news is that you don’t need to stay home every night and survive on frozen pizza, thanks to our city’s incredible cheap eats. The best bit? Often they rival any dishes you would find in a fancy fine diner. We’ve rounded up the top places with prices that won’t burn a hole in your wallet, including new Thai-Chinese eatery Ama, pasta palace Str’Eats Pasta Bar (with plates starting from $10) and our forever fave, Spicy Joint. Because life’s too short to eat sh*t food. Going out for a meal is sometimes a big occasion, worth the splurge. But it doesn't have to be that way. From banh mi to tonkotsu ramen, biang biang noodles to vegan burgers, and pretty much everything else in between, some of Sydney's greatest culinary hits are the cheapest. Time Out Sydney critics and local food writers, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have eaten their way around town to bring you this list, and while cheap isn't what it used to be, there are still lots of excellent affordable venues to check out. These are the ones well worth their salt. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. Want to spend less at the big-ticket players? Check out our cheap fine-dining hacks.

From specialty Sichuan spots to hot Cantonese kitchens, Sydney has some seriously great Chinese restaurants. Time Out Sydney's critics, including Food & Drink Editor Avril Treasure, have eaten their way around town to bring you this curated and up-to-date list. So whether you want to go all out and explore regional cuisines, sit down for yum cha, grab some takeaway barbecue duck or hand-thrown noodles, you'll find your spot here. These are the best Chinese restaurants Sydney has to offer – we're hungry just thinking about them. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.  Recommended: Here are the tastiest cheap eats in Sydney right now Check out the best Italian joints in Sydney town

We're all about a secret underground dive bar or two – but in a city as beautiful as Sydney, it seems like a damn shame to retreat into the depths for every tipple. From a sundowner by the harbour to a sunny rooftop in the Inner West, our town is awash with sky-high watering holes. So we've rounded up the best spots in the city to sip a cold one under a gorgeous open sky. But drinkers beware: Sydney's rooftop bars play host to some of the most contested seats in the city, so get in early for a spot in the sun.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. For more al fresco drinking try one of Sydney's best beer gardens. Looking for another top-notch watering hole? Check out the best bars in Sydney.

It's one of the first places you'll visit as a tourist, a pre-theatre go-to, and home to some of the most iconic views in the world – but being a tourist hotspot means Circular Quay is not without its pitfalls. Thankfully, apart from the over-priced tourist traps, there’s still great eating and drinking to be had in the area if you know where to look. Living in Sydney – and working as a professional eater and drinker – I’ve spent my fair share of time in Circular Quay. Below, I’ve rounded up the best restaurants and bars in and around the harbour, from flash fine diners like Quay and Aria to Basque-inspired wine bar Deux Frères, cheap-and-cheerful spots like Mary's and Belles Hot Chicken, and top-notch watering holes Opera Bar and Apollonia. There’s a mix of price points and cuisines, but they’re all ace (unlike the annoying seagulls) – and somewhere you'd want to bring your mates from overseas. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. After restaurants in other parts of Sydney's city? Check out our guide to the best restaurants in the CBD. Want more? Check out our ultimate guide to the best restaurants in Sydney here.

Any bar that’s playing 50 Cent’s 'P.I.M.P.' and serving a drink called the Walking Dead (aged rum, Fernet Branca, pineapple, lime, ginger beer served tall over ice) is more than alright in our books. Super Whatnot is one of Brisbane’s hottest bars offering up a short, sharp list of tasty cocktails (there’s a Tequila Sour in the mix, along with a Bobbie Burns and a Red Hook), great tunes and good vibes. There’s no bouncer out the front, just a girl in knee-high socks watching the numbers (there are only 60 seats at 'Whatnot) through the door. The bar, though it’s smack bang in the city, hosts a mix of indie kids, guys in suits and off-duty bartenders. On Time Out’s visit, it’s Nas and nachos night – pulled pork nachos and a Pisco Sour plus a ‘delicious beer’ for $10 along with $3 gin’n’juice for the Snoop and Dre fans. Super Whatnot is a multi-tiered wonderland of laidback fun with a team of bartenders hell-bent on serving up good times. We’ll buy that for a dollar.  

View bars, up until very recently, have traditionally been the sort of tourist traps where your Mai Tai comes pre-mixed, and the lime in your Margarita comes out of one of those green squeezy bottles. Or worse, out of a bucket. But that's a world away from Cove - the shining star on the new strip of the South Brisbane parklands. Everything is displayed on backlit shelves resembling Art Deco filing cabinets. That everything we're talking about involves a great selection of rums and bourbons and a cocktail list ranging from fun'n'fruity to more serious offerings like their Mai Tai and their riff on the Treacle - that next-day-head-banger, here with grapefruit juice and tequila. Tasty. And if you're after a snack while you're here, you could do worse than try the chilli jam doughnuts - a savoury take on their sweet cousins. Cute. The great thing about this bar is it's basically a cocktail strip, with some outdoor seating, spilling out onto the promenade. That means you can choose to either sit up at the bar with a view of the hooch or at one of the tables spilling out on to the promenade and look out over Brisbane River. Either way, you win.

Two of the city’s most talented bartenders in one place? Yup, you’ve hit the Laneway, where Callum More and Perryn Collier are making drinks and breaking hearts. The bar is hidden behind inner-city brasserie the Euro. Walk straight through the restaurant to the dark bar out the back, which confusingly can’t actually be reached by a laneway. Get 'em to make you something with their house-blended whiskey or go straight off the list. There are two of Time Out’s favourite drinks on the list – the Tipperary (whiskey, green Chartreuse, sweet vermouth) and the Boulevardier (bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth) – and one of the most impressive beer selections we’ve seen in a good long while. Sure, there are flat screens throughout the bar but rather than footy they’re playing cuts from Charlie Chaplin movies. And OK, something needs to be done about that teenagers-losing-their-virginity music – but when they place a Toronto made with their own house-blended whiskey down in front of you, everything’s just peachy.    

This is about as close as you get to a Steampunk bar in Australia, we reckon. Sure, there's a cocktail list and guys behind the bar who are very happy and more than capable to make you a three-gin Martini or whatever, but what the Press Club is really about is getting in and getting out with beers and simple mixed drinks. Check out the gigantic metal fan in its metal cage, slowly rotating, or the big propeller hung over the bar with a giant eye right in the middle that winks every now and then. It's been a fixture here since 1998. Live'n'local bands often play here and later in the evening you'll find a tantalisingly rumptacular mix of old school hip hop and break beats. So you can see why this isn't really the place to be requesting Trinidad Sours. Because at the heart of it, this is a big, busy bar that is as much about good times as it is quality drinkin'.