The best restaurants in Redfern

You might walk right past Fontana. But it's there. Atop a carpeted staircase that fades into the facade between two takeaway shops on Redfern Street, there’s a small red-trimmed restaurant that hums to cool jazz and the lively chatter of excited diners. (If you haven’t been yet, you might know this concealed location from its previous inhabitants, Ron’s Upstairs, which closed its doors in 2022.) Come to Fontana for delicious share plates, cracking pasta and a damn good time. If you can find it.

Slow-cooked onion dolmas stuffed with rice and minced beef, flavoured with cinnamon, currants and pine nuts and served with garlic-spiked yoghurt. Succulent charred chicken sitting on a bed of fruity harissa with pickled peppers and parsley oil. Fresh and vibrant fattoush with crisp lavosh, crunchy radish and a zesty, lemony dressing. These are just some of the dishes on the menu at Mezepotamia, a chic new Turkish and Middle Eastern mezze restaurant, now open in Redfern.

The queue starts forming well before the doors swing open, and once that steaming hot bowl of noodles and tonkotsu broth arrives in front of you, you'll understand why. Owners Katie Shortland and Scott Gault spent serious time in Japan, pursuing the perfect ramen recipe, and if the endless crowds here are anything to go by, it looks like they found it. Prefer to keep it plant-based? They've got a knockout vegan version, too. 

Attenzione Food & Wine is a fun and breezy Euro-leaning restaurant and wine bar in the former (excellent) home of The Sunshine Inn in Redfern. It's headed up by childhood friends and former workmates Felix Colman (part-owner and operator of Ragazzi and Fabbrica), Toby Davis (ex-Yellow restaurant manager), Toby Stansfield (ex-Lola’s, The Old Fitz, and Fabbrica), and Dexter Kim (freelance photographer and videographer, ex-Buffet Digital). The red-and-yellow, not-a-wallflower diner delivers on great times (and wines).

The team at Bush is big on using native Aussie ingredients and sustainable produce. You'll see things like smoked eel pikelet with cultured cream and chilli jam; roo carpaccio with rock oyster cream and grissini; and warrigal greens, basil, and pistachio pesto pasta on the menu. Australians tend to cringe and shy away from depictions of their own culture, but this place feels like an honest celebration of the beauty and nostalgia of an Australian tuckshop in the ’90s. And we bloody love it.

Found on Redfern’s main drag, La Coppola is a hole-in-the-wall joint that serves delicious Sicilian-style pizzas. Father-daughter duo Stefano and Cassie have perfected their pizza, which features a crisp base and a fluffy crust. We’re big fans of the Scopello with burrata, salami, spicy pancetta, garlic, parsley and chilli. There are a handful of tables outside and one large communal table inside where you can BYO wine and make friends with your neighbour. No seats? Order a pizza to go and take it across the road to Noble Hops and enjoy it with a beer.

Bart Jr is exactly the kind of neighbourhood wine bar and restaurant you want in your 'hood. Cosy and colourful, with killer vinos and even better plates of food, and an atmosphere that makes you feel good. Here, the chefs don’t hold back on flavour, and it results in some seriously tasty bites. Share plates here run the gamut from anchovy toast to polenta with ragù, and the haloumi with burnt honey is a real home run. Keep an eye out for them on Instagram, where they share delicious mid-week specials that you will want to get around.

Holy guacamole: Ricos Tacos, the legit and incredibly good taco joint by chef Toby Wilson, has finally found its forever home at Redfern’s historic pub, the Norfolk. Expect to find everything you loved about the OG Ricos – from rotating tacos of the week to tacos al pastor, and the twice fried hash brown with chipotle salt and salsa roja – plus some exciting  additions. The vibe at Ricos Tacos is reminiscent of a Mexican sports bar, with a beer garden downstairs and Club Ricos upstairs. And the tacos slap.

The appeal of the neighbourhood French bistro lies in its traditions. This is where to go when you want the classics with no surprises; steak frites with Café de Paris butter, goat's cheese soufflé, French onion soup, and oysters served with Champagne vinegar. If the famously fragrant butter sauce invented in the French capital is not your preferred steak accompaniment, Bistro St Jacques in Redfern also have a pepper sauce and a Borderlaise. Parfait, cassoulet and brûlée are all present and accounted for on a menu primed for a cosy date night.

A Viking-inspired restaurant, Mjølner is a bit of fun, but it’s probably not somewhere we’d put on a high rotation list. It’s an experience to seek it out, head underground and feast as if you’d just defeated the Anglo-Saxons in battle, but it’s also heavy going and very rich. It’s perfect if you’re about to set off on the high seas for riches and glory, and an equally good idea on a cold winter’s night.

Top chef and cookbook author Michael Rantissi brings the flavours of the Mediterranean and Middle East to Kepos Street at this neighbourhood institution that’s cultivated a fiercely loyal clientele over the years. Breakfast regulars come for some of the best baked eggs in town, but when lunch time comes, it's all about the hot smoked salmon salad with kipflers, olives, dukkah, soft boiled egg, and the meatball sub with a tomato ragù, grated haloumi and pesto.

Come here for a little slice of Japanese culture: hardcore devotion to nailing one thing, monastic attention to detail and all the beauty that comes along with it. Here, that thing is rice bowls, four of them to be exact. They're all quite pretty, layered, complex, textural and technique-driven, and the range of teas served alongside makes them even better. Just so darn lovely. 

If we had wings, we’d fly straight to Flyover Fritterie for their dosa potato jaffles, crunchy pakoras (fritters) and spicy chai tea. This Indian street food eatery upgraded from its hole-in-the-wall CBD shop to a two-storey corner restaurant on Redfern’s main drag. The name, Flyover Fritter, is a tribute to the humble food stands under the overpasses (flyovers) of bustling Indian cities where each cart specialised in one type of street food. They’ve expanded their completely vegetarian menu from only having three types of pakora and chai, plus weekly specials, to a spectacular (and spicy) selection of chaat (savoury snacks), curries, jaffles, burgers and Indian-inspired sweets.