From top chefs opening neighbourhood diners to revamped pubs from a gun hospitality team, it seems there is a new Sydney opening every week. Here, we’ve picked the most noteworthy new Sydney restaurants and bar openings to have on your radar this spring.
Whether you’re keen to know about the hotly anticipated Sydney restaurant from a leading hospitality group or looking for an intimate new-wave Mexican spot to experience, we have you covered with this new Sydney restaurant hit list.
Tilda, Bar Tilda, Delta Rue and Wentworth Bar
In the CBD, Housemade Hospitality has moved into the historic and revamped Sofitel Sydney Wentworth to bring a localised hospitality offering to the five-star international hotel — with four new venues operated by the group. The headliner is Tilda, a modern Australian seafood restaurant. Rather than competing with the steakhouses that proliferate in this end of town, Tilda showcases mighty mud crabs, dry-aged fish and molluscs (but carnivores fear not, there’s still a pork tomahawk, spring lamb and wagyu rib-eye on the menu). Seafood comes raw, be it in a grand seafood tower or an elegantly and simply fashioned slices of native yellowfin seasoned with native citrus and olive oil. There’s also a section devoted to seafood cooked over coals, be it fillets of ruby snapper, Murray cod, or live lobsters and crabs cooked to order, served either fried with salt and mountain pepper and lemon or steamed with ginger. There’s also crab toast with seaweed butter, avocado and caviar; garlic and seafood-forward pastas; and a king prawn cocktail. To start and end each meal there’s also a snazzy bread and butter service, complete with AP Bakery’s saltbush focaccia to be enjoyed with Pepe Saya butter, macadamias, Jersey milk cheese or wildflower honey; and to finish, a stacked dessert stand pays homage to nostalgic bakery items with extra finesse.
The complementary Bar Tilda has its own entrance, plus a focus on Australian whiskies (which carry over to the restaurant), a chic Martini cart, a regular live jazz band and an Australian-focused wine list with a few French and Italian numbers in the mix. Upstairs on level five is Delta Rue, which nods to Vietnam’s vast river system. Bright, fun Vietnamese-inspired eats are the focus, with nods to French techniques. The sprawling curved 200-person dining room then leads out to Wentworth Bar. Looking up at the curved historic hotel, it offers an alfresco (yet covered) terrace drinking experience, with well-made cocktails and a solid wine list, all to be enjoyed underneath a newly installed elegant fig tree.
Tila and Bar Tilda are slated to open on Wednesday, 9 October. Delta Rue and Wentworth Bar will open shortly after in late October.
The International
The Point Group – the team behind Shell House and the Dolphin – will take to Martin Place to debut the International in November 2024. Located in Sydney next to Harry Seidler’s “mushroom” within the MLC Centre, the globally influenced local-focused venue will be spread across three levels.
Within it you find the Wine Bar, the Grill and the crowning Panorama Bar. At its heart, the Grill will have a long open kitchen with wood and charcoal grills, while a cold bar will be stacked with locally caught seafood. Planning to “have culinary freedom and diverse offerings, unbound by cuisine” celebrated chef Joel Bickford will oversee the menu.
Meanwhile the Wine Bar’s menu will be overseen by executive chef Danny Corbett, sensibly made up of small plates to complement a wine list that explores trends in vino from across the globe, as well as an extensive by-the-glass section.
Finally the top floor Panorama Bar will have views out to Martin Place’s sandstone buildings and the towering modernist MLC Building, joined by all day snack-centric dining and late night cocktails. Here, light drinks like Champagne and Chablis are to be enjoyed on lush lounges and by the glow of fire pits.
The International is due to open in November.
Ennui
A handsome new restaurant with a wine bar soul has opened inside a heritage-listed space, right by the Capitol Theatre. It’s a restaurant by a trio of hospo pros – Thomas Bromwich, Samuel Woods and Peter Chan. Bromwich and Woods met while working at Sydney wine bar institution Love, Tilly Devine. It was there, working alongside one another, that they envisioned the venue they would open together one day. It would be a small, 30-seat tightly packed wine bar – maybe in the inner ’burbs. But sometimes, life gives you a 178-year-old two-storey sandstone building in the CBD instead.
The menu at Ennui isn’t really French, so much as it uses the cuisine’s classic ingredients, techniques, and basic elements as jumping-off points for something a little more local and reflective of its owners’ backgrounds. Woods is half-Thai, and grew up in his family’s Thai restaurant, before going to work front-and-back-of-house around the world – including time as the manager over at the Bentley Group’s Yellow. Bromwich, in addition to being Love Tilly Devine’s chef, also worked in the kitchens of Tasmania’s Stillwater and Hartsyard, in Sydney. So yes, there’s a steak tartare, but here you’ll find it laced with seaweed. And yes, there’s an oyster with Champagne sauce, but it comes topped with tobiko – flying fish roe that’s more common on sushi. The recipe for the crisp chicken wings is ripped almost verbatim from Woods’ family Thai restaurant. Snapper and prawn dumplings? Not French, but they were too fun not to invite to the party.
Bistro Grenier
This newcomer by the Odd Culture team is set to revel in the comforts of classical French cooking. Grenier will occupy the loft space above Odd Culture Newtown, and will dip into the spot’s deep bench of kitchen talent. That team will be cooking Gallic staples such as pissaladière, boudin noir with smoked pork jowl, and steak frites with pepper sauce. As is the case downstairs, fermented foods will make up the menu’s backbone. The drinks list will also be Francophilic, with pastis, Picon beer and representatives for all the blockbuster French varietals and their terroirs.
oddculture.group/venue/bistro-grenier/
Teddy
Is there anything better than a second chance story? Maybe only if that second chance comes with a funky revamped restaurant in Potts Point. The team behind Ezra and recently-closed Raja have rolled the dice on the opening of Teddy just around the corner from Ezra in Raja’s old digs, complete with a very bright, very fun modern Aussie bistro concept menu. Yes, there will be crisp potato skins and warm dinner rolls dripping with garlic butter, but the groovy food offerings go beyond that. Think fat King prawn cocktails, a playful pork and crayfish sausage roll with bois boudran (A.K.A next-level tomato sauce) and a very cool mash-up between cacio e pepe and lasagne. But the fun doesn’t end there, Teddy will also offer a 7-day-a-week Happy Hour from 4-6pm, slinging sub-$10 snacks and $10 cocktails and wines. All this soundtracked by 80’s power ballads and retro favourites, wrapped up in a bold and dynamic room. Welcome!
Pino’s Vino e Cucina al Mare
Alexandria’s beloved neighbourhood Italian joint, Pino’s Vino e Cucina, is expanding with a new beachside venue opening in Cronulla this August. Taking over the former local library, Pino’s Vino e Cucina al Mare will suitably celebrate its 190-seat seaside digs with a seafood-forward menu, plus beach-chic interiors designed by Nic Graham (QT Hotels) to match — think handmade terracotta tiles, olive green hues and a charming bar with marble and brass accents. On the pass will be executive chef Cristiano Patacca (ex-Otto and Est) dishing up sure-to-be signature dishes such as grigliata mista seafood platter, pici cacio e pepe and decadent lobster pasta.
Bookings are now open via the Pino’s website. pinosvinoecucina.com.au
Olympus
Surry Hills will welcome a new Greek restaurant from the team behind The Apollo and Cho Cho San in Sydney, and Greca and Yoko in Brisbane. Set to open later this year, Olympus will be the team’s fifth Australian venue and third Grecian restaurant in the group’s stable. The 200-seat restaurant will sit within the redeveloped Surry Hills precinct, which is being built at the Redfern-Surry Hills border, and will also be home to TFE Hotels’ boutique hotel, The Eve Hotel Sydney, and residences. Olympus will be overseen by Jonathan Barthelmess and inspired by his recent travels to Greece.
Olympus is slated to open in late 2024.
Comedor
A 100-year-old warehouse on Australia Street is now home to a new forward-thinking Mexican restaurant, Comedor. Head chef Alejandro Huerta (ex-No 92 and El Primo Sanchez) will showcase his Mexican heritage alongside skills learned working at Pujol in Mexico City and Noma in Copenhagen. Huerta infuses unique Australian ingredients into his dishes, so you may find scallops with corn miso vinaigrette, wattleseed, saltbush; or linguine with pipis, chilpachole butter and nasturtium; and dairy cow steak with mushroom glaze, enoki and XO. Along with new-wave dishes, there’s also promise of clever takes on Mexican staples including a kingfish tostada with ‘nduja, pineapple and spring onion; a taco with Skull Island prawn, clam and smoky Morita sauce; and salsa macha-topped roasted Jerusalem artichokes. At lunchtime, diners can opt for an excellently priced three-course chef’s menu for $35; while the dinner set menu is $79 per person. The venture is joined by owner and Newtown local Walter Shellshear, who’s been visiting Mexico for three decades; and venue manager Kieran Took (ex-Tio’s and Big Poppa’s), who will share his love for agave spirits.
Attenzione Food and Wine
A sharp new-wave Italian restaurant is coming to Redfern in early August with a gun hospitality team on deck. Attenzione Food & Wine unites former colleagues and childhood friends Felix Colman (part owner of Ragazzi and Fabbrica), Toby Davis (ex-Yellow restaurant manager), Toby Stansfield (ex-The Old Fitz and Fabbrica) and Dexter Kim (who will turn his focus from freelance photography to hospitality). Idiosyncratic takes on Euro wine bar share plates include “tonnato vitello”, which flips the Italian classic in name and on the plate, reimagining the usual tuna mayonnaise as a rich potato mousse and replacing the veal with diced fresh tuna. A rabbit “doughnut” piles a rich ragù atop fried bread with pickled turnip, while the crisp gnocco fritto comes topped with a marbled slice of beef with tangerine vinegar and fresh horseradish. The pasta and meat section is short and sharp with handmade shapes and Emilio’s dry-aged retired dairy cow beef on show. Wine-wise, the list stays true to the Euro feel with a strong bias towards nebbiolo, Burgundy and Barolo, all of which washes down beautifully among the room’s warm mustard tones and dark woody finishes.
Azuma
Longstanding Japanese restaurant Azuma has moved from Chifley Square to new digs on Phillip Street, taking up shop in Continental Deli’s former site. Named after chef and owner Kimitaka Azuma, one of Australia’s pioneering Japanese chefs, the eponymous restaurant has enjoyed a loyal following since it got its start in Crows Nest in the ’90s. These days it is known for its traditional kaiseki and omakase menus, with the latter executed by respected sushi chef Takashi Sano. The chef’s choice menu often books out months in advance for those seeking an elaborate showcase of Sano’s skills, including expertly made nigiri, tempura and sashimi. Meanwhile, highlights from the new kaiseki menu include Tasmanian abalone cooked in a sake infusion with yuzu; West Australian crumbed scampi with basil coulis; and saltbush lamb cutlet grilled with citrus and chilli.
Astro
At a waterfront strip at Barangaroo, get ready to wrap, grill and roll at Astro, a forward-thinking Asian barbecue joint. Astro draws on cook-your-own meat traditions, especially yakiniku (Japanese barbecued meat) and the sizzling barbecue restaurants of Korea. A less formal sister venue to Matkim, Astro aims to deliver a pumping dining experience backed by a cool J-pop soundtrack. A menu of quick izakaya-inspired snacks to start includes chawanmushi (egg custard) with charred corn and salmon roe; pork gyoza; and grilled savoury mochi with doenjang (soybean paste) brown butter and chilli oil. Meats ready for you to grill at your table include ox tongue; wagyu shortrib; skirt steak with a garlic soy marinade; and ssamgang pork belly; which can be joined by a side of lettuce wraps and koshikari rice. At lunchtime, the personal barbecues switch off to make donburi (rice bowls) the focus, each served with a protein (from gochujang pork belly to miso salmon), a soft egg and seaweed seasoning.
20 Chapel
Corey Costelloe has announced his next move, joining chef Dave Allison to open 20 Chapel in Marrickville. Cooking over fire is the focus, with Costello bringing his vast 15 years of experience from Rockpool Bar and Grill to man a custom-made wood-burning grill, alongside an on-site beef dry-aging room. Whole beast butchery will see David Blackmore wagyu and beef being a menu focus, which may look like house-cured wagyu basturma; a handkerchief steak (a topside minute cut) steak glazed in smoked brown butter, soy and egg yolk; minced down into jazzy rissoles to start; or in three daily changing butcher’s cuts. Produce sourced from Allison’s Stix Farm will be joined by locally sourced seafood, perhaps Hawkesbury school prawns with soft polenta lardo and artichokes; or grilled enoki mushrooms with seitan celeriac jus. Costelloe and Allison have also enlisted some fresh talent with Owen Okada – who did his apprenticeship under Costello and also worked at Saint Peter and Clam Bar – joining them in the kitchen.
Cibaria
Italian chef Alessandro Pavoni is continuing on his restaurant-opening roll, announcing the forthcoming opening of beachside restaurant Cibaria Manly, situated within the Manly Pacific Hotel. Celebrating the convivial nature of Italian all-day dining, with a focus on different “rias”, it’s set to house a braceria (grill), forneria (bakery), spaghetteria (pasta bar) and a gelateria (gelato) counter, and there will also be a pizzeria. Pavoni and the Ormeggio team will go from café-style morning eats through to aperitivo and casual dinners, and there will also be a grand private dining room and rooftop terrace for events. Ormeggio’s head chef Gianmarco Pardini will lead the kitchen, with the opening slated for summer.
Cibria is slated to open in summer 2024.
The White Horse
Crown Street’s crowning pub The White Horse re-opens this week as one of the hottest openings of 2024, following a multimillion-dollar overhaul overseen by a fine collective of hospitality folk. Craig Hemmings (who’s been on the floors at Bilsons, Quay, Guillaume at Bennelong and Chin Chin) leads the charge as general manager, while Jed Gerrard (Hearth and COMO The Treasury) is over from WA as chef-partner, joined by James Audas (Bar Heather) on vino and Michael Chiem (PS40) on the bar front. While the brief is a pub that the team would like to go to, you can expect it to be delicious and elegant thanks to the gun team, as much as it is an approachable local. Upstairs, the public bar will have snacky share plates, rounded out by a handful of zhushed-up counter classics. Downstairs, a modern Australian menu will have a heavy seasonal focus and may include Jerusalem artichoke, goat’s cheese and saltbush; Abrolhos Island scallops with kohlrabi, dill and wasabi leaf; and lamb short loin with pistachio, cucumber and mint. The wine list will see half antipodean producers joined by new- and old-world wines from across the globe, with 30 bottles on the list sitting below $80.
Fabbrica Pasta Bar
Fabbrica Darlinghurst
After abruptly closing its Balmain outpost and pulling all plans to open inside Annandale’s The Federal late last year, Fabbrica Pasta Bar has finally announced its latest plans: a brand new restaurant in the inner city.
The soon-to-open Fabbrica Pasta Bar is set to take over the old A Tavola space on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. It will boast 80 seats split across two levels, including the former venue’s long communal table on the ground floor. The bustling Darlinghurst strip recently saw the opening of The Waratah just across the road to much fanfare, and no doubt the casual Italian joint will receive a similar welcome.
Run by the Love Tilly Group — and with Scott McComas-Williams and the venue’s newly appointed head chef Damiano Balducci at the culinary helm — Fabbrica Darlinghurst will follow the brand’s fun-loving format. Think classic and innovative pasta dishes; a playful wine list; and a revamped interior awash with Fabbrica’s signature blue and white hues to boot. An Italian ode to the pub schnitzel, cotoletta alla Milanese, will also return alongside a few new and exclusive dishes, such as Nebbiolo-braised beef short ribs.
Morena
Morena is opening in Martin Place within the 150-year-old GPO building. Returning to Sydney from Melbourne, executive chef Alejandro Saravia is expanding on his remit at Farmer’s Daughters to explore his Peruvian heritage while also spanning out to wider Latin America, from Brazil to Bolivia and beyond. Work your way through a devoted ceviche menu section, with goldband snapper ceviche with leche de tigre (a marinade of lime, coriander and chilli), sweet potato and chulpi (Ecuadorian toasted corn); king prawn ceviche with green plantain crisps and sofrito; or yellowfin tuna ceviche with soy dashi, daikon and wasabi leaves, each one packing a punch. Other seafood highlights include Fremantle octopus with merkén (smoked chilli) butter and onion; and Abrolhos Island scallops with parmesan cream, lime, aji amarillo butter. Carnivores can get around Kaloola suckling pig served with mojo sauce; or a rich Gundagai lamb picanha (traditionally a Brazilian beef cut from the rump) with a cachaça (a sugar cane spirit) marinade.
Good Luck Restaurant Lounge
In the CBD, Merivale is finally christening its new Bridge Street digs with the opening of Good Luck Restaurant Lounge. The subterranean restaurant is spearheaded by chef Mike Eggert (Totti’s), taking the concept he refined over three years alongside Justin Hemmes and developing it further.
“Think Totti’s but then add soy, dashi, vinegar with fresh herbs, citrus and chilli,” says Eggert. Italian Japanese techniques merge to create a menu that promises fun over formality. There are two wine rooms, private and semi-private dining rooms, a bar and three large fish tanks with live seafood, totally revitalising the space that Fratelli Fresh once occupied.
Postino Osteria
Italian chef Alessandro Pavoni will take over the old One Penny Red site in Summer Hill opening Postino Osteria. The hospitality legends behind Sydney’sacclaimed Ormeggio at The Spit andA’mare promise to deliver a classic Italian neighbourhood experience, led by chef Alessandro Pavoni and his team. Set to open in mid-2024 and housed in a heritage-listed post office, Postino takes it’s name from the Italian for postman and a play on the word “posto”, which translates to place, or in this case a “tiny place”. Backed by Pavoni and his business partner Bill Drakopoulos, the casual restaurant and bar will serve a menu of snacks and specials, as well as traditional Italian recipes, offering a more affordable offering than Pavoni’s other venues. Pavoni and his wife Anna are regarded as one of Australia’s leading hospitality power couples, with Anna managing back-of-house operations while Pavoni runs the kitchen. In 2021, the couple opened A’mare at Crown Sydney, earning widespread acclaim, including a nomination for Best New Restaurant at the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards. Ormeggio at The Spit has long been regarded as one of Sydney’s leading Italian fine-diners, after first opening in 2009. In 2020, it underwent a major refurbishment and moved to a seafood-only menu, including a slow-cooked seafood Bolognese ragú.
Postino Osteria is set to open in Summer Hill, Sydney in mid-2024
Fior
From the team behind beloved Surry Hills boltholes Arthur and Jane comes a new neighbourhood spot located in a different suburb, in Gymea. It’s not only the location that sets the team’s third restaurant apart, with Fior eschewing its sibling venues’ monikers and adopting a suitably Italian title.
Fior will deliver an “Australian riff on Italian cuisine” in the Sutherland Shire, integrating Arthur and Jane’s commitment to local ingredients and suppliers across its rustic Italian menu. Chef and co-owner Tristan Rosier and head chef Will Lawson will present an ever-changing menu of fairly priced, share-style dishes that are hyper-seasonal and predominantly use Australian ingredients (except for what is “simply better from Italy” as Rosier puts it, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano and anchovies).
“The menu will be full of the things that people love eating, and we want people to have fun, feel at home, and be on a first-name basis with our staff,” said Rosier in a statement.
When Fior opens in late April, it will have all the markings of a successful neighbourhood Italian joint: antipasti plates and freshly made pasta; a large open kitchen showcasing oyster shucking and charcuterie slicing; and “The Shire’s best aperitivo hour”. For the TikTok crowd, there’ll be a roaming gelato trolley peddling house-made gelato and sorbetto served tableside.
Sydney Common
Hotel dining within the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park has gotten a glow up, with chef Martin Benn conceptually overseeing Sydney Common, working with chef Jamie Robertson. Wood-fired grills get a workout, and given Robertson’s experience in the kitchen at Ester, delicate yet bold charred flavours will be a focus. Seafood fans will strike a chord with the likes of grilled Yamba king prawns; whole roasted flounder; or John Dory with pil-pil (a Basque-style salted cod sauce) inspired butter. Carnivores can get around wagyu scotch steaks; or 800-gram dry-aged grass-fed rib-eye, served with a smoked fat vinaigrette and anchovy butter. Then a calling card of excellent local producers – Baker Bleu bread, LP’s Quality Meats charcuterie, CopperTree Farm butter and Aquna Murray cod – further bolsters the menu; while a 260-bin wine list and bone-chillingly cold Martinis lure in guests to peruse the shorter bar menu.
Avoja
The maestros behind Italian-Japanese fine-diner LuMi and Surry Hills’ Lode Pies have added another style of baking to their résumé, opening
a wood-fired pizzeria in Manly. Avoja is slinging Neapolitan-style pizze, with northern beaches local Federico Zanellato leading the charge, joined by Matteo Ernandes, who was previously head pizza chef at Bondi’s Da Orazio and Matteo Double Bay. Expect blistered-crust pizze topped with Emilio’s Butcher sausages, sliced potato, smoked provolone and rosemary; or puréed broccoli with umami anchovies, chilli and burrata. There are also snacks of fritto misto (fried calamari, school prawns, whitebait and zucchini); Fremantle octopus with chickpeas; and old-school meatballs; plus a devoted children’s menu; and a wine list that trots around Italy.
Matkim
Sydney’s omakase adoration continues with the newly opened Matkim, an eight-seat Korean omakase in Circular Quay’s Sydney Place precinct. The restaurant’s name comes from the Korean “mat-kim” meaning entrust, and “cha-rim” meaning chef’s table; inviting guests to hand their expectations to executive chef Jacob Lee’s vision. Lee’s menu pulls inspiration from his roots in South Korea’s Jeolla region, as well as his grandmother’s teachings. The open kitchen allows guests a front-row seat as the chefs meticulously cook and serve dishes such as WA marron with crab doenjang (soybean) foam.
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