The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Catalina Restaurant
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Rank 1. Catalina Restaurant
Modern Australian
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Rank 2. Margaret
Modern Australian
Neil Perry's wood-fired grill restaurant in Double Bay sits at number two on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which is about as specific an endorsement as the universe offers. The open kitchen keeps the focus on dry-aged beef and whatever came off a boat that morning, and the room follows the same logic: nothing is there to impress you, which is exactly why it does. Australian producers run the whole show, pasture to coast.
- World's 101 Best #2 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
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Rank 3. Gran Torino
Italian
Neil Perry's Italian restaurant in Double Bay is built around the aperitivo rhythm: Martinis and spritzes arrive first, then antipasti, housemade pasta, seafood, and steak. The beef program leans into rare Australian breeds, including grass-fed Chianina, cooked simply enough that the sourcing does the talking. Ranked 27th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, though the room reads more like a generous Italian trattoria than a temple to beef.
- World's 101 Best #27 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 4. Tanuki Restaurant Sydney
Japanese
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Rank 5. Saint Peter
Modern Australian
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Rank 6. Ursula's Paddington
Australian New American
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Rank 7. Civico 47
Italian
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Rank 9. Yellow
Vegetarian
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Rank 10. The Botanica Vaucluse
Modern Australian
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Rank 12. Franca Brasserie
Mediterranean
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Rank 13. Bistro Rex
French
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Rank 14. The Apollo
Greek
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Rank 15. Aalia
Middle Eastern
Open-fire Middle Eastern cooking in the Sydney CBD, where ironbark wood and charcoal from the Blue Mountains do the structural work rather than playing atmosphere. The kitchen pulls from Levantine and North African tradition, including medieval Arabic manuscripts, and the debt shows in the layering of spice rather than any museum-piece earnestness. It landed at number 14 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, though it behaves nothing like a steakhouse.
- World's 101 Best #14 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats
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Rank 16. Firedoor
Modern Australian
Every morning the menu is written from scratch based on what came in and how the fire is burning, because Firedoor runs on Australian hardwoods alone, no gas, no electricity. Lennox Hastie's Surry Hills restaurant is a serious, sit-down affair where the open kitchen keeps the work visible and the point is restraint, not theatre. It sits at number eleven on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which tells you something about the aged ribeye.
- World's 101 Best #11 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats
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Rank 17. Figo Restaurant & Bar
Italian
Velvet booths, wine racks floor to ceiling, and exposed concrete that somehow pulls it all together: Figo is an Italian restaurant and cocktail bar in Rushcutters Bay doing the kind of old-school Roman trattoria thing Sydney never tires of. Pappardelle with osso buco ragu is the move, and the tiramisu arrives exactly as it should. A One Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide keeps the regulars feeling quietly smug about their standing reservation.
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Rank 18. Cho Cho San
Japanese
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Rank 19. Rockpool Bar & Grill
Modern Australian
The Art Deco banking hall on Hunter Street sets the stage: marble columns, dark timber, and a warm golden light that makes a Wednesday feel like an occasion. This is a steakhouse, and the beef programme is the point, with dry-aged cuts cooked over a wood and charcoal grill. The wine list is one of the more serious in the country. Ranked 38th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which seems about right for a room this sure of itself.
- World's 101 Best #38 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 20. The Grill at The International
Modern Australian
Harbour views through floor-to-ceiling glass, leather banquettes, and Australian art on the walls set the tone at this upscale steak restaurant inside Sydney's International Hotel. The kitchen dry-ages Wagyu and pasture-raised beef in-house, then cooks over wood and charcoal with the confidence of people who don't need to explain themselves. It landed at number 33 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which tracks.
- World's 101 Best #33 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 21. Kisuke
Japanese
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Rank 22. Fred's
Modern Australian
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Rank 23. 10 William Street
Italian
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Rank 24. Porteño
Tapas
The open grill is the room's focal point, its smoke threading through exposed brick and vintage clutter to announce that this is an Argentine asado restaurant, not a steakhouse cosplaying as one. Surry Hills regulars fill the long tables for dry-aged beef cooked over fire with patience rather than theatre, and a wine list that runs Buenos Aires and Barossa in easy company. It placed 36th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.
- World's 101 Best #36 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 25. ARIA Sydney
Modern Australian
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Rank 27. Porcine
French
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Rank 29. Shell House
Modern Australian
A beautifully restored heritage building in the CBD sets the stage: high ceilings, original detailing, and a terrace that opens toward the skyline. Shell House is a contemporary steakhouse where the kitchen dry-ages Australian beef before it meets an open fire grill, with the wider menu showing the same restraint. It landed at number 85 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which should tell you roughly what the room expects of you, dress-wise.
- World's 101 Best #85 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat
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Rank 31. Takam
Filipino
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Rank 32. Restaurant Ka
Modern Australian
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Rank 33. Otto Ristorante Sydney
Italian
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Rank 34. Bennelong
Modern Australian
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Rank 35. Nel Restaurant
Modern Australian
Fine dining that occasionally serves fried chicken and doughnuts without any apparent shame. Nel runs a rotating 11-course degustation in a moody CBD room of exposed brick and open kitchen, where the theme changes entirely and regulars come back to see what the kitchen has cooked up next. The format is unmistakably tasting-menu serious; the attitude is something else. Three Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide.
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Rank 37. L'Heritage
French
A converted Navy drill hall on a Mosman wharf, with national park on one side and harbour on the other, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting before the food even arrives. L'Heritage is a French bistro and brasserie that leans into the classics, escargot, beef tartare, duck à l'orange, dry-aged steak, cooked with Australian produce and served without the stiffness those dishes sometimes attract. The setting alone tends to silence the table.
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Rank 38. White Horse
Modern Australian
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Rank 39. Viand
Thai
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Rank 40. Haco
Japanese
Charcoal grilling and tempura in the same omakase menu sounds like a contradiction until you sit at the counter and watch the chef make it feel inevitable. Haco is a compact Japanese fine dining room in the Sydney CBD, built around a single tasting progression you watch unfold in front of you. The name means theatre in Japanese, which the room leans into without apology. It holds two Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide.
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Rank 41. Lana
Italian
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Rank 42. Gildas
Spanish
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Rank 43. Allta
Korean
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Rank 45. Yoshii’s Omakase
Japanese
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Rank 46. Matkim
Korean
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Rank 47. Amuro
Japanese
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Rank 48. Kuro Bar & Dining
Japanese
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Rank 49. Restaurant Garaku
Japanese
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Rank 50. Prefecture 48
Japanese
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Rank 51. LuMi Bar & Dining
Italian
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Rank 52. Jane
Modern Australian
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Rank 53. Midden by Mark Olive
Indigenous Australian
Perched on the Western Broadwalk of the Sydney Opera House, this modern Australian restaurant draws on Indigenous food traditions that predate the building by a considerable stretch. Chef Mark Olive builds the menu around native ingredients, wattle seed, bush honey, pepperberries, saltbush, things most Sydney dining rooms treat as garnish rather than foundation. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.
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Rank 54. Kazan Dining
Japanese
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Rank 55. arthur
Modern Australian
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Rank 57. Bessie's & Alma's
Modern Australian
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Rank 58. Armorica
French
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Rank 59. Nour
Lebanese
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Rank 60. Ito Restaurant
Japanese
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Rank 61. Spice Temple Sydney
Chinese
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Rank 62. Sydney Common
Modern Australian
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Rank 63. Restaurant Hubert
French
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Rank 64. Shaffa
Middle Eastern
Sandwiched between two heritage sandstone buildings down a Surry Hills laneway, Shaffa is a Middle Eastern restaurant and bar built around shared plates and a deliberately festive mood. The space pulls from the energy of a bazaar, all bold spices and low lighting, and it suits a long table of friends more than a quiet Tuesday. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.
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Rank 65. Nomad Sydney
Middle Eastern
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Rank 66. Bar Copains
Modern Australian
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Rank 67. Infinity at Sydney Tower
Modern Australian
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Rank 68. PELLEGRINO 2000
Italian
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Rank 69. Silvester's Restaurant & Lounge
Modern Australian
A share-format Modern Australian restaurant near Circular Quay, Silvester's sits on a corner that's had butchers and serious produce on it for generations. The menu moves from smaller plates through to bigger dishes, building in a way that feels designed rather than accidental. The room leans convivial rather than hushed. An Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.
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A Surry Hills spot where Australian and Asian cooking get folded into each other in ways that feel less like fusion and more like a genuine point of view. The menu shifts familiar territory into something harder to categorize, which is either exciting or unsettling depending on your mood. The room is small enough that the kitchen's curiosity feels personal. It holds a Chef Hat from the Australian Good Food Guide.
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Rank 72. Restaurant Leo
Italian
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Rank 73. Besuto
Japanese
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Rank 75. Kiln
Modern Australian
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Rank 76. SOUL Dining
Korean
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Rank 77. Morena
Modern Australian
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Rank 78. The Blue Door
Modern Australian
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Rank 79. Wagyuto
Japanese
The restaurant takes its name from the Japanese word for a Western chef's knife, which tells you something about where this place sits, one foot in Japanese tradition, the other in the cooking-obsessed Sydney dining scene. It's a considered, sit-down Japanese restaurant in sleepy Clovelly, and the kitchen leans hard on local produce while keeping the cooking precise and unfussy. The kind of room where people are there to eat, not to be seen.
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Rank 80. Mr Wong
Chinese
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Rank 81. Bistro George
European-Australian New American
A European-Australian bistro a short walk from Circular Quay, Bistro George holds an Australian Good Food Guide Hat and pitches itself at the full range: solo bar snacks, work lunches, leisurely dinners. The menu leans on local produce and lands somewhere between Continental and modern Australian, with a wine list broad enough to keep both the table orderer and the sommelier-curious happy.
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Rank 82. Esteban
Mexican
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Rank 83. Mode Kitchen & Bar
Modern Australian New American
Polished wood, statement pendants, and banquette seating set the tone at this CBD bistro, which sits somewhere between a long working lunch and a proper dinner out. The kitchen leans Modern Australian, wood-roasting and slow-braising its way through a menu that reads relaxed but cooks with more ambition than the room lets on. An Australian Good Food Guide Hat for the effort.
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Rank 84. Mimi's
Modern Australian
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Rank 85. Eleven Barrack
Modern Australian
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Rank 87. The Charles
French
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Rank 88. Bastardo
Italian
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Rank 89. Maydanoz
Turkish
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A neon-lit basement off York Street designed to feel like a gambling den, which sets the mood pretty squarely. Hustlers. Syd is a shared-plates Asian restaurant built for late nights, with a menu that roams across the continent and a cocktail list that keeps pace. The Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat. Come with people you like sharing with, and don't schedule anything early the next morning.
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Rank 91. R by Raita Noda.
Japanese
An open kitchen doubles as a stage at this omakase and theater dining restaurant in Redfern, where two chefs work in near-silence while guests sit close enough to hear the knife. The rain-inspired interior tilts quiet and contemplative, which sets the right mood for a meal built around precision and patience. Chef Raita Noda has been running omakase in Sydney for years, and this is his latest, most considered room.
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Rank 92. Ennui
Modern Australian
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Rank 93. Atelier By Sofitel
French
South of France cooking in a Darling Harbour hotel, with wine racks lining the walls and a menu that leans on local produce shaped into something unmistakably French. The kitchen uses coal and char alongside classical technique, so there's smoke and richness alongside the bright, coastal flavors you'd expect. A polished, unhurried kind of dinner, the sort where you dress up a little and nobody feels self-conscious about it. The Australian Good Food Guide awards it two Chef Hats.
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Rank 94. The Dining Room by James Viles
Modern Australian
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Rank 95. Palazzo Salato
Italian
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Rank 96. Clarence and V
Modern Australian
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Rank 99. Ibushi Robata Grill
Japanese
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Rank 100. Omakase by Prefecture 48
Modern Australian