The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Lil Franky Pizzeria

Buffalo mozzarella flown in from Battipaglia sits on the menu at this casual pizzeria off the Princess Highway in Tempe, a detail that tells you exactly how seriously the team takes sourcing. The dough skips the classic Neapolitan puff in favor of something from the Cilento coast, a little crisper and more compact. Fresh pasta and a short cheese selection round things out, and the room runs warm in the way that makes you linger longer than planned.

1. 50 Top Pizza #28 · 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific

An in-house dry-ageing room in an old industrial space in Marrickville sets the tone for what this open-fire steakhouse is about: Australian beef handled with patience, then finished over live flame with more discipline than drama. The room keeps the building's bones exposed, the service keeps the formality in its pocket, and the whole place carries the quiet confidence of somewhere that doesn't need to explain itself. It landed at number 59 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

1. World's 101 Best #59 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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1. Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – APAC

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1. Australian Good Food Guide 19/20 · Four Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. 50 Best #66 · The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

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.

1. World's 101 Best #36 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. World's 101 Best #11 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
2. Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Restaurant Bar

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

A Victorian terrace on Glebe Point Road that was once a private investigator's office, which may explain why the atmosphere feels like it has something to hide. It's a wine bar and restaurant loosely inspired by Mexican flavours, though the menu roams freely: dry-aged sirloin, barramundi, tres leches cake. Whitewashed walls and open fireplaces keep things easy, and the Australian Good Food Guide gave it a Chef Hat.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. World's 101 Best #14 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

Softly lit and tucked into Chippendale's Kensington Street, Chez Beckett's is a modern French bistro where the industrial bones of the building meet white-tablecloth formality without feeling stuffy. The menu leans into the classics, escargots, tartare, duck, done with Australian seasonal produce threaded through. The wine list is curated and the cocktails are genuinely considered, which the after-work crowd in the corner seems to have figured out already.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. World's 101 Best #33 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. World's 101 Best #38 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 17/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. World's 101 Best #85 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

Darling Harbour views frame every table at this theatrical modern Australian share-plates restaurant inside W Sydney. The menu leans on local growers and coastal producers, with wild-caught seafood making a strong case for itself as the room fills and the energy climbs toward something noticeably louder than dinner. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 18/20 · Four Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 15/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 16/20 · Three Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

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.

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 18/20 · Four Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats

1. Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat

1. Australian Good Food Guide 13/20 · One Chef Hat