The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Matkim
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Rank 1. Matkim
Korean
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Rank 2. 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 3. 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 4. Besuto
Japanese
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Rank 5. 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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Rank 6. 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 8. Mr Wong
Chinese
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Rank 9. 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 10. Lana
Italian
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Rank 11. Restaurant Hubert
French
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Rank 12. ARIA Sydney
Modern Australian
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Rank 13. 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 15. 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 16. Maydanoz
Turkish
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Rank 17. Spice Temple Sydney
Chinese
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- Asian Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Best cafes for reading in Sydney
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Rank 19. Restaurant Leo
Italian
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Rank 20. Yoshii’s Omakase
Japanese
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Rank 21. Woodcut
Modern Australian
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Rank 22. Morena
Modern Australian
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Rank 23. a'Mare
Italian
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Rank 24. Eleven Barrack
Modern Australian
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Rank 25. Bennelong
Modern Australian
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Rank 26. Kazan Dining
Japanese
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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 29. The Dining Room by James Viles
Modern Australian
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Rank 30. The Charles
French
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Rank 32. LuMi Bar & Dining
Italian
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Rank 34. Kuro Bar & Dining
Japanese
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Rank 35. Esteban
Mexican
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Rank 36. Clarence and V
Modern Australian
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Rank 37. Palazzo Salato
Italian
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Rank 38. Infinity at Sydney Tower
Modern Australian
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Rank 39. 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 40. Kiln
Modern Australian
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Rank 41. Restaurant Garaku
Japanese
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Rank 42. Prefecture 48
Japanese
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Rank 43. Sydney Common
Modern Australian
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Rank 45. Omakase by Prefecture 48
Modern Australian
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Rank 46. Ibushi Robata Grill
Japanese
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Rank 47. Diggy Doo's Coffee
Coffee
- Asian Coffee Map Sydney Coffee Guide for Travelers
- Asian Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Sydney
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Rank 48. Sala
Italian
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Rank 49. Otto Ristorante Sydney
Italian
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Rank 50. 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 51. BTWN
Modern New American
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.
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Rank 52. Viand
Thai
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Rank 53. Sokyo
Japanese
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Rank 54. Sails on Lavender Bay
Modern Australian
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Rank 55. BISTECCA
Tuscan Steakhouse
Bistecca alla Fiorentina, one cut, one fire, no negotiating the menu. This Tuscan steakhouse tucked along Dalley Street runs on dry-aged Australian beef over ironbark and charcoal, in a brick-ceilinged room lit mostly by the glow of the grill. It landed on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, and the stripped-back conviction of the place makes that easy to believe. The pace slows the moment you sit down, which is either the point or the warning, depending on your evening.
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Rank 56. Yellow
Vegetarian
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Rank 57. Loulou Bistro
French
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A specialty coffee shop sitting on George Street in the Sydney CBD, where the rotating single-origin lineup changes with the seasons and the baristas treat espresso as a verb, not a noun. The room is sleek without being fussy, which suits the lunchtime office crowd well enough, but it also has the quiet patience of a place where nobody will rush you.
- Asian Coffee Map Sydney Coffee Guide for Travelers
- Asian Coffee Map Sydney Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
- Asian Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Sydney
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Rank 59. 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 60. Franca Brasserie
Mediterranean
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Rank 61. Bistro Rex
French
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Rank 62. Cho Cho San
Japanese
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Rank 63. Leible Coffee
Coffee
- Asian Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Sydney
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- Asian Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Sydney
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- Asian Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Sydney
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Rank 65. 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 66. The Cut Bar & Grill
Steakhouse
Sandstone walls from The Rocks surround this wood-fired steakhouse, which lands at number 93 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. Australian beef is aged wet and dry before meeting the grill, where the kitchen uses flame for depth rather than theatre. The room runs to timber, leather, and warm lighting, serious enough to feel like an occasion without making you straighten your back. The kind of place that suits regulars and visitors equally well.
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Rank 67. 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 68. Skittle Lane
Coffee
A specialty coffee shop tucked into King Street in the CBD, Skittle Lane keeps things spare and deliberate, the kind of minimalist fit-out that makes you notice the coffee instead of the furniture. The focus is on single-origin brews alongside pastries for when a flat white alone feels insufficient. Office workers on a tight clock and laptop regulars settling in for the afternoon tend to coexist without much friction.
- Asian Coffee Map Sydney Coffee Guide for Travelers
- Asian Coffee Map Sydney Coffee Map for First-Time Visitors
- Asian Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Sydney
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Rank 69. Kuon Omakase
Sushi
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Rank 70. The Apollo
Greek
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- Asian Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Sydney
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Rank 73. Kisuke
Japanese
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Rank 75. Nomad Sydney
Middle Eastern
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Rank 76. PELLEGRINO 2000
Italian
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Rank 77. Ennui
Modern Australian
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- Asian Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Sydney
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- Asian Coffee Map Your Guide to Coffee in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Sydney
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Rank 80. Allta
Korean
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Rank 81. Amuro
Japanese
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Rank 82. Takam
Filipino
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Rank 83. Restaurant Ka
Modern Australian
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Rank 84. Normcore Coffee
Coffee
- Asian Coffee Map 10 Best Specialty Cafes & Coffee Shops in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Essential Coffee Shops in Sydney
- Asian Coffee Map Best coffee shops for work in Sydney
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Rank 86. The Gidley
Steakhouse
A basement steakhouse beneath Sydney's CBD, The Gidley feels like a very good secret: dark timber, velvet banquettes, polished brass, and low light that flatters everyone equally. Dry-aged Australian beef goes over an ironbark and charcoal grill with the kind of restraint that lets the meat do the talking. The wine list leans into serious Australian regions alongside European classics. It ranks among the World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants.
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Rank 87. Gildas
Spanish
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Rank 89. 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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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 91. 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 92. Saint Peter
Modern Australian
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Rank 93. Bar Copains
Modern Australian
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Rank 94. Bessie's & Alma's
Modern Australian
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Rank 97. White Horse
Modern Australian
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Rank 98. Chez Beckett's
Modern French
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.
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Rank 99. Edition Roasters
Coffee
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Rank 100. 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