The Top 100 Restaurants Near Sala
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Rank 1. Sala
Italian
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Rank 2. LuMi Bar & Dining
Italian
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Rank 3. Sokyo
Japanese
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Rank 4. Yoshii’s Omakase
Japanese
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Rank 5. a'Mare
Italian
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Rank 6. 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 7. Woodcut
Modern Australian
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Rank 9. 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 10. Kuro Bar & Dining
Japanese
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Rank 12. Prefecture 48
Japanese
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Rank 13. Restaurant Garaku
Japanese
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Rank 14. Clarence and V
Modern Australian
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Rank 15. Maydanoz
Turkish
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Rank 16. Palazzo Salato
Italian
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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 18. Matkim
Korean
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Rank 19. Eleven Barrack
Modern Australian
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Rank 20. The Charles
French
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Rank 21. 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 22. Ibushi Robata Grill
Japanese
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Rank 23. Omakase by Prefecture 48
Modern Australian
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Rank 24. Mr Wong
Chinese
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Rank 25. Morena
Modern Australian
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Rank 26. Esteban
Mexican
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Rank 27. 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 28. Restaurant Leo
Italian
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Rank 29. 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 33. Besuto
Japanese
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Rank 34. Kiln
Modern Australian
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Rank 35. 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 36. Restaurant Hubert
French
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Rank 37. Lana
Italian
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Rank 38. Infinity at Sydney Tower
Modern Australian
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Rank 39. Spice Temple Sydney
Chinese
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Rank 41. Kazan Dining
Japanese
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Rank 42. ARIA Sydney
Modern Australian
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Rank 43. Sydney Common
Modern Australian
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Rank 44. The Dining Room by James Viles
Modern Australian
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Rank 46. Bennelong
Modern Australian
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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.
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Rank 49. 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 50. 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 51. Ennui
Modern Australian
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Rank 52. Sails on Lavender Bay
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 55. Viand
Thai
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Rank 56. PELLEGRINO 2000
Italian
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Rank 58. Allta
Korean
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Rank 59. Nomad Sydney
Middle Eastern
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Rank 60. 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 61. Gildas
Spanish
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Rank 62. Saint Peter
Modern Australian
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Rank 63. Otto Ristorante Sydney
Italian
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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 65. Loulou Bistro
French
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Rank 66. Amuro
Japanese
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Rank 68. 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 69. Bar Copains
Modern Australian
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Rank 70. Bessie's & Alma's
Modern Australian
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Rank 71. Yellow
Vegetarian
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Rank 72. Restaurant Ka
Modern Australian
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Rank 73. Bastardo
Italian
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Rank 74. Franca Brasserie
Mediterranean
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Rank 75. White Horse
Modern Australian
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Rank 76. Kindred
Italian
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Rank 77. The Blue Door
Modern Australian
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Rank 78. Takam
Filipino
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Rank 79. Cho Cho San
Japanese
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Rank 81. Kisuke
Japanese
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Rank 82. 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 83. Bistro Rex
French
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Rank 84. The Apollo
Greek
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Rank 85. Sixpenny
Modern Australian
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Rank 86. Ito Restaurant
Japanese
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Rank 87. SOUL Dining
Korean
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Rank 88. Nour
Lebanese
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Rank 89. Armorica
French
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Rank 90. Attenzione Food & Wine
Italian
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Rank 91. 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 92. Jane
Modern Australian
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Rank 93. Poetica Bar & Grill
Modern Australian
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Rank 94. Fontana
Italian
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Rank 95. Bar Lettera
Italo-Australian Italian
Marble counters meet raw hardwood on the fifth floor of a North Sydney hotel, setting the scene for a wine bar and all-day Italian restaurant that leans into Italo-Australian cooking: pasta with native Davidson plum, burrata alongside local persimmon. The room is polished without being stiff, and the menu moves comfortably from a working breakfast through to sharing plates over a bottle in the evening.
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The open kitchen sends smoke and char into a sleek dining room of soft light and dark wood on Miller Street in North Sydney. Toki is a fusion bistro and bar where the menu leans toward big-format sharing, think tomahawk steaks and beef tartare dressed with tendon crisps and caviar. The cocktail bar pulls its own weight. The Australian Good Food Guide awarded it a Chef Hat.
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Rank 97. RAFI
Modern Australian
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Rank 98. Cafe Paci
Modern Australian
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Rank 99. arthur
Modern Australian
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Rank 100. ANTE
Modern Australian
- Australian Good Food Guide 12/20 · One Chef Hat
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best International Restaurant Bar