The Top 100 Restaurants Near Table Manners
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Rank 2. 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 3. Mimi's
Modern Australian
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Rank 4. Osteria Coogee
Italian
A neighbourhood Italian osteria a short walk from Coogee Beach, where house-made pasta and focaccia share the menu with fire-grilled octopus and the kind of seasonal specials that give regulars an excuse to come back. The room leans into trailing ferns and cane pendants, which sounds like a lot but somehow settles into somewhere easy to stay for a long lunch. It holds an Australian Good Food Guide Chef Hat.
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Rank 6. Saint Peter
Modern Australian
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Rank 8. Sella Vinoteca
Italian
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Rank 9. 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 11. Civico 47
Italian
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Rank 12. 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 13. Ursula's Paddington
Australian New American
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Rank 14. Fred's
Modern Australian
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Rank 15. Catalina Restaurant
Modern Australian
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Rank 16. Tanuki Restaurant Sydney
Japanese
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Rank 17. 10 William Street
Italian
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Rank 18. Porcine
French
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Rank 19. Yellow
Vegetarian
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Rank 21. Restaurant Ka
Modern Australian
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Rank 22. White Horse
Modern Australian
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Rank 23. 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 25. Franca Brasserie
Mediterranean
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Rank 26. arthur
Modern Australian
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Rank 27. 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 28. Gildas
Spanish
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Rank 29. Jane
Modern Australian
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Rank 30. 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 31. Armorica
French
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Rank 32. Takam
Filipino
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Rank 33. Nour
Lebanese
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Rank 34. Allta
Korean
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Rank 35. Ito Restaurant
Japanese
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Rank 36. ARIA Sydney
Modern Australian
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Rank 37. 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 38. Kisuke
Japanese
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Rank 39. SOUL Dining
Korean
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Rank 40. The Blue Door
Modern Australian
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Rank 41. The Apollo
Greek
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Rank 42. Bessie's & Alma's
Modern Australian
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Rank 43. Amuro
Japanese
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Rank 44. Bastardo
Italian
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Rank 45. 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 46. Bar Copains
Modern Australian
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Rank 47. Cho Cho San
Japanese
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Rank 48. Bistro Rex
French
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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 52. Nomad Sydney
Middle Eastern
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Rank 53. PELLEGRINO 2000
Italian
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Rank 54. Viand
Thai
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Rank 55. Otto Ristorante Sydney
Italian
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Rank 56. Fontana
Italian
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Rank 57. Kindred
Italian
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Rank 58. The Botanica Vaucluse
Modern Australian
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Rank 59. Attenzione Food & Wine
Italian
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Rank 60. Ennui
Modern Australian
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Rank 61. 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 62. Restaurant Garaku
Japanese
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Rank 63. Prefecture 48
Japanese
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Rank 65. Kuro Bar & Dining
Japanese
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Rank 66. Sydney Common
Modern Australian
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Rank 67. Bennelong
Modern Australian
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Rank 68. Infinity at Sydney Tower
Modern Australian
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Rank 69. Lana
Italian
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Rank 70. Kazan Dining
Japanese
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Rank 71. Kiln
Modern Australian
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Rank 76. Esteban
Mexican
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Rank 77. Omakase by Prefecture 48
Modern Australian
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Rank 78. Ibushi Robata Grill
Japanese
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Rank 79. Spice Temple Sydney
Chinese
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Rank 80. 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 81. Restaurant Hubert
French
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Rank 82. Palazzo Salato
Italian
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Rank 83. The Charles
French
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Rank 84. Restaurant Leo
Italian
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Rank 85. Morena
Modern Australian
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Rank 86. Matkim
Korean
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Rank 87. 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 88. Clarence and V
Modern Australian
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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 90. Eleven Barrack
Modern Australian
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Rank 92. LuMi Bar & Dining
Italian
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Rank 93. Maydanoz
Turkish
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Rank 94. Yoshii’s Omakase
Japanese
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Rank 96. Mr Wong
Chinese
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Rank 97. 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 98. Besuto
Japanese
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Rank 99. 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 100. 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.