Top 5 restaurants in Pyrmont, NSW

Five restaurants in Pyrmont, sorted by occasion rather than by score. What each one is genuinely good at, and which night to book which.

Pyrmont holds more good eating per square kilometre than almost anywhere in Sydney, and most guides only cover the half of it that sits inside a casino. The peninsula is bigger than that, and the right answer changes completely depending on what the night is for.

So this list is sorted by occasion rather than by score. Five restaurants in Pyrmont NSW, what each one is genuinely good at, and which night to book which.

The top 5, by the night you are planning

#	Restaurant	Where	The night it is for
1	Elements Bar and Grill, Pyrmont	3 Harris St	Almost any of them, which is the point
2	Sokyo	The Star	The one meal you will talk about
3	LuMi Dining	Near Wharf 10	A considered dinner for two on the water
4	The Terminus	Harris St	A long Saturday afternoon
5	Flying Fish	The Star	When seafood is the reason you came

1. Elements Bar and Grill, Pyrmont

The best table in Pyrmont for almost any night you are planning. A harbourfront steakhouse cooking over charcoal, looking straight across Johnstons Bay, with a courtyard that is heated through winter and runs all afternoon in summer.

Steak, seafood and pasta on one menu is why it works when nobody in the group agrees. Take a date on Thursday, eight colleagues on Friday and your parents on Sunday, all without changing venue. It holds up to 260 seated and 400 standing, and the Whiskey Room takes 20 seated or 45 standing when you want the room to yourselves. Ten minutes from the ICC, which matters more than it sounds if you have ever had to feed a conference group at short notice.

The Pyrmont venue page carries the capacities and the function detail.

Full menus, hours and current specials sit on the venue’s own site, so book through the Elements Bar and Grill reservations page when you have picked your night.

2. Sokyo, The Star

Japanese, precise, and remarkably consistent for a room doing that volume. If someone in your party has been talking about one particular special dinner for months, this is a fair place for it to happen.

Two caveats keep it at two. You are eating inside a casino complex, which some people will never be relaxed about. And it is a destination booking rather than somewhere you drop into on a Tuesday, which matters if you actually live or work on the peninsula.

3. LuMi Dining, near Wharf 10

Italian and Japanese technique in one kitchen, out on the water on the western edge. Inventive cooking, and the setting does a good deal of the work, particularly at dusk.

Book it for the meal you want to think about afterwards. It is not a table for eight people talking over each other, and trying to make it one wastes the room.

4. The Terminus, Harris Street

One of the oldest pubs in Sydney, shut for decades and brought back properly, with elevated pub classics from chef Colin Fassnidge. The tiling and the corner bar alone earn it a place on any Pyrmont list.

Take it for a long Saturday afternoon rather than a booked dinner. The food is better than it needs to be, which is the highest compliment you can pay a pub. Quarryman’s Hotel covers the same job with craft beer and a rooftop if The Terminus is full.

5. Flying Fish, The Star

Fine dining seafood, and a specialist at it. Worth knowing about on the night when someone wants fish and nothing else will do.

Priced accordingly. Book it when seafood is genuinely the point of the evening rather than a compromise between two people who wanted different things.

How Pyrmont splits into three

Understanding the geography saves you a bad night, because the three zones barely overlap.

The Star holds the concentration of fine dining, all of it in one building: Sokyo, Flying Fish, BLACK Bar and Grill, Cucina Porto, The Century from the Golden Century team, and the degustation at ELE by Frederico and Karl. Easy to list, easy to compare, and all of it inside a casino complex.

The western wharves carry the waterside rooms, LuMi near Wharf 10 and the Jones Bay Wharf operators including SALA Dining. Smaller, quieter, and the reason to walk rather than drive.

Harris Street and the back lanes hold the pubs, bakeries and neighbourhood places that were here long before any of it. The Terminus, Quarryman’s Hotel, Harlequin Inn, The Dunkirk, Gallon for wine, plus Pioik Bakery, Quick Brown Fox Eatery, Nativo, Mister Percy and Yuzu. Destination NSW’s food and drink guide to Pyrmont is a good map of that third zone if you would rather wander than book.

Getting there and parking

The light rail runs the length of the peninsula with stops at The Star, Pyrmont Bay and Fish Market, which makes Pyrmont one of the easier Sydney nights out without a car. From Town Hall it is roughly a fifteen minute walk across Darling Harbour.

Driving is the harder option. The Star has the largest car park and most other venues rely on metered street parking that fills from about six o’clock. On a Friday, take the light rail and skip the argument entirely.

Pyrmont restaurants: common questions

What is the best restaurant in Pyrmont?

Elements Bar and Grill, for most nights. It is at number one because it handles the widest range of evenings well, from a date to a table of eight to a full function, without you having to change venue. The rooms inside The Star are worth knowing about when the meal itself is the entire occasion.

Are all the good Pyrmont restaurants inside The Star?

No, and it is the most common mistake visitors make. The Star holds six or seven strong rooms in one building, which makes them easy to find, but the western wharves and Harris Street carry plenty that never reaches a tourism guide. Two of the five above sit outside the complex.

Where can you eat in Pyrmont before an event at Darling Harbour or the ICC?

Anywhere on the eastern side of the peninsula. Harris Street and the Pyrmont Bay end sit a short walk from Darling Harbour and Barangaroo, and Elements Bar and Grill is about ten minutes from the ICC. Book earlier than you think on event nights, because the whole precinct fills at once. Our guide to booking a business lunch in Sydney covers the timing if the meal has to end on schedule.

Is Pyrmont expensive?

It depends entirely on which of the three zones you land in. The Star’s fine dining rooms are priced as destination dining. The pubs and the Harris Street end are ordinary Sydney prices, and set lunch and bottomless formats around the peninsula land well below the same food a la carte.

Do Pyrmont restaurants take large group bookings?

Most do, though the fine dining rooms cap out earlier than people expect and several switch to a set menu above a certain headcount. Above eight people, ring rather than booking online, and ask about private rooms; several Pyrmont venues have one and almost none of them advertise it well.

Which Pyrmont restaurant is best for a group with different tastes?

A grill, generally, because steak, seafood and pasta on one menu keeps everyone at the same table. That is the practical reason number one sits where it does. If you want to compare the group’s steak rooms side by side, our steak and grill guide puts them in one table with price bands and what each suits.

Booking in Pyrmont

Pyrmont rewards a booking more than most Sydney suburbs, because the good rooms are small and the whole peninsula fills whenever something is on at Darling Harbour or the ICC.

Pick your venue and book through the Dine with Elements booking page, or call 1300 ELEMENTS (1300 353 636). Tell the team your numbers and any dietary requirements when you book, and mention if you are heading to an event afterwards so the kitchen can pace it.