Top 5 restaurants in Sydney, NSW

Five Sydney restaurants judged on tables you can actually get, rooms that hold a group, and one menu the whole table can eat from.

Sydney has more good restaurants than any list can hold, so the useful question is which five you can actually use. Not which have the most hats, but which take a booking this month, hold six people without forcing a set menu, and feed a table where one person wants steak and another wants fish.

Five restaurants judged on that, plus the rooms to book instead when the occasion calls for something else entirely.

The criteria

What was scored	Why it matters
Can you get a table	The best meal in Sydney is worth nothing if the next booking is in April.
Does it hold a group	Six people should not trigger a compulsory degustation.
Can everyone eat	One menu that covers steak, seafood and a vegetarian without apology.
Does it suit more than one occasion	A room you can use for a date, a birthday and a work dinner beats three you cannot.

Judged on cooking alone the order would be different, and the article says where. Judged on use, this is the five.

The top 5

#	Restaurant	Where	Verdict
1	Elements Bar and Grill	Walsh Bay and Pyrmont	The most usable table in Sydney for a mixed group
2	Aria	Sydney CBD	The benchmark occasion room, with the Opera House outside
3	Firedoor	Surry Hills	Sydney’s most singular kitchen. No gas, no electricity
4	Saint Peter	Paddington	Australian seafood handled with real invention
5	Margaret	Double Bay	A Double Bay dining room with international standing for beef

1. Elements Bar and Grill, Walsh Bay and Pyrmont

The most usable table in Sydney for a mixed group. Two charcoal grills on the harbour, one on a heritage wharf and one on the Johnstons Bay foreshore, running steak through to seafood and pasta on a single menu.

That single menu is the whole argument. Ring on Wednesday for a Friday table of eight where one person eats no red meat, and it works, which is more than most of the rooms below can say.

Walsh Bay sits on Pier 8/9 with water on three sides and holds up to 248 seated. The Pyrmont room runs the same kitchen with a heated courtyard instead of a wharf, takes up to 260 seated, and sits ten minutes from the ICC. Between the two there is almost no Sydney night they cannot absorb.

The Walsh Bay and Pyrmont venue pages carry the capacities and the hire detail.

2. Aria, Sydney CBD

The benchmark modern Australian room, and the one most Sydneysiders name when someone asks where to take a visitor. The Opera House and the harbour sit outside the glass, which is not a gimmick when the occasion genuinely warrants it.

Book it for the anniversary, the proposal or the interstate guest you want to impress once. Book somewhere else for a Tuesday.

3. Firedoor, Surry Hills

The most singular kitchen in the city. No gas and no electricity in the cooking, only fire, and a menu that changes around what the flame is doing that week.

A restaurant for people who want to think about their dinner. It is not a room for a table that cannot agree, and it never pretends to be.

4. Saint Peter, Paddington

Wholly Australian seafood, handled with more invention and less waste than almost anywhere in the country. If seafood is the reason for the evening rather than a compromise, this is worth the planning.

Small, precise and popular, which means booking well ahead. That is the trade you make.

5. Margaret, Double Bay

Neil Perry’s Double Bay dining room, doing beef with a precision that has genuine international standing.

It sits at five on these criteria rather than on quality, because it is a destination booking rather than a room you use on a whim.

If your night is something else

The night	Where instead
A tasting menu you will remember for years	Quay, Bennelong or Sixpenny
Omakase at a counter	Yoshii’s Omakase at Barangaroo
Italian, done seriously	Fratelli Paradiso, Gran Torino or A’Mare
A long shared table for a big group	Young’s Palace or AALIA
A neighbourhood room with no ceremony	Arthur, Ester, Cafe Paci or Baba’s Place
Wood fire without the fine dining	The Palomar or Homer Rogue Taverna

How to actually get a table in Sydney

Four things save more dinners than any list does.

Ring for anything over six. Online systems cap group sizes well below what a venue can actually seat, and the phone unlocks tables the website will not show you.

Book Tuesday to Thursday. The same kitchen, the same produce, better service, and a room that is not fighting for its life. Friday and Saturday are the two hardest nights and the two worst value.

Give your dietary requirements at booking. Not on arrival. A kitchen with three days’ notice will cook something worth eating; a kitchen with three minutes will send out steamed vegetables.

Say what the night is for. A birthday, a client dinner, a show at eight. Every good venue in Sydney will pace the meal around it, but only if you tell them. The guide to booking a business lunch in Sydney covers the timing when the meal has to end on schedule.

Sydney restaurants: common questions

What is the best restaurant in Sydney?

It depends entirely on what you are booking for, which is why this list states its criteria. For a tasting menu at the top of the city, Quay and Bennelong are the usual answers. For fire cooking, Firedoor. For a table you can actually get for a group of eight this week, a grill will beat all of them.

How far ahead do you need to book in Sydney?

Two to three months for the top tasting menus, two to three weeks for a good Friday or Saturday table anywhere well reviewed, and often the same week midweek. Groups over eight need longer everywhere, because most rooms hold only a handful of tables that size.

Which Sydney restaurants suit a group with different diets?

Grills and modern Australian rooms, generally, because one menu covers red meat, seafood and vegetarian without anyone feeling like an afterthought. Tasting menu restaurants can accommodate requirements, but they need notice and the substitute course is rarely as good as the one everyone else is eating.

Are Sydney’s best restaurants all in the CBD?

No, and the map has shifted a long way. Surry Hills, Paddington, Double Bay, Newtown, Marrickville and Potts Point all carry rooms as good as anything in the centre, and the harbourside precincts at Walsh Bay, Pyrmont and Barangaroo have grown enormously in the last decade.

What is a reasonable price for dinner in Sydney?

Around $80 to $120 a head at a good restaurant with a couple of drinks, rising sharply for tasting menus and premium steak. Neighbourhood rooms and midweek set menus come in well under that. The gap between a $90 dinner and a $250 one is real, but smaller than most people expect.

Which Sydney restaurants have harbour views?

More than you would think, though the good ones book out. Aria and Quay have the postcard outlook at Circular Quay, and the Walsh Bay, Pyrmont and Barangaroo precincts all sit on the water at a range of prices. The Sydney restaurants guide compares rooms by setting and occasion.

Booking in Sydney

The right restaurant is the one that fits the night, and most nights are not a tasting menu. If yours is a group, a birthday, a client dinner or a show at eight, book a room built to absorb it.

Pick a venue through the Dine with Elements booking page, or call 1300 ELEMENTS (1300 353 636). Give the team your numbers, your dietary requirements and what the night is for, and they will do the rest.