Eating Out
Prices
Prices in Sydney's restaurants vary. A main meal in a mid-range restaurant is around $25 - $35. Upper mid-range averages around $35 - $45. For the more budget-conscious, go for the "multicultural" restaurants, especially the Asian ones. Many restaurants also offer "lunch specials". For example, a good Korean "set lunch" can be found for less than $15.
Eating times
Cafés serving breakfast start opening at 6AM and breakfast is usually served until 11AM, or occasionally all day. Orders for lunch start at about noon and continue until about 3PM. Many cafes will start closing late afternoon, although a few may remain open for dinner.
Restaurants usually open for dinner around 5PM-6PM and while there are exceptions (usually concentrated in areas with active nightlife), last orders for dinner are typically taken around 10PM. Restaurants in business areas open for lunch as well. It is common for restaurants in suburban locations to sometimes be closed on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday nights.
It is more expensive to get a sit down meal in the evening, than it is for lunch.
Eat streets
Just about every suburb of Sydney will have a restaurant or two, a cafe or coffee shop, and a place that sells takeaway food.
However, there are are a number of places in Sydney where you can window shop through many restaurants, and take your choice.
All of Darling Harbour is like this, there are restaurants of every variety all along the waterfront. East Circular Quay in the City Centre is similar, along with the International Passenger Terminal on the west of Circular Quay.
On the Lower North Shore Willoughby Road at Crows Nest, has honest and consistently good Indian, Thai, and other choices. Parramatta has a eating strip, many with alfresco options.
Splurge
Sydney is also home to some of the world's best restaurants.
If you are wanting to try Sydney's finest rated restaurants during your visit, make a booking in advance at Quay in the The Rocks; Tetsuya’s, Bilsons, or Est in the City Centre; Marque in the City East or Pier in the Eastern Suburbs.
Neil Perry is Sydney's celebrity chef, and runs Rockpool at The Rocks which has now been split into The Rockpool Bar and Grill upstairs, and Spice Temple downstairs.
If you want to splurge on the location, as well as the food, make an advance booking at Forty One, on the forty first floor of Chifley Tower in the City Centre, or Guillaume at Bennelong Restaurant in the Opera House. You may be lucky on a weekday and get a walk-up table at one of the restaurants in Campbells Cove in the The Rocks#Eat.
If you want to have fine dining, away from the central Sydney, try Jonah's in the far Northern Beaches - go for lunch, the view is stunning.
Modern Australian
Thanks to Sydney's (or rather, Australia's) multicultural mix, "modern Australian" is usually characterised by a fusion of cuisines. Think entrees spiced with a Thai-inspired chilli dressing, mains with a hint of a Chinese-style ginger-based marinade or sunny Tuscan flavours- all in the same menu. Many of Australia's celebrity chefs are of ethnic backgrounds, and many have trained overseas, bringing with them a world of experience back home.
- Visit the Sydney Fish Markets in Pyrmont (within walking distance of Darling Harbour) for a lunch of fresh seafood of almost any description.
- Hit a steakhouse and try Australia's world-famous prime Angus beef. Easily accessible upmarket Sydney city steakhouses include I'm Angus at Darling Harbour and Kingsley's in Woolloomoolloo in the City East.
Alternatively, many CBD pubs offer $6 to $10 steak "meal deals", provided that you also order a particular alcoholic drink at the same time.
Multicultural
For those who are after authentic multicultural culinary experiences, there are unique "food districts" scattered around the greater city. The range of food available is huge and isn't necessarily expensive. It is usually possible to find a restaurant of any nationality, specialising in almost any cuisine.
- Yum cha in Chinatown is very good, arguably even better than Hong Kong since many of their best chefs moved to Sydney in the 1990s. Yum Cha is an entire meal comprising many small dishes called "dim sum" (Mandarin: dian xin). It's similar to Spanish tapas in serving style- but the food moves in roving, heated trolleys around the restaurant.
- Eat Chinese (Cantonese) in Chinatown Chatswood on the North Shore. "Noodle markets" are also held in Chinatown every Friday, starting from around 5:30PM. Many Chinatown restaurants hold open-air stalls, selling everything from finger food, to stir-fry noodles, to Chinese-style desserts. For more northern Chinese flavours, including Shanghainese and Pekingnese, head to Ashfield and Strathfield in the Sydney/Inner West- both easily accessible via public transport. The outer suburbs such as Parramatta (west), Eastwood (north-west) and Hurstville in Sydney's southern suburbs also have clusters of smaller restaurants offering more home-style Chinese food.
- Eat Uyghur on Dixon Street, Haymarket (Chinatown)- fiery, flavour-bursting food originating from the Turkic regions of Central Asia.
- Eat Thai in one of the many low priced Thai outlets in Newtown's King Street in the Inner West.
- Eat Italian in one of the restaurants in Leichhardt's Norton Street, or nearby Ramsay Street, Haberfield in the Inner West. Or in Stanley St in East Sydney - a walk from the CBD.
- Eat Spanish in Liverpool Street in the city.
- Eat Portuguese in Petersham in the Inner West.
- Eat Indian in one of the many restaurants in the Outer West with all types of Indian cuisine (North Indian, South Indian, Vegetarian, meat, etc.)
- Eat Korean in Liverpool & Pitt St in City, Strathfield, Eastwood and Campsie.
- Eat Japanese in Neutral Bay or Crows Nest.
- Eat Nepalese in Glebe Point Road, Glebe, in the Inner West.
- Eat Turkish in Auburn (Outer West). Closer to the city, there try Enmore Rd Enmore / South King St Newtown in the Inner West. Get your Sucuklu and Pastirmali here.
- Eat Lebanese in Cleveland Street. Baba Ghanouj, Lahem Begin and Baclawa here. Salam Alaikum.
- Eat Vietnamese. The most authentic Vietnamese can be experienced in Cabramatta.
- Eat Kosher in Bondi. Many great restaurants throughout the area.
- Eat Indonesian in Anzac Parade, Kingsford & Maroubra.
Many of the areas mentioned above also sell produce related to the original nationality of the locals. CityRail also has a section for eating your way round Sydney by train. Organised by each train line, you will find a range of places to eat out often within easy walking distance of stations [75].
Take away
Take away food in Sydney can be as cheap as buying the ingredients and making it yourself, and many stores specialise in take-away food. There will usually be a picnic table, park or beach nearby to eat whatever you can select. Quintessential Aussie takeaways include the meat pie (minced beef with gravy sauce in a crusty pastry shell) and sausage roll (sausage mince in a puff pastry casing), usually topped generously with tomato sauce/ketchup.
Most restaurants will do take-away food as well, but almost certainly at a premium to the cost of buying food from a take-away. Outside of the city an occasional restaurant may offer a 10% discount for take-away.
Vegetarian and special diets
Vegetarians are well catered for. Every restaurant will usually have at least one vegetarian dish. Indian retaurants can be relied upon to provide a wider selection. The trendy East Sydney and Inner West suburbs are likely to give you a large choice as well.
There is an awareness of gluten-free and dairy-free diets in Sydney, and again the more trendier inner city suburbs are more likely to cater for these diets.