What’s the best new restaurant in Sydney? Despite the fact that we’re not a city-living rag, it’s a question that we’re often asked at Boss Hunting.
In that spirit, we’ve compiled a rolling list – updated every quarter – of all the best new Sydney restaurants (all opened within a year) below.
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The Best New Sydney Restaurants Right Now
Cicci, Balmain
At Italian wine bar Cicci, three blackboards tell you basically everything you need to know about the venue, with one for food and two for wine (all framed by shelves stacked with over 100 bottles).
It’s the sort of place you can drop into for a quick Nero d’Avola and a Piatto Cicci, or stay for dinner with mouthwatering dishes like stracciatella, nduja, and sweet potato rigatoni or a 250g Jacks Creek MBS3 flank steak. The one-page menu shifts with the seasons, making for a dining destination that’s simple, spontaneous, and built around whatever’s freshest that morning.
Opened: July 2025
Address: 475 Darling St, Balmain NSW 2041
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Thursday (4 PM – 10 PM); Friday – Saturday (12 PM – 10 PM)
Kolkata Social, Newtown
Self-described as a “love letter to Bengali cuisine and culture,” Kolkata Social was set up by the team behind Colombo, Kabul, and Kyiv Social. The team’s latest venue is a vibrant tribute to chef Ahana Dutt’s West Bengal roots and her mother Sharmila’s home cooking.
If you’re looking for a standout dish, the Barramundi resting in smoked yoghurt broth with mustard oil is excellent, while spiced goat kosha and chicken in garlicky coconut jhol are another easy way to give your dining companions food envy. Great eating for a great cause.
Opened: March 2025
Address: 528 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday (5:30 PM – 10:30 PM)
Regina La Pizzeria, Redfern
At Regina, Sicilian owner-chef Matteo Ernandes offers three distinct pizza styles – woodfired, padellino, and pizza fritta – all of which are cooked to perfection in Sydney’s only Fazzone oven. Guests can elect to watch it in action from the counter or enjoy their meal at a low table, with the menu serving up classic pizzas and house specials like the Fellini, topped with Comté, spicy honey, and corn.
You’ve also got sumptuous options like the deep-dish padellino, which arrives rich with duck ragu, or fried pizzas that redefine indulgence with impossibly crisp, deceptively light bases that are unlike anything you’ve had before.
Opened: March 2025
Address: RL 107/109/2 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (5 PM – 9:30 PM); Friday (12 PM – 4 PM, 5 PM – 9 PM); Saturday – Sunday (12 PM – 2:30 PM, 5 PM – 9:30 PM)
Cibaria, Manly
If you’re a fan of Italian cuisine, Ormeggio chef Alessandro Pavoni’s latest venture, Cibaria, is guaranteed to get you excited.
Situated bang on Manley beach, you’ll have the chance to wander between six dedicated kitchens – the trattoria, friggitoria, forneria, spaghetteria, gelateria, and pasticceria – that are arranged in a “piazza” style layout.
Sharing options include classic fritto misto alongside playful lasagne fritters, marinara pizzettas or lemony scallops in shells, while the pizzetta dough ferments for 72 hours before receiving a woodfired finish.
It’s casual, all-day dining, just like you’d find in Italy.
Opened: January 2025
Address: 55 N Steyne, Manly NSW 2095
Phone: (02) 8350 0895
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (7 AM – 11 AM, 11:30 AM – 3 PM, 5 PM – 10:30 PM); Friday – Saturday (7 AM – 11 AM, 11:30 AM – 3 PM, 5 PM – 11 PM); Sunday (7 AM – 11 AM, 11:30 AM – 3 PM, 5 PM – 10:30 PM)
Izakaya Gaku, Five Dock
Izakaya Gaku, out in Sydney’s inner west, sees chefs Shimon Hanakura and Haru Inukai swap fine dining for a more casual approach to bringing peerless Japanese dishes to Sydney.
The cosy dining room, complete with tatami-style seating, sets the stage for the star of the menu, kamameshi.
This dish features Nagano koshihikari rice, soy–mirin broth and vegetables simmered in an iron kama, crowned with your choice of chicken, salmon, lobster tail, Japanese oysters or Aussie Wagyu sukiyaki.
It’s the only place in Sydney you’ll find it, and if that wasn’t enough, you’ll be able to wash it down with yuzu saké or the house umeshu.
Opened: March 2025
Address: 175 First Ave, Five Dock NSW 2046
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday (5 PM – 8:30 PM); Saturday – Sunday (12 PM – 2 PM, 5 PM – 8:30 PM)
Olympic Meats, Marrickville
There’s plenty of hype around the recently opened Olympic Meats in Marrickville, and we’re here to tell you the Greek diner lives up to it.
From the moment the doors open, keen Sydneysiders were lining up for takeaway gyros or to grab a coveted table, ready to tuck into six-hour lamb off the grill or chicken and pork that melt in the mouth.
The cured vegetables, moreish beef-tallow chips, and rotating meze are also more than worth trying, alongside the house-stretched filo wraps that you won’t forget in a hurry.
There are no bookings, so if you’re after a table, you’ll need to arrive early. In saying that, it’ll be more than worth the effort.
Opened: March 2025
Address: 12 Dudley St, Marrickville NSW 2204
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Friday (5 PM – 9:30 PM); Saturday (12 PM – 3:30 PM, 5 PM – 10 PM); Sunday (12 PM – 4:30 PM)
Epula, Sydney CBD
The new kid on the Martin Place block, Epula solves the eternal problem: where to go for a 6pm post-spreadsheet martini-frites. Sitting smack bang in the GPO Building, Epula’s come from the Tapavino Group to bring European piazza flair to the Central CBD.
Notable menu items include a mushroom lasagna, gazpacho-filled bon-bons, and other European bistro classics, but the real standout is the steak bavette and frites. Interiors resemble the cosy heritage salons you’d find just off the Place de la Concorde or Piazza San Marco.
Come just at clock-off to snag an al fresco table facing Martin Place, and order the Light My Mary cocktail (a tomato-washed vodka drink described as the “Bloodless Martini”) and watch the piazza come alive.
Opened: October 2025
Address: No.1 GPO Martin Place, Sydney, NSW, 2000
Phone: (02) 9223 6802
Opening Hours: Monday – Friday (12 PM – 10 PM); Saturday (5 PM – 10 PM)
Eleven Barrack, Sydney CBD
Situated in the 19th-century Barrack Street Bank building at the heart of Sydney’s CBD, Eleven Barrack is the latest entrant into the fray of high-end steak & seafood joints popping up all over the Harbour City.
This one comes to diners from Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt (of Bentley Group fame), complete with outdoor dining, private function space and an elongated marble bartop – giving city-slick power brokers multiple ways to indulge.
As you’d expect, Savage & Co have opted to let Eleven Barrack’s grandiose dining space deliver most of the (unsurprisingly punchy) first impressions: by offering a menu of classic steakhouse dishes, elevated through sheer execution.
Morsels coming off the pass we’ve seen go viral include the restaurant’s glossy pork tomahawk, generously laden fish pie served in the carcass of a spanner crab, and a prebatched Negroni that will knock your socks off.
Opened: February 2025
Address: 11 Barrack St, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9220 0111
Opening Hours: Monday – Friday (12 PM – 10 PM); Saturday – Sunday (5:30 PM –10 PM)
Glass Brasserie, Sydney CBD
Though Glass Brasserie has been a fixture of the Sydney CBD restaurant scene since the mid-2000s (helmed, for over a decade, by Luke Mangan), this modern fine diner has gotten a fresh lease of life as of late, under the leadership of newly appointed Head Chef Natalie Murphy.
In line with what savvy diners would expect from the signature restaurant at a 5-star hotel such as The Hilton, the menu prioritises simplicity and seasonality, with Murphy’s “modern approach to dining” allowing for impeccable Australian produce to do the heavy lifting.
Southern Tasmanian squid or a backstrap of lamb sourced from Gundagai are both great mains to build your meal around. Or, take indecision out of the picture completely, and opt for the ‘Glass Banquet’ – one of the better value tasting menus you’ll find in the Sydney CBD.
All of this culinary levelling up hasn’t come at the expense of Glass Brasserie’s wine list, which is still compiled – 20 years later – by Head Sommelier Mauro Bortolato. The Italian expat has been hard at work rounding out the restaurant’s new ‘by the glass’ offering, which champions local faves like Basket Press Shiraz alongside old world icons from France, Italy, and Hungary.
There aren’t too many restaurants in Sydney where one can drink vintage Pol Roger by the glass, and for that, Glass gets our stamp of approval.
Opened: February 2025
Address: Level 2/488 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9265 6068
Opening Hours: Monday – Friday (6:30 AM – 9:30 PM); Saturday – Sunday (6:30 AM – 10:30 PM)
Lottie, Redfern
Calculated to do for The EVE hotel what Brisbane’s Hellenika did for The Calile, Lottie is one of two openings from Liquid & Larder, incuring a flurry of reservations right now – in the newly opened Wunderlich Lane lifestyle precinct.
A pool-adjacent rooftop haunt drenched in shades of cream and orange, the F&B program here is similarly keyed: offering up approachable takes on Mexican cuisine, complete with Southern Californian inspirations that mesh well with the vibe of the surrounding hotel.
Following the much-publicised closure of Comedor, Alejandor Huerta joins Lottie in earnest as the restaurant’s new Head Chef. Dishes which have emerged as early frontrunners on his menu include sweetcorn leche de tigre and whole pork jowl cooked in a cola-infused mole sauce.
On the drinks front, Liquid & Larder has tasked Ben Ingall, its group bars manager, with a drinks menu that leans heavily into agave spirits. Lovers of malt & grain haven’t been forgotten, however: for a riff on the whisky sour, with an appropriately Latin twist, try the Elote Elote.
Opened: January 2025
Address: Rooftop, The EVE Hotel, 8 Baptist Street, Redfern NSW 2016
Phone: (02) 9129 2433
Opening Hours: Monday – Tuesday (5 PM – late); Wednesday – Sunday (12 PM – late)
Bessie’s, Surry Hills
Evidently keen to consolidate their dominion over Albion Street, the trio behind Bar Copains – Morgan McGlone, Sal and Nathan Sasi – rang in 2025 by opening Bessie’s: their new big-table concept that, as the website tells you, is dedicated to “food,” “fire,” and “friends.”
Playing in a now-familiar register for Sydneysiders (courtesy of eateries like Ester and Firedoor just down the road) the big picture at Bessie’s is all about big communal plates shared among friends.
The vast majority have been kissed, licked or otherwise exposed to flame, such as a huge coil of chorizo served with salsa mojo verde or peri peri chicken cooked in its own schmaltz.
To complete your experience, we’d recommend a pre- or post-dinner beverage at Alma’s: incidentally, a fantastic spot to take a run at Bessie’s kitchen without committing to a full sit-down dinner.
Opened: January 2025
Address: 111-115 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Opening Hours: Monday – Wednesday (5 PM – late); Thursday – Sunday (12 PM – late)
If you’ve enjoyed this round-up of the best new restaurants in Sydney, consider checking out these other locally based dining guides below:
