Of course no list of the best dishes, best restaurants or best chefs can ever be complete. So here are my thoughts on the best dishes in Sydney in 2026, use it as a starting point for your own discoveries.
We’re blessed in multicultural Australia to take inspiration from across the globe, and some of Sydney’s best restaurants include flavours from the Middle East, Italy, Spain, India, South East Asia and China. A few of these restaurants have been around for a decade or more, while some are among Sydney’s best new restaurants. All are worth visiting – or revisiting. Let’s start with snacks (perfect for sharing) and a few standout vegetarian dishes, then some world-class seafood – which Sydney does so well – and finish with steak and a stunning dessert.
Watermans Tiropita
I’ve been a fan of Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt since their early days of Bentley on Crown Street and I was delighted to see them return to Barangaroo late last year with their Eastern Mediterranean-inspired Watermans. Their sharing menu and lunch special offer exceptional value, but you’ll want to add on this snack-sized tube of brik pastry filled with soft feta, on a bed of sweet tangy cumquat topped with a caper leaf. Delicious and clever!
Hamsi Taverna Flatbread with rainbow chard
Pide is a favourite snack when I’m in Turkey – and Somer Sivrioğlu’s new waterfront diner, Hamsi, takes me straight to the Aegean. His braised greens flatbread was topped with wilted rainbow chard when I had it, a lovely earthy contrast to the salty barrel-aged Feta and sweet confit garlic. A puffy well-charred crust completes one of Sydney’s best new dishes. The hummus and seafood dishes (pictured top) are noteworthy too.
Flaminia Testa in cassetta
Another of the best new restaurants in Sydney is Giovanni Pilu’s Flaminia at Circular Quay. The menu is seafood-heavy as it highlights classic dishes from Italy’s most iconic port cities. Man does not live by fish alone however, even on the coast, and this thinly sliced pork head terrine – served simply with sauce gribiche and large, peppery rocket leaves – looks good, tastes even better, and is definitely one of Sydney’s best dishes this year.
Gildas Charred corn churros
There’s always churros on offer at my favourite Sydney wine bar but, as with their clever seafood ‘grilldas’, they like to mix up the flavours. For the latest iteration, the churros (fried to order of course) are made from a mix of corn and wheat and topped with charred corn, Espelette pepper, preserved lemon, chives, smoked oil and crème fraîche. Don’t ask me to choose between this and the anchovy churros on last year’s best dishes in Sydney list.
Rasa House Whipped fetta & mango chilli relish
This cool casual restaurant overlooking Rose Bay was one of my favourite finds of the past year. They describe themselves as a ‘flavour and wine bar’, which says it all, and the menu dances across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia. Snacks and sharing plates feature strongly and this creamy, sweet, tangy dip – drizzled with herbaceous basil oil and served with panfried flatbread – certainly brought my tastebuds to life.
Delhi ‘O’ Delhi Zaffrani paneer
Sydney’s best new restaurants are often celebrated, but we hear less of the ones that have been feeding Sydneysiders and visitors well for a decade or more. This Newtown favourite has been one of Sydney’s best Indian restaurants for almost 20 years, serving classics and evolving with the times. Alongside their carnivorous offerings, they have excellent vegetarian dishes like this char-grilled Indian cottage cheese in a saffron yoghurt sauce.
Joe’s Table Silken tofu with mushroom
Another restaurant earning its veteran badge this year is Joe’s Table, which celebrated its 10th anniversary. It’s hard to pick a favourite on Joe Kitsana’s South East Asian menu – his duck and prawn pancake rolls made my 2024 best dishes in Sydney list. The star of a recent meal there was deep-fried silken tofu with Asian mushrooms in a tasty garlic and chilli-laced stir-fry with plenty of greens and a generous scattering of deep-fried shallots.
Pilu at Freshwater Fregola risottata with artichokes
I love the way Sardinian fregola can be cooked just like risotto – and who better to do that than Giovanni Pilu? I popped into his beachside restaurant last summer for a quick plate of pasta and glass of wine and received this superb dish of fregola cooked risottata in an artichoke stock and topped with Taleggio cheese, crisp shards of fried artichoke and a dusting of dried black olives and lemon zest. It went straight into my ‘Dish of the Year’ file.
Mishy’s Squid with hot sauce
Another great find this year was Michelle Powell’s casual Surry Hills diner. The menu is inspired by whatever Mishy loves at the markets, sometimes combined with fresh seafood or meat, sometimes as a vegetarian dish. There’s a lot to love on the short menu, but when my notes describe this super tender grilled squid with kohlrabi salad and fermented papaya hot sauce as ‘plate mopingly good’ I have to call it one of the best dishes in Sydney.
Firedoor Scallop & persimmon
Perhaps surprisingly for a restaurant that’s all about cooking over fire, Firedoor’s seafood dishes are often my favourites. Lennox Hastie has a wonderfully light touch with fish and shellfish, often combining them with tangy fruits to accentuate their sweetness. I believe raw or rare is the best way to eat scallops, and this dish – combining them with persimmon, wasabi oil, trout roe and black olive – may just be my favourite scallop dish ever.
Gildas Pulpo a la Gallega
Speaking of seafood cooked over fire, just around the corner from Firedoor – at Lennox Hastie’s Basque-inspired wine bar – I had this superb dish of char-grilled Fremantle octopus tossed in a pimentón oil and lemon dressing and served with kipfler potatoes and pickled celery. It’s the perfect segue from the snacky corn churros above (yes, Gildas has earned two places in this year’s best dishes in Sydney list).
Megalong Lot 101 Murray cod with ‘crackling’
This ‘paddock-to-plate’ restaurant in stunning Megalong Valley is one of the best restaurants in Australia, and it’s worth a day trip from Sydney for an unforgettable lunch (an overnight stay in their comfy cabins is fun too). While dishes often feature unusual fruit and vegetables, this piece of Murray cod with broccolini impressed with its simplicity and the crispest skin I’ve ever had on fish, the texture of fine pork crackling.
Pescara Scampi with lemon garlic butter
The Hunter Valley is another great day trip from Sydney – even better as a weekender. There are some great places to eat in the Hunter, but the one I’m always drawn back to is Pescara at Hermitage Lodge, which also combines the ease of walking back to your room after dinner! And the dish I can never resist there is this simple split and grilled scampi with lemon and garlic butter.
Spice Temple Wagyu, Kampot pepper, curry leaf
Spice Temple is another veteran of Sydney’s dining scene, opened by Andy Evans and Neil Perry in 2009. Andy (at Merivale as of July 2026) manned the burners until earlier this year. Last time I ate there under his reign, this dish of black Wagyu scotch fillet (Mb7+) with Kampot pepper and curry leaves reminded me why I stopped being vegetarian! I haven’t eaten there since Andy left.
Watermans Sheep’s yoghurt parfait with blackberries
Let’s finish where we started, with this stunning dessert. What looks simple is actually a complex layering of flavours. Creamy sheep’s yoghurt parfait is topped with a compote of hibiscus then pink blackberry granita that’s been infused with isot pepper. Topped with fresh blackberries, a scoop of lemon verbena sorbet, and drizzle of lemon myrtle oil, it’s creamy, tangy, refreshing and gets my vote for best dessert in Sydney this year!
Published 7 Jul 2026
Flaminia at Circular Quay – from Giovanni Pilu and Marilyn Annecchini – is one of Sydney’s best new restaurants in 2026. The seafood-heavy menu highlights classic dishes from Italy’s most iconic port cities.
Watermans in Barangaroo and Hamsi Taverna at Sydney Fish Market both feature among Sydney’s best new dishes in 2026, drawing on Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish/Aegean flavours.
Megalong Lot 101 in the Megalong Valley of the Blue Mountains is one of Australia’s best restaurants and an easy day trip from Sydney. They also have comfortable bush cabins for an overnight-stay option.