Restaurants in Sydney
 

Below is a list of restaurants in Sydney that sound interesting in their guidebook descriptions. If any of you have tried any of these, please let me know your opinions about them. Many thanks.

Malaya
King St.
I-Thai
Guillaume at Bennelong
Rockpool, The Rocks
Harbourkitchen & Bar, The Rocks
MCA Café, 140 George St., The Rocks
Sailor’s Thai (on George St.)
Amo Roma (Rocks area)
Aria, E. Circular Quay
Chinta Rai Temple of Lore, Darling Park
Bathers Pavillion, The Esplanade
Balmoral
Robberries “Taste Australia”, Darlinghurst
Fu Manchu, Darlinghurst
Govinda's, Darlinghurst
Diethnes
The Pier, Rose Bay
Jonah’s, Palm Beach
MG Garage
Quay
Golden Century on Sussex Street, Chinatown
BBQ King on Goulbourn Street
Pho An of Sydney's Bankstown

I've been to quite a few of these and I assume you realise there is a vast range of styles and price levels on your list. These are just my opinions:

Malaya....has been around for many years. Good Singaporean style food at moderate price.
Guillaume...much more expensive. Liked the food/found the space a bit cramped. It adjoins the Opera house.
Rockpool...Expensive.Great food,good service. Dramatic entry.
Harbour Kitchen...ok.Not cheap but you get a full on view of Opera House.
MCA Cafe.... Have not been for years. Good view if outside. Not as cheap as I expected.
Sailors Thai...For me disappointing. Fond memories of Thompson's original restaurants. However others rave about it.
Chinta Ria...Fun place at Darling Harbour . Like the food, atmosphere and music. Malaysian but modern.
Bathers Pav...Lovely place. Right on the beach. Good food and service. Expensive.
Diethenes...One of my favourites. Have been going there for about 45 years! Greek, lots of food, moderate price.
Pier...For those who want the best in seafood and can afford the prices. Right on the harbour at Rose Bay.
MG Garage... went to God some years back
Quay...now you're talking! My favourite restaurant. Great food and service and if you ask nicely maybe a great view of the harbour. Expensive and for me special occasion only!
Golden Century...Always busy, ordinary decor but generally regarded as the best Chinese. Its in Chinatown.
BBQ King...cheap as chips, authentic food and the place of choice of most high end chefs when they knock off work. No fuss place which is an absolute institution.
Have fun! Are you planning on visiting ALL of them? LOL!

Malaya good - a sydney institution
i-Thai - also good, but on the pricy side for thai.
guillame - haven't been, but it's a top rated restaurant in a divine location
rockpool - same as above. neil perry is a guru.
amo roma - good italian in the rocks, very consistent (have been several times).
Chinta ria - I like this place, convenient, but you can't book, which if there's a group can be a bit annoying.
Golden Century - probably my fave in chinatown, although the marigold is excellent as well (and marigold for the best yum cha I've had)
BBQ King, always reliable.

i have heard of all the others on the list, and I don't think you'd go wrong.

you might also like to consider leichardt for italian - its the 'little italy'. Or, my fave for pizza italian style napoli in bocca in haberfield.

you could also look at restaurants in balmain (lovely village atmosphere) - blue ginger is very good.

I can also recommend a trip to the david jones food hall in the city, best at weekends (busy with work people lunching during the day) but their cheese area is excellent. you can get platters already set and then if you want add a couple more. teamed with a glass of wine ... mmmmm! also, there's so much nice 'gourmet' food product down there, it's worth a look. AND make sure you get a chocolate coated strawberry - they're huge and hugely delicious. http://www.davidjones.com.au/service...t_foodhall.jsp

speaking of david jones, if you like to shop, the westfield at bondi junction is very good and for cheap meal with views, you cant beat it's food hall!

couople of other options: for spanish, try liverpool street in the city.

another not so expensive option is wagamama - one down near circ. quay and another just up from king st wharf.

you might also like to consider bills http://www.bills.com.au/about/ (bill granger's restaurants)
and
billy kwong (which is kylie kwongs restaurant)
Both Granger and Kwong renowned foodies in Oz, with great cookbooks so you can emulate it when you leave. Have the ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter at bills for breakfast.... yum!

don't forget about the fish markets either!

forgot to paste the review for billy kwong http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/profile?id=20746774

Jonah's is in a wonderful setting, but I haven't eaten there recently. You need to know that it's a l-o-n-g way from the centre of city. Bathers Pavillion is also in a beautiful setting and not so far from the city. Both are very expensive. Malaya is modern Malaysian cuisine and a pleasant outlook over Darling Harbour - a manmade outlook rather than a natural setting. The ambience is modern and the food yummy. If you don't drink wine I can recommend the red grapefruit juice.

well judilie... I don't know how many euros you've got but....

if you want to find out why Sydney is the premier new world city on the planet and leaves california in the shade...

get a sea plane from rose bay in sydney harbour up to pittwater on a sunny,sparkling spring day and have lunch at Jonahs.

the SMH good food awards have been announced - you can see the list at

http://www.smh.com.au/news/good-livi...222070830.html

A quick heads up. If you follow Suelynne's suggestion (above) to drink grapefruit juice (red or yellow) instead of wine, be aware that grapefruit juice can interfere with the absorption rate of several medications. Check with your MD about this.

From a Google search:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/foo...rition/AN00413

Golden Century is gd for yum cha but I prefer East Ocean also on Sussex St.

You could a crawl at DJ's food hall...start with oysters & champagne then move to the next (pasta, Asian, steak etc) & finish with cheese or somethg sweet & coffee. Love that place & all the groceries are gourmet plus no trollies

Another gd place is Ripples Cafe at Milsons Point right by the ferry nr Luna Park. Practically under the Harbour Bridge. Great for b/fast/lunch/dinner & brunch on w/ends. Check out their www.

Thanks, everyone, this is very helpful!

Judilie

My daughter tells me it's pink grapefruit juice. I didn't know about the absorption problem? Is it any worse than wine in that respect?

Suelynne, check the link in my post above for an explanation.

Does anyone have a restaurant recommendation for Manly?

Le Kiosk or the manly wharf pub

haven't tried it, but will and toby's at manly might be worth a try - it was a hot spot in darlinghurst for years and recently opened in manly. you can read about it here: http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/profile?id=20110043 you'll notice chef has come from pilu at freshwater (not so far from manly) which also did very well in the good food guide awards. check it out at http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/profile?id=20103954 or http://www.piluatfreshwater.com.au/home.html

I can recommend the Mojitos and the Laksa at the Malaya and the food and general upscale ambience at Quay. If you get a Entertainment book for Sydney you might find some discounts for many of your restaurants.

MCA Cafe: We ate here for brunch one day. Wheat toasts with avocado slices and mixed salad on top. Very simple and quite tasty.
Sailors Thai: There are 2 dining "levels" to this restaurant: one is informal [no reservations] and the other is more formal [takes reservations]. We ate at the informal section. The room is dominated by one big communal dining table. They pack diners in so we were frequently bumping elbows with our neighbors. Fun diversion.

Wow what a list. Really you can't go wrong but it really depends on your budget and what you like.
For views go for: Aria, Guillaume, Quay, Bather Pavillion, The Pier. These are all on the harbour - the first three at Circular Quay and the next two in harbour suburubs.

I would also suggest Aqua Dining at North Sydney (or Ripples as someone else suggested). These have views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House form the other side - my personal favourite view.
All these restaurants are pricey but worth it.

Malaya is an institution and always fantastic if you like Malaysian food. Still the best Laksa in town.

Jonah's is great but a long waya away. You can stay there though.
Also restaurants in Bondi worth a visit. Icebergs is good (although I haven't been yet, wish my husband read this LOL) but threre are many other around this area.

You can eat at a lot of places well more economically than these places. Get the Good Food Guide and just pick one that you can get to easily. Sydney has great food, hard to beat anywhere IMO.

and there's no mention (so far) of my favourite restaurant, the one that johnj says disqualifies me from being a Westie: Seans Panaroma, North Bondi. Great food and service, not cheap but not at all pretentious.

Also had lunch last week for DD's birthday at The Bower Resaurant at Fairy Bower (near Manly). A sparkling Sydney day, great view, nice food. Swimming. Magic. Combine with a trip on the Manly ferry.