Food & Drink

Breakfast is the meal this city is good at

Sydney's contribution to eating is not dinner. It is a café culture built on serious coffee and a long, ambitious breakfast that runs until mid-afternoon, and it is genuinely one of the best in the world at it. Order a flat white — an Australasian invention, and the argument with New Zealand about whose is unresolved and enthusiastic.

⚠️ Do not ask for a "regular coffee". The sizes and the names are their own system: a long black is an espresso lengthened with water, a short black is the espresso, and a piccolo is a small flat white.

⭐ The best food in Sydney is not in the middle of it

This is a migrant city and its cooking lives in the suburbs the trains reach:

• Cabramatta — Vietnamese, and one of the great Vietnamese food neighbourhoods outside Vietnam. About an hour by train and worth every minute.
• Lakemba — Lebanese and Bangladeshi. ⭐ During Ramadan the night market along Haldon Street is one of the best food events in the country.
• Marrickville and Newtown — Greek, Vietnamese and Portuguese, in the inner west, twenty minutes out.
• Chinatown and Haymarket — in the centre, and busiest late.

The pub

The Australian pub is a genuine institution and the counter meal — a plate of something substantial ordered at the bar — is the reliable cheap dinner in every suburb. ⚠️ Alcohol is expensive here, heavily taxed, and sold in bottle shops rather than supermarkets.

⭐ Look for BYO restaurants, where you bring your own wine for a small corkage — it is the biggest saving available on a Sydney dinner.

Practicalities

Book for dinner, especially Thursday to Saturday; almost nowhere takes a booking for breakfast and the queue is part of it. ⚠️ Read the bottom of the menu on a Sunday — see Money & Tipping for the surcharge that is not a tip. Tap water is excellent and free everywhere.