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Good Luck Pinbone

Our 2016 Sydney restaurant hit list

Has there ever been a busier year in restaurants in Sydney than 2016? Following an unprecedented number of notable openings, we're here to help with priorities.
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The Euro

The Euro

REVIEW The Euro is a revered and versatile stalwart of the Brisbane scene. An imaginative yet unintimidating menu and relatively sober fittings are boosted by friendly, efficient service. Buckwheat risotto is typical of the clever bistro-with-a-twist dishes on offer, presented with edamame and Kalamata olives in a watercress sauce. Precisely cooked Paroo kangaroo striploin arrives […]
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Felix

Felix

REVIEW The Merivale group’s homage to the French brasserie is well realised. The faithfully recreated room, which could so easily be a tired cliché, is full of energy and movement and has a lightness to match its urban surrounds. A friendly, enthusiastic floor team does a great job on the perennially busy floor. Classic dishes […]
Four in Hand by Guillaume

Four in Hand by Guillaume

REVIEW You can still order a schooner of Reschs with confidence, but The Four in Hand isn’t what you’d call a classic Sydney bloodhouse − its plasmas screen the netball as well as the rugby, and the look for most of the punters speaks of healthily diversified investment portfolios. And while the bar menu offers […]
Flying Fish

Flying Fish

REVIEW Here is a restaurant writ large in size, form and aspect – a heritage wharf building with views of harbour and bridge, the gardens of Barangaroo, a cruise ship or two, its two storeys decked in timber floors and beams, its white linen-clad tables lit by a cascade of tiny pendant lights. Flying Fish […]
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Da Noi

Da Noi

REVIEW Sardinian warmth meets assured technique and an Italian-leaning wine list in this cosy South Yarra dining room. Pietro Porcu may not be in the kitchen full-time these days, but his mark is still on every meal. His farm at Yarck informs much of the menu, showcasing sweet Dorper lamb, suckling pig and kid goat. […]
1889 Enoteca

1889 Enoteca

REVIEW There’s romance aplenty in the Old-World grandeur of gilt-edged mirrors and stained-glass windows, and the genial Italian-accented waitstaff. Traditional Roman dishes are given a modern flourish, whether it’s lightly battered zucchini flowers yielding anchovy dotted mozzarella or saltimbocca alla Romana, elegant as it gets, the veal edged with fine prosciutto and scattered with fried […]
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Fins

Fins

REVIEW Despite our extensive coastline, benchmark Australian seafood restaurants are rarer than Venus tuskfish, which puts 24-year-old Fins and its chef and proprietor Steven Snow into the fish hall of fame. Peerless seafood and constancy pervade his menu. The daily line-caught selection still comes three ways – mild chilli miso consommé, Moroccan tagine and Snow’s […]
Darley’s

Darley’s

REVIEW Tinkling chandeliers, heritage-listed surrounds, primped gardens – this Gatsby-esque Blue Mountains restaurant, set in Lilianfels Resort & Spa, might be the place that you and your great aunt agree on. Time your evening with the sunset; the colours that play out across the cliffs in Echo Point will leave you swooning. So too will […]
Dandelion

Dandelion

REVIEW Geoff Lindsay’s celebration of Vietnamese cuisine has been popular with Bayside locals since opening in 2011. The long, narrow space – exposed brick walls, light-well garden feature and polished concrete floors – is a regular hangout for wannabe yachties and young families, who graze through an extensive menu offering everything from pho five ways […]
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Dainty Sichuan

Dainty Sichuan

REVIEW Regional Chinese food options have improved significantly over the past decade, yet Dainty Sichuan remains a red-chilli standard for things hot and numbing. And although the Dainty empire has expanded and diversified, its Toorak Road mothership remains a holy site for loyalists. This two-storey house of chilli and lacquered timber serves an exhaustive menu, […]
4Fourteen

4Fourteen

REVIEW At last count, Surry Hills had 42 trillion venues where you can peck at a nifty little salad or poke at a spicy smudge of Asian fusion on the end of a ceramic spoon. So if that’s what you’re looking for, look elsewhere. You’ll have plenty of options. It might be pretty, it might […]
FermentAsian

FermentAsian

REVIEW FermentAsian warrants the trip to the Barossa. The restaurant’s backstory is cute – charming owner taught to cook by husband, wins awards with elderly parents assisting in the kitchen – and the food embodies quality over quantity. Hanoi spring rolls, the only orthodox Vietnamese offering and Tuoi Do’s signature dish, are thickly wrapped and […]
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Esquire

Esquire

REVIEW Esquire describes its adventurous dégustation approach as a commitment between kitchen and diner. Certainly, a visit to this riverside rule-breaker requires faith. Until you sit in the modernist-inspired dining room, you won’t know if you’ll be served 12 or 25 items, or be paying $90 or $150 for the privilege. Cynics could find their […]
The Fish Shop

The Fish Shop

REVIEW You can try and kid yourself by sticking to the raw and cured section of The Fish Shop’s menu, and while you’ll be rewarded with a knockout pickled octopus and white bean salad (speckled with punchy hits of dried olive), the real action is in the deep-fryer. Order a potato scallop before you even […]
El Público

El Público

REVIEW Five years after opening its doors, this spirited bar-restaurant remains Australia’s benchmark for Mexican food. Or should we say “Mexican” food? While opening chef Sam Ward made his name by championing a traditional approach, his successor Tommy Payne has put his own twist on the menu and he isn’t afraid to use poetic license […]
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Ezard

Ezard

REVIEW For the past 18 years, any serious survey of Melbourne dining has included Ezard. In itself, that’s testament to Teage Ezard’s vision (Australian food with both eyes on Asia). That he’s now allowing head chef Jarrod Di Blasi more sway is further proof of his acuity. The food leans more to Japan than Thailand […]
The European

The European

REVIEW There are few Melbourne experiences more Melburnian than shouldering through the narrow doors of The European on a cold afternoon. The long, wood-lined “carriage on the Orient Express” feel of the bustling room, stocked with smart staff, a hissing coffee machine and Portuguese tarts on the curved bar has instant appeal. Same goes for […]
Donovans

Donovans

REVIEW “Easy” might be the best way to describe Donovans. Staff greet you like old friends on arrival at their beach house. Wines are poured with care and conviviality and there’s plenty to love by the glass. Go in the early evening. The curtains may be drawn – the reflection off the sand into the […]
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Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta

Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta

REVIEW Ever wondered why friends who live in Bondi never leave? A few slices of pizza from Da Orazio might help you understand their predicament – fewer than three years after opening, it has locked itself in as one of Sydney’s top pizza joints, and probably the fanciest, too, the grey-and-white industrial fit-out attracting a […]
Dead Ringer

Dead Ringer

REVIEW Of course, they could just get by selling drinks. Dead Ringer is the second venue and the first restaurant from the good people who brought us Bulletin Place, the Sydney CBD bar that may very well be the benchmark for quality cocktails in the state. The libations here are as soigné and crisp as […]
Efendy

Efendy

REVIEW A fragrant half-shoulder of lamb is brought to your table by a smiling waiter, the interior hums with instrumental Levantine music and your bill arrives in a 1980s Turkish comic book. Efendy does Turkish well, and it gets the details right. The menu starts with hot and cold meze: pastirma and hummus speckled with […]
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Ellen Street Restaurant

Ellen Street Restaurant

REVIEW At the restaurant for Maxwell Wines, a new pass cut into the limestone dining room wall allows the buzz from the kitchen to filter into a previously austere dining space overlooking vineyards. Eager staff are enthusiastic about chef Fabian Lehmann’s bold flavours, with good reason. He embraces the vitality of local produce – from […]
Elyros

Elyros

REVIEW “You’re not going to finish that?” a waiter asks in mock horror about the fragment of fillo-framed custard with berries left on a diner’s plate. After being assured the dish was fabulous, he shrugs: “We’re a Greek restaurant, no one goes home hungry.” Elyros, from the team behind Carlton’s Epocha, is actually Cretan, hence […]
Emilia

Emilia

REVIEW If you want to start a fight with an Italian, strike up a conversation about spaghetti Bolognese. At this charming laneway trattoria, scores can be settled over a bowl of tagliatelle ragù – the hand-cut pasta ribbons in a lusty pork and beef sauce leave no room for debate. Not that you’ll want to […]
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Epocha

Epocha

REVIEW There have always been plenty of reasons to go to Epocha. Housed in a beautiful terrace across from the Carlton Gardens, run by two of Melbourne’s most experienced hospitality players and sporting an atmospheric upstairs bar, an all-European wine list and trolleys for both cheese and dessert, it knows how to show you a […]
Estelle by Scott Pickett

Estelle by Scott Pickett

REVIEW You could say ESP goes its own way. A swirling Christopher Boots chandelier, darkly glamorous room and showcase open kitchen all swim against the tide of casualisation; so does Scott Pickett’s dégustation menu, which grows more theatrical and experimental without ever stooping to twee, or losing sight of flavour. Even the salvo of snacks […]
Etsu Izakaya

Etsu Izakaya

REVIEW There’s a sense of mystery to Etsu Izakaya. A barn door devoid of signage is all that can be seen from the road, but slide it open and an Aladdin’s cave awaits. The long, dimly lit space is moody, almost whimsical, featuring floor-to-ceiling Japanese-inspired murals, a curved timber wall blending into the ceiling and […]
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Ezard at Levantine Hill

Ezard at Levantine Hill

REVIEW The steel-and-glass parabola studded with barrel-shaped booths, the busy helipad and art-strewn grounds mark Levantine Hill as Yarra Valley’s most aspirational vineyard restaurant. Owners Colleen and Elias Jreissati engaged chef Teage Ezard to steer the kitchen, which divides its energies between truffled mac ‘n’ cheese croquettes and slow-cooked lamb in the all-day diner, and […]
Farmhouse Restaurant at Pialligo Estate

Farmhouse Restaurant at Pialligo Estate

REVIEW A rural restaurant within 10 minutes of Parliament House isn’t a difficult concept for occupants of the bush capital to grasp. The farmhouse digs at Pialligo Estate offer rustic charm and the ambience is suitably refined, even if it’s at times marred by wedding-party commotion drifting from outdoor marquees. A deep cellar may be […]
Frank

Frank

REVIEW Smolt’s younger funkier sibling is all about the share. The open converted office foyer space offers multiple configurations for socialising and a festive mood, so bag some friends for best results. Start with a vibrant cocktail or let the knowledgeable bartender recommend a wine from the South American and Tasmanian selection. Small plates, like a […]
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The Dolphin Hotel

The Dolphin Hotel

REVIEW There is no shame in popping into The Dolphin Hotel for a postwork snack and a glass of wine at the bar to help you wind down. Pizze champion the toppings without crowding them, and boast a 48-hour ferment on the dough. Or you could sneak into the wine room, which takes influence from […]
Chefs’ tips for a tears-free Christmas

Chefs’ tips for a tears-free Christmas

Between a trip to the fish markets and entertaining the in-laws, Christmas can get stressful. So we’ve asked some of our favourite hospitality heavyweights to share their secret weapons for a no-tears Christmas. Many happy returns.
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On the Pass with Abla Amad

On the Pass with Abla Amad

Abla Amad has served traditional Lebanese food at Abla's in Carlton for the past 37 years. Here, she chats about how she's kept afloat - and sane - across four decades of service.
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Hot Plates: Atlas Dining, Melbourne

Hot Plates: Atlas Dining, Melbourne

Time to get your skates on. Atlas Dining’s take on modern Vietnamese cooking finishes on December 23 when the South Yarra restaurant closes for a couple of weeks. It’ll re-open in January, reinvented as an Israeli diner. Change is the way Atlas rolls. Chef Charlie Carrington switches cuisine completely every four months. So when Israel […]
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The dishes that define Melbourne dining in 2016

The dishes that define Melbourne dining in 2016

For our 50th anniversary issue in 2016, we scoured Australia asking two questions: What dishes are making waves right now? What flavours will take us into the next half-century? Melbourne provided 14 answers.
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Attica, Melbourne review

Attica, Melbourne review

It may be a magnet for destination diners the world over but Attica circa 2016 is more firmly planted in Australia than ever.
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Sixteen dishes that define Sydney dining in 2016

Sixteen dishes that define Sydney dining in 2016

For our 50th anniversary issue in 2016, we scoured Australia asking two questions: What dishes are making waves right now? What flavours will take us into the next half-century? Sydney provided 16 answers.
Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney review

Momofuku Seiobo, Sydney review

At Momofuku Seiobo the food of Barbados has been given a new voice in the most articulate way, writes Pat Nourse, and it’s performing on song.
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GT’s Christmas hamper

GT’s Christmas hamper

All we want - and need - for the silly season, from summery pear ciders to a spiced brandy sauce perfect on top of Christmas pudding.
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Our 2016 Christmas issue is out now

Our 2016 Christmas issue is out now

GT editor Anthea Loucas Bosha walks us through the December issue - from Paul Carmichael's recipes for a Caribbean Christmas feast to silly season cocktails.
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Hot Plates: Good Luck Pinbone, Sydney

Hot Plates: Good Luck Pinbone, Sydney

After a spate of kitchen takeovers, Jemma Whiteman and Mike Eggert return with a pop-up BYO restaurant in Kensington that might feature the chefs best cooking yet.
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Video: Talking cooking playlists with Dan Hong

Video: Talking cooking playlists with Dan Hong

The Power List chef shares his views on technology in the kitchen, including his playlist for prep time, his dream gadget and his take on Instagram. His personal passions, such as his kids, his family and Asian flavours also get some air time, too.
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Eleven Bridge, Sydney review

Eleven Bridge, Sydney review

The elements that make dining fine are present and correct at Eleven Bridge, the new incarnation of Neil Perry’s flagship.
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Neil Perry: My plans for the Rockpool Group

Neil Perry: My plans for the Rockpool Group

As Neil Perry announces the sale of his Rockpool Group to the private equity-backed Urban Purveyor Group, Australia’s most recognisable chef reflects on more than three decades in the industry - and what the future might hold.
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Recipes by Thi Le of Melbourne’s Anchovy

Recipes by Thi Le of Melbourne’s Anchovy

Chef Thi Le wows the crowds at her Melbourne restaurant, Anchovy, with her bright, bold take on South East Asian flavours, expressing traditions with a modern Australian accent. Meet our Best New Talent.
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