David Matthews

It’s been a decade since Mat Lindsay and his team opened “a small restaurant and bar” in a former Chippendale garage, centred around a woodfired oven. From humble beginnings – in a suburb people rarely visited – it’s evolved into a standard bearer for a certain kind of Australian cooking, while continuing to change and become ever more itself – but better.

And the alluring green concoction is dragging a conga line of colourful cocktails with it. But why now, where can you get one, and how do you make them?

There are restaurants you go to when you’re travelling, and there are restaurants you build the trip around, using them as a launching pad for exploration and discovery. These seven are definitely the latter. Handily, two have on-site accommodation, meaning you can enjoy a full, leisurely lunch or dinner – and go deep on the wine list – without worrying about the drive home.

Crisp, juicy, loaded with stuffing and dripping with gravy. Josh Niland’s Murray cod roll unexpectedly channels the classic Aussie chicken shop. We unpick what makes it so special.

The precinct with a heritage past also harbours some of the city’s most reliable dining, drinks and delicacies. In partnership with The Rocks, we revisit the region to check in on the current state of play.

It’s everything you want in a finger bun, just slightly evolved: a sweet bun (with dried fruit baked in) is split in two, smeared liberally with butter, then piped with delicate rose-coloured icing and sprinkled with coconut. We dig into what makes it so special.

Sliced straight down the centre, the omelette’s edges fold out to reveal mountains of soft curds that cascade down the sides. Order it with the tomato sauce, and just for a moment, glimpse perfection.

From the furniture (made from pineapple-leaf fibre and recycled milk bottles) to the drinks (crafted with produce destined for landfill), it’s pioneering a new mode of hospitality without losing focus on smashable drinks.

Justin and Bettina Hemmes’s hospitality group has had its detractors over the years, some of whom wrote it off as a real-estate company with an interest in restaurants. But somewhere along the way, it became one of the most innovative and important culinary forces in Sydney. How did it happen?