This mid-year best-so-far list is heavy on haunts beyond the CBD. A Firedoor alum stoking flames on the north side of the bridge, a ramen spot alive with the “clack! clack!” of a ticket machine, a shiny gelato cart doing laps in a dining room down south: the suburbs are alive.

The city won with a party-ready basement joint and a harbinger of exciting times in our hotel dining repertoire. And one tiny taqueria has been open for just seven days but has already earnt its spot.

While many of the closures have been heartbreaking, there are fresh takes and new energy in spades. Here’s to some happy eating.

It’s a woodfired suburban joint that’s doing anything but pizza in its pizza oven. Actually, the closest thing you’ll get to a pie is the puffy Totti’s-esque house bread. Led by Francesco Iervolino, a Firedoor alum, Infinita’s spruiking whopping T-bones (with Italian-ish steakhouse-style sides, like grilled broccolini with ricotta salata) and curls of house-made mafaldine carrying a full-flavoured ragu, plus a lengthy start of snacks (hello, gnocco fritto) and antipasti (the flame-licked squid should make it to your table). The warm restaurant sidles up to Gordon train station, making it a win for more than just its locals.

Opening a big Italian restaurant in Gymea felt like a big zag from restaurateurs Tristan Rosier and Rebecca Fanning. The pair’s hospitality cred has long been tied to Surry Hills with Jane and Arthur; small, Aussie-inflected restaurants that feel unapologetically “inner city”. But Rosier grew up in the Shire – the pair moved back there to start a family – so Southern Sydney is the lucky recipient of Sydney’s best new trattoria. We loved the curly mafaldine tossed with cavolo nero pesto and the roving gelato cart. Locals will especially love the daily aperitivo hour.

The unwavering hospitality at Firepop comes, seemingly, as easily as breathing to husband-wife team Raymond Hou and Alina Van. They inhale a welcoming warmth and exhale some of the most creative dishes Sydney’s seen this year. The bulk of the menu echoes the meat-on-a-stick that Firepop loyalists know from the food truck pop-up days: marble score 9+ Wagyu beef; lamb seasoned with cumin, dukkah, chilli and Davidson’s plum; chicken hearts; chicken tail with sesame; and Sichuan-seasoned tofu. And though meat does star, blistered Padron peppers (served with grey sea salt and a chaser of frozen pickled grapes to curb the searing heat) and a corn rib heaped with caciocavallo, garlic and house-made yoghurt butter both serve vegos well.

Another day, another Merivale opening – but this one’s worth clearing the calendar for. It’s Justin Hemmes’s latest venture with Totti’s chef Mike Eggert, who serves up a menu of kitsch-contemporary dishes that can be loosely described as “Asian-inspired”, or Hong Kong via Tokyo via Brooklyn in the ’70s. A plastic-sleeve menu offers flavour punches like chicken skin “cereal”, chilli jam, sardine XO, coriander pesto, fish roe mayo and more. Colourful cocktails flow, while the soundtrack sets off the party poppers. The basement fit-out features live seafood tanks and a mismatch of retro corners to get lost in. Simply put, it’s a LOT – now good luck getting a table.

The little sister to Rushcutters’ bakery and pizzeria Marta brings a much-needed casual vibe to a stretch of New South Head Road that’s characterised by white-linen-and-silverware fine dining. But here, Roman dining kicks off in the morning with plump sfogliatelle and brekkie regulars with Italo twists, while dinner ups the carbs with pasta, pizza and a sleek wine list. It’s a snacky start, with bread “uova” served with silky cacio e pepe; simple plates of burrata and prosciutto; and seppie fritte (battered and fried cuttlefish). The menu moves through golden rounds of pinsa (pizza’s soy-rice-and-wheat flour-stacked relative) and Roman pastas – including a carbonara that’d get any nonna’s nod of approval. Martina’s cool, casual and excellent for the ’burb.

According to our server, a dry ceviche is “no good”. A good one should be swimming – perhaps in a pool of citrusy leche di tigre, like the one he’s prepping tableside at 1 Martin Place. The Latin American dining room is grand, and it marks Alejandro Saravia’s (of Melbourne’s Farmer’s Daughters) return to Sydney. At least one ceviche is essential, along with the perfected eggplant arepa and the melty ox tongue anticuchos; a mighty swordfish Milanesa is a knockout main. The takeover of the heritage GPO building is special, with an open kitchen, gold-framed paintings from Saravia’s grandmother’s collection in Peru and postcards to send in the classic bright-red box outside.

The award for most intentionally beige fit-out also goes to the restaurant with the most hectic queues in Sydney right now. Auru is the ramen house sandwiched between a yakitori den and a sports bar, and its fit-out is as transportive as its bowls. Order on the 3D-printed ticket machine (clack! clack!) and hit the tatami dining hall (shoes off!) for beers and banging noodle soups under glaring fluro tubes. The feeding frenzy is all in the painstaking detail here: Auru could be one of a million ramen halls in Japan – but there’s nothing else like it in Australia.

Suss on hotel restaurants? Fair enough. Unless we’re talking about Kiln or Glass Brasserie, hotel dining in Sydney has never really hit the heights of, say, New York or London. But when word started getting around that Martin Benn of Sepia (and briefly, Melbourne’s Society) was mentoring the head chef at Sheraton Hyde Park’s swish new diner, expectations were high. Would Benn be on the pans as well? More importantly, would Sydney Common break the city’s spell of hokey hotel diners? No to the former. Hell yes to the latter. Jamie Robertson’s elegant woodfired menu is anything but common, and sits right up there with the CBD’s best. Bring on more hotel restaurants with this much flavour and ambition.

A tight list of tacos, one cheesy quesadilla, a whopping jar of deep-red, house-made salsa macha, and a liquor licence on the way: all good things at Tacos Tacos Tacos. The taqueria’s only been open a week, but we’re backing it as one of the year’s best. It’s a new format for team Caravin, who do the wine bar thing well. But they wanted the micro Llankelly Place digs and they devised a restaurant to fill it – or rather asked Guadalajara-born chef Joe Valero to jump aboard. Your stop will be quick and cheerful, and it’s best to order the cochinita, where the citrusy tang of the slow-braised pork shoulder is jazzed up with pork crackling.

Tanuki’s dining room – with its low lights, bright beacon of a bar and resident DJ – gently straddles club and restaurant. If it weren’t for the tables of diners feasting on truly beautiful plates, the yuzu-laced highballs would be fuelling a dancefloor. Ribbons of pickled cucumber dress up salmon tataki, which along with a few selects from the nigiri menu offers a standout way to start. The signatures are captained by a chewy golden slab of crispy rice topped with spicy tuna, while the Wagyu tartare – with a teeny quail egg atop – is a wonderfully rich bite, ferried to your gob with a paper-thin rice cracker. Beyond, it’s all crowd-pleasing stuff: gyoza, robata-licked skewers, sticky tempura eggplant and steaks. Head in expecting to have fun.

Moving a fancy dining room into a longstanding boozer known for its trivia and always-hazy smoking terrace, and having it well received, is a hard feat. But the team behind the just-revamped White Horse – led by industry vet Craig Hemmings (Quay, Bennelong, Chin Chin) – has done it. No pub grub in sight, the ground-floor public bar is now a rosy dining room for a silky serve of Manjimup marron. And, because the house salad and bread is telling of a restaurant’s calibre, it’s worth noting that both here are excellent: a thick slice of brown bread’s accompanied by a hive of cultured butter dripping in honey, and red velvet leaves pop with jewels of pomelo. The other essential is the house Martini, where savoury oyster-shell gin meets grapes and rosemary.

Kevin Jeon loves Taiwan’s Hot Star chicken – so, in homage, he decided to deep-fry a whole quail in panko crumbs and plate it with pepperberry bulldog sauce. That’s the kind of thinking behind this clever neighbourhood diner, where the ex-Bentley chef remixes Asian cuisines with Aussie (and broader Western) influences. Toei’s $59 snack menu – Jeon’s playground, if you like – is the kind of thing we’re keen to see more of in this part of the world.

These few are well worth your time, too. The pasta lords at Fabbrica added an 80-seater in Darlinghurst to the mix. Stop in for favourites like spaghetti cacio e pepe and cotoletta alla Milanese, plus a few neighbourhood exclusives. In the inner west, Maiz’s chef Juan Carlos Negrete Lopez moved his special King Street restaurant round the corner, taking on the old Hartsyard digs on Enmore Road. Head in for a menu dedicated to, as the name suggests, corn: sopes, huaraches, tamales, tortillas, tostadas and totopos.

Two restaurants we love opened at the end of last year, just a touch too late to make our 2023 list. When you dine at Mami’s, it feels like you’re at a big family dinner (in the best way). The energy’s buzzy, it’s BYO and the menu is hearty (opt for the pork confit carnitas taco). And in the CBD, King Clarence launched its reign with a star chef (Khanh Nguyen) and a playful starter that brings a xiaolongbao and Filet-O-Fish crossover. But the Bentley Group’s latest continues the hits (hello to the roasted pork belly ssam), too.

Additional reporting by Aimee Chanthadavong, Callum McDermott, Pilar Mitchell and Daniel Phu.