Visit this cute corner site for exquisite Asian-influenced baked goods like doughnuts filled with pandan custard, where the sugar is purposely dialled back.

Wines from all over the world, but made under the same label.

A Japanese import where everything is $2.80.

Desert Designs and Siberia Records team up in this unique concept store in Chippendale.

One of Sydney’s hardest-partying bars has returned to its roots. To drink there’s elevated slushies, natural wines and briny cocktails. For food, it’s all about clever carby bar snacks to keep you out till late.

This casual diner by social enterprise Plate if Forward is providing hospitality training and support to Ukrainian refugees who’ve found a home in Sydney. Chicken Kyiv and handmade dumplings are highlights on the home-style Ukrainian menu.

This tiny cocktail bar in Chippendale’s Kensington Lane precinct delivers a true Spanish tapas experience – complete with tinned seafood, Basque-style sausage from the grill, and a strictly Spanish drinks list.

The Hartsyard team have turned the old Automata space into a coastal-inspired diner, where it’s all about the repeat visit. Your first visit might involve à la carte hits like sand whiting bathed in XO pipi butter. The next? An experimental 10-course snack flight.

A Japanese barbeque restaurant where you collect what you’ll be eating from the shelves yourself.

Hungry for more of Japan's most famous ramen? This second location has it.

A New York-Japanese grill helmed by Stanley Wong.

The Chefs Gallery experiments with Chinese roast-duck takeout in Kensington Street’s Old Rum Store.

A cafe, restaurant and bar from some hospitality veterans.

Sicilian recipes, local produce and a heritage rooftop shaded by olive trees.

A new Chippendale bar has the elusive food-and-liquor-delivery licence.

The cuisine of the Mekong River at Kensington Street.

A sit-down spot in Spice Alley that serves Indochinese street food.

An update on the classic French bistro, this inner-city spot combines nostalgia with plenty of modern swagger. Expect a menu of Gallic standards, and a lengthy wine list spanning French and Australian regions.

A different style of lighter tonkotsu in Kensington Street's Spice Alley.

The pitch for one of Sydney’s most influential restaurants is a simple one: a neighbourhood place using local and sustainable ingredients, serving organic and biodynamic wine, all of it ever-changing, all of it centred around a woodfired oven.

This pocket-sized cafe in the old Cadbury chocolate factory is where to go for onigiri sets, cod roe toasties and a succinct menu of Japanese cocktails. Another winner from the Kurumac team.

Go here for Malaysian-fusion dishes such as sambal-egg-stuffed croissants, waffles with pandan, and nasi-lemak burgers.

The prettiest bubble teas in town with tapioca pearls, jellies and flavourings all made in-house.

A community hub with an eclectic down-to-earth feel.

A bit of Bondi in the inner city.

Dessert degustation and takeaway coffee on Central Park’s Kensington Street.

Sydney-Thai food, Single Origin Roasters coffee and local spirits served from a Chippendale terrace.

If you spot a seeded ciabatta roll on a menu in Sydney, chances are it came from Brickfields. One of the city's OG artisan bakeries, this compact corner is where to go for killer sourdough, oozy mushroom melts and coffee by Mecca.

Filling Abercrombie Street's cafe void.

Expect consistently great coffee at the roaster's headquarters.

The Chippo Hotel is one of Sydney’s enduring live music venues, where you can catch the best upcoming bands and comedy acts on the intimate stage. Settle into the beer garden for a lazy afternoon session and vegan pub grub from the in-house bistro, Mama B’s.

Bringing experience from Employees Only, Frankie’s Pizza and Spice Temple, this speakeasy has cracking cocktails, DJs till late and live music most nights of the week. Find it in the former Freda's space in Chippendale.

This is a buzzing South American-inspired cocktail bar and diner by the teams behind Gin Lane and Eastside Bar & Grill. Expect ingredients such as spiced worm salt and grasshoppers, Margarita "trees", and more than 100 types of mezcal and tequila.

A water feature with a huge buddha head. An illuminated technicolor jungle motif. And stone-stacked walls covered in vines. This hidden, intimate cocktail bar looks like a scene straight out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Gin Lane will convert anyone who says they don’t like gin. Of the 80-plus drops this dapper bar offers, many focus on botanicals you may have never tasted in the spirit before. As well as expert cocktails, the gin and tonic on draught here is a major highlight.

A tiny spot dishing up hip-hop, cocktails and steamed snacks.

Established in 1925, The Lansdowne Hotel is one of the city's most iconic live music venues. Everyone from Billy Eilish to You Am I has graced its hallowed stages, and the Mexican-inspired rooftop is where you want to be at sunset.

The Clare Hotel’s lobby bar.

A Chippendale pub with a courtyard, music and deep-fried desserts.

Clean and clear, but still a pub.