• First look: Freda’s 3.0 is here – with big house-party energy, more than one dance floor and an all-out roster of local and international DJs.

• The Malaya put Malaysian food on Sydney’s map 62 years ago – and it’s just reopened in the CBD. There are floor-to-ceiling windows, fresh seafood is always on the menu, and there’s just one new dish: babi kesam glass noodles.

• First look: with just four dishes on the menu, Kombu Lab is here to give tonkotsu a run for best ramen in Sydney.

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• It’s ice-cream for dinner at Erin, the new wine bar and restaurant from Gelato Messina. There’s prawn toast with tomato-sriracha sorbet, and a pork and mushroom pie with ketchup gelato.

• First look: Sippenham – a 20-seat wine and pasta bar – is here to put one slightly out-of-the-way inner west suburb on the map.

• First look: a “thousand-layer” Korean pastry is the breakout star at Buttered, Sydney’s newest bakery.

• First look: find pillow-soft daifuku mochi at this new Lane Cove spot. But go early, it sells out every day.

• Clarence and V brings back old-school hospitality back to the CBD, where Greek-leaning comfort food and heartfelt service remind us why simplicity still matters.

• At Yafa Sweets, a Palestinian baker who arrived from Gaza in 2024 is selling exquisite baked treats like maamoul, kaak and baklava via Instagram. The sweets are only a DM away.

• Toot toot: exceptional CBD cocktail bar PS40 has hit the road in a converted 1977 Bedford RV that owner Michael Chiem towed up from a Victorian paddock. That means more Africolas at events around Sydney – or maybe at your own.

• The Norfolk is back, with a “mullet” of dining rooms: “Pub food up the front, Ricos at the back.” Toby Wilson’s new pub grub menu has heaps of retro swagger. Here’s what to order.

• Salads are for all year round – and there are three new places for you to get them. One in South Eveleigh, another in Newtown and one in Potts Point, where greens are the main event.

Sydney venue closures
• Odd Culture sells Spon, its drink-in bottle-o in Newtown. Find out what the new custodians have planned.

• Darlo speakeasy Shady Pines Saloon served its final drinks on April 23. The first of Swillhouse’s bars was regarded as at the forefront of Sydney’s small bar explosion. The news was expected, with development taking over the block, and comes after a turbulent year for the hospitality group.

Additional reporting by Howard Chen, Tilly Christie, Dan Cunningham, Monique Foy, Tristan Lutze, Grace MacKenzie and Pilar Mitchell.