• First look: Olympic Meats charged into Marrickville to immediate queues, and then was immediately Hot-Listed. Everyone’s gathering for a standout line-up of kontosouvli and chips cooked in beef tallow, all from a chef who’s waited a decade to open his own space.

• Hay St Market opened in its 3000-square-metre patch of Paddy’s, but does it hit its mark? The 48 vendors offer a worldly spread, with a significant lean into “continental European”.

• First look: the OG Effie’s team opens Bote – and it’s peak northern beaches.

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• The Baba’s-meets-Sixpenny team straightened tables and filled vases with sunflowers ahead of the reopening of Corner 75, Randwick’s treasured Hungarian restaurant. Former owner-operator and maître d’ Paul Varga’s no longer there, but the whopping schnitzel, service and ambience remain. But did you hear they wear Song for the Mute now?

• First look: Age 3, Japan’s famous fried sandwich joint, lands in Sydney – and there were immediate queues.

• First look: At Redfern’s R by Raita Noda, a father-son duo is putting on a show. While one pipes, the other tweezes; while one sears, the other slices – and it’s all for just 15 guests each night.

• A Firedoor alum now leads the kitchen at Kolkata Social, dishing out vibrant Bengali plates inspired by her mum – all for a worthy cause.

• First look: play your way at 40 Res, the new wine bar from an ex-Tetsuya’s chef, where the breezy small-plates brief gets a fine-dining edge.

• First look: The Grumpy Baker & Bar is a new Potts Point beauty from the longstanding Sydney hospo players. It’s Grumpy by day, Grumpy by night – with a happy hour in between.

• First look: the grill is king at Osteria Mucca, the final venue in the Continental Deli crew’s Australia Street line-up.

• Now open: Regina La Pizzeria wants to be Sydney’s new pizza queen. And it just might be with its trio of pizza styles: woodfired, deep-dish and fried. It’s also got the only Fazzone oven in Sydney, so its reign is likely just getting started.

• First look: Otogo goes for round two with a second store near Town Hall Station, complete with an AI-trained sushi-wrapping robot for speedy lunches.

• First look: Mister Grotto is a pescatarian’s dream, with its Newtown kitchen captained by a Saint Peter alum in a space full of collected treasures.

Sydney venue closures

• Enmore Country Club, the little bar with big oomph, poured its last Cherry Colas on Sunday March 16. The team passed it onto a yet-to-be-announced team so they could focus on their other projects – The Bat & Ball and an incoming cellar door for Doom Juice.

• Last drinks have been called for The Hook in Kings Cross. The neon-lit oyster saloon and piano bar closes this weekend – swing by for your last French 75 or Laphroaig-swilled oysters.

• Natty wine favourite Drnks is closing its “all-consuming” Alexandria bottle-o and events space – but not before a big farewell party.

• Maido, Provider Store’s Darlinghurst spot for coffee and matcha, shut up shop on Sunday March 16. The pop-up was a collab between the design store and Artificer, and it stuck around a lot longer than intended.

Additional reporting by Lucy Bell Bird, Lucy Brewer, Howard Chen, Dan Cunningham, Callum McDermott and Pilar Mitchell.