Snack Bar: Palazzo Salato Launches a Bottomless Lunch Menu and More Local Food News

What’s on around town

• Shaun Christie-David’s social enterprise Plate it Forward has partnered with Dilmah Tea and the company’s MJF Charitable Foundation to launch Harvest2, a “long-term food security, education and sustainable agriculture program supporting rural communities across Sri Lanka’s east coast”. From July 11, book in for the new high tea experience at Plate it Forward restaurant Colombo Social in Enmore to contribute directly. Every booking will provide 10 meals for some 2700 children in 23 rural schools. Harvest2 will see independent farms sending produce directly to school kitchens. Each school will become a hub for environmental and agricultural knowledge, with organic gardens, orchards, beehives and biogas-powered kitchens set up to foster long-term prosperity.

• Doing Dry July? Think about ordering a zero proof cocktail with a Lyre’s product in it. For the fifth year in a row, the Sydney-based non-alc spirits company has partnered with the Dry July Foundation to raise money for Australians living with cancer. Order at any participating venue in July and $1 will go to the foundation, which has thus far raised $100 for the cause. Bars involved are Above 319, Allan Grammar, Bar Tilda, Captain Cook Hotel, Dean & Nancy, El Vista, Employees Only, Encasa, Foys Kirribilli, Hotel Morris, Hotel Palisade, Library Bar, Maybe Sammy, Moretti, O Bar and Dining, Oceane Hotel and the Winston Hills Hotel.

• Paul Farag is headed to Mollymook for one night only. On July 18 the acclaimed chef, who recently left the top job at Aalia, will cook a four-course dinner at Bannisters Pavilion in collaboration with executive chef Mitchell Turner. Book now for sweet peppers with whipped feta and marjoram, beef tartare with taro and pickled rhubarb, raw albacore with eggplant and spiced tomato, and chilled spinach with preserved lemon, nigella and shatta oil. And that’s just snacks and entrees. Mains feature lamb neck with herbs and isot peppe burnt cabbage with confit garlic butter and garum, and salted cucumbers with garlic oil and dill. Dessert is caramelised quince with brik pastry, pistachio kaymak and whipped brown butter.

• You’ve met bottomless brunch. Now meet bottomless lunch. CBD trattoria Palazzo Salato has launched a Saturday-only $115 set menu it calls Palatial Pours. Over a 90-minute seating, pick at Nigella Lawson-approved stracciatella, Cantabrian anchovies and pangrattato; artichoke alla griglia with cavolo nero pesto and Pecorino Romano; and ham with colatura hot sauce and focaccia. For mains, enjoy trottole amatriciana and pumpkin scarpinocc (a type of stuffed pasta) with hazelnuts, Pecorino and sage. Beer, prosecco, rosé, white wine and red wine are bottomless, and unlimited spritzes can be added for $30 per person. Bookings are essential.

What we covered this week

• Book Now: full 50-event program revealed for Broadsheet’s Dine Out festival 2026, including dinner with Melbourne’s “hummus king”, Neil Perry’s seafood dinner at Felons in Manly, Apollo Group chef Oscar Solomon’s exclusive pop-up at Firepop and much more.

• Sydney’s 12 best new restaurants of 2026 (so far), from electric Thai-ish flavours to neighbourhood Italian, snacky Spanish plates and a Malaysian spot inside a flash new market.

• Sydney’s 11 best new bakeries and cafes of 2026 (so far), from specialty coffee shops to a neighbourhood stock-up shop selling matcha spiked with foraged wildflowers.

• Sydney’s 10 best new bars of 2026 (so far), spanning cocktail bars, beer bars and dance bars – and what is likely Australia’s smallest wine bar.

• Sydney’s 12 best new casual spots of 2026 (so far), starring a Thai beef noodle soup shop hidden in a Haymarket tunnel, a cheffy fish’n’chipper and a buzzy corner for king-size slices of pizza.

• The 10 best dishes we’ve eaten in Sydney this year (so far), including a clever Asian-style osso buco and a seven-vegetable soup to fix a bad day.

• One of Sydney’s buzziest bakeries is opening a sandwich shop – for both savoury sangas and others filled with ice-cream.

• Where actor and curator Miah Madden eats, drinks and shops around Sydney.