Hot List Update: Five Newly Added Restaurants and Bars To Try in December

The Hot List is the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. 

December already? How on earth did 2025 happen so quickly? And if you’re anything like me, there are still so many places you wanted to try this year that you haven’t gotten to yet. Finances, stomach space and the inevitable passage of time are tough foes to overcome. 

Thankfully, if you need to prioritise where to get to in the last gasps of the year, The Hot List can help. In the last few weeks, we’ve added a bunch of the most essential new openings in town. And if you can’t get to them by the end of the year, the silver lining is that you’ll have an easy – and delicious – new year’s resolution already locked in and ready to go for 2026. 

South End, Newtown 

A lot of effort goes into making South End feel so effortless. If the spot feels calm, that’s because it was chosen specifically because of its tranquil location, away from the busier part of King Street. If the food tastes excellent without coming off as showboaty, that’s because it was conceived – and delivered – by chefs and co-owners Hussein Sarhan and Alex Tong, who between them have worked in some of Sydney’s best kitchens. Same story with the drinks, which are stylish but never trend-chasing. And the service, which is as timeless and confident as third co-owner, hospitality veteran Paul Guiney, who handles all things front-of-house. It’s a seductive and effective formula, and it’s worked: South End is still brand new, but already feels vital.  

Young's Palace, Potts Point

Sydney spent most of the year in the grips of an obsession with Greek restaurants, but some of the most notable openings in the last few months have been exploring Chinese cuisine. There’s the Guangdong and Sichuan-showcasing success of Grandfathers, of course, as well as Melbourne institution Lee Ho Fook putting down roots in the CBD. And while those two spots focus on the kinds of food you find in China, Young’s Palace has a different mission: celebrating the food of the Chinese diaspora. It’s Westernised Chinese food, and deliberately so – but in the hands of chef-couple Big Sam Young and Grace Chen, kung pao chicken is given the respect it deserves. “This restaurant is all about the immigrant story,” said Young. “It’s just food that we love to eat.” 

Sakura House, CBD 

You know you really love a place when you catch yourself planning your next visit while you’re midway through your first time there. That was me at Sakura House, as I’m sure it will be every time I come here. What will it be like when I’ve got a group and we snag one of those big corner booths? The view there’s great. Maybe next time I’ll come here alone, sit at the bar and have a yarn with the bartender, while they make one of the great cocktails from the list. Or maybe I’ll be able to get one of those mini two-person booths – but then again, the main room is right there, and what if there’s a band on that night? What a great dilemma to have on your hands. And you’ll have it every time you come. And the best part is that there’s no wrong decision. 

El Primo Sanchez, Surry Hills 

Mexican-style horchata is my favourite non-alcoholic drink. And I’m tired of pretending that Pina Coladas aren’t my favourite alcoholic drink. (I don’t love getting caught in the rain, though.) This is why the Horchata Colada at El Primo Sanchez has been a great – and terrifying – discovery for me. I’m not sure life will ever be the same now, and I’m not sure I want it to be. I do know that I want to go to El Primo at its new Crown Street location basically every chance I get. Whether you want to knock back Margs, get really deep on learning about tequila, or just want to belt out a tune in the karaoke rave cave, El Primo has you covered. 

Bar Herbs, CBD 

When it opened back in May, Bar Herbs was called Herbs Taverne. And it was all about the Negroni. But despite it being a truly excellent bar, with a great room and even better drinks, for whatever reason it didn’t quite strike the same chord as its siblings Cantina OK, Bar Planet, Tio’s and Centro 86. No worries. From Song Bird to Bar Vincent, it’s the year of the hospo pivot – so a couple of weeks ago, they closed up and reopened as Bar Herbs. And it’s taking a few pages out of Bar Planet’s book. Bar Herbs, like Planet, is all about Martinis. But it's still different. “If Bar Planet was Brooklyn, Herbs is Manhattan,” says Mucho general manager Daisy Tulley. That means classic Martinis in spades, but also very Sex and the City-coded drinks – Cosmos, Appletinis and Gibsons galore. We’re sorry to see Herbs Taverne go, but excited to raise a Martini glass to Bar Herbs. 

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