Sydney is a funny city. The most popular club nights don’t usually happen at nightclubs, we attend pop concerts at the Opera House and watch opera in a park that overlooks the sails, and the best food and drink in town is often nowhere near a restaurant or a bar. Confused yet? So are Sydneysiders, but we also kinda love it. And when the results are this good, who cares? Sydney is inundated with excellent eating and drinking, with plenty of scope to broaden your horizons. Allow us to help. These spots aren’t your typical bar or restaurant experiences, but they have some of the best drinks and bites in the city right now.

The Peacock Lounge, presented by Balter

After a seemingly endless summer, autumn has arrived at last – with crisp evenings, leaves finally changing colour, and the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival taking over Royal Randwick and Rosehill Gardens. And this year, there’s more to see off-track than ever. If you’re a ticketholder, a trip – or several – to The Peacock Lounge should be part of your plans. The bar returns to the Winx Stand in 2025 for just a few days (including The Star Championships on April 5 and 12, and the Schweppes All Aged Stakes Day on April 19), so make a beeline to the colourful destination, which recalls Sydney in its pastel-power-suit, Emerald City-era glory days. If you can pull yourself away from the dance floor (tricky, with its solid DJ line-up), you’ll find a solid burger menu – including a classic cheeseburger with pickles and relish, and a Sriracha chicken one with bacon, cheese and mayo – alongside cheeseburger spring rolls, salt and chilli calamari, togarashi-spiced karaage chicken, and lamb kofta with pickles, hummus and garlic yoghurt. And drinks by Balter will slake any dance-floor related thirst you encounter.

The Library Bar

This scenic spot must be one of Sydney’s best-kept secrets. Out of sight at the top of the State Library’s Mitchell Building, for decades it served as a favoured lunchtime haunt for library staff, with its panoramic Domain and Sydney Harbour views. Now it’s open to the public, but via a circuitous route: look for the security guard by an unmarked door on Hospital Road and, once inside, wander up the disused corridor to an old goods lift that’ll take you four storeys up to the bar. Here you’ll find a handsome timber-lined space centred round a baby grand piano that sits on an old lift shaft. Outside there’s a large deck with umbrellas and fairy lights, and stairs to the observation platform, where tables run along the edge of the roof – a stunning, hidden spot for a snack and sip of something from the locally focused drinks list.

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Jardin St James

A photogenic gem on historical Macquarie Street, the Parisian-style Jardin St James sits in the crypt and sunken garden of Sydney’s oldest church. The Anglican Parish Church of St James was designed by convict-architect Frances Greenway – whose buildings have come to define the city’s early colonial period – and constructed by convict labour more than 200 years ago. The cool, low-ceilinged crypt makes a strange but undoubtedly atmospheric setting for a galette and a glass of vino (you’d feel like a monk if not for the booze). The breakfast and lunch menu is simple but well-executed; owner Bill Drakopoulos is also behind Lumi, Ripples and Ormeggio at the Spit. Afterwards, you could wander into the Children’s Chapel, in another bay of the crypt, to see the gold-flecked murals created in 1929 by modernist collective the Turramurra Wall Painters Union.

Camperdown Commons

Everyone loved the Camperdown Bowling Club. The only problem was that no one was really going there. So, back in 2016, its owners, the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL, repurposed it as Camperdown Commons: a communal hub for the area that serves as event space, gathering place and working urban farm. Locals have taken to it like ducks to water. And whether you’re from the area or not, it’s a ripper place for brekkie with a side of farm views. Lunch and dinner offer all the crowd-pleasing club classics, executed to a high standard. The drinks list, which includes bottles from top-tier producers such as Rob Dolan and Dal Zotto, is no slouch either.

Golden Age Cinema & Bar

One of Sydney’s favourite cinemas is a tiny – like, really small – theatre in the basement of a hotel. But when it’s a basement this nice, in a hotel this good, it’s actually pretty special. Golden Age Cinema & Bar at Paramount House is a little gem that screens classic movies and cult favourites every night. We’ve all been guilty of going to the movies just to smash some popcorn and a choc-top, and it’s worth coming in here for the food and drink alone. Every purchase from the Golden Age bar can be taken into the cinema – so grab a cocktails and something off the snacky seasonal menu, and you’ll have yourself a ball. The movie might even be good too.

Additional reporting by Annie Toller

Article updated on March 27, 2025.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with the Australian Turf Club.