Sydney’s Raw Bars: Where To Start With Oysters, Ceviche and Tartare

Fresh oysters, silky steak tartare, zingy ceviche – it’s hard to think of a better start to a meal than these raw bar staples. It seems that wherever you end up eating in Sydney, there is a shareable small plate from the raw bar ready to help you settle in. While not all raw bar starters are made equal, we think we’ve found a few of the best in Sydney that are well worth your time.

And there’s nothing stopping you from indulging in raw bar delights. Broadsheet and NAB have teamed up for Booking With Benefits, a dining program that gives you $50 off the bill when you spend $250 or more and pay on your NAB credit or debit card at selected venues countrywide – including all of the restaurants below.

So, if you’re craving something at the fresher end of the menu, here’s where to start.

Gildas

Lennox Hastie might be synonymous with open-flame cooking thanks to Firedoor, but that doesn’t mean the renowned chef is one-note. With his nearby wine bar Gildas, Hastie has turned his focus to Basque cuisine, having previously lived in the region. Among the pintxos, you’ll find raw options like Sydney rock oysters with a Basque dressing that changes with the seasons, and Wagyu tartare with oyster cream, horseradish and sorrel.

Woodcut

Open kitchens are great theatre, but Woodcut has taken the concept to Broadway levels with four of its own. Each open kitchen is devoted to different cooking methods of fire, steam, smoke and ice – but it’s the latter that takes care of the raw bar bites. You’ll find options like Sydney rock and Pacific oysters with yuzu kosho mignonette from the cold seafood counter, or Paspaley pearl meat served in a polished pearl oyster shell and served with white soy, sunrise lime, ginger and sea succulents.

Kiln

Like Lennox Hastie, Kiln executive chef Isobel Whelan-Little has built a reputation for playing with fire, but that doesn’t hold her back from letting raw ingredients do some of the talking. Among the wood-roasted duck and bone-in rib eye you’ll find delicate dishes like fatty tuna tartare with blood orange, smoked curd, and a nori-layered waffle, and Sydney rock oysters dressed with coriander mignonette, offering a cool start before the heat gets turned up.

Tam Jiak

It’s a fair guess that that a venue inside the newly opened Sydney Fish Market would host its fair share of raw seafood snacks among the ice-filled troughs and lobster tanks. Tam Jiak – the new Malaysian seafood spot from chef Junda Khoo – is one of the diners in the new waterfront space and, on the huge menu (which specialises in a refined style of surf’n’turf) you’ll find market fresh oysters with spicy Nyonya-style mignonette and fresh lime. The menu is huge, so we’ll let you take it from there.

Morena

In Melbourne, Alejandro Saravia celebrates Gippsland at Farmer’s Daughters. In Sydney, the chef is thinking of his homeland Peru with Latin diner Morena. As you’d expect, that includes an extensive raw seafood menu, headlined by dishes like snapper ceviche dressed with citrussy tiger’s milk marinade, and a tartare of albacore tuna served tableside, just like the old days.

Callao

The Japanese diaspora in Peru has a term for its melting pot cuisine: Nikkei. That’s exactly what you’ll find at Barangaroo diner Callao, which brings Japanese techniques together with classic Peruvian ingredients. For the raw menu, that means a play on ceviche called tiradito – here a sweet and bright dish of scallops, aji verde sauce, sweet potato puree, salty karkalla and fried wild rice.

Hamsi Taverna

It’s hard to deny the pull of the Sydney Fish Market for seafood-focused restaurants, and coal-fired Turkish spot Hamsi Taverna is one of the best. Before getting to the fiery portion of the menu, grab some of the ultra-fresh raw seafood, like Sydney rock oysters with melon vinaigrette or a seafood tartare of scallops, tuna and kingfish with the zingy hit of finger lime.

Anason

Somer Sivrioglu calls his Turkish bar Anason a “meyhane” – a type of traditional Turkish restaurant now reclaimed among young chefs in Istanbul. It means, naturally, that the diner is a collision of classic Turkish cuisine and boundary-pushing modern ideas. The raw options reflect the traditional side mostly, with dishes like cig kofte, a raw meat kofta with cracked wheat, urfa spices, baby lettuce and pomegranate molasses.

The Broadsheet Dining Program Special Offer of a $50 discount when you spend $250 or more is available when you dine at a Participating Restaurant between January 13, 2026 and December 13, 2026. To be eligible for the Discount Offer, you must make a booking via the NAB Exclusive Booking Link for the Participating Restaurant which is found on the Broadsheet Booking Page and spend a minimum of $250 on your NAB credit card. Between June 2, 2026 and December 16, 2026, Select venues will also accept NAB debit card payments. The Discount Offer will apply at the Restaurant when you pay the final bill amount including GST and service fees and charges (if any) with your NAB credit card (includes a digital NAB credit card) or NAB debit card (includes a digital NAB debit card) at select venues. The Discount Offer is only valid once per booking and will not apply to any split bills and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. For the full Terms and Conditions of this Offer, please click here.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with NAB.