Reign is a posh, light-filled 140-seater with brass detailing, hues of pink blush and gold, plus marble on nearly every surface. Run by an all-women bar team, drinks are garnished with decorations such as origami crowns, paper planes and music sheets, and there’s more than 180 whiskies and 200 wines from around the globe.

Esquire in the Queen Victoria Building is a moody New York style supper club. It’s a beautiful space for long business lunches but also – and importantly – late-night snacking and drinking.

The Push is an intimate bar beneath the Russell Hotel with a focus on cocktails and down-to-earth pub-food such as burgers and steaks.

To get to Bowery Lane, you step inside a set of office-like sliding glass doors. But rather than walking straight into another of Sydney’s sky-high office buildings, a sharp left will take you into what feels like a Manhattan loft.

Grain is decked out with an abundance of timber, a gas fireplace and cosy amber lighting. Settle into the matching Swedish neo-retro furniture and you can peruse a whisky list with more than 240 entries sourced from Scotland, Japan and Australia.

Found on the third floor of the Republic Hotel, the bar is accessed from Tank Stream Way and then via a substantial flight of stairs. The climb reveals an open-air space that's admittedly more roofless than rooftop, but the air is cool and Pitt Street's skyscrapers wink down from above.

The drinks list at Burrow Bar switches up every couple of weeks. The barrel-aged cocktails sell out fast, and the shrubs (tangy, refreshing drinks made from vinegar-based fruit syrups) are popular too. The team also makes its own infused liqueurs and rums.

Bar Odessa, the plush basement bar at David Tsireka’s Greek restaurant 1821, was inspired by the history of the Greek Revolution. The bar is at the bottom of a narrow, dimly lit staircase. Once inside, Bar Odessa promises luxury fit for a Tsar with an extravagant suite of caviar alongside other Black Sea indulgences: pates, oysters and smoked fish.

Everything from Three Bottle Man is served in threes – three varieties of gin, three beers, three reds, three whites and so on. They change each week but they’ll always be Australian, most likely boutique producers too.

The waterside location may be quintessentially Sydney, but the exposed copper piping and enviable list of craft beers is less aligned to the usual King Street brief. The beer, too, bucks the trend of super hoppy, heavy IPAs.

For seven years this spot was Shirt Bar but in 2018 it was reimagined as The Bandit’s Roost, a cafe and bar with a deli-style menu, an extensive whisky list and well-made coffee.

The bar, which opened in 2004 with an unassuming door and a notoriously misleading “Psychic” neon sign, was a pioneer of the city’s reinvented cocktail scene. It’s since come to be regarded as one of the best cocktail bars in the world, thanks to its well crafted but evolving cocktail list and switched-on staff.