Irreverent, boundary pushing and umami obsessed are the most apt descriptors for Automata. Chef Clayton Wells honed his skills in three very different kitchens: Tetsuya’s, Quay and Momofuku Seiobo. His ability to blend these divergent experiences in a coherent manner makes him one of Sydney’s most exciting next-gen talents. Take in a reasonably priced multi-course meal and you’re in for classic European techniques, new-world vegetables and Asian flavours – often all on the same plate.

Dinners at the dim-lit Ester don’t feel like a big occasion, even though Mat Lindsay runs one of Sydney’s most inventive and consistently delicious menus. The place has an easy, effortless feel that off-duty chefs have fallen hard for, along with the rest of the city. It helps that the set menu (a la carte is also an option) comes in under $100 and includes the restaurant’s many woodfired hits (classic such as the potato bread, blood sausage sanga and king prawns figure frequently). Bonus points: confident, knowledgeable staff and a cracking list of minimal-intervention booze from co-owner Julien Dromgool. This is everything great about cutting-edge dining in Sydney.

Ester’s younger sibling is half restaurant, half wine bar and lives in a raw, basement-like space. Expect a long wine list of both classics and genre-busting naturals, plus an innovative, ever-changing snack menu focused on woodfired flavours and eating with your hands. One of our favourite dishes to date is crisp squares of honey- and five spice-marinated pig’s ear served on a skewer. Once again, the staff is possessed with noticeable poise. Choose the wine and ask for matching food, or chose the food and ask for matching wine. Either way, it’s all memorable.

Until Lumi and its Miso-strone came along, the idea of a Japanese-Italian restaurant sounded distinctly unappetising. But in the hands of chef Federico Zanellato (ex-Noma, Attica and Ormeggio at the Spit), this fusion not only makes sense – it makes you wonder why more people aren’t doing it. Enjoy multiple courses with matched wines from Michela Boncagni (Lumi’s sommelier and Zanellato’s wife), with serene views of Pyrmont Bay to keep you occupied between acts.

Sea-urchin crumpets? Grouper-head terrine? Here, they’re a thing. Chef Josh Niland is a pioneer of “fin-to-scale” cooking and will have you eating parts of the fish you barely knew existed. With the help of his fish butchery down the road and an on-site dry-ageing room, he’s doing things with seafood you can’t find anywhere else in Sydney, or in the world.

Hubert’s low ceilings, timber-panelled walls and candle-lit tables feel like they’ve been there forever. And yet, this convincing facsimile of a grand European restaurant circa World War II only opened in 2016. Behind this extravagant and ambitious facade there’s unmatched reverence for classic hospitality and notably un-classic French food. Sure, the menu includes duck parfait and escargot, but with clever tweaks such as maple syrup jelly and Chinese XO sauce. This is a room you want to eat in, and often.

This lively Italian diner is from Swillhouse, the same group behind Restaurant Hubert. It shows – the place has an ineffable cool and gently subversive food that often seems traditional at first glance. Case in point: the signature trippa alla romana (braised tripe), which employs cinnamon, cardamom and garam masala in place of the expected Roman flavours. Pastas play it straighter but offer no fewer thrills.

We can’t think of a more beautiful restaurant than this one. It’s like no other place in the city and actually feels like dining in a home kitchen. Ask for one of the two tables shared with the chefs, who, from the other end, put finishing touches on Mediterranean-inspired dishes pulled from the woodfired oven. Head chef and American export Danielle Alvarez has a hefty CV that includes a stint at the revered Chez Panisse in California, something that’s writ large on the menu.

A Bondi institution that’s kept up with the times. The long-serving staff continues to deliver exemplary service, and chef Sean Moran remains laser-focused on what’s Australian, what’s ripe and how best to prepare and present it in a way that best shows off each ingredient’s natural flavours. Understated but glorious, this is a quintessential Sydney dining experience, even more so than the flashier, more high-profile restaurants on this list.

This waterside property feels like an opulent hotel. There’s a reception to greet you, it’s luxuriously decorated with period furniture and the bar has a scalloped design that’s almost mesmerising. The menu mixes classical French and Italian dishes and high-end Australian seafood cooked with the precision the prices imply. Despite this, Bert’s is versatile and accessible, just as suitable for dates as for celebrating a boozy long lunch with friends or family.

The room is dim, the volume loud and the drinks are flowing. More than any other venue on this list, the focus here is fun. Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz opened this tapas and cocktail bar before they became better known for their Argentinean restaurant Porteño, when little else like it existed in Sydney. Many have since tried to replicate this simple but perfectly executed package, but none have succeeded like Bodega.

You’ll feel like a real VIP when you arrive at Ormeggio. It’s hidden among yachts, in the marina just near the Spit Bridge in Middle Harbour. head chef Gianmarco Pardini oversees a nuanced menu. Seafood shines here, so come for Moreton Bay bugs, Queensland red scarlet prawns and Sydney rock oysters done creatively.

When Tetsuya Wakada opened his eponymous restaurant in 1989, its sophisticated service and careful marrying of Japanese and French cuisines changed the game. Thirty years on, it remains one of the most elegant and on-brief examples of fine dining Sydney has to offer, if a little solemn. Tetsuya’s is about balance and fastidious technique – ideals passed down to a legion of alumni who today run many of the city’s best restaurants themselves.

As soon as you walk into this good-looking restaurant you’ll see what you’re in for. At the central firepit they’ll be charring whole lambs and suckling pigs Argentinian style; you’ll spot a bar stocked with wine local and imported, natural and classic; and you’ll grasp that this restaurant cares not for trends or tropes, just what’s good according to owners Ben Milgate, Elvis Abrahanowicz and Joe Valore. Take a decent-sized crew and share the good stuff.

Get the best Australian produce from both the paddock and the soil, and cook it over an open flame. That’s it. It’s an extremely simple concept, but one few execute with the precision and aplomb of chef Lennox Hastie, who learnt the trade at Spain’s pioneering Asador Extebarri. Sit at the kitchen bar and watch Hastie roast a dry-aged steak, a prawn straight from the tank or a simple potato

Calling LP’s an American barbeque place is underselling it. Yes, there are smoked meats. Yes, they’re cooked in a Southern Pride Smoker shipped from Texas. And yes, the restaurant has a rowdy diner feel. But this isn’t a derivative brisket and pulled-pork haunt – it’s an Australian interpretation with all the cultural influences that brings. Aside from the smoky big-hitters, look out for the house charcuterie, sangas and exceptional sourdough. Plus it’s got a great bar if you just want a drink.

If Fred’s has the most beautiful dining room in Sydney, Bennelong has the most iconic. Aside from the fact it’s set within the window-cupped, city-facing end of the Opera House, the dining area is spectacular, no matter if the sun pours in or the CBD’s lights are illuminated. Quay’s Peter Gilmore and head chef Rob Cockerill run a menu that matches the location – seafood from nearby waters, house charcuterie made with all Australian produce and a show stopping desserts, such as pavlova sculpted to match the sails above it, and the best lamington you’ll ever eat.

Everything you want out of an Italian restaurant but younger, freer and more lubricated. Owners Marco Ambrosino and brothers Enrico and Giovanni Paradiso have built a place that has pull, enticing you for a glass of something exciting from its forward-thinking, minimal-intervention booze list, or a plate of house-made strozzapreti with pistachio pesto, or its signature pretzel with whipped bottarga. Service is chatty-but-informed, the fit-out relaxed, and the vibe is buzzy, always.

Pasi Petanen is back and he’s better than ever. Petanen closed the original much-loved Cafe Paci back in 2015, but now it's back and better than ever. Things are more casual now, a-la-carte, not set menu. The cuisine genre is hard to pin down, there’s a lot of Finnish, a little bit of Italy and some inspiration taken from Australian favourites. On the wine front, vino maestro Giorgio De Maria has created a wine list with an emphasis on fun, drinkable drops.

Restaurants all over Sydney have tried to copy Mr Wong’s refined Cantonese-led menu, its modern fit-out and the quality of its service, but none have been successful. Consequently the large but intimate-seeming space is always packed, even though it’s down a CBD laneway. Inside, a bank of barbequed ducks aren’t just great to look at: they’re plump, juicy and delicious. Likewise the delicate dumplings, which are some of the city’s best. Chef Dan Hong sets a benchmark that has the right amount of Aussie-Cantonese nostalgia.

The concept is modern Japanese, unrestricted by tradition and more influenced by what goes well with sake or a Japanese-style highball. Maybe that’s a plate of wasabi-dressed oysters or grilled, kombu-buttered prawns. The setting for this slick restaurant isn’t the dark red and black palette you might expect; the space is white, light and brown and sits somewhere between industrial warehouse and Japanese bathhouse.

There are two options at this flashy Star City restaurant: Chase Kojima’s modern Japanese menu or Takashi Sano’s $165, give-me-whatever omakase. The former offers premium Australian meats off the robata grill, some of the best nigiri rolls in Sydney and umami-punching mains, while the latter is an intimate, bar-only, several-hour excursion into Japanese tradition and raw seafood.

At his first solo restaurant, acclaimed chef Phil Wood explores and expands Australian cuisine with a produce-driven menu combining classic European cooking with local ingredients. There are nods to Aboriginal history, too, plus a fresh take on the classic peach Melba dessert.