Merivale’s good-times Mexican joint is home to the tacos secreto, where the filling is a surprise until it hits your table. Secreto or not, every taco here is wallet-friendly. But we recommend the DIY platters – they’ll give you even bigger bang for your buck.

This Surry Hills pub got a shake-up in 2020 – but it’s still one of Sydney’s best all-in-one wine bars, restaurants and boozers.

Moody jazz, heavy wooden beams and a bank of barbeque ducks in the old Tank nightclub space. A modern Shanghai-style dumpling den from Dan Hong and Merivale.

Enmore Road’s perennial late-night Pakistani joint. Newtown kids gravitate towards the excellent tandoori, but past midnight, the taxi driver set fuel up with flash-fried Lahore-style curries and stews ordered off the special menu (the staff write it in biro on the back of a docket).

Affordable Malaysian food with a range of flavoured roti.

Affordable Malaysian food with a range of flavoured roti. If you don't get in before the lunchtime rush you can expect to queue for a while.

Bow down to the dumpling masters. Or just watch them through the glass, hand-crafting those world-class xiao long bao in the kitchen.

A trio of chefs is behind this dapper bar with a penchant for low-intervention wines.

At this pretty corner spot just back from Bondi Beach, one of the city’s best Italian chefs is serving perfectly puffy woodfired pizzas and a Sydney-famous porchetta roll. Plus pastas, carafes of wine and tiramisu.

Ask anyone about the best spots for a drink in Surry Hills, and Forrester’s would have to be in the conversation. This 100-year-old pub is split into multiple distinct spaces – do afternoon pints in The Public Bar, a bottomless rosé lunch in the dining room, or trivia in the light-filled functions space upstairs.

Whether you’re stopping in for that iconic lasagnette bolognaise or just a snack, Frat Paz nails it every time. Its groundbreaking wine list introduced the city to many minimal-intervention styles we're now obsessed with.

Tasty Greek share plates.

A fresh take on Japanese izakaya dining.

This all-day eatery inside Hinchcliff House mills its own flour, using grain supplied by NSW farmers. That means house-made pastas and ciabatta to go with produce-driven share plates and cocktails.

Split between a beach club and a dining room proper, this twin-hitter is the perfect place to eat Med-inspired dishes and watch the waves roll in with a spritz in hand.

There’s no velvet or faff at this humming diner from the team behind Bistecca and The Gidley. Order a Riverine sirloin steak – aged and butchered in house – and it’ll be on your table in 15 minutes. The brutalist, art-filled space also packs in a bar with the energy of east London, and serves what might be the coldest Martini in Sydney.