Marrickville

You’ll need all the time you can get to tackle the 30-item-strong menu of sashimi platters, gyoza, yakiniku beef, udon soup and mochi.

No cutlery, no plates – just a huge platter of Filipino food to share with your friends. And for the price tag, it's a preposterous and exciting amount of food.

This tiny Marrickville restaurant serves just four things, including the headliner, silky handmade banh cuon. The chef is a third-generation expert who specialises in the northern Vietnamese dish.

By the team who founded Betty’s Burgers, this nostalgic '50s-inspired burger chain offers a bargain meal without skimping on quality. Fries are hand-cut, and ice-cream is churned on-site each day.

This "taberna" in a former seafood shop wants to transport diners to Lima's grungy dive-bar scene and educate them about pisco.

The Two Chaps team have passed the baton to new owners, but their meat-free legacy remains. The seasonal menu changes weekly, with vegetarian toppings you’ve probably never tried on a slice of pizza. And – busy intersection be damned – an al fresco meal on the footpath outside is a quintessential Marrickville experience.

The first dine-in venue from Bondi’s Lox in a Box is serving Sydney’s first bagel high tea. Head to the old old Cornersmith site to try it – or maybe some hot salt beef on rye, or a stellar brisket burrito.

Behind a low-key roller door is vegetarian cafe par excellence, which also does epic pasta dinners. Sustainable and made on-site is the ethos here, and the cabinet is loaded with sandwiches and doughnuts to takeaway.

Japanese comfort food by the Cool Mac crew. Specialty coffee matched with onigiri, a staple sashimi bowl and the occasional ramen pop-up has turned this cool and unassuming cafe into a weekend hotspot. Arrive early.

Mock meat, incredible toasties and crisp-fried tempeh burgers worth trekking for.

From the team behind Grumpy Donuts, this sophisticated American-style cafe serves the kind of fuss-free food you’d find in a New York or LA diner. Think pancake stacks, fried chicken sangas and plenty of filter coffee.

The New York-style bagels at this drive-through sell out quick. Crowd favourites include the blueberry and poppy seed varieties.

Combining stylish design and an experimental approach to brewing, this tiny operation by a husband-and-wife team is doing it like nowhere else in Marrickville. Track down their breezy taproom for 10 limited release beers, with options changing monthly.

Open to the public one day a week, this 20-seat distillery and bar names its spirits after streets in the inner west. Drop in for cocktails like the cherry gin martini, spiked with chocolate bitters and giving big Cherry Ripe vibes.

Even though this place is styled after a church, there’s nothing reverent about the approach here. Cocktails are fun, at times unusual, and highlight the seasonal gins coming out of the beautiful German copper still out back.

This roving gin bar started life inside a 1972 Kombi van. These days it’s pouring classic cocktails (with quirks) inside a former mechanic’s workshop. Snacks include “dips and bickies” and Basque cheesecakes doused in raspberry coulis.

The acclaimed gin brand’s warehouse home feels more like an artist’s studio than a distillery. Packed with personality, it’s a place of perfect Negronis, gin-friendly snacks and curiosities by local designers.

Try some of the most unique beers in Australia.

At this tiny banh mi shop, the rolls are generously filled with house-made braised pork belly and hunks of chicken. Some are comparing it to a hugely famous spot in Vietnam – one that Anthony Bourdain described as the best in the world.

An ethically minded butcher dedicated to using whole animals, not just the most popular bits.

A creative marketplace for emerging artists, fashion and designers.

Picture a baguette loaded with meat, carrot, pickled daikon, liver pate and coriander stalks. Now add birds-eye chillies so intense they’ll make your eyes water. Now picture a line of banh mi addicts wrapping around the block, hankering for Sydney's most famous banh mi. That’s Marickville Pork Roll.

At this gelateria you'll find around 18 different seasonal flavours, made using an antique machine operated by a gelato veteran.

Marrickville pub The Henson has launched an on-site grocer and bottle shop.