You would feel like you’ve stumbled across one of Sydney’s best kept secrets at Le Foote's dining room, on a back alley in The Rocks, if it weren’t already one of the hottest tables in the city. The candlelit dining room, helmed by charismatic waitstaff, boasts an Old World-leaning wine list, but it’s a crisp amaro and tonic that will pair best with silky taramasalata and crudités. Among other notable starters are grilled octopus tossed with macadamia and potatoes (A$30).

One of Australia’s highest-profile chefs, Neil Perry, spent A$5 million to open this cozy neighborhood eatery in the affluent Double Bay suburb in 2021. The menu highlights locally sourced seafood, alongside a comprehensive wine list. Kingfish ceviche (A$34) with fresh pressed coconut milk is simultaneously silky and zesty, while the melt-in-your-mouth woodfired grilled rock flathead (A$52) comes with a gorgeous slow-cooked zucchini, chilli and mint dressing.

Elegant and understated, Ursula’s is nestled in one of Sydney’s most beautiful inner suburbs; it feels like you’re at your most stylish friend’s house for dinner. Chilled briny oysters arrive with a Champagne mignonette prepared at the table with a demi—of Pommery brut. The strongest of the punchy starters on the modern Australian menu is the Moreton Bay bug pasta, slicked with a velvety crustacean butter. The service is warm, and the upstairs dining room buzzes on Saturday nights.

Clam Bar might be new, but its inspiration is not: Specifically, it celebrates New York’s classic steakhouses and old school taverns. If you’re not worried about being a graceful eater, start with the delicious, but slightly unwieldy, anchovies on toast. The steak tartare is a tidier, and equally satisfying, starter. Clam pasta, generously sized and seasoned, arrives steaming and swimming in butter and garlic.

At this 22-seat pescetarian joint, located just outside the city on the Oxford Street dining strip, a 12-meter-long marble-topped bar is all that separates the kitchen from diners. Pull up a stool and get a masterclass in oyster shucking. The menu changes daily—you might kick things off with a swordfish empanada or two, followed by southern calamari and yellowfin tuna nduja (A$36), which the restaurant describes as “spaghetti bolognese without the pasta or the bolognese.”

Midden sits in the Sydney Opera House on land that used to be a gathering place for the area’s traditional custodians, the Gadigal people. The Indigenous Australian chef and TV host Mark Olive salutes that history with dishes like refreshing salmon cured in lemon myrtle and pepperberry, smoked-kangaroo salad and pavlova covered with deliciously smooth Wattleseed cream. There is a pre-theater menu but the best show you can see if right here: Watch the sunset light up the sky over Harbour Bridge.

The tiny kitchen at this buzzing neighborhood trattoria in Surry Hills specializes in a concise menu of Italian specialties. Thin slices of raw trout, scallops and kingfish glisten in olive oil; artichokes alla Romana should be ordered with crusty, salt-flecked focaccia to soak up the sauce. The chili-infused bucatini all’Amatriciana (A$36), studded with crispy cubes of guanciale—one of three pastas on the menu—is terrific; so is the whole trout, butterflied and covered in crunchy breadcrumbs.

On the outer reaches of Sydney’s central business district, this eatery delivers a somewhat unlikely blend of cool Scandinavian decor and spicy Sri Lankan food. Starters such as crab varai, a delicious minced seafood concoction on a betel leaf, or the hot-butter cuttlefish, are addictive. The trademark spherical rice crepe hoppers are an ideal delivery vehicle for the assortment of all-purpose condiment sambals.

An unassuming entrance in the back streets of Chippendale leads to this well-established Sydney eatery. The bar is lively, with bartenders mixing complex cocktails such as the gin-based Honey, Honey and Date Me, made with doughnut-infused rye and date syrup, as well as booze-free citrus spritzes. The a la carte menu runs the gamut. There is fermented potato bread with kefir cream, roasted oysters with horseradish, and king prawns with fermented shrimp.

Beloved chef Kylie Kwong is back in action in a former locomotive workshop, serving her superior take on Cantonese cooking. The casual eatery has about half a dozen tables, a long bench along the wall for walk-ins and an open kitchen so you can watch the chefs in action. Ordering is done through an app: The menu (prices range from about A$17 to A$28) might include taco-like steamed savory pancakes, with generous servings of fried egg and fresh Asian herbs doused in caramel tamari.