haymarket

Char kway teow noodles with jumbo prawns, Hainan chicken rice and a signature wok-fried crab are the highlights at Junda Khoo’s nostalgic Malaysian diner.

A Long Chim alumnus is behind this 30-seat Chinatown restaurant, where you’ll find punchy takes on classic Thai street food and home-style cooking. Think deep-fried barramundi with mango salad, Phuket-style curry with tiger prawns and betel leaves, and a refreshing coconut ice-cream with roasted peanuts and candied pumpkin.

A trailblazer in Sydney’s Thai restaurant scene. When the late, great Amy Chanta opened it in Darlinghurst in 1989, it brought Bankgok flavours that were then-unknown to Sydney diners. The Thai street food here is fine-dining quality, served at very reasonable price points. Today, it’s a super-popular chain with stores all over Sydney.

A CBD northern-Thai diner channelling the late-night tapas dishes of a famous Chiang Mai market stall.

Two gun pizzaiolos have teamed up with inner-west distillery Poor Toms to create the ultimate inner-city hangout – with not-quite-New York pizzas, chunky square pies, plates of gabagool and a riff on a legendary Perth sandwich. But it’s here for a good time, not a long time.

A no-frills Chinese restaurant serving the favourites and then some.

A former Zumbo pastry chef is behind the elaborate desserts at this Japanese cafe and milk bar by the Devon team. It’s one of the few places in Sydney you’ll find popular Japanese date-night dessert, Kakigori, along with cheeseburger-inspired rice bowls, curries and more.

Traditional Japanese mountain houses were the inspiration behind Edition’s flagship cafe. Enter this astounding space for fine-dining level breakfasts fusing Scandi and Japanese flavours, and some of the best coffee in Sydney.

Subtly sweet French pastry with an Asian flair.

A Japanese matcha house with curries, sundaes, lattes and more, made with powder from the mountains of Shizuoka.

A cafe with a dual identity: Western cafe staples plus Indonesian mee goreng and coffee.

A flash cocktail bar in a dingy Chinatown alley that comes with fried things on sticks, including … spaghetti.

Kakigori Kaiji is Sydney’s first shop dedicated to the iconic dessert – but it’s also the first to use Kuramoto Ice, a tasteless, slow-melting ice from Kanazawa in Japan.