The Revitalisation of the City of Sydney: Part 2

Australia’s new mecca for wining and dining

Over the years, our harbour city has been the home of some of the country’s most high-end restaurants and bars. Culinary institutions Tetsuya, Bennelong, Bentley, Machiavelli, Rockpool, Quay and Aria remain some of the finest hatted restaurants in the world. But hot on the tails of these renowned eateries are a bevy of fantastic new restaurants created to cater for the swing back to our city center as the place to wine and dine.

Woodcut, from the duo behind The Bridge Room, is a dazzling new restaurant with a revolutionary drawcard. It consists of four separate kitchens that each harness a different element – steam, fire, smoke and ice. Try everything from the finest caviar to raw kingfish to 270-day aged Black Market T-bone – you won’t be disappointed!

A' Mare impresses, offering the theatre of a Michelin-starred meal with divine harbour views across to Balmain. Your pesto is pounded tableside, a gelato cart and sommelier roam the room.  With lavish décor inspired by Italy’s finest palazzos, this is Sydney’s answer to a glamourous Italian food experience.

Situated in Australia’s first bank, Seta is an ambitious, opulent, hatted Italian restaurant featuring Venetian-style bite sized snacks, 30 varieties of raw fish and a 3m high wine fridge. Choose from the main dining room, crudo bar or chef’s table, and with an executive chef who ran a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant, Seta has to be at the top of your restaurant hitlist.

Other extraordinary newcomers to the Sydney city dining scene include Nobu (the much-anticipated Sydney partner for this Japanese institution), the stunning reinvention of Alpha (beloved Greek cuisine), Monopole (with its extraordinary wine list), Restaurant Leo (where everything is made in-house), Esteban (with recipes inspired from Mayan, Aztec, Spanish, Portuguese and Afro-Caribbean cuisines), Merrivale’s reopened Uccello and Nobu & Yoshii’s Omakase. 

And if you are after an aperitif to kick off the night, or a fine drop to round it off, check out The Baxter Inn for a whisky revolution, PS40 (embracing cocktail experimentation with a vengeance), Old Mate’s Place (its rooftop location soars amid the CBD skyline), the intimate Bulletin Place, 1970s inspired Double Deuce Lounge and Sammy Junior with its espresso and cocktail bars.

In addition to these exciting new venues, outdoor dining is being trialed in the City of Sydney, in an effort to create an al fresco dining environment similar to that which exists in Europe. This will result in an increase in green space and public space, and a decrease in office density creating a far more attractive residential environment than in the past. In light of these burgeoning attractions and the de-commercialisation of the City of Sydney, livability is soaring exponentially. So, why not explore the idea of living in Australia’s most cosmopolitan heart, in one of its most glamourous apartments.

Learn more about available CBD properties here.