Urban renewal has transformed Sydney’s food and wine scene, shifting the centre of gravity from the Central Business District (CBD) towards the suburbs.
Sure, there are your famous established eateries with heavenly wine-sipping views of the harbour such as Quay with its winning sparkling wine list compiled by head sommelier Steven Pietersma.
But in the posh harbourside Eastern Suburbs and post-industrial Inner West, chefs, hospitality groups and sommeliers have brought wine-driven bars, bistros and restaurants to please the sophisticated Bacchanalian predilections of locals.
Since sommelier Matthew Swieboda opened Sydney’s ‘original small wine bar’ Love, Tilly Devine in Darlinghurst in 2010, a flurry of neighbourhood wine dens and corner store bistros have arrived on the scene – from Tim Perlstone’s Wine Library in Woollahra to the Coogee Wine Room.
The revolution kicked off in city-nudging Surry Hills with bustling side street wine bars popping up in former industrial warehouses between the bricks and barrels.
Another phenomenon is the emergence of the hotel as a drinking and dining destination – including the revamped Sofitel Sydney Wentworth’s quartet of new venues with drinks overseen by ex-Rockpool ‘wine guy’ Christian Blair.
Best Sydney bars and restaurants for wine lovers: 10 to try
Aalia
25 Martin Place, Sydney
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
An Arabian and North African cultural journey meets Australian ocean ingredients via raw dishes of tuna with finger lime, Moreton Bay bug mezze and mains of blue mackerel with tahini fennel. Aalia – meaning ‘exalted’ – opened in 2022 and is set among the neoclassical facades of Martin Place. The 30-page beverage list won three goblets at the 2024 Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards, and is curated by Tasmanian-born head sommelier Eleonore Wulf, who showcases female winemakers and unique or regional Australian varieties. France is very well represented among the rare and classic drops.
Bar Copains
67 Albion St, Surry Hills
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
Set in a white terraced house with a communal table, Thonet chairs and petit bistro tables, chef/co-owners Morgan McGlone and Nathan Sasi say the raison d’être of their little bar a vin is to share ‘museum wines’ from their personal collections among friends. The ‘cave’ offers some 300 bottles, many by the glass, including natural wines, traditional drops by small producers with cosmopolitan labels and classic Australian winemakers – to imbibe with exquisite servings of raw diced tuna and chicken liver parfait with sauternes jelly and sourdough.
Bar Julius
The EVE Hotel, 8 Baptist Street, Redfern
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
Part of the buzzing new Wunderlich Lane precinct, the EVE Hotel’s street-facing bistro has an all-day menu featuring market fish, tomato tarte tatin, zucchini rosti and roast beef bagels – and a 10-page drink list concocted by Kyle Poole, group sommelier of the wine-savvy Liquid & Larder group, who is a big advocate of sustainable winemaking. He favours Burgundies and Italian reds over homegrowns, though Aussie gins reign. Settle into a banquette and enjoy an Archie Rose White Martinez or Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Spritz.
Bar Lucia
5 Kellett Street, Potts Point
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
Among the fleur-de-lis terraces and fairy-lit branches of Moreton Bay Fig trees, Bar Lucia brings a touch of classical Madrid to Potts Point – with a gorgeously elegant decor of ionic columns in the courtyard, cascading chandeliers and artisan mosaics. The venue was a Wine List of the Year Awards winner in 2024 in the 50-bottle category, and sommelier Kasia Sobiesiak highlights female producers from Orange and the Adelaide Hills to Piedmont and Rioja, downed with tapas or hearty servings of seafood paella and rosemary-infused lamb shank.
Dear Sainte Éloise
5/29 Orwell Street, Potts Point
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
Opening on to bird-tweeting Springfield Gardens, this little ‘place for wine and things to eat’ romantically recalls George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, where the writer implores the saint to send just enough money to buy bread and a bottle of wine to restore his strength. At this sibling to A Love, Tilly Devine, the 500+ varieties on offer should do just that. Stacked around the shelves of two dark and woody parlours are drops from lesser-known Italian and French viticulture regions, plus California and Georgia. The Riesling and Pinot Noir venerating owners find ‘Antipodean styles have developed by leaps and bounds,’ borrowing from their Italian counterparts while ‘expressing something uniquely Australian’.
Kiln
Ace Hotel, Level 18, 53 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney
Dry-aged ribeye with sudachi ponzu. Credit: Kiln
Creativity, like the views, hit a high note at the Ace Hotel’s 18th-floor restaurant Kiln, with ex-Noma chef Beau Clugston at the helm. Fusing Scandinavian simplicity with native bush ingredients, try iconic dishes such as Sydney rock oysters with rhubarb and pink pepper and Arnhem land-inspired leeks cooked in paperbark, dabbed with caviar-like native finger lime. Wines and cocktails sport amusing tags – the Brave New Wine Riot Girl! – a West Australian white blend – is for those seeking a ‘Touch More There White’. Or try a Witching Hour, blending Dalmore 12YO with gentian and orgeat.
Monopole
20 Curtin Place, Sydney
Credit: Tamara Thiessen
Dark, moody, decked with velvet curtains and vintage wine fair posters, Monopole, meaning ‘one wine, one vineyard, one producer’, is run by award-winning duo, chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, co-owners of The Bentley Restaurant Group and its namesake eatery. Monopole is 100% French – ‘classic with contemporary flair’ – including the wines, aperitifs and digestifs. Expect vol-au-vent filled with pasture-raised Sommerlad chicken and Balmain bug and sweetcorn. With 600 wines – 30 by the glass – it won Best Wine List NSW in Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards in 2024, noted for its ‘numerous mini-verticals’.
Saint Peter
The Grand National Hotel, 161 Underwood St, Paddington
Credit: Saint Peter
When chef Josh Niland moved his famous fin-to-scale fish restaurant to a new Paddington address last year, he dubbed the reimagined 1890s Grand National Hotel ‘a multi-dimensional hospitality hub’. Amid the sleek stone, brass, timber and upholstered banquettes, head sommelier Houston Barakat’s wine list gives pride of place to a selection of ‘hero producers of New South Wales’, ‘established icons’ and ‘new-wave producers’, rotating according to ‘seasonality, availability and deliciousness’. Pair them with fish charcuterie, line-caught John Dory and dry-aged yellowfin tuna from the 11 Course Chef’s Table Menu.
Tilda
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, 61-101 Phillip St, Sydney
Credit: Steven Woodburn
With a big hook on seasonal ocean-sourced flavours and sustainability, this chic ‘Australian interpretation of a classic grill restaurant’ has a 50 page drinks list to accompany the charcoal-cooked dishes from the open kitchen. Head sommelier, Guido Pisani ensures guests get ‘a new-found zest’, as Banjo Paterson’s poem on the opening page of the drinks list promises. The restaurant’s name is a nod to his famous unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda. The list champions Australian producers from Clare Valley Rieslings to Tassie Coal River Pinot Noirs and claims: ‘There’s never been a better time in history to be drinking Australian Wine’ in terms of a sense of place.
Vermuteria
60 Kings Cross Road, Potts Point
Credit: Chris Pearce
Morphing out of an institution and still with a Spanish flavour, Vermuteria occupies the bohemian gem where Cafe Hernandez bar and roaster stood for 50 years until 2022. With much of the decor still in place, including a massive reproduction of Diego Velázquez’s Count-Duke of Olivares, the charming aperitif bar is crammed with memorabilia and colourful window displays of vintage vermouth and sherry bottles behind its red awning. From the daily vermouth hour at 5pm, the bar serves cocktails and a small but fine selection of Spanish wines with finger food such as San Sebastian-style pintxos or a wad of Basque cheesecake.
