Long known as a destination for excellent seafood, the Harbour City is now serving the bounty of the sea in grander, more varied and innovative ways than ever before
This is a story about seafood, but it starts, as many Sydneysiders’ days do, with the sunrise.
Sydney, Australia’s beloved harbour city, is renowned for its superlative breakfasts. This claim to fame arguably began when the late Australian chef Bill Granger first dished up his glossy scrambled eggs and avocado on toast at his restaurant, Bills, back in 1993.
Now, three decades on, Sydney’s breakfast bar has been raised again.
On a sun-splashed morning in the backstreets of Paddington, an inner-city neighbourhood of narrow, tree-lined streets and terrace houses, I’m the only diner in the bar of the 14-room Grand National Hotel, which opened in January this year.
Here, Sydney’s most exclusive breakfast is served each morning to guests of the hotel, and no one else. The sweet flesh of a perfectly poached whole marron – a crayfish from Manjimup, Western Australia – is laid bare on a bed of scrambled eggs before me. The shell of its head holds a not-too-rich hollandaise sauce.
It’s the highlight of a three-course breakfast that has all of Sydney talking, and is exactly what you’d expect from chef Josh Niland, the man who sparked a culinary revolution and pioneered whole fish butchery – complete with custom-designed cool rooms and a creative use of offal – when he opened his fish restaurant, Saint Peter, in 2016.
Back then, his innovative degustation experience was an intimate affair; diners sat at a long marble bar counter inside a modest shopfront on a quiet stretch of Oxford Street in Paddington.
Last year, Saint Peter, which made the World’s 50 Best Restaurants longlist in 2024, relocated to the beautifully restored Grand National Hotel. Diners now enjoy their meals in an elegant 40-seat dining room featuring an atrium and a buzzy open kitchen. Niland’s nine-course menu continues to showcase his greatest hits, from a reinterpretation of spaghetti bolognaise made with southern calamari noodles and yellowfin tuna ’nduja (a spicy, spreadable salami) to the moreish lemon meringue tart.
The 30-seat front bar is also impressive. A more casual affair, bookings aren’t required, and the bar snack menu includes swordfish empanadas, Australia’s best oysters and the standout: a yellowfin tuna cheeseburger. This is seafood worth travelling for, but for a lucky few, the journey now takes mere minutes.
There’s no more decadent way to end a meal at Saint Peter than when the waiter walks me just a metre from the restaurant and summons the lift to take me one floor up to my hotel suite.
Once a beloved neighbourhood pub, the original structure of the Grand National Hotel dates back to 1890, and in their first venture as hoteliers, Niland and his wife Julie haven’t merely revived the place, they’ve turned it into a destination in its own right.
Interiors were designed by Belinda Chippindale and Dimity Chitty of Sydney’s Studio Aquilo, with extensive input from the Nilands, and the result is exquisite. The hotel’s sophisticated, modern Art Deco rooms could just as easily exist in New York or Paris, save for their all-local line-up of personal touches: art curated by Olsen Gallery, including works by Ken Done; toiletries by Australian luxury brand Aesop; and bedding by Melbourne’s sustainable doona makers, Bonny, among others.
There are subtle nods to seafood, too. Above the original marble fireplaces, convex mirrors provide a fish-eye view of the room; fish fat candles and soap bars grace the bedrooms; and ceramic mugs are made from fish bones. Even the marron at breakfast is served on a plate decorated with a fish-scale border.
Saint Peter and The Grand National Hotel aren’t the only ones redefining Sydney’s seafood landscape – or using fish scales or shells as inspiration. Since 2015, Bennelong, the acclaimed dining institution helmed by chef Peter Gilmore, has been serving seafood-forward dishes – appetisers of Aquatir Belugar caviar and rock oysters, mains of barramundi and Eastern Rock lobster – with equally fabulous views of the harbour from its incredible location within the iconic Sydney Opera House, a building inspired by sails and seashells, among others.
Over in Blackwattle Bay, an emerging harbourside precinct in Sydney’s inner-west, the finishing touches are being put on the new Sydney Fish Market, an AUD$800 million development expected to open later this year. Designed by 3XN Architects, the market has a 200m-long, wave-shaped roof resembling fish scales and, with a working fish market, seafood cooking school and restaurants, it’s set to become one of the city’s major tourist destinations.
Celebrity chef Luke Nguyen will open a Southeast Asian seafood restaurant here, while Malaysia-born Junda Khoo of Ho Jiak is planning a casual-to-mid-range eatery serving everything from kingfish assam laksa and chilli crab har gow to XO pippies and lobster.
The market will also house the largest sushi train in Australia, along with outlets from local favourites such as family-run gelateria Cow and the Moon; cheerful inner-west café Dirty Red, known for its cocktail-fuelled brunches; and Vietnamese street food outlet Banh Mi & Phin.
The largest venue is expected to be an as-yet-unnamed, 280-seat Mediterranean-style restaurant led by Turkish celebrity chef Somer Sivrioğlu, who studied in Australia and co-owns restaurants Anason in Barangaroo and Maydanoz in the CBD. But the highlight may prove to be Sivrioğlu’s takeaway kiosk, serving balik ekmek (Turkish fish sandwiches).
Australians have a special reverence for sandwiches. In local slang, an “Aussie battler” refers to an ordinary, working-class Australian, respected for relentlessly persevering in the face of adversity. And the humble workman’s lunch? It’s often a sandwich. But in a multicultural nation like this one, that can mean anything from balik ekmek and banh mi to cheese toasties or a Vegemite triple decker.
For Sydney chef Joel Bennetts, a more modern take might be the fish burger, laden with fermented chilli, that earned him a cult following at Fish Shop in Bondi. A five-minute walk from Sydney’s most iconic beach, Fish Shop – which opened in 2021 and closed last March – was an elevated interpretation of the classic suburban fish ‘n’ chip joint by Nathan Dalah and Nic Pestalozzi. Along with Casper Ettelson, they are the men behind Fishbowl, a healthy salad bowl chain with more than 40 locations across Australia, which recently opened as Thisbowl in New York.
Not content to sit back and enjoy their extraordinary success, Dalah and Pestalozzi opened another venture with Bennetts in 2023, in the storefront next door to Fish Shop. The same concrete, glass and terrazzo interiors appear at the 30-seat Burger Park, which offers a menu of just four hamburgers – five, if you count the “secret” cheeseburger – made using only good quality, fresh ingredients.
The place is buzzing, there’s even live jazz on the first Friday of every month. But on any other day, the hot tip is to order your burger – try the crumbed barramundi with green goddess tartare – to-go and enjoy it with your toes in the water at Bondi Beach.
For those who want to get out on the water, it’s worth making the one-hour drive north to Brooklyn on the outskirts of Sydney. Bordered by eucalyptus bushland, Kangaroo Point Boat Ramp is the pick-up location for those joining Sydney Oyster Farm Tours, a family-run enterprise on the expansive Hawkesbury River. During a boat ride and guided tour of the farm, guests learn about the evolution of the industry and see how oysters are cultivated.
Afterwards, shuck fresh Broken Bay, Sydney Rock and Pacific oysters in one of three ways. Depending on the tour you choose, that could mean slurping the tasty molluscs on the boat; donning a pair of waders and eating them at a table in the water; or sitting down to a gourmet, white tablecloth lunch on the sand.
Regardless of where you choose to be, here or elsewhere in Sydney, one thing is certain: this city and its innovative chefs know how to reel travellers in and keep them coming back for more.
Where to stay in Sydney
Our top three choices for hotels that capture the city’s coastal charm, creative energy and laidback luxury
1. The Eve Hotel is the centrepiece of the new AUD$500 million Wunderlich Lane precinct on the border of Surry Hills and Redfern. Its retro-cool rooms and suites impress, but the 20m rooftop pool steals the show with guests and locals alike.
2. Set in the historic Sydney Water Board headquarters, the 172-room Kimpton Margot evokes Art Deco glamour. The lobby houses chef Luke Mangan’s flagship, Luke’s Kitchen, serving modern Australian fare, plus it even has its own caviar cart.
3. The new W Sydney, the chain’s largest with 588 rooms, overlooks Darling Harbour. With five restaurants, a 30m indoor infinity pool, a luxe spa and a 24-hour gym, you may not want to leave. Rooms feature blue furnishings and shark-shaped pillows.
