The best restaurateurs in Sydney are excellent at reading the moment; giving people what they want even before they want it. And this point in time belongs to tighter budgets. The reality bites hard as corporate entertainmet spends are capped and cost of living increases.
Of course, classic three-course meals and dégustations will always have their place, but increasingly, diners are looking for more entry points to the establishments they love. They want snacks at the bar, set lunch menus, and generous golden hours.
They want it with finesse, knowing the cash they are parting with is money well spent. As ever, hospitality is about being hospitable and some of Sydney’s best industry minds are tailoring their menus to oblige.
As Tristen Rosier, founder of Jane in Sydney explains, it’s about finding creative ways to offer great value so that “people want to keep coming back”. And at $2 an oyster, surely, we will.
If this is the year of democratic fine dining, book us in for an express table or seat at the bar.
Here are Sydney’s best lunch specials, set menus, happy hours, and bar menus.
Best lunch specials and set menus in Sydney
Experience an abridged version of Peter Gilmore’s famous Quay menu with the special four-course dining experience, Quay to Lunch. Currently available on weekends, $220 will get you a seat at one of the country’s best restaurants and those magical harbour views.
Dinner at this Japanese fine-diner is a three-figure affair but on Fridays and Saturdays it throws open its door for lunch, where the express lunch set starts at $50, with choices such as scallop sashimi with fennel, apple and nori as an entrée and koji marinated sand whiting fritto with a clam cream sauce for mains.
To experience a quick taste of Paul Farag’s wood-fired Middle Eastern menu at Aalia, try the express lunch option, where $60 will get you a snack and a choice of entrée and main to share — including dry-aged Murray cod with biber salcasi or lamb neck shawarma.
It may not be as grand as its big sister brasserie next door but The Charles Bar serves up chic NYC energy with its all-day bar menu and generous lunch special every Monday to Saturday, which features their aged wagyu cheeseburger and choice if house wine or beer for just $25.
From Wednesday to Saturday, Esteban’s $65 Almuerzo Pequeño menu (Spanish for “little lunch”) offers three quick and quality courses: starting with a yellowfin tuna tartare with pickled garlic and crispy potato, followed by a prawn taco, before the crescendo of steak with black garlic and chipotle butter, and smoked kipfler potatoes.
The team at Monopole are ushering in a new era with their newly reimagined French restaurant. Best of all, they’re introducing a Menu Á Prixe, where $55 will get you two courses of French-inspired fare, including duck liver parfait or pot-au-feu. Add dessert to make it three courses for a neat $70.
Escape to Italy’s spectacular coastlines, vino in hand with Nico’s Ciao Pasta Tuesday offer where you’ll be spoiled for choice with weekly rotating pasta specials and glass of wine for $29. Bellissimo.
Enjoy the crowning jewel in the Ace Hotel’s crown with Kiln’s epic $65 Prix Fixe lunch menu, dishing up deliciousness every Thursday to Saturday.
Bistro Moncur is entering its winter era with their latest lunch offering, Sunday Rosbif. Every Sunday, their French-inspired roasted chateaubriand with fondant potatoes, braised red cabbage and horseradish jus will be available from 12pm, and for just $45 per person.
Best happy hours in Sydney
Happy hour cocktails at Rockpool Bar & Grill
At Jane in Surry Hills, where founder Tristan Rosier emphasises that his Australiano Hour offers the same dishes you get at regular service, just in a cheaper, more snackable form. “You can get our kangaroo tartare, which is a signature, or $2 oysters, with the exact same oysters we normally use,” he says. “Quality for us is paramount, not just cutting the price.”
Cut-price Negronis, Dubonnet highballs and G&Ts are the backbone of the generous daily happy hour at Hubert that runs between 5 and 6pm daily. The Normandy burger is non-negotiable.
Surry Hills’ The Rover is offering $2 freshly shucked oysters and $10 mini Martinis poured tableside in its elegant upstairs restaurant. These happy hour specials are available daily from 4-6pm, making them an ideal pre-dinner deal.
Also in Surry Hills, Lennox Hastie’s San Sebastián-inspired wine bar Gildas celebrates after-work occasions with its Gildas Golden Hour. On offer on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5.30–6.30pm, Golden Hour sees $12 cocktails and wines alongside its namesake snack for $5 and $12 off-menu specials. Plus, it’s launched a reasonable $59 pre-theatre menu which could see you eating gildas, grilled Bundarra pork with romesco and baby leeks and rice pudding soft serve with warm salted caramel, plus more.
Pulling up a seat at Rockpool’s bar is always a good idea but there’s an even better reason now. RP Hour hits the bar for two hours every weekday between 4pm and 6pm, with $12 Martinis, wines by the glass for $15 and reasonably priced snacks.
One of the world’s best bars, Maybe Sammy, continues to offer up its teeny Martinis at an approachable price point. From 4.30–5.30pm every Tuesday to Saturday, you can score classic Martinis as well as the Chamomile Martini in miniature form for $7, plus more mini cocktails such as a mini Eucalyptus Gimlet and mini Irish Coffee.
Sydney’s contemporary Japanese diner Saké has launched Saké Hour at its three Sydney locations — The Rocks, Double Bay and Manly — running from 4–6pm at The Rocks and Double Bay and from 3–5pm at Manly, Monday to Friday. Available exclusively at the bar, the happy hour sees $10 wines and $12 cocktails, plus a stack of value-packed snacks.
Escape to Pleasure Club’s suave happy hour. Kicking off every Wednesday to Sunday from 4-7pm, find $9 LP’s dogs and vegan dogs alongside $15 cocktails and $10 non-alcoholic cocktails.
Newtown’s Euro-inspired hotspot is now slinging happy hour prices from 4-6pm, Tuesday to Friday. Roll in for $15 Martinis and Negronis and a snazzy array of snacks, including a $12 cheeseburger, $7 potato scallop with crème fraîche and Avruga, and $8 zucchini flowers topped with togarashi.
Get shucked at Sydney’s oyster hotspot, Morrison’s. Enjoy the signature oyster hour every Wednesday from 6-7pm, where Sydney Rock Oysters are freshly shucked to order (and $1.50 to boot). And if oysters aren’t your thing, from 4-6pm on weekdays, happy hour is serving up $10 Negronis and Aperol Spritz, alongside $7 beer, wine and spirits and a chef’s selection of snacks.
Best bar menus in Sydney
The bar at Bentley Restaurant and Bar
The bar has never been an afterthought at CBD heavyweight Bentley. Bites include beef tartare, piquillo pepper and capers, or WA scallop, salted grape tomato and shisho, or dive into king prawn with smoked lime butter and sundew. The seafood platter is also one of the best in the city.
Whether you’re heading for pre-show snacks or looking for a snacky meal backdropped by some of the best views in the city, the bar at Bennelong always dazzles. Order oysters with lemon pepper granita, prawn toast with fermented chilly aioli and zucchini, goat’s curd, pepita and hemp arancini and you can’t go wrong.
“A restaurant like ours can almost be whatever you want it to be,” says Alex Prichard, executive chef of Bondi’s Icebergs, whose dedicated bar menu has been around since 2002. “We’re here for a high-end business lunch or a burger and a beer at the bar for under $40.” Our pick for a pocket-friendly taste of Prichard’s fresh take on Italian is the spaghetti vongole, goolwa pipis and bottarga and wine by the glass.
The Seasons menu at Clare Smyth’s fine-diner at the top of Crown Sydney won’t leave you with much change under $400. But the bar menu offers a way to sample her cooking with a little less commitment, for both your wallet and your time.
A North Sydney favourite, Rafi’s bar menu is one for the records. Dishing up bites from Wild Port Lincoln sardines to South Coast tuna with tomato, tahini and fragrant chilli oil to a crumbed fish and chips with tartare sauce, these seafood-leaning snacks are worth shelling out for.
This article was recently updated in July 2024.
