The plates that define Sydney: what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Signature dishes
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Sydney Rock Oyster ★ 4.9
The Sydney rock oyster has a rich, iodiney flavour and soft, creamy flesh, and is sold by the half dozen or dozen, usually already shucked, for eating raw.
Where to try it: Bennelong, Icebergs Dining Room
The Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) lives in bays, inlets and sheltered estuaries along the east coast. Sydney Fish Market calls it Australia's first aquaculture species, with farming beginning in the 1870s. It is sold year round and peaks from September to March. Oysters were among the summer foods of the Eora, who lived mainly from the produce of the sea.
Watch out for: Shellfish
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Flat White ★ 4.9
A double espresso with about 130 ml of steamed milk and a thin layer of microfoam, with more coffee than a latte and less froth than a cappuccino.
Where the flat white began is disputed. Alan Preston says he put it on the permanent menu at Moors Espresso Bar in Sydney in 1985, having brought the idea from far north Queensland, and a May 1983 review of the Sydney cafe Miller's Treat already mentions flat white coffee. Cafes in Auckland and Wellington make their own claims. Starbucks introduced the drink in its American stores in January 2015.
Watch out for: Dairy
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Lamington ★ 4.6
A square of butter or sponge cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes split and filled with cream or jam, eaten as a cake.
Where to try it: Flour and Stone
Lamingtons are believed to be named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901, or possibly his wife, and most sources favour him. Most stories credit his French-born chef Armand Galland. A recipe for Lamington Cakes appeared in the Queensland Country Life newspaper in 1900 and in a Sydney newspaper in 1901. 21 July is National Lamington Day. Flour and Stone in Woolloomooloo is known for its pannacotta lamingtons.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Tree nuts (coconut)
Book food experiences in Sydney
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Australian Meat Pie ★ 4.5
A hand-held pie of beef in gravy under shortcrust, eaten hot with tomato sauce; the Tiger pie is topped with mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy.
Where to try it: Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Bourke Street Bakery Surry Hills
Minced beef is the traditional filling, though chunkier diced beef pies are now more popular. Sargents, once New South Wales' leading pie brand, traced its pie making to 1891 and has not been made since 2022; the Four'n Twenty pie was first produced in 1947 in a Bendigo bakery. In Sydney, Harry "Tiger" Edwards opened a caravan cafe near the gates of the Woolloomooloo naval dockyard, and Harry's Cafe de Wheels still serves the Tiger pie, named for him, at its original Woolloomooloo site.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
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Sausage Roll ★ 4.5
Sausage meat wrapped in pastry and baked; Bourke Street Bakery lists pork and fennel, lamb with almond and harissa, and chicken and empanada versions.
Where to try it: Bourke Street Bakery Surry Hills
Wrapping meat in dough goes back to Classical Greek or Roman times. An 1809 newspaper mentions an industrious vendor of saloop, buns and sausage rolls, and The Times first mentions the item in 1864, describing a wholesale pork pie manufacturer and sausage roll maker. Bourke Street Bakery, established in Surry Hills in 2004, lists four sausage rolls on its in-store menu, each at A$7.80.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
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Anzac Biscuit ★ 4.5
A biscuit of rolled oats, flour, sugar, butter and golden syrup raised with baking soda, often with desiccated coconut, and sold as a biscuit, not a cookie.
It is thought that Anzac biscuits were sent by wives and women's groups to soldiers abroad because they kept well in transport, and the origin is contested between Australia and New Zealand. The earliest recipe pairing Anzac and biscuit, from Perth in 1916, was for ginger biscuits with no oats. The first recorded coconut version is from Adelaide in 1924. Commercial products must be sold as biscuits or slices, not cookies.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Tree nuts (coconut)
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Pavlova ★ 4.5
A meringue dessert named after the dancer Anna Pavlova, topped with whipped cream and fresh soft fruit such as kiwifruit, passionfruit and strawberries.
Where to try it: Bennelong, Margaret, Flour and Stone
The dessert is believed to have been made in honour of the dancer, during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The Beverley Times claimed that Bert Sachse created it at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, while a Wellington hotel is said to have made it in 1926, which food historian Helen Leach could not verify. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the origin as Austral. and N.Z. Bennelong and Margaret both list a pavlova on their dessert menus.
Watch out for: Egg, Dairy
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Fish and Chips, Sydney-style ★ 4.5
Fried fish and chips with tartare and lemon; North Bondi Fish lists it at A$30, and flathead, snapper and King George whiting are common fish in Australia.
Where to try it: North Bondi Fish
Price: A$30
Greek migrant Athanasias Comino is the first recorded owner of an Australian fish and chip shop, opened in 1879 on Oxford Street in Sydney and inspired by an earlier shop run by an unidentified Welshman. Reef cod, rock cod, barramundi and flathead are commonly used, with farmed basa and hoki common since the early 2000s. Doyles on the Beach at Watsons Bay says its original site dates from 1885.
Watch out for: Gluten, Fish
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Sydney Banh Mi ★ 4.7
A Vietnamese baguette filled with pork or chicken, pate, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber, coriander, chilli and mayonnaise, often under A$10 in Sydney.
Where to try it: Marrickville Pork Roll, KK Bakery, Viet Bling
A distinctly Vietnamese style of sandwich developed in Saigon in the 1950s. After the Vietnam War around 94,000 Vietnamese refugees migrated to Australia, and some opened bakeries in south-western Sydney and elsewhere. In Marrickville, Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants who arrived after the 1970s factory closures started shops and restaurants along Illawarra Road. Fairfield City Council lists 15 banh mi shops in Cabramatta, including KK Bakery, which it says was in Good Food Sydney's sandwich hall of fame.
Watch out for: Gluten, Egg, Soy
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Sydney Pho ★ 4.7
Vietnamese noodle soup of rice noodles in a clear beef broth made with bones, charred onion, ginger and spices, served with rare beef, brisket and tendon.
Where to try it: Pho Tau Bay
Pho originated in northern Vietnam in the early 20th century, and refugees carried it abroad after the Vietnam War. Australia resettled Vietnam-born refugees under a plan running from 1975 to 1985, and in Sydney they are concentrated in Cabramatta and nearby western suburbs. Pho Tau Bay on John Street, Cabramatta, began in the founder's living room in 1982; its broth simmers overnight and its best seller is pho bo dac biet with brisket, beef balls, tendon and tripe.
Watch out for: Soy, Gluten (some hoisin)
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Modern Australian Tasting Menu ★ 4.9
A set multi-course menu in the Modern Australian style, which blends European technique with Asian flavours; Saint Peter's dinner menu runs to ten courses.
Where to try it: Saint Peter
Price: A$395 per person at Saint Peter
Sydney's Bayswater Brasserie, opened in 1982, is arguably the first Modern Australian restaurant, and the term first appeared in print in the 1993 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. Tetsuya Wakuda opened Tetsuya's in Rozelle in 1989 and moved it to the city in 2000; it closed after a final service on 31 July 2024. Peter Gilmore cooked at Quay from 2001 until it closed on 14 February 2026. Saint Peter, opened by Josh Niland on Oxford Street in 2016, now serves a ten-course dinner menu at the Grand National Hotel.
Watch out for: Various (per menu)
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Sydney Charcoal Chicken with Toum ★ 4.8
Chicken flame-grilled over charcoal and eaten with toum, a garlic sauce; El Jannah sells rolls of charcoal chicken in Lebanese bread with pickles and toum.
Where to try it: El Jannah
More than 30,000 Lebanese civil war refugees arrived in Australia between 1975 and 1990, and about 70 percent of the Lebanese-born population lived in Sydney. The first El Jannah store opened in the Sydney suburb of Granville in 1998, founded by Andre and Carole Estephan, and sells Lebanese-style charcoal chicken; the chain now runs 66 stores across New South Wales. Its menu lists charcoal chicken, fried chicken, boxes, burgers and rolls wrapped in Lebanese bread with pickles and toum.
Watch out for: Dairy (some toum recipes)
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Sydney Yum Cha ★ 4.7
Cantonese tea-house eating: dim sum taken with pots of tea and brought round in steam-heated carts or ordered at the table, in Sydney most often at lunch.
Where to try it: Mr Wong
In Cantonese, "let's go yum cha" means going to a restaurant for dim sum, and the tea is as important as the food. Sydney's Chinatown was in The Rocks by 1861 and had consolidated in Haymarket by the 1920s; Dixon Street was pedestrianised in the 1980s. Marigold, a yum cha restaurant in Haymarket, closed for good on 5 December 2021. Mr Wong on Bridge Lane serves a lunchtime dim sum menu by Michael Luo.
Watch out for: Gluten, Shellfish, Soy, Egg, Sesame
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Ricotta Hotcakes ★ 4.7
Ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter, served at bills in Bondi Beach, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst for A$33; Bill Granger opened bills in 1993.
Where to try it: Bills Darlinghurst, Bills Bondi
Price: A$33
Bill Granger opened his first restaurant, bills, on the corner of a crossroads in Darlinghurst in 1993; bills says it was an instant success. Today the bills Bondi Beach, Surry Hills and Darlinghurst menus each list ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter at A$33. Granger died on 25 December 2023, at age 54, and the bills and Granger & Co. restaurants carry on as a global family of restaurants.
Watch out for: Gluten, Dairy, Egg
Signature Dishes in Sydney, FAQ
What food is Sydney known for?
Sydney's signature dishes include Sydney Rock Oyster, Flat White, Lamington, Australian Meat Pie, Sausage Roll. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.