The October Hit List: Ezra, Flour Shop, Where’s Nick, Aria, and More

This new Middle Eastern restaurant is a love letter to Tel Aviv and its surrounds from owners Kirk and Nick Mathews Bowden (Bistro Rex) and chef Ben Sears (Paper Bird). It’s a culinary leap from Sears’ previous gig cooking Korean-ish food with partner Eun Hee An at Moon Park and Paper Bird, but the menu includes a miso-marinated flounder that channels his former restaurant, and a hummus and smoked egg dish that’s a tribute to New York’s Momofuku Ko, where the chef briefly worked. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 5 p.m. for dinner; from midday for weekend lunches.

Dining status: Opens for walk-ins – but bookings recommended.

This bakery opened in February and has quickly become one of Sydney’s best places to load up on cinnamon scrolls, bagels and croissants (the almond ones hide a sweet hit of zero-waste jam made from excess fruit). The pastry flavours reflect the owners’ cultural backgrounds: a Jerusalem bagel topped with chimichurri and egg can be credited to Laura Gonzalez’s Argentinean-Spanish upbringing, while the chaat masala in the broccoli and mustard pie taps into Anu Haran’s Indian heritage. Details here.

Dining status: Open for takeaway.

During Bridget Raffal’s three years at Sixpenny, the acclaimed sommelier worked hard to achieve gender parity on her wine list – spotlighting female winemakers like Claire Naudin, Kim and Tennille Chalmers, and Virginie Joly. She continues to champion equality via bottles and pours at this Inner West bottle shop and wine bar. By-the-glass options include Bomba shiraz by ELM’s Madeleine Marson, sparkling wine by Eminence Assembly’s Clare Burder, and Ephemera vermentino that Janelle De Gabriele produces with partner Rhen Dodd. Drop by the wine bar from Wednesday to Sunday.

Dining status: Open for walk-ins, dine-in, pick-up and delivery.

Yuwat Khuwimon reluctantly began his hospitality career at age 11 at his mother’s Chiang Mai stall, which specialised in northern Thai staples like khao soi. He later led a successful covers band, but after a decade of fronting stages, he decided to call on those cooking skills once more. Today, he serves that childhood khao soi in Haymarket, along with pork larb, khanom jeen, boat noodles and other dishes from his homeland. Open daily.

Dining status: Open for pick-up, delivery, takeaway and dine-in.

What began as an 18-seat cafe in Bronte 10 years ago has since expanded into a multi-venue empire, with interstate outposts and a blockbuster compound on a 32-hectare Byron Bay farm. But the OG site is where Darren Robertson and Mark La Brooy first gained attention for their producer-focused and sustainability-minded approach. Their Juggler system has saved more than 200,000 plastic milk bottles from landfill and they’ve recently put Single O’s $20 cup of limited-edition Rumudamo coffee on the menu, which promotes fairer prices for farmers. Breakfast and lunch daily, dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.

Dining status: Open for dining, takeaway and bookings.

Walid El Sabbagh arrived in Australia as a marine engineer, but a lack of local experience prevented him from gaining work in this field. So he started cooking street food from his Egyptian birthplace, using his grandmother’s recipes. At Addison Road Community Centre, he offers brilliant koshari, which you should upsize with fried eggplant and falafel. The entire menu is vegan, down to the inspired vegan cashew baklava and shakshuka topped with tofu. Details here.

Dining status: Open for dine-in, pick-up and delivery.

Matt Moran’s harbourside restaurant gets a Maybe Sammy remix for Good Food Month. Each Wednesday in October, the award-winning bar teams up with Aria’s Alex Kirkwood to collaborate on drinks (like Aria di Sammy, a pineapple-skin Madeira cocktail presented with a scented bubble). Aria’s executive chef Joel Bickford is on snack-making duty, offering macadamia and acacia eclairs and potato and caviar with raw scallops. 

Dining status: Bookings recommended.

Junda Khoo left a career in banking to open restaurants inspired by the Malaysian food of his childhood. Each successive Ho Jiak branch has been bigger than the last – the Town Hall outpost is the biggest one yet. The 250-seater launched as the pandemic hit in March and reopened mid-year. With office workers staying away from the city, scoring a table might be easier than you think. Can’t drop by for har mee bombs, cheese and spinach roti and Indomie goreng sundae? Ho Jiak offers home-delivered frozen meals and takeaway options aplenty. Open daily.

Dining status: Open for dine-in, pick-up and home delivery.

Sustainable seafood reigns here, with local produce as the star. Think Spring Bay mussels with toasted bread and Queensland king prawns flavoured with chilli, lime leaf and coconut vinegar. The dessert menu can be measured in food footsteps rather than miles – Portuguese tarts from nearby Sweet Belem can be the chaser to your fish popcorn or Huon salmon poke bowl. Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. 

Dining status: Open for dine-in, pick-up, takeaway and delivery.

When the original Darlinghurst branch of Bills closed during the pandemic, it was followed by headlines – its staple avocado on toast and ricotta hotcakes have fed Sydneysiders for nearly three decades, after all. Locals mourning the Darlinghurst closure needn’t leave the 2010 postcode to get their Bills fix, though: the Surry Hills branch is still open and serving the ’90s-channelling corn fritters and famed hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter. 

Dining status: Open daily for dine-in and takeaway.