The December Hit List: Calita, Lilymu, Little Turtle, VN Street Foods, and More

This new marisqueria (seafood restaurant) is from the team behind Taqiza and Carbon – and it also has Mexican roots. Owners Liber Osorio and Pablo Galindo Vargas have also turned to Sydney’s third-culture way of melding cuisines, so prawns in the Governor’s taco get an XO sauce remix. Test out the Vuele a la Vida’s standing as a “Mexican hangover cure” or maximise the weekend takeaway options and bring your fish and chip taco to the beach.

Dining status: open for dine-in and takeaway.

Brendan Fong used to be head chef at Mr Wong – the fine-diner that commanded three-hour waits on busy nights. You’d want his wok-mastering skills if opening an Asian restaurant in Parramatta’s new dining district. Lilymu has gone one better: it’s also enlisted his fellow Mr Wong chef, Bass Songphum. Together, they’ve blended culinary borders on the menu: there are tom yum prawn dumplings, duck katsu sandos and Thai milk tres leches cakes.

Dining status: open for dine-in, bookings recommended.

Danielle Alvarez grew up with a Cuban family who’d commit entire days to roasting a suckling pig. They’d hatch plans over how to serve the leftovers before they’d finished cooking. She’d later work at Chez Panisse and its farm-to-table approach inspires her produce-highlighting menu at Fred’s (think buffalo mozzarella from Elena Swegen’s Burraduc Buffalo farm, served with San Daniele prosciutto). You can also enjoy her recipes in your kitchen, thanks to her home-dining kits or Always Add Lemon cookbook.

Dining status: open for takeaway, delivery and dine-in.

Had the pandemic not happened, Eddie Stewart (Black Star Pastry) and Min Chai (N2 Extreme Gelato) would’ve ended up feeding Aussie athletes at Tokyo’s Olympic Games. Of course, COVID-19 upended everyone’s 2020 plans. The upside is the duo opened Tokyo Lamington in Sydney’s Market City. The menu is inspired by countless takes on the classic chocolate-and-coconut cake: fairybread, yuzu meringue, halo halo flavours and more. Look out for the Christmas specials: a lamington filled with peppermint chocolate cream, a rum and raisin edition and a pavlova version with passionfruit curd, raspberry jelly and torched meringue.

Dining status: open for takeaway, delivery and dine-in.

When it launched back in 2010, Claire Van Vuuren’s Bloodwood ushered in a new wave of dining that revitalised Sydney’s food scene: accessible and fun-driven venues headed by young chefs who’d graduated from the fine-dining scene (in her case, Claude’s), but chose not to commit to the high-end, French cuisine that had dominated awards and reviews for so long. A decade on, you can still get the polenta chips and gorgonzola sauce, but Bloodwood feels as fresh as ever. Dine in for the fried chicken with wombok and maple Szechuan flourishes, book in for a Christmas banquet, or create your at-home party from the takeaway menu, which includes Bloodwood’s negroni by the litre.

Dining status: open for dine-in, walk-ins and takeaway.

Little Turtle isn’t remarkable just because Vinita Chumsri opened it as a twentysomething uni student. Creating its Thai vegan menu also helped her recover from her high school eating disorder. Little Turtle offers plant-based versions of her parents’ favourite dishes (Thai crepe dumplings, sticky sesame wings), plus food she encountered while travelling from Chiang Mai to Ubon. The Instagram-friendly presentation means the menu is full of visually striking dishes, like the coconut pandan custard bread with petals.

Dining status: open for walk-ins, dine-in, delivery and takeaway. More info here.

Busta may have retired its take-home lasagna service for now, but you can still get home-style pasta from its dine-in menu – often with an inspired twist. Think ravioli with prawn, bisque butter and shiso or paccheri with octopus and ‘nduja crumb. For a lazy weekend lunch option, check out the Saturday sandwich menu, where you can chase a meatball and smoked scamorza sando with a spritz or Peroni.

Dining status: open for walk-ins, dine-in and takeaway.

“Swirl, mix, slurp!” is the very instructive motto at Michelle Widjaja’s ramen joint. She trades in mazesoba – the brothless kind – where you mix the toppings and sauces through your noodles to give them full-flavoured impact. Options range from dandan to chicken kaarage flavours, and are worth a thorough chopstick toss. Over summer, check out the brilliant avocado tsukemen, a vegan chilled ramen that you dip into a broth (or in this case: an avocado-thick sauce with a subtle wasabi hit).

Dining status: open for walk-ins, dine-in, delivery and takeaway.

Yes, you could order Hanoi-style pork hock vermicelli noodles (bún giả cầy), bún riêu with its tomato-red broth, or grilled lemongrass beef rice paper rolls. But the fun of eating at VN Street Foods is hunching over a bento outdoors after customising your way through the menu’s many box-filling options. Tomato rice or fried rice? Stir-fried satay chicken or stuffed tofu with mushrooms? Eggplant pickles or lotus stem salad? If you find the impromptu survey-filling a little too stressful, you can pre-order your picks via the website (and request some bánh uot while you’re at it). Learn more here.

It’s back! Only two months ago, we were mourning the OG location for Bill’s – the ground zero for avocado on toast and ricotta hotcakes in Sydney. Obituaries were written for Bill Granger’s first cafe in Darlinghurst, which set the template for Sydney brunch nearly three decades ago, thanks to its communal table and staples of sweetcorn fritters, hotcakes, and now-ubiquitous smashed avo on toast. So opt in for the full Aussie breakfast and pretend like it’s the 1990s all over again.

Dining status: Open for dine in and takeaway. More here.