The 10 Restaurants That Defined Sydney Dining in 2022

Nomidokoro Indigo’s namesake colour is also known as “Japan blue”. This moody shade features in the noren (curtain) at the entrance, adds an elegant mark to the tableware and it’s in the bar’s logo, which shows sake being poured from a tokkuri.

The signature indigo, like the iburigakko (smoked pickles) or ever-ranging home-style obanzai snacks, or the 25-odd sakes that get poured into your ochoko, are some ways this tiny neighbourhood bar memorably and convincingly transports you to Japan. Nomidokoro Indigo is the newest venue for Mitomo Somehara and Tin Jung Shea (who grew up in Kyoto and Chiba respectively) and Chris Wu (seven-time visitor to Japan), so it’s culturally clued-in, accessible and fun, like their neon-bright Darling Square izakaya Nakano Darling and other Japan-channelling joints (Yakitori Yurippi in Crows Nest and Tachinomi YP nearby). The floorplan may be tiny, but Nomidoro Indigo’s levels of hard-to-replicate charms are immense.

For over a decade, Andrew Bao and Dingjun Li showcased the fiery, sour and smoky flavours of Hunanese cuisine at Chairman Mao in Kensington. The restaurant drew a loyal crowd for its caramelly braised pork, stir-fried cauliflower with cumin and other chilli-spiked and lip-numbing dishes that evoked the owners’ birthplace in China. The likelihood of bumping into a top chef while at the restaurant was strong, especially with Neil Perry, Dan Hong and Morgan McGlone being frequent diners and highly visible fans. After closing last year, the beloved institution finally relocated to the CBD this October and yes, its signature pork has returned, too. You might have to go to sister restaurant Mrs Ding in Mascot to try the cumin-flecked cauliflower, but there are new dishes to savour at The Chairman (which has understandably dropped ‘Mao’ from its name). The stir-fried okra with accents of shiso is a recent addition and a big-flavoured highlight.

For reservations, call (02) 9697 9189. 

Named after the Turkish word for ‘grill’, Izgara evokes a smoky ocakbaşı in Istanbul. In fact, it’s directly inspired by a joint in Taksim Square: that’s where co-owner Efe Topuzlu worked early in his career, helping his uncle. The chef’s training ground didn’t have the red-curtained glamour of today’s Izgara, but it definitely provided the creative DNA for many dishes you’ll encounter here, from a levelled-up İskender served with butter-frothed pide croutons to eggplant köpoğlu, a smoky eggplant dip that the chef counts as one of the first meze he ever learned to master. It’s well-designed to be paired with bread that’s freshly dispatched from the ovens of sister venue, Malika Bakehouse.

Just a month or so after Kiln opened, it took out the New Restaurant of the Year honour at the Good Food Guide awards. With acclaimed chef Mitch Orr (literally) firing up the menu, perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. His inventive dishes have made him a name worth following ever since his Duke Bistro days. He can famously make Jatz biscuits memorable, after all (and continues that tradition here, with smoked butter and anchovies). Kiln’s location on the 18^th floor of the Ace Hotel means you have a compelling cityscape view, and the retractable roof will undoubtedly come in handy as the weather gets sunnier and breezier. Don’t miss the supercharged tomato tarts, twice-cooked snowflake mushrooms, and coconut sorbet with blistered berries.

For reservations, call (02) 8099 8799.

It’s hard to believe that Annita Potter was almost 30 when she finally encountered proper Thai food. When it happened, the ultra-bright, sour, sweet and fiery flavours completely rewired her brain. Today, thanks to the years she spent cooking for David Thompson (who is known for his encyclopedic Thai Food cookbook), she has an excellent grasp of what the cuisine can be. With Viand, she’s not content with defaulting to the popular staples – in fact, she won’t even put green curry on the menu and is instead offering salted coconut palm sugar sweetmeats wrapped in jasmine-smoked rice flakes and a curry of wild ginger ocean trout dumplings and Thai basil. By applying an ambitious tasting menu format for a cuisine that’s under-appreciated or wrongly dismissed as just takeaway food, she’s impressed diners and scored Chef of The Year recognition at the Good Food Guide awards. “It is Thai food that people haven’t really seen in Sydney before,” she’s explained.

Neville Dsouza (Yellow, Cirrus) named his pop-up restaurant after his Indian aunty, who was enduring her fourth bout of cancer as he began culinary school in Mumbai. In further tribute to her, he presents her goat curry to diners at Irene’s Enmore – it’s a dish he enjoyed during the regular Sunday family feasts she staged when he was a kid. Its spiced coconut flavour has a time-tripping magic, as does the ‘fruit salad’ – its unassuming name masks the fact it’s actually a falooda, densely layered with nigella seeds steeped in rose water, candied fennel seeds, cut banana and apples, berry jelly and nutmeg custard. Don’t miss his zucchini flower remix of vada pav, the popular street food that’s also known as the Mumbai burger.

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Aalia’s overachieving streak continues. The ambitious restaurant opened in early 2022 and instantly made an impression thanks to chef Paul Farag’s dedication to finding centuries-old Middle Eastern books – some even stretching back 1000 years – and translating his discoveries into menu ideas. As the year ends, the venue has been recognised by the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards (Aalia certainly catches your eyes with its sweeping timber curves that resemble giant mushroom gills), it hit number seven on the Delicious 100, was shortlisted as New Restaurant of the Year in the Good Food Guide Awards and then pocketed the Restaurant of the Year honour handed out by Time Out. His smoky buffalo yoghurt and sticky-sweet beetroot molasses that you ‘attack’ with sorrel leaves is one of the year’s dining highlights.

For reservations, call (02) 9182 5880.

The crew behind Don Peppino’s (and other short-but-fun Italian pop-ups) finally settled down and committed to a permanent site with Fontana in mid-2022. When you drop by, you might spot Daniel Johnston reigning in the kitchen and Ivey Wawn ruling the floor. Joining the beloved ceci e tria pasta (which has travelled with the team since their early spell at Wilmer) are the mozzarella in carrozza, with stretchy cheese, the balsamic rolls with their distinct purple patch, Johnston’s rustic and creamy house ricotta, and the fried Sardinian sebadas with their distinct fennel, honey and cheese flavours. Another upside of Fontana’s full-time restaurant status? It recently achieved one hat in the Good Food Guide.

When executive chef José Saulog examined Spain’s Catalan region for menu ideas at Parlar, he didn’t go for rigid textbook recipe recreations. Instead he’s preferred to reinterpret the classics with a grand sense of imagination. Take the pan con tomate, which is a historically rustic dish that allows you to upcycle stale bread by rubbing tomato and garlic against the dry loaf. At Parlar, the tomato slices are applied with the precision of a craftsperson securing glass mosaics into place for a museum display. It’s the kind of approach that led to the Crema Catalana dessert being stylishly engineered to mimic the look of the restaurant’s marble tables. And it’s also why Parlar got name-checked as a New Restaurant of the Year nominee in the Good Food Guide awards recently.

Mamu Penang Coffee Stall has a name that really undersells what it’s doing. It’s more like a sprawling food market with a range of stallholders who help convince you you’re in Malaysia – wander around and you might end up with serves of nasi kandar, various kinds of roti, some satay and there’s always free tea on offer. The complex is named after Mohamed Saleem, a roti master from Penang Island affectionately referred to as Mamu – he’s been credited for making this community-style market possible. Recently, Mamu Penang Coffee Stall was nominated for the Best Eats category in this year’s SMAC awards for FBi radio.