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Sydney Restaurants
 Thankfully
the days of meat pie and chips as the staple Australian meal have
gone. The immigrants from Europe and Asia have brought with them their
own culture and cuisine, and the big cities have been the main
winners. Sydney is an excellent place to enjoy Italian and Greek
cuisine, and a superb place to try other dishes that you may not have
had before - Lebanese, Thai and Vietnamese for example. Some of the
most popular suburbs for eating out in Sydney include
the CBD,
Chinatown,
Surry Hills,
Newtown,
Darlinghurst and
Manly.
There
is a vast array of places to eat in the city - far too many to list here.
Sydney has embraced the café culture with open arms, and you would be hard
pressed to miss places offering Foccacia, Ciabatta and pitta sandwiches.
If you prefer a more traditional sandwich then there are great deli places
all over the city where you can pick your bread, stick or bun and choose
from a bewildering display of cooked meats and salad. Combine this with a
coffee, which may be a "flat white", "café au lait", a "latte", a "long
black", "short black", "mochaccino", "cappuccino", and you have got a lot
of café etiquette to catch up on.
Fear
not though, café owners and restaurateurs are well used to visitors
scratching their heads in disbelief at their menu boards, and are happy to
translate. They are also almost guaranteed to offer you beetroot with
everything. Take a stroll around the city, you will find somewhere that
suits you, whether you want to meet people, or sit quietly supping a Mocca
and leafing through the Sydney Morning Herald.
Restaurant-wise, Sydney has a lot to offer. With Asia relatively close at
hand, places like "The Saigon Metro" (South Vietnamese) 760 George Street,
Chinatown, CBD, (02) 9212 3822, are great for extending the breadth of
your palate. Your hosts will be happy to guide you through their selection
of noodle soups and traditional Vietnamese dishes at this simple but
friendly restaurant.
 Level
Three inside the Blacket Hotel on the corner of King and George
Streets in the CBD, is an exciting new concept in food and entertainment
with a delicious and extensive menu offering luscious Australian cusine.
Level three is perect for an intimate dinner or just afternoon cocktails.
The chef is Andrew Carrol and prices range from $12 to $20 for an entrée,
and $18 to $28 for a main course and from $10 to $20 for dessert.
Please make use of the voucher for Level Three above, which offers 20% off
your meal. Just click the voucher for more information.
 Also
in the Central business district and located on Level 1 of The Menzies
Sydney hotel is the Parkside Restaurant. Opened in early
2006, Parkside presents the best in modern Australian cuisine from their
Executive Chef, Andrew Duggan. The showmanship of the menu is equally
matched with Parkside's leather chesterfields, rich dark woods, high
ceilings, antique furniture, dramatic chandeliers and soaring windows
overlooking Wynyard Park offering patrons of modern Australian cuisine
something to truly remember. Click the 20% off voucher above for more
info.
 Baia
San Marco Cafe is located in the heart of Cockle Bay Wharf, right by
Darling Harbour. The view from the restaurant is spectacular - beautiful
waterfront views accompanied by a relaxing ambience. Specializing in
Italian cuisine, Baia offers an extensive menu catering for everyones
needs with freshly made pasta available on a daily basis. Voucher number 3
brings you a 15% discunt on the cost of your meal at Baia, courtest of
G'day Sydney and the nice folks at Menulog. Just click it for more
information.
If you
fancy Lebanese, then
Surry Hills' Almustafa Lebanese Restaurant, 276 Cleveland Street (cnr
Elizabeth Street), Surry Hills, (02) 9319 5632 is a good bet with a wide
selection at good prices. Also the Habibi restaurant on Oxford Street is a
great place with belly dancing and floor cushions to boot. Thai food is a
big thing in Sydney, and usually at an extremely good price. Newtown is
awash with Thai places on King Street, and "Thai Potong", Shop 4, 294-298
King Street, Newtown (02) 9550 6277 is the pick of the bunch. Established
for more than 10 years, this restaurant has rightly earned many plaudits
and won a number of awards. Best of all, the prices remain at a down to
earth price.
Melbourne is the Greek capital of the Southern Hemisphere, but Sydney's
"Hellenic Club", 251-253 Elizabeth Street, CBD, (02) 9264 5128, weighs in
rather well with it's roots going back to the 1920s.
There
is great food at a good price, coupled with the experience of sweeping
views across Hyde Park and authentic bouzouki music. For a taste of
Africa, why not take the trip to Manly and check out the Moroccan fayre at
"Out of Africa", 43-45 East Esplanade, Manly, (02) 9977-0055. Great
vegetarian, Hare Krishna food is available at "Govindas", 112,
Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, (02) 9380 5155, and here there is the
added bonus of what is probably Australia's most laid-back cinema upstairs
where you can lounge about on cushions, sofas and beds after a good feed
downstairs. Great fun!
In
short, Sydney is a fusion of cultures and cuisine, and you would certainly
do yourself a disservice if you only sample the fayre in the hotel
restaurant - get out and discover what the city has to offer your palate!
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