This vintage wine bar/restaurant is a Sydney classic. Small but immensely atmospheric, it offers an Italian-influenced snacking-style menu that’s a perfect fit for the beautifully curated, mostly Italian, mostly natural wine list. It’s a venue that never goes out of fashion.
This below-ground, speakeasy-style bar may be tricky to find, but your effort in making the discovery will see you amply rewarded with a good time. Tucked below Fred’s restaurant, and using the same entry, Charlie Parker’s is a world away from, well, anywhere. Sip beautiful cocktails inspired by botanicals in clubby surrounds and feel part of the in-crowd.
This rollicking new Mexican bar was launched in February 2023 as a collaboration between Oxford House and The Maybe Group, which runs hot bars including Maybe Sammy. With tequila and mescal-themed cocktails and an elevated street food-influenced menu, El Primo Sanchez is a fun and sophisticated bar that occupies one of Paddington’s coolest Art Deco pubs, the Rose, Shamrock & Thistle. It’s the perfect place for a good time.
Cool turned up in Paddington when this inner-west favourite opened in 2020. P&V is many things — a boutique natural wine shop, a place for a snack and a drink in the rear courtyard and, upstairs, an event space where wine gurus including Mike Bennie run educative workshops on the beauty of natural and organic wines. Look out too for the Porcine French bistro that operates from upstairs.
With a regal position on Oxford St, the Paddo RSL is decidedly old fashioned. At 6pm, the Ode of Remembrance is read out and patrons stand to honour the fallen. Visitors can also view a touching collection of mementos from World War I and World War II, and other conflicts, in the foyer behind glass. Foodwise, a new chef has brought in a menu of bistro classics including steaks and salt-and-pepper calamari. Keep an eye on the events as the upstairs auditorium hosts some excellent concerts and cabaret.
This excellent Latin-American venue is a big local’s favourite for its high-flavour food and fun atmosphere. But perhaps best of all is the slick little bar at the entrance to the restaurant, where you can pull up a stool for an expertly crafted margarita or two, shared over a plate of corn chips and guacamole. The spicy margarita and other cocktails are also brilliant and an alfresco area out the front offers an excellent vantage point for outdoor dining.
This brick-lined bar, restaurant and bottle shop at the top of Oxford St offers great food and excellent drops. One of Sydney’s original wine bars, it has 700 wines by the bottle and 65 by the glass including rare, aged and old vintage wines. Pull up a stool for a quick tipple or settle in for rare and interesting wines to suit your tastes.