After a subdued past few months by Sydney standards, a bumper crop of restaurant openings is about to drop in the second half of 2025. There are new breeds of Italian and Chinese on the way, a posse of waterfront venues, and Rick Stein on fish and chip duties.

July

The city that never sleeps when it comes to restaurant openings has kicked off the financial year with a strong whiff of garlic and tomato. Rovollo, an Italian restaurant from the team behind Surry Hills’ stalwart Mille Vini, leans heavily on pasta and the grill.

The CBD arrival, which launched this week, opened at the heart of the Martin Place precinct populated by chefs’ hatted restaurants Aalia and The International. The pasta is house-made, the kitchen team have Seta and Fish Butchery on their collective CVs, and a wheel of parmigiano reggiano tours the room on a walnut and brass trolley.

Next week, it’s the turn of Vineria Luisa, in Enmore, to fire up its oven. When Good Food revealed in March that Bar Louise, on Enmore Road, had sold to Anna and Alessandro Pavoni (Ormeggio at The Spit, Postino Osteria in Summer Hill) there was plenty of interest in what they’d do at the iconic inner west shopfront.

The 1949 enamel facade of earlier inhabitant, Marie-Louise Salon, remains, while inside a there’s been a light makeover, with some feminine touches. With lippy applied, Alessandro Pavoni has built a menu of “snacking and sharing” dishes designed with the booze in mind. Vineria Luisa is equal parts vineria and gintoneria, with a gin an obvious big showing in the cocktail line-up.

Also making a late run for a July launch, the new CBD branch of Milson Point’s Loulou Bistro. Beset with delays, Loulou is on track to open near the entrance to the Martin Place metro in the last week of July.

August

August is shaping up as the month of the restaurant retread. We aren’t talking a no-name tread, new rubber of the Italian variety is going on at Neil Perry’s Gran Torino (both a car and a Clint Eastwood film), which flicks the ignition switch on August 9. Stepping into the multilevel Double Bay space where Perry opened Cantonese restaurant Song Bird, Perry promises pumpkin tortellini, Roman-style tripe and a dessert nod to torta di Verona, with chefs Richard Purdue (ex-Rosetta) and Ervin Mumajesi behind the wheel.

It’s a similar story in Darlinghurst, where the new owners of local favourite, Bar Vincent, have shut the restaurant for a makeover, reopening in August with a new name: Vin-Cenzo.

It’s more of a custom job than a full rebuild; owners Morgan McGlone and Sali and Nathan Sasi will keep the focus on local seasonal produce and “honest European food”.

Song Bird might be making way in Double Bay, but there’s no shortage of contenders lining up in the Chinese restaurant category. Mid-August, “Big” Sam Young confirmed as the planned launch date of Young Palace, the Potts Point restaurant he’s opening with partner, Grace Chen. The duo own S’More, in Castlecrag.

Sliding into the former Kellett Street home of Raja and, more lately Teddy, Young Palace will traverse suburban favourites such as lemon chicken and honey prawns as well as indulgent offerings such as claypot abalone. “This is Chinese food done with intention, with care and with ingredients that speak to quality, not cost-cutting,” Young promised.

While opening dates can be a bit of a moveable feast, a late winter opening date is the plan at Grandfather’s, the incoming Chinese restaurant from the hottest trio in Sydney restaurants. Andy Tyson, Dan Pepperell and Mikey Clift successfully launched Pellegrino 2000, Clam Bar and Neptune’s Grotto. Now they’ll try their hand at the lazy susan, with a homage to Chinese cuisine sweeping Cantonese and Sichuanese cooking at the former site of Long Chim, on the corner of Pitt Street and Angel Place.

September

Restaurateur Chris Lucas is going all out on the fit-out at Grill Americano Sydney, the incoming Sydney CBD branch of the upmarket Melbourne restaurant. Grill Americano Sydney will swing open its grand entrance doors in September.

It’s located across the entire ground floor at No.1 Chifley Square, a mid-century gem wedged between the newly refitted Sofitel Sydney Wentworth and Rockpool Bar & Grill,and customers will be able to order wagyu eye fillet or bistecca alla pizzaiola (with pizza sauce), and signature dishes such as spanner crab linguine aglio e olio.

Lucas took inspiration from New York brasserie grills as well the food presentation and waiters in white jackets at Harry’s Bar in Venice. With an oyster and crustacea bar, 7000-8000 bottle wine program and a luxe design, it is frontrunner as Sydney’s most glamorous restaurant launch for late 2025.

Meanwhile, restaurateur Andrew Becher has confirmed a September 4 launch date at Le Frerot, which he is opening at the Potts Point site on Macleay Street where the chefs’ hatted Parlar previously traded. It’ll be boulangerie by day, bistro by night.

October

October is shaping up as a bumper month at Martin Place, kicking off with the launch of Epula restaurant. The latest venue from Frank Dilernia, who operates sherry bar Tapavino and CBD restaurant Balcon, Epula will open in the historic GPO building on the corner of Pitt Street and Martin Place.

“It will feel like a European restaurant with an Australian soul,” Dilernia says. Spain will reign over the appetiser line-up, with dishes such as spanner crab bunuelos [doughnuts], while Italian and French will have more of a say with entrees and mains.

Epula isn’t the only new arrival this October at Martin Place either, with two-hatted Aalia adding a neighbouring wine bar the same month.

November

There’s a fishy theme for November, with UK celebrity chef Rick Stein opening a 220-seat restaurant and bar overlooking Coogee Beach.

Rick Stein at Coogee Beach will champion Australian-caught seafood at the coming InterContinental Hotel – including Stein’s signature Cornish-style fish and chips (hand-cut potatoes, fried fish with a splash of malt vinegar) at lunch; then refined evening grub to include pies filled with scallops, snapper and blue-eye trevalla.

Down at Sydney Fish Market, operators have been told if everything goes to plan in the run home, they could be up and trading in the new building by November, too. Incoming venue highlights include Lua Restaurant & Bar, a South-East Asian concept with celebrity chef Luke Nguyen attached, and a spin-off from Ho Jiak by its owner-chef Junda Khoo.

“It’ll be called Tam Jiak; it means gluttony,” says Khoo. “There will be lots of plays on surf and turf; it might be grilled fish with chicken skin, or lamb with fish curry.”

On the harbour’s northern edge, Aqua Dining is on schedule to reopen after missing more than a few summers during the North Sydney Olympic Pool redevelopment. Owner Bill Drakopoulos is hopeful of a November launch. Expect more of a redefinition of the restaurant than a revamp, and a soon-to-be-announced chef in charge of its contemporary Australian menu. “Nostalgic in spirit, crisp in execution, free from tweezers but rooted in refined and playful creativity,” is the official word on the menu.

December

The Darlinghurst end of Oxford Street has seen a few false dining dawns, but the Oxford & Foley development on the northern side of the strip has the right ingredients to give it a nudge.

Bourke Street Bakery co-founder, Paul Allam, fresh from several years living in the US, is opening Paulies, a pizza-by-the-slice homage to New York. “I’m not going to put up pictures of Luigi on the walls,” he says. But Allam, who also recently opened Hi Hi Burger in Bondi Junction, is already working on the perfect pizza base. He’s hoping to open in December, as is Ibby Moubadder, the restaurateur behind a stable of venues, including Aalia, hatted Nour in Surry Hills and CBD bar Joji.

“We don’t have a name yet,” says Moubadder, adding it will be a Sydney version of Nobu and Zuma. The area has a couple of extra things going for it. Big Poppa’s is set to return to the strip post-development, and Soho House will open behind the Oxford & Foley development.