When The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025 is published on November 12, it will contain 121 restaurants marked as a critics’ pick. If we had more space, the print publication would have to triple the number of these excellent places, from fish and chip shops in Lennox Head to cafes in Bondi and pubs in the Snowy Mountains.

Unlike the Good Food Guide “chef’s hats” introduced in 1984, the critics’ pick is only in its second year. Marked by a tick symbol, it indicates a venue that we wholeheartedly recommend, regardless of score. They may not hit every metric in our traditional scoring system, but we can absolutely vouch for their delicious food and that each one is vital in its own way.

The 20 venues below, a selection of this year’s critics’ picks, are some of the most vital restaurants around, be they all-day spots in the regions listing taramasalata and wild-weed pie, ramen counters in the nation’s capital, chicken-rice specialists in Cabramatta, pizza joints by beaches or even a drop-in drop-out Neil Perry establishment.

In every case, these places add more texture and excitement to our dining scene.

Alfie’s

A melee of CBD types packs Alfie’s for its promise to have its single main course on the table within 15 minutes. The dish is precision-cut, crusted Riverine sirloin, cooked medium-rare, plated with a knoll of garlicky spinach, mustard and horseradish sauce. It’s complemented by a lively dining room and charcoal terrazzo bar, plus a carte of affordable sides, including essential hot chips with curry sauce. Piercingly cold martinis are a bonus.

2/4-6 Bligh Street, Sydney, liquidandlarder.com.au/venues/alfies

Battambang

Run by brother and sister Soc Kieng Hua and Khieng Hua Houch, the twin Battambang restaurants are named after the Cambodian city in which the family has roots. Phnom Penh noodles are a must, served dry or with soup and customised to taste, while other favourites include crisp pork casings, and lemongrass-fragrant sweet-and-sour beef soup humming with turmeric. They are the most celebrated Khmer eating houses in Sydney for good reason.

16/70 John Street, Cabramatta; 96-98 Broomfield Street, Cabramatta

Bobbys Cronulla

Summer lovin’ doesn’t get much better than this. Perched on the edge of South Cronulla Beach, Bobbys screams “lunchtime, chilled beer and anchovies on toast”. Or a glass of rosé and a barra burger. Or a spritz and grapefruit-laced kingfish ceviche. However you play it, angle for a spot with a view of the boardwalk and watch the world go by.

6R The Esplanade, Cronulla, bobbyscronulla.com.au

Cafe Tanja

If it weren’t for the other diners at Cafe Tanja, you might feel as if you’re in a north African home. Knick-knacks extend from embroidered cushions to a framed Zinedine Zidane football jersey (the Algerian connection) and, like any good hosts, Sanah Djebli and Nadim El-Zein are characters in the small dining room. This is one of the city’s few places to get North African food: briny chicken tajines with more olives than a Turkish picnic; Algerian-style fried eggs spiced with cumin; and brittle brik pastry concealing potato, egg and cheese.

638 Crown Street, Surry Hills, instagram.com/cafetanjasurryhills

Com Ga Ba Nga Hoi An

The name Com Ga Ba Nga Hoi An gives a strong clue as to what’s on every table here: Hoi An-style com ga, the combination of gently poached and shredded chicken with sunshine-yellow turmeric rice. Order the special, and it’s a whole-bird affair, complete with a saucy braise of liver, giblets and yolk, plus papaya salad to cut the richness. Also try springy rice noodle soup, cao lau, and crisp snail rolls.

2/82-84 John Street, Cabramatta

Gumshara

Mori Higashida moved Gumshara down the road in 2023, and the queue at his ramen bar only seems to have grown larger. Join the line and experience the unadulterated pleasure of his “number three” tonkotsu ramen, featuring incredibly giving slices of pork and an optional seasoned egg that’s essential, really, for all its jammy deliciousness. The dried fish-enhanced tonkotsu manages to pack in even more umami, and don’t forget extras from the self-serve table.

9 Kimber Lane, Haymarket, gumshara.com

Gursha Ethiopian

Husband and wife Yibeltal Tsegaw and Rahel Woldearegay opened Gursha in 2017. Now, East African families regularly gather here for platters of injera covered in assorted wots, which appear like splodges on a painter’s palette. Berbere, Ethiopia’s signature spice blend, stars in a thick, fiery red-lentil stew, plus the yedoro wot featuring boiled eggs and long-simmered chicken legs. Meanwhile, kitfo – finely chopped raw beef marinated in cardamom-infused butter – throbs with mitmita, an Ethiopian spice blend.

3/115 Main Street, Blacktown, gurshaethiopian.au

Joe’s Table

For Joe Kitsana, hospitality is personal. He takes your booking, does the shopping and cooking himself, brings your dishes to the table. He even welcomes BYO as an alternative to his good-value wine list. The food isn’t fancy and triggers nostalgia: crunchy spring rolls of chicken and black fungus, red curry of barbecue duck with apple eggplant, caramelised beef rib with pickled mustard greens and chilli. Then there’s the Greek walnut cake, a recipe from long-term friend, chef Janni Kyritsis. As we said, it’s personal.

1/185A Bourke Street, Darlinghurst, joestable.com.au

Joy Fried Chicken

Kay Hwang’s resume lists some of Sydney’s most defining fine diners. Now he’s bringing that commitment to excellence to his own more casual venture, with finely calibrated Korean fried chicken. Each piece is brined for days before being triple-fried, resulting in supercharged flavour and crunch. Fried chicken sandwich boxes come with chips and cooling pickled daikon – but you can also throw in some “fire” sauce for an eye-watering smack of heat.

67 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, instagram.com/joy.koreanfriedchicken

Mami’s

Strangers share tables, bottles of wine are brought in from the pub across the road and there’s an old CD player pumping Latin American music. You’ve stepped into the culinary home of Mexican owners Erendira and Juan Perez, and they’re making sure you don’t leave hungry. Adobo-marinated chicken is bundled into a cheesy toasted flour burrito with black beans, thick guacamole and pico de gallo, while soft corn tacos are vividly flavoured and overflow with shredded beef ready for dipping in hot birria consomme.

284 Bondi Road, Bondi, instagram.com/mamis.food.bondi

Medan Ciak

Specialising in the Malay-influenced cuisine of Medan, this CBD drawcard has been through several iterations since launching in 2016, undergoing two moves – first to Liverpool Street, then Sussex Street – then more recently opening a second outpost in Mascot. These days, the fit-out is swisher and with so much clamour for banana-leaf-wrapped nasi bungkus on social media, the nasi kapau has become a headline act. Order a parcel and fragrant rice, jackfruit curry, long-simmered cassava leaves and sambal come standard, as does a crisp-fried boiled egg.

10/339 Sussex Street, Sydney, medanciak.com.au

Next Door

It neighbours Margaret, but this sibling sketches out its own identity, one that’s about all-day, drop-in drop-out dining, but with real depth under the surface. Trevally ceviche is classic Neil Perry, with lime and chilli bringing hum. Smoked oysters are spun into a heavenly dip. Spanner crab is turned through taglioni. Then there’s the burger, CopperTree beef cooked rare, cheese oozing. Next door? This is almost the main event.

30-36 Bay Street, Double Bay, margaretdoublebay.com

Pocket Pizza

Slowly but surely, Pocket Pizza is making the northern beaches a better place to eat pepperoni. What started as a Brooklyn-inspired bar and pizzeria in Manly is keeping a broad church of customers chuffed with margheritas in Brookvale and this snug candlelit pocket in Avalon, too. Come to share a bottle of easy-drinking red, vodka-sauce fusilli and the crumbled lamb sausage, eggplant and fresh mint-topped (ahem) Lamborghini pizza.

1 Simmonds Lane, Avalon Beach, pocketpizza.com.au

Shang Lamb Soup

Shang Lamb Soup has a lived-in quality. The menus are frayed, the drinks and chopsticks are self-serve, the specials are scrawled in chalk behind the counter. Meanwhile, the namesake soup is sweet and delicate, with translucent potato noodles coiled in milk-white lamb broth, and barbecued lamb skewers – or crisp, giving ribs, or a whole damn shank – with sweet-salty cumin on hand for sprinkling.

6/380 Forest Road, Hurstville, facebook.com/shanglambsoup

Smoky Cravings

It’s easy to see why Smoky Cravings, a one-time food truck now with four permanent sites, is so popular. The menu balances well-known Filipino classics (try the barbecued, vinegar-sharpened chicken inasal) with plenty of deep cuts (batangas goto, say, a slow-cooked offal soup served over rice). Purple halo-halo for dessert is the go, but we’re also big fans of the sweets at the counter, made locally by Sydney’s best Filipino bakers.

1/20 Victoria Road, Parramatta, instagram.com/smokycravings

REGIONAL AND ACT

Birds of Paradise Rotisserie

At this canary-yellow charcoal chook shop in Brunswick Heads, it’s all about the spinning birds – brined, bronzed and best enjoyed with chicken-salted chips and rich schmaltz gravy. You don’t want to miss the heartily buttered mashed spuds either, while salads, such as citrus-dressed charred broccoli scattered with peas and parmesan hum with freshness. Scoff it all on one of the stools provided or make a beeline to Brunswick River for a makeshift picnic.

2/19 Booyun Street, Brunswick Heads, boprotisserie.com.au

Canteen

The bouldering gym and Capital Brewery have been attracting Canberrans to Fyshwick’s Dairy Road precinct for years, but Canteen, part-izakaya, part-ramen bar, has become another major draw. The fit-out may be industrial, but less lo-fi are the snacks. A mozzarella katsu sando splits into gooey strings. The pop shrooms – battered and fanned out – have serious yield. Bowls of creamy tori-style ramen, rice and mazesoba, plus sake and small-production wines seal it.

1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick, eatcanteen.com.au

Heywood Nick O’Leary

At Nick O’Leary’s lively winery restaurant, the polished concrete floor feels more inner city than something we’re used to finding in picturesque Hall Valley. A slab of seared Jersey-milk cheese from Marrickville’s Goldstreet Dairy, dolled up with compressed apple and fennel, is straight out of the modern Sydney wine bar playbook, too. Meanwhile, duck breast and confit leg bolstered by a confident plum sauce makes a strong case for more Canberra District shiraz. “Who’s driving?”

149 Brooklands Road, Wallaroo, nickolearywines.com.au

The Salty Mangrove

Surrounded by high tides and helmed by David Moyle, old Salty is for many things – coffee and Greek-style weed pie; a post-surf salad starring snapper wrapped in vine leaves; afternoon snacks featuring taramasalata with a dose of salted mullet roe. Then there’s kofta-ish lamb and buckwheat sausage stuffed into flatbread with marinated peppers, labne and mint, plus sangiovese on the wine list. The kind of easy-going food that can easily lead to a three-hour lunch.

50 River Street, New Brighton, thesaltymangrove.com

Sunny’s Kiosk

Perched on the water, Sunny’s is all vintage charm. It’s a seasonal destination (wine bar in summer, breakfast and lunch spot year-round), but whenever you visit, there’ll be beautiful food showcasing produce from neighbouring farms and fishermen. A charred zucchini and butterbean salad is punched up with preserved lemon and pine nuts, and the huevos rancheros is big, bold and textural. Lo-fi wine, lumberjack cake and boat hire make lingering mandatory.

68 Lakewood Drive, Merimbula, sunnyskiosk.com.au

The Critics’ Pick of the Year winner will be announced on November 11 at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025 Awards, presented by Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises. The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2025 will be on sale from November 12.