The great Australian tradition of bring-your-own wine can make any restaurant feel like one of the relaxed, unpretentious family meals in ’90s classic The Castle – homely, easygoing and focused on food and company.

But if you’re at a loss about which wines to bring, a last-minute choice may miss the mark and fail to bolster that long lunch or quick dinner. Hopefully, the following wine suggestions across a range of cuisines can help make your BYO decision a little easier. Leftover fridge cab-sav won’t cut it with a prawn har gow.

Mami’s Bondi

Corkage: $4 a person

Mami’s is a blue-fronted eatery with inviting energy, generous portions, quality ingredients and a Spanish-speaking crew with bountiful smiles. Mexican cuisine is bursting with freshness, so pair the tanginess of lime-spritzed meats with the dry and penetrating acid of an albarino. Meanwhile, gamay can cut through the spice of a beef burrito and nachos, steadying the richness with lighter fruits. This is a relaxed spot to eat, drink and feel at home.

286 Bondi Road, Bondi

Manpuku Chatswood

Corkage: $4.50 a person

Manpuku serves soulful ramen and dumplings in Chatswood, Kingsford and Neutral Bay. Ramen can be seasonal and subjective, and go-to booze friends are crisp beer and ice-cold sake. To counterpoint the flavours, you could also try a zesty sancerre from the Loire Valley, its crisp acidity and length pair well with Manpuku’s signature “Long Name” pork and chicken broths. A skin-contact Friulian ribolla gialla (from north-east Italy’s Colli Orientali region) also works well, with savoury fruit and floral notes complementing a richer ramen.

226 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood

New Star Takeaway

Corkage: Free

Jelly-bean wallpaper, crispy chicken and rice, tissue boxes and dipping bowls of nuoc cham. The atmosphere is casual and intimate at this Balmain Village Arcade stalwart, where the Vietnamese-leaning menu also lists dishes from Thailand, Malaysia and China. Soave classico from Italy, with its stone fruit and citrus brightness, pairs well with crunchy sang choy bao, and cuts through a dense duck soup with shiitake mushrooms. A fragrant and textured chenin blanc complements fresh or fried spring rolls or a soy-drenched stir-fry.

269-271 Darling Street, Balmain

The Sultan’s Table

Corkage: Free

An unassuming Enmore institution open late on weekends, Sultan’s Table is a procession of Turkish deliciousness. The outdoor area is an interplay of mixed grills, dips, bread and chatter and an oasis for medium-bodied reds such as Italian sangiovese or Greek-Macedonian xinomavro. For the blistered eggplants and rotating doners, try Saumur-Champigny cabernet franc from the Loire. Also keep an eye out for wines with tart red fruit, pepper, spice and smoke – a grenache from Carinena, say, in Spain’s Zaragoza province.

179 Enmore Road, Enmore

Bar Reggio

Corkage: $2.50 a person

The grape and the grain go hand-in-hand at Darlinghurst’s Bar Reggio, an old-school, red-sauce sanctuary. Antipasti demands a snappy, dry, white Campanian falanghina “for a heavenly moment which is all class”, says sommelier and industry veteran Mon Ditbunjong. Later, crumbed cotoletta and anchovy-dappled pizza are both bolstered by Chianti or a hedonistic, red fruit-toned and tannic nebbiolo. (Find the great Barolo and Barbaresco producers, and drink their Langhe nebbiolo.)

135 Crown Street, Darlinghurst

Bondi Road Seafoods

Corkage: Free

This long-standing seafood shop is popular for its fish, chips and salads (for health). Oysters, calamari and prawns go a long way with an off-dry riesling. “It’s a palate reset,” says Jacqueline Turner, sommelier at The International in Martin Place. Refreshing mineral qualities, sherbet sugar tones and racing acid keep things crisp and zesty between bites of grilled octopus and battered John Dory.

279 Bondi Road, Bondi

Yok Yor Thai Food Factory

Corkage: $3.50 a person

Thai plays with sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavours, and at Yok Yor that means tom yum and boat noodle soups, and khua kling pork ribs with kicking heat. Sauvignon blanc is one of the most common choices, but it might not always compete with the sweeter elements of Thai food. Gruner veltliner, however, has white florals and a leanness that levels the hot, tart and tangy. To escape the heat of a velvety soft-shell crab curry, a wine needs refreshing tones, and a vivacious champagne (either a blanc de blancs or blanc de noir) can deliver the goods.

6/323 Castlereagh Street. Haymarket

The New Dong Dong Noodles

Corkage: $2.50 a person

Wines with body, acidity and ripeness will complement a Chinese BYO or yum cha experience. Textural chardonnay, especially, hits the umami of steamed crystal prawn dumplings. Winemaker George McCullough, from Gum Wine in Central Victoria, recommends white varietals from the Rhone Valley – viognier or roussanne – to calm the intensity of rice noodles with Sichuan spices or rich ginger-and-shallot lobster noodles.

428 Anzac Parade, Kingsford