Alice Ellis

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Our up-to-date insider's guide to the best restaurants in Sydney in May 2026. They're all perfect for a special occasion.

These's a lot of choice in Sydney's Coolest Neighbourhood – our editors help you narrow it down to some of the must-have eats Wonder Skewers is a lively Chinese barbecue skewer restaurant on Burwood Road that is open till midnight every night. From chargrilled lamb to flavour-packed pork belly, skewers are marinated, then grilled until tender with that signature charred edge, before being finished with spices and served on a hotplate . The set-up is casual and communal, with a focus on picking a mix of skewers to share. This place is famous for its generous servings of Northern Chinese-style freshly pulled noodles with serious chew and flavour. The signature biang biang noodles with chilli oil, meat and veg are a must-order. Bonus: i f you're feeling extra hungry, they even offer free noodle refills! As the name suggests, this place serves food from the Xi'an region in north-western China (Shaanxi cuisine), where handmade noodles are a big feature. The biang biang noodles here are renowned, and just $15.80 for a generous bowl. The flat but thick and silky noodles come topped with stir-fried meat, diced veg, oil and chilli, which you mix in to coat the noodles with glossy flavour. More than just a place to eat, Burwood Chinatown is a neon-lit maze of hawker-style eateries and buzzing day-to-night energy that has become one of Sydney's biggest dining destinations. W ith loads of different Asian cuisines packed into the precinct, y ou can graze your way through everything from dumplings to yakitori, Korean street snacks, malatang and egg tarts. The best bit: the Night Markets, which take over the outdoor grounds from Thursday to Sunday from 5-10pm. Open until 1:30am every night of the week, this is the place for northern Chinese comfort-food hits. The menu features street food including Chinese savoury pancakes, Chinese "pies" and dumplings, as well as hearty soups. This casual spot delivers the kind of affordable, satisfying eats Burwood does best. This dumpling chain originated in Shanghai more than two decades ago. They are now in Burwood, Newtown and Five Dock, and they specialise in juicy soup dumplings. It's also worth ordering the pan fried pork and shepherd's purse dumplings. This café's grey hygge-meets-wabi-sabi interiors are so minimalistic that at first glance, the space appears unfurnished. But it was intentionally designed like this to create a zen zone where guests can fully focus on their chosen brew. Pillar takes their coffee seriously – it's one of the only cafés in the Inner West that pours cult-followed boutique roaster Skittle Lane for their house-batch brews. The food menu is also intentionally simplistic, ensuring it never outshines the specialty line-up of single-origin coffee – they serve toasties and sweets, but it's all good. The decor is stripped-back (and they don't have a website or Instagram account), but this family-run restaurant serves excellent Xi'an-style dumplings and thick, chewy noodles. Come for golden, pan-fried pork potstickers with a frilly lace, juicy pork and chive steamed dumplings, and garlicky, oil-splashed noodles. Dishes range from $10-$20. Lovin' Lamb is a bustling skewer eatery – more of a takeaway than Wonder Skewers – at the Burwood Road entry to Burwood Chinatown. They turn out some of the area's most addictive grab-and-go street food. Specialising in Xinjiang-style lamb skewers, the meat is grilled over open charcoal until smoky and tender, then dusted generously with cumin, salt and chilli if you're up for it. It's the perfect place for an afternoon, pre-dinner or post-dinner snack as you're walking by. This is a large, all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurant built around the classic communal dining experience, where you cook fresh ingredients directly in simmering broth at your table. Choose from a wide spread of thinly sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, noodles and more, alongside a variety of soup bases ranging from mild and savoury to more spicy options. It's known for its huge variety and self-serve stations, making it a go-to for group dinners and long, social meals. For more than two decades, Sahara By The Park has been serving generous Turkish feasts opposite Burwood Park (on the ground floor of Westfield), earning a loyal following for its charcoal-grilled meats, freshly baked pide and colourful spread of meze plates. Whether you're settling in for a family feast, grabbing a quick lunch after shopping, or wanting to start the day with a big brekkie, the warm hospitality and crowd-pleasing menu make it one of Burwood's enduring dining institutions. This is a highly rated Hong Kong-style hot pot restaurant, but they're also known for their d esserts. They have everything from Chinese hot desserts to Cantonese cold ones – plus a mango, papaya and even durian menu. At SixPo Hot Pot , where ingredients – everything from meat and seafood to mushrooms and corn – arrive skewered and ready to be dunked into bubbling Sichuan-style broths. The self-serve format keeps things lively and interactive. At the time of our visit, they had an epic all-you-can eat special for just $45 per person to celebrate the restaurant's 9th anniversary! Doodee King is Burwood's go-to spot for bold, punchy Thai flavours, in a fun, bright setting with yellow and red accents. For a chain restaurant (it also has locations in Castle Hill, Chatswood, D arling Quarter, Hornsby, North Sydney and Haymarket), the food is surprisingly good. We particularly love the pork belly with morning glory (pictured), the hot som tum papaya salad, and the crying tiger sliced steak. This place is that popular that it's vibing at 3 or 4pm – plenty of tables are full at that in-between-lunch-and-dinner hour. As well as the regular sashimi, sushi rolls and noodles, they offer Japanese sandos – like the wagyu beef sando on Japanese shokupan bread with katsu sauce and kombu seasoning. The sushi rolls come generously packed with salmon, and we particularly like the miso wagyu beef yakitori stick – beef brushed with housemade miso glaze and grilled over charcoal. This nostalgic Hong Kong-style restaurant has locations in Chatswood, Haymarket, Eastwood and Burwood. Get around Kowloon Cafe's hits, including its crispy butter pineapple bun and stir-fried black bean beef and rice noodles. Want a sweet treat? Kowloon Cafe's signature Hong Kong-style French toast will hit the spot. Think: two super thick slices of white bread toasted until golden brown, topped with melted butter, drizzled in sweet and creamy condensed milk, and served with honey and maple syrup in case you feel like going to town. This popular Vietnamese eatery specialises in northern-style Hanoi pho, where the emphasis is on a clear, deeply flavoured broth. The signature beef pho arrives steaming hot with silky rice noodles, tender slices of beef and an aromatic stock that has earned a loyal following among Sydney pho devotees. It's the kind of place that works equally well for a quick lunch, a comforting meal on a cold Sydney day, or a late-night feed (it's open till 10.30pm most nights). Ever tried one of these Japanese pastries? You'll find Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart stores in Shanghai, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia – as well as in different parts of Australia. One of their Sydney stores is here in Burwood. So, what do these tarts taste like? The base is a sweet , shortbread pastry, which is contrasted with a buttery yellow filling, reminiscent of a cheese spread from your childhood. The cheese flavour isn't bite-y like a cheddar you'd find in other savoury tarts or soft like ricotta, but is somewhere (oddly) in between. Nev Bagriyanik and his wife Zeyneb opened their first Hakiki ice cream parlour (in Newtown) to bring the traditional sweets of their hometown of Maras to the Inner West. It was so popular, they opened an outpost in Burwood. Expect sour cherry, Turkish delight, date, pistachio and the simple combination of milk and sugar to flavour your iced confections. They use salep, a flour made from orchid root that gives Turkish ice cream its super tacky consistency.