Where to Eat and Drink on a Monday Night (2024)

Merivale’s good-times Mexican joint is home to the tacos secreto, where the filling is a surprise until it hits your table. Secreto or not, every taco here is wallet-friendly. But we recommend the DIY platters – they’ll give you even bigger bang for your buck.

This Surry Hills pub got a shake-up in 2020 – but it’s still one of Sydney’s best all-in-one wine bars, restaurants and boozers.

Moody jazz, heavy wooden beams and a bank of barbeque ducks in the old Tank nightclub space. A modern Shanghai-style dumpling den from Dan Hong and Merivale.

Enmore Road’s perennial late-night Pakistani joint. Newtown kids gravitate towards the excellent tandoori, but past midnight, the taxi driver set fuel up with flash-fried Lahore-style curries and stews ordered off the special menu (the staff write it in biro on the back of a docket).

A sharp restaurant and bar from the team at Bulletin Place. Naturally, it serves great co*cktails.

Matt Moran’s modern Australian institution still does it like nowhere else in town. Powered by an impressive kitchen garden, the menu is designed for long lunches and beautiful dinners that celebrate the seasons.

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Affordable Malaysian food with a range of flavoured roti.

Affordable Malaysian food with a range of flavoured roti. If you don't get in before the lunchtime rush you can expect to queue for a while.

Bow down to the dumpling masters. Or just watch them through the glass, hand-crafting those world-class xiao long bao in the kitchen.

A trio of chefs is behind this dapper bar with a penchant for low-intervention wines.

A trailblazer in Sydney’s Thai restaurant scene. When the late, great Amy Chanta opened it in Darlinghurst in 1989, it brought Bankgok flavours that were then-unknown to Sydney diners. The Thai street food here is fine-dining quality, served at very reasonable price points. Today, it’s a super-popular chain with stores all over Sydney.

At this pretty corner spot just back from Bondi Beach, one of the city’s best Italian chefs is serving perfectly puffy woodfired pizzas and a Sydney-famous porchetta roll. Plus pastas, carafes of wine and tiramisu.

Ask anyone about the best spots for a drink in Surry Hills, and Forrester’s would have to be in the conversation. This 100-year-old pub is split into multiple distinct spaces – do afternoon pints in The Public Bar, a bottomless rosé lunch in the dining room, or trivia in the light-filled functions space upstairs.

Whether you’re stopping in for that iconic lasagnette bolognaise or just a snack, Frat Paz nails it every time. Its groundbreaking wine list introduced the city to many minimal-intervention styles we're now obsessed with.

Tasty Greek share plates.

A fresh take on Japanese izakaya dining.

This moody double-decker spot has long been one of the best places to drink co*cktails in Surry Hills. But it’s also one of the best places to dine – with a refined bistro menu spanning European classics and a cult Sydney burger.

This all-day eatery inside Hinchcliff House mills its own flour, using grain supplied by NSW farmers. That means house-made pastas and ciabatta to go with produce-driven share plates and co*cktails.

Descend to Swillhouse Group’s late-night hotspot for banging pina coladas and the smoked cheeseburger of our dreams. Plus, a live music program and DJs selecting from one of the world’s largest private vinyl collections.

Behind Hubert’s old-world charm is a reverence for classic hospitality and notably un-classic French food. Live jazz is a staple, along with one of the city’s best burger happy hours.

Split between a beach club and a dining room proper, this twin-hitter is the perfect place to eat Med-inspired dishes and watch the waves roll in with a spritz in hand.

There’s no velvet or faff at this humming diner from the team behind Bistecca and The Gidley. Order a Riverine sirloin steak – aged and butchered in house – and it’ll be on your table in 15 minutes. The brutalist, art-filled space also packs in a bar with the energy of east London, and serves what might be the coldest Martini in Sydney.