Sydney’s Best New Bars of 2026 (So Far)

In recent years, this list has been dominated by bars leaning quite heavily into restaurant territory. You know the ones – lengthy food menus, heavy on substantial plates, where a quick drink often turns into a full dinner. At Broadsheet, where we have to categorise every venue, it means the restaurant-or-bar debate happens often. My guiding principle is that if there’s a steak on the menu, it’s a restaurant. So it was a pleasure to compile this list, stacked with true-blue bars – no debate

needed. Although, L’Avant Cave makes this list despite Nik Hill cooking a steak and serving it with pepper sauce and fries. There are always exceptions to rules, especially my made-up ones. The following 10 bars are the best this year’s delivered – see you out there for an icy beer, a Martini or a full-bodied glass of claret soon. Heaps Normal Health Club, Marrickville Some people couldn’t get their heads around the idea that Australia’s biggest non-alc success story was opening a bar. What’s the

point of opening a bar without booze? But Heaps Normal has been telling us since day one – it’s not here to kill your vibe. The team’s new bar and culture magnet has booze out the wazoo, a lot of it sourced from the neighbours. Mid, low and no options are in abundance, naturally, as is an appreciation for live music. Oh, and very good design. If the Michael Delaney fit-out doesn’t make for one of Sydney’s most photogenic new venues, I don’t know what

does. – Dan Cunningham, national food and drink editor Claret Club, Darlinghurst Sydney has wine bars in the dozens, but there’s something refreshingly true-to-form about Claret Club. The European form, that is. The location in one of Sydney’s original Italian quarters helps a lot. The digs inside an old Victorian terrace even more so. Of course, we love to see claret – an underappreciated varietal – get a look-in, as well as the broader curation of European wines from owners (and couple) Bridget Raffal and

Harry Hunter’s personal stash. But the celebration of Australian winemakers and a friendly “G’day” at the door reminds you instantly where you are, and why you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on a Friday night. – Dan Cunningham, national food and drink editor L’Avant Cave, Paddington This Oxford Street address has always met me where I’m at. When it was a diner, I’d go for fizzy spiders and pancakes as a kid. When it was P&V, I’d pop in when I needed a glass

of something spesh. And now that L’Avant Cave has stretched out of the courtyard and into the former P&V bottle-o, I can’t stay away. With a name that means “front cellar”, it’s the physical and proverbial foreword to Matt Fitzgerald and Nik Hill’s Porcine. Arrive in the arvo for a solo wine and snacks, or with a crowd to feast. The wine list is outstanding, as is Hill’s menu. Crunchy fingers of panisse are topped with quince and tight curls of mimolette, while oeufs Caesar

is a funky egg-and-anchovy two-biter. There’s also an ever-changing fruits de mer mix, including an immaculate dory roe taramasalata with house-made crisps. Then it leans “restaurant”, with minute steaks, pepper sauce and frites; garlic mussels on toast; and a golden swordfish schnitzel. – Lucy Bell Bird, national assistant editor Bar Bridge, CBD and Super 44, Newtown They say the classics never go out of style. They also say you’ve gotta know the rules before you can break ’em. The Margarita and Martini are two classic

cocktails most bars wouldn’t dare to mess with, but Mucho ain’t like the rest. The team behind Cantina OK and Bar Planet is known for its scholarly approach to cocktail history, and its travels to Mexico’s deepest reaches in search of rare agave spirits. Yes, the bartenders will make you a classic Marg or Martini with care and respect. But that’s not why you should visit the group’s two new joints, which opened within two months of one another. Get the frozen Marg with avocado

and dragon fruit at Super 44. Get the Martini with seaweed vodka, nori and perilla at Bar Bridge. Get weird, for goodness sake. It’s okay! You’re in safe hands. – Dan Cunningham, national food and drink editor Doom Juice Cellar Door, Marrickville Any opening that allows me to write about 2002’s seminal Scooby Doo live-action film is a winner in my books. Ding, ding: Doom Juice Cellar Door. A replica of the mega skull-shaped disco ball – which Mystery Inc. saves the day under on

Spooky Island – spins over the inner west bar. The glitzy, spiky thing really is dazzling, and tells you all you need to know about the duo behind the natty wine label and, now, bar: detail oriented, here to have fun, and all-in on their pursuit. Try the house wines (fizz, white, orange, pink and red); the cellar-door-exclusive vermouth, made together with Ester Spirits; and picky plates like nice tinned fish, chippies and a “flat salad” (charcuterie from nearby Black Forest Smokehouse). Ruh-roh, time for

a drink. – Grace MacKenzie, Sydney food and drink editor Caravin Deux, Potts Point A little sibling for the two-storey Parisian favourite on Ward Avenue? Only 180 metres away? S’il vous plait et merci beaucoup. Deux was hot out the gate – casual, moodily lit, walk-ins only, with a wine fridge and open kitchen wrapping the walls of what is very likely Australia’s smallest wine bar. The best seat is at the window, where a table extends inside and out. Go early to snatch it,

settling in for oysters; buttery, garlicky serves of mussels; taramasalata and chippies; and whatever else the team’s cooking up that week alongside the super juicy wine list. – Grace MacKenzie, Sydney food and drink editor Razz Room, CBD In search of: a bar with a good dance floor, great drinks and a licence that’ll let you get loose into the AM. It might not seem like a reach, but that checklist is increasingly hard to tick off in Sydney. Well, Odd Culture’s Razz Room is

that elusive bar. The team took inspiration from New York’s ’70s scene – queer club Paradise Garage and Studio 54. At Razz, that looks like an upper area for chit-chat, and a sunken dance floor with a stage, where there are DJs, live music and dancing till 4am. It’s also where the Daiquiri is making its comeback. The dirty rendition is a mind-bending nod to the Dirty Martini with white rum, smoky mezcal and olive brine, but also try the off-menu Nuclear Daiquiri. Happy hour’s

hot, with $13 glasses and retro “dippy things” like a prawn cocktail and the Dirty Royale, a burger served swimming in cheesy sauce. – Lucy Bell Bird, national assistant editor The Gopher, Manly Out goes the treasured Old Manly Boatshed, and its ’80s riffs and inebriated singalongs. In comes an Irish stout and live music bar, open till late with beer, a pub-esque menu and a flaming cocktail. Look past the hand-crafted beer taps and you’ll find a page of the cocktail menu dedicated to

the Hell’s Bells. In The Gopher’s version, 12-year-old Redbreast whisky meets Sazerac rye, Tasmanian butter vodka and chocolate bitters – then it’s lit on fire. It’s heady stuff – each person is only allowed two each night, which you can soak up with a few fancy sausage rolls, Scotch eggs or, maybe, a spice bag. The Boatshed poured drinks for nearly 40 years, cheers to The Gopher ushering in the underground boozer’s next. – Ben Hansen, freelance contributor Aalia Wine Room, CBD Before chef Paul

Farag departed Aalia, he launched the glass-walled wine bar in the adjoining space. And while, of course, the wine is exceptional – 235 bottles from near and far, 31 by the glass – the bar food is a cut above. Dainty quail egg Gildas and crackers capped with a zippy fattouche are no-brainers, along with the glossy-topped Khorasan bread. And while you might not order pickled fish throats without thinking about it first, you really must hit go. The punchy tamarind-spiked Murray cod kokotxas are

exceptional and interesting, and work best ferried to your gob on a torn-off hunk of that puffy bread. Add a three-part build-your-own wine flight, why don’t you? – Grace MacKenzie, Sydney food and drink editor

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