11 Best Restaurants in Inner City and the Eastern Suburbs, Sydney

Named after celebrity chef and cookbook author Bill Granger, this sunny corner café is so addictive it should come with a health warning. It's a favorite hangout of everyone from local nurses to semi-disguised rock stars, and you never know who you might be sitting next to at the newspaper-strewn communal table. If you're not interested in the creaminess of what must be Sydney's best scrambled eggs, try the ricotta hotcakes with fresh banana and honeycomb butter or the corn fritters. The coconut-poached chicken sandwich with cucumber and lime mayonnaise makes an ideal lunch. 

There's a reason why there's always a queue snaking down the street. This is undoubtedly the best gelato in Sydney, with unique flavors that change all the time. There's now many Gelato Messina parlors across Sydney but this is the original. DIY sundaes available. No seating so grab and walk down the tree-lined Victoria Street.

The creation of three Italian brothers, this trendy Paddington eatery is a winner for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The menu is designed to offer a genuine taste of Italian home cooking no matter what time of day you dine. At breakfast, a light polenta porridge arrives with figs. For lunch, a fresh caprese salad and dinner, their self-titled "best lasagne ever." You can even grab a takeaway, with a wide range of Italian baked treats which are baked on-site daily and good coffee.

Bondi is known for being the health epicenter of Sydney and, unsurprisingly, the cafés are all about packing as much healthy food into a dish as possible. Breakfast bowls packed with eggs, vegetables, toasted seeds, and gluten-free toast is a popular option here. There's also fresh juices, smoothies and kombucha, which most grab-to-go and take to the nearby grass bank opposite the beach.

One of eight or nine eateries in the buzzy café strip opposite Bronte Beach, this is a great place to refuel after the Bondi-to-Bronte cliff-top walk. All share the same postcard-perfect view, but Belo is worth seeking out for its consistently good coffee and spicy sticky chai. It has a little more elbow space between tables than some of its neighbors. The menu has all the standard breakfast and brunch selections, many with a slight Brazilian twist, like the poached eggs served with a spicy tomato ragù.

In the famous buttercup-yellow Bondi Pavilion, this beachfront restaurant has broad appeal—there are gatherings of families having brunch; lunchers enjoying the spectacular views; twentysomethings in for an early evening cocktail at the swanky bar; and couples tucking into seafood under the stars. A bucket of Australian tiger prawns are there to be shared; larger dishes include fish-and-chips, hake, and fish burger with fries. And, yes, the cutlery comes in colorful little buckets and the beachy interior includes surfboards and funky fish artwork.

Griddle pan dishes are the draw at this friendly, and slightly noisy, organic café and food store on the city fringe. Served in cast-iron skillets and topped with two baked eggs, the griddle choices include creamed corn with chorizo or their own home-cured smoky bacon. Cakes and baked goods are made on the premises; diners return time and time again for the coconut cake to savor with a great cup of tea or coffee. It's a perfect break after shopping in nearby trendy Darlinghurst. Much of the produce on the shelves are ingredients used in the meals, and the tea and coffee are grown on organic or biodynamic farms. Here's a place you can happily (and healthily!) browse.

A charming slice of Italy nestled in Paddington, originally established as a delicatessen before evolving into a beloved local café. Serving as a bridge between Paddington’s retail and residential areas, it's become a second kitchen for many regulars who visit daily. The cozy interior, adorned with dried oregano and hanging prosciutto, exudes warmth and charm, creating a welcoming atmosphere where you can share benches, high tables, and small stools while enjoying paninis and Allpress coffee. 

You'll probably have to wait to get one of the tiny tables in this rustic hole-in-the-wall café and wine bar on the northern end of Bondi Beach, but it's worth waiting for as it's one of the best (and healthiest) breakfasts in Bondi. Once you've got a seat and a cup of the fabulous coffee, the service is fast and efficient. Breakfasts range from porridge with flaxseed, amaranth, and quinoa to bowls of kale, spinach, coriander, mint, and avocado, with a couple of eggs thrown in for good measure. After sundown, the café morphs into a hip little wine bar on weekends.

It might look like nothing more than a hole-in-the-wall but this modest café has been hailed by locals as serving the best coffee in the Potts Point and Kings Cross area. And the seating outside is always packed every morning of the week. To find it, you'll need to head down Llankelly Place, a back lane that runs behind Potts Point, that offers many unique cafés and restaurants. The menu offers all-day breakfast, with the Brekkie Rice (creamed red rice, quinoa, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and stewed rhubarb). If you can't get a seat, there's easy grab and go eats and specialized coffee, with single origin option rotated weekly. 

In 2019, this café opened Sydney's first self-serve batch-brew bar, with craft beer--style taps where you can drink as much single-origin coffee as your heart desires or can handle. But this is more than just a trendy spot for coffee: the menu is filled with quirky dishes, with many vegan offerings. The eggplant katsu roll is very popular.