Go for: the warm welcome
“The food here is incredible but it’s the hospitality that I connect with. Owners Pete and Baci know how to make every diner feel like they’re the most important person in the room. I never go past the oysters and you can’t go wrong ordering the steak frites with Café de Paris butter.” – Nick Mathews-Bowden

Go for: the almond croissant
“There’s always a queue of people before 7am waiting outside this cute, buzzy little café. It does the most delicious pastries – they’re easily the best in town. I always go back for the almond croissant but my husband loses his marbles over the chocolate éclair. They also serve crêpes, galettes and spectacular coffee.” – Nick Mathews-Bowden

Go for: the toasties
“They do the best cheese toasties I’ve ever had but you need to get here before 11am because there’s a limited number and the secret’s out. I think I have an intermediate knowledge of cheese but when I look at Penny’s range I’m like, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much I don’t know!’” – Nick Mathews-Bowden

Go for: next-level vegetarian
Not many fine-dining restaurants can dare to go vegetarian. But Yellow did in early 2016, and survived. In fact, it flourished. It may have something to do with the site – a mustard-hued terrace with peeling walls, polished floorboards and bentwood chairs. Or, perhaps, it’s to do with the service – brisk but not brusque, friendly yet courteous. But more than anything it’s got to do with the combined genius of chef Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt – the duo behind Monopole (also in Potts Point), Bentley Restaurant + Bar and Cirrus. They turned Yellow vegetarian not for ethical reasons but because they believed they could take simple vegetables to the next level. You can see it in their butternut pumpkin with lashings of miso butter, in Jerusalem artichokes elevated with goat’s milk yoghurt and in their dessert of crisp Pink Lady apple with honey and burnt onion.

Go for: Greek bites
Peeling plaster, rustic pipelines and chipped concrete columns… little has been done to camouflage the ageing interiors of this Greek restaurant but therein lies the appeal of The Apollo. If not for the enormous arched windows beautifully framing Potts Point goings-on, you might think you’d arrived in a historic bougainvillea-lined neighbourhood in Athens. Chef Jonathan Barthelmess’ food is just as transporting. Braised oxtail stirred through handmade risoni brings to mind the shores of the Mediterranean, while the slow-cooked lamb – which needs the slightest prod of the fork to fall apart – is reminiscent of the hearty mains served in laidback the tavernas of Mykonos.

Go for: Italian
The lighting is dim and the noise level high at this Potts Point institution with twin dining rooms and close-together dark timber tables. But none of it – not even the fact that you can hear every word the softly spoken couple is uttering at the table next to you – takes away from the succinct and solid (and ever-changing) menu of Italian food and wine. Lightly floured and fried calamari rings with a delicate balsamic dressing set the stage for pared-down flavours, while San Marzano tomatoes shine in a bowl of fettuccine with creamy blobs of mozzarella and a hint of basil. But it’s a slow-cooked ragu of chestnut mushrooms, duck and chicken – stirred through rigatoni – that really hits the sweet spot. That, and the velvety white-chocolate mousse with crushed Piemontese hazelnuts and peach poached in white wine and maraschino.

It’s hard to decide what’s more diverse at Monopole – the floor staff’s range of European accents or wines from the Continent. The award-winning list, curated by sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, runs the gamut from sprightly German rieslings and fragrant French gamays to punchy Italian pecorinos. There’s even a surprisingly light and quaffable Hungarian dessert wine to go with your white chocolate parfait. But that doesn’t mean chef Brent Savage’s menu takes a backseat. Sous-vide, deep-fried eggplant is elevated to fine art when slathered with almond cream and drizzled with black vinegar, while a liberally salted mussel emulsion is the perfect foil for a meaty slab of pan-fried and super-crisp Spanish mackerel. Enjoy it all as part of the set seven-course tasting menu, which the friendly, warm staff will be happy to tweak based on dietary or personal preferences.

71A MacLeay Street, Potts Point; (02) 9360 4410

Go for: the cocktails
The cocktails are inventive, the interiors lush with tropical greenery and the view over the city must be akin to those afforded to a Sydney rainbow lorikeet from a high tree perch. The name is an homage to Butlers Restaurant, which once occupied this site, though it’s doubtful the Butlers of old served up buttermilk fried chicken sliders, tuna tartare with tomatillo and black quinoa tostada or slow-cooked pork empanadas à la head chef Amber Doig, who honed her craft under Biota’s James Viles and Alex Stupak from Empellon.

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