Portuguese snacks to lasagne sandwiches: Hottest openings in Sydney’s east this summer

Flanked by the sparkling harbour on one side and golden sand beaches on the other, Sydney’s eastern suburbs are home to some of the city’s most exclusive restaurants.

But this summer’s hospitality action isn’t all about top-end venues. You can also expect new cafes, sandwich joints and a hot Sunday roast that’ll have the Barmy Army licking their lips as they march into town for the New Year’s Test Match.

Manteiga

Manteiga (Portuguese for butter) is a new Darlinghurst cafe with lofty ambitions. Owner-chef Justin Martins worked at high-end restaurants in London, including Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, and the chefs’ hatted Bentley, here in Sydney. “I’d love to open a fine diner one day,” Martins said. Working slowly toward that goal, next year Manteiga will add Friday and Saturday nights to the roster, with a rotating line-up of emerging and established local chefs, Martins included. His cafe-by-day model will underpin that adventure, with the chef tapping the food he grew up eating: “Mum and Dad are from Portugal”. Bolos levedos, a traditional Portuguese muffin cooked in-house on stone, features on the breakfast menu, sandwiching a beef sausage patty and double-smoked bacon. Ricotta pancakes with strawberry gum compote plus hand-cut, double-cooked hot chips in a cafe setting – what’s not to like?

169 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, manteiga.com.au

Da Orazio Trattoria

Before Orazio D’Elia etched himself on Sydney’s pizza consciousness with his namesake Bondi pizzeria, he was head chef at Popolo restaurant at Rushcutters Bay. More than a decade later, he’s snapped up the Popolo site (more recently Marta Osteria) where he’ll open Da Orazio Trattoria. “No pizza,” D’Elia said. What there will be is a takeaway window selling desserts, and the chef is already working on the opening menu, with plenty of seafood and an octopus pie. The bad news is you’ll have to be patient. Da Orazio Trattoria won’t open until late summer or early spring 2026.

30 McLachlan Avenue, Rushcutters Bay

Kushi 2011

Potts Point is having a moment. Sunday, December 21, to be exact – the date Merivale has announced it will “say goodbye” to Ms.G’s after a 15-year run. It’s the same date Chula Mexican restaurant on Bayswater Road will serve its last Baja fish taco. Chula co-owner, the restaurateur Peter Lew, said the restaurant’s building has sold to a developer who has “big plans for the strip”. And Potts Point has a way of quickly rejuvenating. A couple of doors up from Chula, at the site of short-lived piano bar The Hook, Japanese restaurant Kushi 2011 has opened in recent days. Owner Chris Park honed the concept at the Manly original, Kushi 2095. Park recommends the skewers, straight off the robata grill.

13-15 Bayswater Road, Potts Point, instagram.com/izakaya.kushi/

Aambra

The former Uniting Church building at Rose Bay has been born again as Aambra restaurant, with a new crowd congregating this summer. Paul Papadopoulos from creative agency DS17 has given the heritage-listed building on Old South Head Road a design makeover, and chef Gianluca Lonati, who worked at Nour restaurant in Surry Hills, runs the Aambra kitchen. Moreton Bay bug borek, smoked carrot hummus and raw tuna kibbeh nayeh are all on the opening menu, in a dining room where sun dapples on Italian marble floor tiles through stained-glass windows.

518A Old South Head Road, Rose Bay, aambra.com.au

The Beekeeper

Don’t know a Cumberland pinwheel from a chicken chop? The Beekeeper, a December arrival at Bondi Beach, will enlighten you. The English pub offers up a Sunday roast, pie of the week and Cumberland pinwheel: pork sausage, amped up with herbs and spices, and hand-rolled into a coil. It’s served with mash and onion gravy. The Ashes and the Barmy Army are yet to hit Sydney, but The Beekeeper is already busy. “Last weekend we actually poured 2500 pints,” a spokeswoman for The Beekeeper said. Owners Ben Campbell and Brendan Darcy, the duo behind Bondi dive bar Chuck Trailer’s, are championing their northern England roots. A “northern dip” steak sandwich is on the menu, and The Beekeeper name is a nod to “Manchester’s worker bee”.

45 Hall Street, Bondi, northern-hospitality.com

Salumerie

Salumerie already serves its cult focaccia sandwiches in the Sydney CBD, Potts Point and Manly, but the new Bondi venue is Salumerie on steroids. Equal parts deli and aperitivo bar, you can grab a mini martini or mini negroni. Owner Donato Salomone has one eye on the morning crowd, with Italian-style stand-up espresso at just $2 a pop. “I’m from Naples, we want to be by the water,” he said of the new location. “You can pop by for aperitivo [small snacks] and a drink,” he said. Bondi has also inspired a new creation. “We’re doing a lasagne sandwich,” Salomone said.

Opens Thursday, December 18

75-79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach, salumerie.square.site

Rick Stein at Coogee Beach

Sydney’s eastern beach suburbs are having a seafood moment. Bronte stalwart, the 17-year-old Bronte Road Bistro, has announced it will serve its last steak frites on Sunday, January 25, pivoting into the more casual Bronte Road Fish in February. But stealing the limelight for now is last week’s Coogee arrival of UK celebrity chef Rick Stein. Stein’s Cornish-style thick-cut fish fillet cooked in beef drippings and served with chunky chips and mushy peas could be Sydney’s summer show-stopper.

242 Arden Street, Coogee, ricksteinatcoogeebeach.com.au

Besa

Hot-on-the-heels of its November launch of rotisserie chicken restaurant Henrietta at The Hub, Esca Hospitality Group (Aalia, Nour) is doubling down on its Bondi Beach investment, opening a Spanish restaurant this summer in the same Hall Street complex. Located next door to Harris Farm Markets, Besa restaurant will focus on coastal Spanish cuisine. “There’ll be tapas plates, lots of things on toast, skewers, and some bigger dishes,” Esca group executive chef Ibrahim Kasif said. “Head chef Alan Kropman has a great pedigree, he worked at Sean’s Panaroma and Aalia.” Besa, the Spanish word for kiss, will squeeze 70 seats into the space. It opens in February.

75-79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach

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