The 9 Best Bars in Sydney
Sydney drinking starts with Maybe Sammy, No. 42 on World's 50 Best Bars 2025, and the bench behind it runs deep: we list 15 active bars across the city. Every listing below is verified by BarMagazine, with addresses, opening hours and the signature drinks worth ordering.
- Bar Planet★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Bar Planet
Harrison Kenney, flagged as one of Sydney's most talented young bartenders, leads a Newtown martini bar that wraps serious technique in theatrical service. The program focuses on the martini as a canvas rather than a formula, exploring variations through seasonal ingredients, fat-washing, and clarification techniques that produce drinks with the clarity of gemstones. Bar Planet's Newtown location places it in the heart of Sydney's most dynamic bar neighborhood, and the room's energy matches the street outside.
16 Enmore Road, Newtown, Sydney, NSW 2042Mon-Fri 5pm-12am, Sat-Sun 4pm-12amFull profile - Cantina OK!★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Cantina OK!
Three-time Tequila Bar of the Year in a space that holds barely twenty seats, Cantina OK! operates on intensity rather than scale. The agave program runs deep, with a collection spanning artisanal mezcals and heritage tequilas that rival specializt bars in Oaxaca. The tight quarters force proximity between bartender and guest, creating a conversational intimacy that larger venues struggle to replicate. Cantina OK! proves that size and influence share no correlation.
Council Place, Sydney NSW 2000Daily 4pm-2amFull profile - Centro 86★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Centro 86
An underground bar modelled on Mexico City's drinking culture, Centro 86 stocks over one hundred tequila varieties and won Time Out's Best Cocktail Bar award for 2025. The program extends beyond agave into the broader Mexican cocktail tradition, micheladas, palomas, mezcal Negronis, in a subterranean space that channels CDMX energy through Sydney sensibilities. Centro 86 provides the depth that casual tequila bars lack and the accessibility that specializt bars often sacrifice.
86-88 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000Daily 4pm-2amFull profile - Deadwax★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Deadwax
Conor O'Brien and Dan Teh, the team behind the acclaimed Otis, opened this Japanese-inspired vinyl bar in Enmore in August 2025. The program pairs high-fidelity music with cocktails built on Japanese technique: precise dilution, hand-cut ice, and a reverence for the classics that Tokyo's Ginza bars made famous. Deadwax treats sound and drink as co-equal priorities, and the vinyl collection receives the same curatorial attention as the spirits shelf. The Enmore location extends Sydney's bar gravity further into the inner west.
182 Enmore Road, Enmore, Sydney, NSW 2042Tue-Thu 4pm-12am, Fri-Sat 4pm-2am, Sun 4pm-12am, Mon closedFull profile - Deux Frères★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Deux Frères
Sydney's first dedicated Basque pintxos bar won Time Out's Best Wine Bar for 2025 by combining a natural wine program with the pintxo tradition of San Sebastián's old quarter. The wine list prioritises small producers and biodynamic practices, while the food, miniature compositions served on slices of bread, provides the kind of drinking-friendly sustenance that keeps guests ordering another glass. Deux Frères brings a European aperitivo sensibility to Circular Quay that the neighborhood sorely needed. Sydney's bar scene benefits from a healthy disregard for convention, indigenous ingredients alongside Mexican agave, Japanese vinyl bars next to psychedelic late-night clubs. The mix produces a city that drinks with originality rather than imitation. The fourteen-hour flight has never been more justified.
6 Loftus Lane, Sydney, NSW 2000Mon-Sat 11:30am-late, Sun closedFull profile 
★ TOP 10Cocktail BarMaybe Sammy
Seven consecutive years on the World's 50 Best Bars list, currently No. 42, make this The Rocks venue Australia's most internationally acclaimed bar of the last decade. The program channels Golden Age Hollywood through a Rat Pack aesthetic and a cocktail menu built on generosity: big flavors, theatrical presentation, and a service style that makes every guest feel like the headline act. Maybe Sammy operates on the conviction that a great bar should be an event, not just a venue. After seven years, the event shows no signs of winding down. It was a Top 4 finalist for World's Best Cocktail Menu at the 2025 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
115 Harrington Street, The Rocks, NSW 2000Wed-Sat 4:30pm-1am, Sun 4:30pm-10pm, Mon-Tue closedFull profile- Pleasure Club★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Pleasure Club
Time Out Sydney's Bar of the Year for 2025 operates under a 4 a.m. license in Newtown with a psychedelic aesthetic and a late-night program run by the Odd Culture Group. The drinks lean experimental, fermented bases, house-made sodas, cocktails designed for the hours between midnight and dawn. Pleasure Club fills a gap in Sydney's bar landscape: a venue built specifically for the part of the night when most places close their doors. The 4 a.m. license is not a gimmick; it is the business model.
6 Wilson Street, Newtown, Sydney, NSW 2042Wed-Sun 4pm-4am, Mon-Tue closedFull profile - The Waratah★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
The Waratah
Evan Stroeve, Australian Bartender of the Year 2021, built this Darlinghurst bar around indigenous Australian ingredients, producing a cocktail program that tastes unlike anything else in the country. Native botanicals, bush foods, and indigenous flavor profiles replace the European and American pantry that dominates Australian bars. The Waratah channels Stroeve's conviction that Australian cocktail culture should taste Australian, and the program delivers on the promise with drinks that educate as they satisfy.
308-310 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 2010Wed-Fri 4pm-late, Sat 12pm-late, Sun 12pm-10pmFull profile - Tigra + Disco Pantera★ TOP 10Cocktail Bar
Tigra + Disco Pantera
Scottish brothers Gordon and Ross Purnell opened this dual-concept venue in September 2024 and collected the World's 50 Best Bar Design Award in 2025, a first-year result that validated a bold bet. Tigra occupies the ground floor as a moody cocktail bar; descend the stairs and Disco Pantera erupts into neon, sound, and late-night energy. The split personality gives a single address twice the range, and the cocktail program across both levels demonstrates the technical chops that the design spectacle might otherwise overshadow.
11 Young Street, Quay Quarter, Sydney, NSW 2000Mon-Wed 2pm-2am, Thu-Fri 12pm-2am, Sat 4pm-2am, Sun closedFull profile
Explore the whole Sydney scene
These 9 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Sydney, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.
All bars in Sydney