The Ten Best Small Bars in Sydney

Those changes to licensing for small bars have certainly been shaking things up around here. In fact, so many have popped up of late, you'd be forgiven for feeling a tad overwhelmed.

Luckily for your sake, Concrete Playground have put together this guide to the best small bars in Sydney. Your only problem now is fitting them all in.

1. Corridor

Where: 153A King Street, Newtown

This aptly-named small bar is brimming with more than its fair share of goodness. Surprisingly, it's not just one busy room, but is cleverly composed of an assortment of nooks. A private table at the front, stools along the wall, hidden under the stairs, the upstairs 'lounge' room or in the upstairs courtyard: take your pick.

The menus are similarly overwhelming, but I suspect it would be hard to go wrong with these cocktails (all $16). I taste test the Blood and Sand: a '20s-style, Rudolf Valentino-inspired combination of scotch whisky, cherry brandy, sweet vermouth and orange juice. All cocktails change seasonally but never fear: the menu is extensive, and the bar staff attentive.

For review and details, click here.

2. Darlie Laundromatic

Where: 304 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst

Step behind the unassuming facade of Darlie Laundromatic, and you'll discover a slice of the inner-west right in the heart of Darlinghurst. This bar has been a long time coming.

Luckily, Darlie still has its feet firmly on Darlo soil. The signs and taps of the laundry previously here still stand, while a washing line of tea towels across the room pays ode to the site's prior purpose. Aside from this, the bar is decorated à la Eathouse, though with a more clearly 'Australian suburbia' bent: lamps and ferns, prints and oil paintings, green plastic high school chairs, and an assortment of Sylvac-style salt and pepper shakers on every table. This bar even possesses its own back yard.

For review and details, click here.

3. Love, Tilly Devine

Where: 91 Crown Lane, Darlinghurst

A few years ago an idiotic politician declared that Sydney simply didn't want small bars like Melbourne's, where people could quietly read a book while drinking a glass of chardonnay in a black skivvy. That comment has been proven false again and again, and now Sydney is graced by establishments like Love, Tilly Devine, the perfect small bar to sit and read a book over some chardonnay. In a skivvy, if you want.

The people at Love, Tilly Devine are excited. They're excited about their wine, about the future of their neighbourhood, and about their food. The name of the bar is an ode to East Sydney's past and a tribute to an obscure 1930s brothel madam, who, while her husband was getting prostitutes hooked on cocaine and beating her to a pulp, performed acts of local charity.

For review and details, click here.

4. Grandma's

Where: Basement 275 Clarence Street, Sydney

There's no place like home. Except Grandma's. Grandma gives you a big hug, sits you down in her best, chintz-covered chair and gives you a treat. And the eponymously titled bar, the latest addition to an innocuous little office building off Clarence Street, will do all that and more. Grandma's, the self-described "retro-sexual haven of cosmopolitan kitsch and faded granny glamour", is truly one of the most delightful bars that Sydney can now call its own.

Muddling about on the footpath outside trying to find the damn place, a heavy-set giant of a security guard approached me and gruffly asked "hey, you looking for Grandma's?" and then burst into giggles. And you know you're in for a good night when you're giving a giggling security guard a hug. Inside you'll find knitting baskets, ottomans, and ubiquitous teacups and saucers. The place is small and can get loud, but the relaxed atmosphere and lovely people make it somewhere you want to stick around. A word of warning, though — get there early. We only left when a friend called from outside, telling us there was a line outside because the place had reached capacity.

For review and details, click here.

5. Timbah

Where: 375 Glebe Point Road, Glebe

There's something I'm desperately trying to introduce into my social circle, and that is the Sunday afternoon drink. If you're trying not to think about Monday, but know you should probably hold off on finishing a case of beer before you go back to work, then a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon drink is the thing you need. And Timbah is the place to have it.

Nestled down the pretty end of Glebe Point Rd (and slightly down Forysthe st), we popped in one cold, grey Sunday and found a cosy table by the door. With a huge and diverse wine list, you might feel like you could get bogged down for choice. However, Timbah have introduced an interesting new concept. The first six people to order wine on any night choose the six bottles that will be served by the glass for that night, taking that horrible 'oh dear which wine shall I choose' feeling out of the equation. When those six run out, another lot are chosen. For a non-wine aficionado, it's a comforting system.

For review and details, click here.

6. Mr Fox

Where: 557 Crown Street, Surry Hills

Mr Fox is not the first blink-and-you'll-miss-it small bar to enter the Surry Hills scene, but it's perhaps one of the best. Walls that double as chalk boards, fairy lights tacked up behind the bar and menus offered up in illustrated children's books detailing myths and legends make this, if not the most original, definitely one of the most fun options around. But then, what else should we expect from a bar named for a Wes Anderson film? It's a very DIY feeling space, and you'll find yourself settling into your new home almost straight away.

While there's a reasonable range of beers and wines on offer, it's all about the cocktails ($12-$17). To grow some venue appropriate hairs on your chest, try the Old Fashioned ($15): bourbon with sugar and a dash of bitters. For a sweeter option, perhaps the Summer Sour ($14), with strawberry, passionfruit, cranberry, Chambord, Alizé and vodka. If you're starting to feel hungry, there's no reason at all to venture out into busy Crown Street, with grazing plates - like Polenta Cubes with Coriander Mayonaise or Slow-Cooked Sticky Chicken Wings - for $14 each.

For review and details, click here.

7. The Owl House

Where: 97 Crown Street, Darlinghurst

Say what you will about glorious fit outs, what makes or breaks the vibe of a bar is the barmen. These souls of hospitality, the embodiments of all the best parts of alcohol, have the power to charm, ease, surprise and delight.

A case in point: the latest small bar to pop up in Darlinghurst, the Owl House. Our man of the hour was Amir. As we took our seats at the intimate (read: tiny) bar, it was only moments before he had collected our orders and was shaking away in front of us. Over the course of the next half hour, he had taken complete responsibility for our tastebuds, put us at ease with every other patron in the place and begun discussing our favourite novels in surprising detail. Soon after that, he was lighting the bar on fire in front of us. Now that's what I call an exceptional barman.

For review and details, click here.

8. Bloodwood

Where: 416 King Street, Newtown

Hidden down ‘that other half’ of King Street, Bloodwood is handy before an Enmore gig, and easy from the station. We are told there are no bookings for tables at the Newtown eatery – the Good Food Guide’s 2011 Best Bar with Food – but once we settle in a spot we are told we will have to leave at 8pm, someone a little more persuasive than us wants their seat at that time.

We sit in the upper level of the establishment. Bare light bulbs hang both precariously and artistically from the ceiling. It is hip but not intimidatingly so. Although Asian influences filter through the menu, we have selected those with flavours from France and the Middle East.

For review and details, click here.

9. Low302

Where: 302 Crown Street, Darlinghurst

Aim high. Go low. That’s the fitting credo of this cocktail bar-slash-eatery-slash-live music venue. And I can tell you, they don’t miss the mark. Darlo bar hoppers may not be starved for their pick of small bars, but Low’s got a little something the others don’t.

For one, this place is sexy. Dark leather lounges are set against draping red curtains, with a grand piano tucked in the corner - an open invitation for musos to hammer out a good tune, and for hammered rockers looking for extra stage room. Throw in some low lighting, incense, intimate side rooms and an outdoor sitting that opens out onto Crown Street, and you’ve got your night off to a very good start.

For review and details, click here.

10. Different Drummer

Where: 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe

Before the rise of the small bar, cocktail bars were the only place to be rewarded when one had a thirst for both tasty and trendy. The Different Drummer was an oasis in a desert of old-man pubs and soulless bars. Now overshadowed by these Surry Hills newcomers, the Different Drummer in Glebe still has a special place in the heart of the Inner West.

Since ages past the Drummer has been serving scintillating cocktails with a happy-go-lucky list of patrons who don't hesitate to share their thoughts on why the Agwacello (agwa coco leaf liquor, limoncello & cloudy apple) is the best cocktail on the menu. Settle in downstairs amongst the bordello-like luxury for your birthday or girls-night, or take a date up to the roof for a breeze and a good view.

For review and details, click here.