Sydney's Best All-Day Diners That Are Open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Chef Clayton Wells has won over many a Chippendale foodie’s heart since opening Automata on the ground floor of the Old Clare Hotel in 2015. And now he’s extended his reach, opening a new casual all-day eatery just 20 metres away. Whatever the time of day — and whatever the nature of your hunger — you’ll be able to satisfy it. A1 is open for brekkie, lunch, dinner and snacks, including pastries and sandwiches, so you can sit down and take your time or grab a tasty morsel and run.

At breakfast, you’ll find a takes on a ploughman’s plate — with boiled egg, shaved ham, fermented cabbage and pickled chilli — a grilled mortadella and fried egg sanga, eggs benedict with blood cake and breakfast doughnuts (with mandarin curd and clotted cream, no less). At lunch, Wells is catering to those who need to get in-and-out quick with an “easy, one plate situation”. You’ll be able to choose a protein — roasted lamb shoulder, hot smoked trout, spiced chicken or roasted celeriac — and pair it with two salads of your choice for $22.

Return at night and you’ll find a menu with slightly more similarities to sister-venue Automata. Split into small and large plates, a steamed clams with anchovy butter sit in the former and a black angus hanger steak with pine mushrooms in the latter. Drinks, as you’d expect, are equally impressive and extensive, with Single O coffee and cold-pressed juices in the morning, and batched cocktails, local beers, an interesting — and affordable — wine list available from lunch.

Two hospitality heavyweights who previously collaborated at ARIA have teamed up to open a restaurant in Hunters Hill. One is chef Simon Sandall and the other restaurateur Susan Sullivan. Both spent 17 years at Matt Moran’s MorSul Group, where Sandall was executive chef and Sullivan general manager. Their new eatery Boronia Kitchen is devoted to fresh produce, house-made ingredients and a relaxed atmosphere.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are on offer. If you have time to take a seat, drop by at brekkie for toasted brioche with ricotta, figs and honey or baked eggs with spinach, tomato and chilli on sourdough toast. Come lunchtime, offerings include a roast porchetta baguette with tomato, sage, rosemary and crackling; and salad of lamb with cauliflower, quinoa, chickpeas and pomegranate. At dinner, the menu changes altogether. Start with seared scallops with wilted chard and XO sauce, followed by duck confit with a duck croquette, peas, almonds and mint, then a native-infused dessert, such as baked cumquat with wattle seed clafouti and vanilla ice cream.

Setting a new and impossibly high standard for themed dining in Sydney, The Grounds of the City has created a lavish all-day 1920s coffeehouse complete with shoe shines, a tea lady and an impressive array of vintage glassware, art, crockery, books and silverware. It’s essentially one big dine-in antiques store.

Serving breakfast and lunch (and dinner every night except Monday), the food menu takes inspiration from the 20s and brings it up-to-date with contemporary ingredients and technique. Steak and eggs are given a new lease on life by way of a punchy chimichurri sauce and an expertly-cooked medium-rare fillet, while fluffy homemade crumpets make the perfect base for blackberries, honey and cream. The lunch and dinner menu follows the same vein with modern versions of old-hat classics, including a pork and truffle terrine, and an ox cheek bordelaise.

Good coffee is a non-negotiable in the CBD and The Grounds of the City doesn’t disappoint. There’s a dedicated barista’s bar with a coffee sommelier (yes, really) as well as batch brews, cold brews, espresso, filter coffee and a killer affogato made with tiramisu ice-cream and popping candy. Those who prefer tea can order a bottomless cup ($8), and wine is on the menu, too.

Located on the lower ground floor of the Chifley Tower, the new 200-seater venue consists of an all-day bakery serving tartines, croissants and Single O coffees as well as a restaurant designed for long business lunches and romantic wining and dining. The venue is luxurious, and expensive details extend all the way from the mid-century leather furniture, striking green marble bar and aged brass furnishings, to the Riedel glassware and fine linen napkins.

However, perhaps what’s most surprising is that when you open your schmancy leather-bound menu, the prices seem quite reasonable (gasp!) not at all the eye-watering costs you had planned to pass on to your finance department or significant other. And perhaps even more surprisingly, the portion sizes are quite generous — not the petite, miniscule, itsy-bitsy, quail egg on a crouton-sized dish that we have come to expect from the French. Take for instance the charcuterie ($32) which is served as a platter of house-cured salami, peppered duck prosciutto, burrata, pickled vegetables and charred bread — it could easily satisfy a ménage à trois. But, for us, the pièce de résistance is the steak frites ($37), which promises to bring a tear of pride to a carnivorous French person’s eye.

The name Rocker refers to the nose-to-tail of a surfboard, which ties in with both the style of cooking Robertson is known for and with the surf-crazed Bondi community. This local vibe is echoed in the fit-out, which includes timber floorboards alongside concrete panelling and navy blue tiling and table surfaces that give the space a nautical feel. It works at any time of the day.

The coffee bar is currently open seven days a week, offering up single origin brews with takeaway toasties, pastries and cakes. The day menu — served from 7.30am — includes substantial breakfast options, think a gluten-free strawberry pancake and brekkie bowls, along with a white bread sandwich of maple-cured bacon topped with brown sauce.

The dinner service starts from 5.30pm, with snacks including school prawns, oysters and Welsh rarebit. For the main event, think fat pappardelle, a whole John Dory and a pea and pistachio macaroni.

Three Blue Ducks has a third nest  — and it’s open all-day. If you’ve not been before, then prepare to be blown away by the grandeur of the venue. There’s a front deck, two dining spaces and a courtyard, and they’re all fitted out with an industrial chic design you can’t help but love — even though it’s all been done before. With its exposed bricks, beams and ceiling insulation, garage roller doors and concrete floors, it feels like you’re walking into a very fancy garden shed. 

There’s a real focus on seasonal produce and sustainability, while their smoke and fire theme — fuelled by their wood-fired oven, charcoal pits and Argentinian grill out in the garden — is represented throughout each course. Breakfast is served from 7.30–11.30am, before the lunch menu kicks in at noon. For dinner, you can keep it light and simple with a couple of fresh-as-they-come oysters with ginger and shallots ($4 each) and perhaps the miso mackerel with daikon or mushroom. 

At Manly Wine, the white slated and tiled walls, wicker chair seating and tasteful ocean decor transform the space into a posh beach house by the sea from breakfast to after-dinner drinks each day. Ceiling fans circulate Manly’s warm breeze, as fabulously dressed patrons relax in breakfast nook-style booths that look out through the open-air entryway.

You can jump out of the surf and order a brekkie burger and a coffee before you’ve even has time to towel-dry your hair — sit down and enjoy it on the deck. From midday, the menu turns to fresh seafood, fresh salads and sandwiches. Wine is of course of offer, as is a range of cocktails.

Bondi is known for many things — picturesque ocean pools, crowded coastal walks, dietary requirements — but, until recently, its range of wine bars was not one of them. Over the last six months, this has started to change. What was once a select handful of good drinking holes has grown into a convincing case for heading to the eastern suburb after dark. And Bondi Hall is one of the new openings (alongside Bondi Beach Public Bar and Native Drops) putting forth a persuasive, natural wine–soaked argument.

The cafe-cum-wine bar — run by the hospitality masterminds behind Reuben Hills, Paramount Coffee Project and the soon-to-open Paramount House Hotel — opened for daytime trading in early 2016, slinging good coffee, ginger and turmeric lattes and brunch. Then the space had a facelift, and it relaunched in late 2017 with an impressive lineup of night-time snacks and a walk-in fridge packed with funky wines.

As well as being open during the day, seven days a week, the cafe now opens for dinner and drinks Wednesday to Sunday. On the after-dark menu, your eyes are drawn to the sanga in the top left corner — the standout mortadella sandwich ($21). The edible version is equally impressive, a Brickfields panini lathered with salsa verde and hot mustard and stacked high with layers of LP’s mortadella. The meat-to-bread ratio is similar to that of a reuben (for the uninitiated, that’s a liberal two-to-one). The sandwich is available all day (thankfully) as is the cafe’s take on a Welsh rarebit ($14).