Rescue Your Wallet with the Best Dining Deals in Sydney This Month

Back by popular demand, the refined street-level diner at Shell House, Menzies Bar and Bistro, is serving weekly revivals of its most beloved pasta dishes. From July 1, a different Italian crowd-pleaser will take the spotlight each week. Not only are these dishes proven favourites with Menzies’ diners, but they’re also a way to indulge in a fine-dining experience without breaking the bank — an all-too-important consideration in these times of tightened belts and spiralling living costs. Each pasta dish costs just $25 and diners can add a glass of wine to help wash it down for just $10 more.

Lebanese charcoal chicken joint Henrietta is serving up an ‘All-You-Can-Eat Charcoal Chicken’ menu. Guests can indulge in 90 minutes of unlimited succulent charcoal chicken paired with traditional sides for just $48 per person. You can expect hot chicks, crispy chips, creamy toum, fattoush salad, Henrietta’s signature hummus, and pickles. Of course, an all-you-can-eat wouldn’t be complete without some booze. Patrons have the option to go for a bottomless upgrade on select wine and beer for an additional $35 per person. Head over to Henrietta Charcoal Chicken at 75 Chapel Street in Windsor for the new ‘All-You-Can-Eat Charcoal Chicken’ menu, available during lunch hours on the weekend.

So, you think you can’t enjoy a fine-dining experience on a budget? Think again. Until the end of September, upmarket Italian restaurant Otto is offering a steal of a deal: a pasta main with a glass of paired wine plus a dessert available for just $50. Otto is one of Sydney’s most palatial dining spots — perched on the Woolloomooloo finger wharf with unbeatable views of the harbour. Until September 22, diners can choose between a Roman classic, bucatini alla carbonara, or the lesser-known Northern Italian pasta variety corzetti served with cavolo nero kale and pistachio pesto. From Monday, September 23 until Sunday, September 30, thick strands of pici pasta will be served with a rich pork and mushroom ragu or diners can opt for another Roman favourite, the ever-popular spaghetti cacio e pepe.

Sydneysiders love pizza. Sydneysiders also love a bottomless deal. So it is cause for celebration that Harbour City folk can finally celebrate both these passions at once, courtesy of Surry Hills pizzeria, 170 Grammi. Luigi Esposito — the ​​pizzaiolo who helped ignite Sydney’s love of woodfired slices, most notably at his popular chain of Neapolitan restaurants, Via Napoli — is laying on a Roman feast every Friday lunchtime. From midday–4pm, diners can get their fill of Rome’s most quintessential cuisine, including freshly fried suppli (Rome’s answer to arancini), schiacciata, a traditional crisp flatbread loaded with slices of mortadella, and of course, 170 Grammi’s pizza-fication of classic Roman mains, including the already-iconic carbonara and porchetta pizzas.

Neutral Bay’s little slice of Southern California is offering free tacos with every full-priced margarita purchased. The deal applies to all SoCal’s margarita varieties — including its frozen margarita, watermelon margarita, mezcal margarita, and the classic Tommy’s. This happy hour deal runs from 5–6.30pm, Monday–Thursday, and from 3–6.30pm on Fridays. Our recommendation? Give yourself an early mark at the end of the week and start your weekend as you mean to go one with three hours of on-the-house tacos and perfectly spicy sips.

Potts Point’s fancy French brasserie Franca is celebrating its fifth birthday with one of the best happy hour deals in the city right now. Between 5–6pm, you can treat yourself to Franca’s legendary cheeseburger or a serving of rich, decadent chicken liver parfait for just $5 each. Yes, you read that correctly. Are you in need of something to wash that bargain down? Martinis, negronis and schooners of Young Henrys tap beer are also available for only $5 each, which has to be one of the cheapest cocktail offers in the city right now. Joyeux anniversaire mon amis!

At both the OG North Sydney outpost and the newly minted UrbnSurf venue, RAFI is laying on an extended happy hour from 3–6pm, Monday–Saturday. Prices are slashed on several of the restaurant and bar’s most popular dishes, including sourdough pizzas for just $12, golden fried calamari for $13, and juicy cheeseburgers for $16. Punters can also enjoy discounted drops by the glass from Rafi’s wine club selection, The Drop, for just $7, as well as Aperol and Fragola spritzes for $10 and classic margaritas for $14. Whether you’re grabbing a bite after catching some waves in Homebush or you’re relaxing on the al fresco terrace in North Sydney, this is a wallet-saving deal that’s hard to beat.

Take one glance at the chic, Paris-coded dining room of Capella Hotel’s fine diner, Brasserie 1930, and you might reasonably assume that a meal here could break the bank. And ordinarily, there’d be some truth in that assumption — but not on Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes. Operated by Nick Hilderbrandt and Brent Savage’s Bentley Group — the same legendary restaurateurs behind top city diners Monopole and King Clarence — Brasserie 1930 is offering a steal of a deal on these two weekday lunch services, offering half a barbecued Bannockburn chicken, cooked to charred perfection over a woodfired grilled, plus a side — either mixed-leaf salad, crushed cucumber salad, green beans or fries — for the very affordable price of $35. Discounted dining never tasted so good.

Italian fine dining is hard to come by, but Barangaroo’s a’Mare at Crown Towers is offering its guests a delicious discount. For a limited time, the signature menu, usually priced at $210 per person, has been reduced down to just $105 per person, every Friday lunch service (12-3pm) until the end of  October. Paying homage to Italian coasta; dining, the seafood-forward menu features eastern rock lobster paccheri pasta and Westholme wagyu rib eye steak. Accompanied by Italian classics like fresh-baked focaccia, burrata caprese, and the ever-popular crowd favourite, tiramisù, this is the perfect menu to start off your weekend in style.

Friday lunchtimes just got a whole lot tasiter thanks to the noodle whisperers at Cho Cho San in Potts Point. Until the end of November, you can slurp-down a bowl of delicious pork gyoza and prawn katsu ramen for just $30, between midday and 3pm. Each serve comes with four pork gyoza, fried into a crispy net atop a bowl of clear chicken shoyu ramen broth, garnished with spring onion oil and shiitake tare. Resting on top of this dumpling lid are two panko-covered fried prawn katsu pieces, bean sprouts tossed in ponzu and thinly sliced nori sheets. The result is a delectable mix of textures, as the crisp bellies of the fried gyoza and the crunch of the prawn katsu counterpoint the silken strands of noodles beneath. Lunches don’t get much better than this.

One of the best new openings in town is also one of the savviest. Teddy welcomed its first guests in early September with Sydney still very much in the throes of the cost-of-living crisis. With this fact front of mind, happy hours, discounts and enticing deals are a cornerstone of their offering, proving that neighbourhood diners can still be an affordable night out, even in such economically turbulent times. Monday to Saturday between 4–6pm, punters can take advantage of the generous happy hour, where a selection of signature cocktails are on offer for just $12 and glasses of house wines are available for just $10. On Sunday, the same offer applies, except it’s available all day long — perfect for a cheeky end-of-the-weekend sesh that won’t break the bank. On top of that, there are also dining offers every day of the week. On Mondays, BYO is available with zero corkage fee while on Tuesdays, the minute steak is available for the discounted price of $29. On Wednesdays, the pasta and vino offer will get you a pasta main and glass of wine for just $29 and on Thursday, the raid the cellar night offers $50 bin end bottles. On Fridays, you can start the weekend as you mean to go on with the “business women’s special” (although you don’t need to be in business or even a woman to take advantage), which offers a main and marg for $35 during the lunch service. And because lunchtime margs on a Friday often lead to bleary-eyed hangovers on a Saturday, bloody marys, the classic hair-of-the-dog cure-all, are available for $12.

If you’re looking for a decadent way to toast to the change of the seasons, you should make your way to Reign at The QVB for a spring-themed high tea celebrating the launch of Roku Gin Sakura Bloom Edition — the first in Roku Gin’s Seasonal Festive Collection. Roku, which translates to ‘six’ in English, is made with six Japanese botanicals. Each of these botanicals is plucked at the peak of its seasonality — as is the Japanese practice of Shun. The sakura season is one of the most popular times of the year in Japan, as the petals blanket the country in a pink hue. A vision of marble, brass and musk pink, Reign at The QVB is the perfect location for a high tea with a Japanese twist. On the savoury tier, you’ll find cranberry chicken sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches with dill and cream cheese and Japanese egg sandwiches. On the sweet tier, choose between plain and wattleseed raisin scones with clotted cream and quandong jam, macarons, madeleines, raspberry brownies and lemon meringue tarts. For those keen to sample more of the seasonal gin, guests can enjoy three bespoke cocktails made with Roku Gin Sakura Bloom Edition that will be served with the high tea. Guests who purchase the VIP experience ($129pp) will enjoy an exclusive and intimate gin tasting led by Roku Gin Brand Ambassador James Buntin. He will be joined by florist-turned-perfumier Saskia Havekes, founder of Grandiflora, who has crafted a beautifully floral perfume inspired by the floral botanicals in Roku Gin Sakura Bloom Edition. All attendees at this event will go home with a full-size perfume (50ml, valued at $220). This fragrance will only be available at exclusive Roku Gin and Grandiflora events happening throughout spring in Sydney.