The Best French Restaurants in Sydney Right Now

Monopole has come full circle, reaffirming its French affinity but now as a fine-diner, narrowing its focus to a repertoire of classic gourmet cuisine with a firmly tricolore-centric wine, aperitif and digestif selection to match. To be clear, Monopole has not merely joined the ample ranks of Sydney’s many casual bistros and brasseries. What this top-of-class diner is offering exists in an elevated strata almost of its own, serving elegant, seldom-seen dishes — quenelles, millefeuilles, vol-au-vents, bisques. These are plates of extraordinary finesse and technical virtuosity — French fare at its very finest.

Manon is an all-day European brasserie serving French cusine from morning pastries through to extravagant dinners. This expansive venue can be found in the former digs of Jet Cafe inside Sydney’s century-old Queen Victoria Building. Starting with breakfast, takeaway coffee, pastries and French breakfast staples are available from 7am. Come lunch and dinnertime, things are taken up a notch with steak frites, crab souffle, bone marrow tartine, snail meurette and a raw bar. Plus, on Friday and Saturdays, Manon stays open late to help ease your late-night food cravings.

Image: Nikki To

Whalebridge sits in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge offering up French cuisine and specialising in seafood. It boasts a prestigious head chef, ultra-luxurious menu and unbeatable harbour views. Open in the former Circular Quay digs of longstanding seafood restaurant Sydney Cove Oyster Bar, the harbourfront venue is headed up by Executive Chef Will Elliot who has previously worked across London’s St John, Melbourne’s Cumulus Inc. and fellow Sydney CBD French bistro, the beloved Restaurant Hubert. On the menu, you’ll find house specialities that celebrate French cooking and fresh local seafood including duck confit and lobster thermidor — plus a 150-strong wine list. It’s one of the boojiest French restaurants in Sydney.

Bouillon L’Entrecôte — and its north shore sibling venue Brasserie L’Entrecôte — celebrates tradition, serving up classic dishes done incredibly well. The bouillon opened in Circular Quay’s new dining precinct Quay Quarter Lanes alongside a slew of exciting new venues including Besuto, Hinchcliff House and Londres 126. Head upstairs and you find an expansive dining room with a grand French fit-out. Luxurious detailing and large dining tables are complemented with art and photographs sprawled across the wall — headlined by a huge portrait of legendary French chef Paul Bocuse. When it comes to the French food, the options are varied but not overwhelming. Among the highlights are escargot drenched in a rich sauce and ultra-cheesy twice-baked soufflé, but the house specialty is the 200-gram sirloin steak served with french fries, walnut green salad and the kitchen’s famous secret sauce. Owner Johan Giausseran, nor the chefs, will give up the secret to the sauce’s recipe, no matter how hard you might prod.

The name does a lot of the heavy lifting for this Sydney French bistro situated above P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants’ Paddington outpost on Oxford Street. Porcine is a restaurant tailor-made for the carnivorous-inclined to pig out on excellent food and wine courtesy of owners Nicholas Hill (former Head Chef at The Old Fitz) and ex-Don Peppino’s co-owner Harry Levy. The menu quite literally goes the whole hog with a focus on nose-to-tail cooking. Highlights of this approach appear on the menu in the form of pork shoulder with pomme purée and choucroute garnie; pork creton with lentils; and truffled pork and prune pâté with duck fat toast. Don’t fret if you’re meat-averse. Veg friends are looked after with a wild mushroom vol-au-vent, hearty autumn vegetables with vinaigrette, and a crisp raw endive with plum, capers and mint.

Lavender Bay’s Loulou is offering Sydneysiders a taste of everyday French life. The triple whammy bistro-bakery-delicatessen hybrid has become a local favourite on the lower north shore, with the team providing everything from a morning coffee and luxe crab soufflé omelets, to a champagne lunch paired with hand-cut steak tartare. Over at the bistro, you’ll find shaved veal tongue, caviar service and an impressive wine list. Follow your nose to the boulangerie next door where you’ll be enveloped in the delicious aroma of artisanal baguettes, croissants, batards and baked sweets. In the traiteur (delicatessen), browse through a wide selection of house-made produce and comforting home-style meals created by French-born chef and butcher Cyprien Picard (ex-Victor Churchill).

Images: Steven Woodburn

Franca came towards the beginning of Potts Point’s recent wave of high-end restaurants. Over the next three years it’s become a beloved spot in the area for a special occasion or treat-yourself meal — to the point where owner Andrew Becher has opened a Catalonian-inspired sibling venue next door. With its moniker derived from lingua franca — a common language adopted by those whose native languages are different, historically a mix of Italian, French, Greek, Arabic and Spanish — Franca takes cues from all corners of the Mediterranean, though it leans heavily on France. The menu features reinvented French classics, be it a niçoise salad with sashimi-style tuna or Besseau’s seasonal take on soufflés. Topping it all off is a 250-strong wine list housed in the venue’s an open wine cellar.

While restaurants like Hubert and Bistrot 916 are reinventing French food in Sydney, Bistrot Gavroche is more preoccupied with nailing the classics. It aims to pay loving homage to old-school French bistro and it succeeds. Walking into the dining room you’re greeted with a mahogany fit-out, plush red booths and pristine white table cloths, transporting you straight to Europe. Located above Spice Alley, Gavroche has mastered the basis of a great French menu. Think cheeses, escargot, beef tartare, onion soup, moules frites and foie gras. But there are also plenty of specialty dishes to be found. Look no further than the yellowfin tuna tartare made with lemon, pickled onion and creme fraîche, or the cøte de boeuf for two, served with MB4 OP ribs, bearnaise sauce and beef jus.

Potts Point’s lavish French diner Bistro Rex has been a local favourite since opening back in 2017. Set on Macleay Street in a former Commonwealth Bank building, the bistro oozes cool — and it also oozes cheese soufflé. The ooey, gooey, twice-baked masterpiece is a standout on the menu — made using cantal cheese that’s produced in the Auvergne region of central France. Rex is also a big proprietor of local produce and sustainability. The Sydney French restaurant sources produce from around NSW including its venison, lamb, pork and angus steer from Mountainbred Farm in Oberon. It also employs a nose-to-tail program in which it utilises as much of the animals it serves as possible — with dishes like offal, cote de voeuf and suckling pig crown, shoulder, leg and terrine all available. Accompany your pork leg with bone marrow spring rolls, spanner crab omelette and the aforementioned soufflé and you’ve got yourself a memorable meal.

If Felix was in a Paris arrondissement rather than the Sydney CBD, no one would blink a perfectly curled eyelash. Yes, it’s a little piece of Paris and no one’s complaining. From the (sometimes) French waiters bustling around the tiled floors to the decadent crustacean bar and elaborate murals on the ceiling, Felix is the bistro the city has been waiting for – and we can’t get enough of the Steak Frites. It’s a humming, buzzing, people-watchers delight in here: all beautiful wooden finishes, crisp white table cloths and intricate tiling. All the classic French cues are here: the ever-changing ‘Plat du Jour’, the rotisserie section and that incredible oyster bar.

The fourth venue in Odd Culture Group’s Newtown empire, Bistro Grenier, is a refined spot for an intimate soirée, where diners can experience classic French fare at its best. To realise this new venue, Odd Culture has tapped the skills of Executive Chef James MacDonald — formerly of Sydney’s Restaurant Hubert and London’s pioneering nose-to-tail eatery St John. MacDonald has developed a menu that celebrates traditional recipes while adding modern flourishes, leaning on heartier, rustic dishes showcasing low-waste butchering.

Brasserie 1930, a lavish European-influenced brasserie, swung open its doors in Sydney’s CBD in early 2023, calling the luxury hotel Capella Sydney home. Named after the year the Young Street section of the building was completed, Brasserie 1930 takes the idea of an elevated French diner and injects it with local Australian produce and Sydney-popular dishes. Original architectural features of the nearly century-old building have been restored, then complemented with sleek modern furnishings and light fixtures.

Run by chef Dan Pepperell (Alberto Lounge, 10 William Street and Frankie’s) and sommelier Andy Tyson (Alberto Lounge), together with long-time Rockpool Dining Group chef Michael Clift, the Potts Point restaurant is a favourite of Sydney Francophiles. Bistrot 916 is dark and restrained. Pink paper tablecloths cover dark wood tables, wines line the walls and the space is lit by soft pendant lights and candles. Sadly, the bistro is set to close its doors by the end of the year, but until then, run don’t walk so you can experience on of the city’s best French diners before it’s gone for good.

The lavish French-influenced dining space boasts timber detailed ceilings, European oak joinery, brass gantries and an open kitchen centred around a custom-built grill. The grill is put to full use at Armorica, with plenty of fire-heavy dishes that utilise top Australian produce to create classic northern French feeds. From steak frites and aged pork cutlet to grilled rock lobster and whole chicken served with chicken skin and thyme gravy, you’ll be left impressed — and full —  from the grill menu.

Celebrity chef Manu Feildel is best known through his prime-time tenure judging My Kitchen Rules. Flipping the script, Sydneysiders now have the chance to judge his skills on the pans at his charming Inner West bistro. For his return to a professional kitchen following a four-year hiatus, Fieldel—a sixth-generation chef—has created a menu of rustic French fare, including treasured recipes passed down through his family.