With more than 50 dishes on Spice Temple's menu, this longstanding Sydney venue pushes Chinese cuisine in new directions without losing traditional flavours. The extra spicy dishes highlighted in red serve as a warning to those intolerant to fiery mouthfuls of food or a beacon to those who love said burning sensations. The dishes, to be shared, are monumentally large — even for two people. A half-share of any main is a minor challenge to finish. Divided between salads and cold cuts, hot entrees, noodles, dumplings, seafood, poultry, pork, lamb, beef and veggies, Spice Temple's variety is impressive. [caption id="attachment_792103" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption] The starter of lamb and prawn wontons with black vinegar and chilli, while the pork and prawn spring rolls are another hit. Other choice selections to kick things are the the stir-fried wagyu brisket with baby eggplant and chilli paste or steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and fried onions. For the next hit, the black Angus scotch fillet with kampot pepper and curry leaves is a hearty delight. The highlight of the Sydney Spice Temple menu, a beef fillet in fire water, is a fancy way of saying wagyu beef strips in a chilli broth with peppercorn. To cool the fire and as a recommended necessity, the greens stir fried with garlic are a great juxtaposition to the spice. For dessert, the three-milk cake with pistachio and almond is a delicious treat in a custard and raspberry bed. If you're coming with a group then be sure to try and book the Eastern dining room equipped for 50 guests and designed to resemble a jewellery box, while the 12-seater dining room is more intimate and luminous with seductive lighting. For Chinese food, yes, this is a tad expensive, and to truly dent the vast menu, you need a group or repeat visits. If you're keen, there's generally a comprehensive banquet option on offer, but a return trip or two is recommended, especially if your body is your temple, and your tastebuds are the entrance. [caption id="attachment_792106" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption]
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and its Parade are synonymous: it's impossible to imagine one without the other. The historic centrepiece, the jewel in the sparkly tiara, the very raison d'être of the festival, is an important, entertaining, and uplifting celebration of all things LGBTIQA+. Hundreds of beautiful floats, themselves testaments to the immense creative talents of the queer community and drawn from all walks of life, glide down Oxford Street to the thunderous adulation of tens of thousands of revellers. The theme guiding the parade's 48th edition is ECSTATICA, which celebrates joy as power, protest and connection. Unfortunately, entries for this cavalcade of queerness have now closed, however you can still get down and share in the love. A word to the wise, though — unless you've bought tickets to one of the many Parade events held by pubs and clubs with a view of the route (or you have a friend with a balcony overlooking Oxford Street), get there early as spots will go fast. There'll be accessible viewing areas on Flinders Street, while Glitter Club at Taylor Square will put you as close to the action as possible without stepping onto the route itself — unfiltered, unforgettable and right in the heart of the Parade. Image: Ash Penin.
Fancy a good glass of wine after a day at the beach? Coogee locals Tom Hardwick and Michelle Morales certainly do, and their new venue — Coogee Wine Room — lets you do just that. Taking cues from the bustling wine bars of Europe, Coogee Wine Room is a post-beach go-to for the eastern suburbs. It's opened along Coogee Bay Road, just one block up from the ocean. As to be expected, the team is taking its wine game very seriously. The 500-strong list has been expertly curated with years of experience. A list of that stature may seem overwhelming but the friendly staff will be sure to help you out to pick the perfect drop. In the kitchen, Head Chef Greg Humphry is plating up a succinct, Mediterranean-style menu. The food is seasonal with a focus on local produce, but some fan favourites remain constant like smoked hummus, pork sliders, and the iconic CWR steak rated one of the best steaks in Sydney. Local design studio Tom Mark Henry is behind the Coogee Wine Room fit-out, which spans two storeys and — as goes the trend — maintains an industrial vibe. Expect exposed brick walls, concrete floors and a black steel staircase, along with warm timber tones, wraparound banquettes and marble finishes. Downstairs, you'll find the causal front bar — perfect for post-beach wines — while the slightly larger upstairs dining room is primed for long lunches. Images: Steven Woodburn.
The latest installation of Saké Restaurant & Bar opened back in 2018 as part of the revamped Manly Wharf precinct. The rooftop digs boast the sixth iteration of the award-winning Sake brand, and the third in Sydney, to continue its signature offering of sleek and contemporary Japanese fare — but this time with a distinctly Manly vibe. The 300-seat space is designed by the highly lauded studio Luchetti Krelle (Manly Greenhouse, Terminus Hotel and Acme, to name a few) and really reflects its beachside location. Think floor-to-ceiling windows and bi-fold doors that open onto an al fresco dining terrace, and to the panoramic ocean views of Manly Cove beyond. The bright dining room includes a variety of seating with a 40-seat sushi counter, a 60-seat bar and several private dining spaces. An open kitchen centres around the robata grill, which turns out an izakaya-style menu that's available at the bar all day. Venue specific dishes include lobster tempura with jalapeños and wagyu strip loin with chat potatoes and yakiniku sauce. On the regular menu at Sake Restaurant and Bar Manly, signature Sake dishes like the hiramasa kingfish and popcorn shrimp sit alongside Manly-exclusive items like tempura miso-glazed eggplant. The expansive drinks list has a focus on Japanese sakes, with the 30-label menu served by the glass, carafe, bottle or flight. There's also a 150-strong wine list and over 30 gin distilleries represented, too. If you're coming to Sake Restaurant and Bar Manly with a group then look to book one of the elegant private dining rooms, with seatings of six to twenty available across three rooms. Images: Tom Ferguson (venue) and Anna Kucera (food and drinks).
UPDATE: MAY 25, 2020 — The Grounds of Alexandria is great, but have you ever wished you could have a space all to yourself? No lining up for hours, no waiting for a table, no jostling for a primo spot under the fairy lights, just you and your nearest and dearest dining and wining. Well, for a limited time, you and nine of your mates can hire out The Arbour, The Bakery or The Lock-In for a night. For $195 a head, you'll get a three-course meal and unlimited drinks from 6pm on Friday or Saturday. This will book out fast, so email events@thegrounds.com.au if you're keen. There are plenty of reasons why (what feels like) half the city chooses to take their midday meal at the Grounds of Alexandria. Aside from checking out the weekend markets and beautiful sprawling gardens, or paying a visit to Harry Trotter and his barnyard buddies, the food you'll be served is pretty darn delicious. The most coveted tables are those in The Cafe where you can order the signature granola, health bowls, pasta and sandwiches made on house-baked bread. If you'd rather eat outdoors, opt for The Garden kiosk, which serves woodfired pizzas, burgers and salads. Or, head to The Potting Shed for bistro fare, from scotch fillet slathered with café de Paris butter to the whole grilled snapper in a ginger dashi broth.
Victoria's answer to Dark Mofo, WinterWild, is returning to Apollo Bay for two weekends this August. While last year's after-dark winter arts festival was structured around the death and birth, this year's theme is 'visions and ecstasies'. Creeping into the coastal shire on the eastern side of Cape Otway, the festival will take place on the weekends of August 16–18 and August 30–September 1. Each weekend will begin with braziers on the beach, before unleashing a vivid program of music, performances, feasting and workshops — all focused on the idea of peering into the darkness for inspiration, revelations and surprises. Standout events on the program for the first weekend, running from August 16–18, include Visions of Excess, which combines kaleidoscopic visuals with the music of Black Heart Death Cult and Flyying Colours; a suitably psychedelic tribute to Jimi Hendrix; and, following on from last year, another immersive (and haunting) blend of projections, lights and sounds in the quarry. Two weekends later, across August 30–September 1, WinterWild will celebrate the music of David Bowie; pair a definitely-not vegan-meal with burlesque and puppetry at the decadent Feastiality; and make shapes outside, by the water and in the cold evening air, at Moon Garden. For those eager to make the trip twice, The Redemption unfurls across both weekends — with the theatrical production playing for free in two parts, involving the citizens of Apollo Bay, and happening by the harbour. Or, if you're keen to completely dive in, you can opt for the two workshop programs, dubbed 'The Left Hand Path' and 'The Right Hand Path'. WinterWild will run across two weekends, Death from August 10–12 and Birth from August 24–26. To see the full lineup and purchase tickets, head to winterwildapollobay.com.au.
Set within luxurious surrounds, BLACK Bar & Grill is the Star's steak in shining armour. A favourite amongst the casino's high-rolling gamblers, BLACK is a beef fiend's haven. BLACK's interior might present itself in blatant contrast to Sydney's favour of casual dining, but for that we hail it as an indulgence. Bunk down in one of the wood and copper-panelled booths, at the sultry bar or book ahead to secure a private room. And to go with the decadent decor? Celebrity chefs and inspiring food. Start with some freshly shucked oysters to awaken the buds; they come with a cucumber vinaigrette and sesame dressing. BLACK Bar & Grill's crudo of silver trevally, persimmon and burnt mandarin is another quality choice if after something light to whet one's appetite. And if we're honest, we're here for the beef. The 300g scotch fillet, grain-fed angus has a marble rating of 5+ and is suited to those after a hefty slab of meat. Add a side of burnt BBQ tomato sauce, mashed potato with chives, and some butternut pumpkin with sesame, lentil, and mint. Most likely, you'll be adjusting your notches. For something a little more refined, the flat iron, ration-fed wagyu with a +9 marble rating can only be described as a tender god. A porcini mushroom and veal sauce is a better fit for the wagyu. And for those who are game, there's always dessert. The cream cheesecake with mugwort ice cream, lavender crystal and perilla is a fun and rich indulgence, while the seasonal fruit sorbet is a tad lighter. BLACK Bar & Grill is expensive, yes, and not for everyone. But if you're around the casino traps and so happen to get lucky, you should call it all or nothing. For indulgence at its best, BLACK's the winning bet. [caption id="attachment_759153" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Blackbird Bar and Grill[/caption] Top image: Anna Kucera Appears in: Where to Find the Best Steak in Sydney
You might've missed out on a Splendour in the Grass ticket in yesterday's ticketing tornado, but that doesn't mean the show's over. This morning, ten Splendour artists announced sideshows in cities around Australia. For a start, Sigur Ros will be touring the Australian debut of their show, An Evening with Sigur Ros. There's no support act, which means you're in for two sets, covering material old and new. Catch the Icelandic trio at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday, July 25 and Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena on Thursday, July 27. Meanwhile, Two Door Cinema Club will be hitting Australian capitals with their third studio album, Gameshow, recorded in Kopanga Canyon, California with producer Jacknife Lee. Get a dose of their electro-indie-pop at Metro City, Perth, on Wednesday, July 19; Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, on Friday, July 21; and Festival Hall, Melbourne, on Tuesday, July 25. Supporting them will be triple j favourites Last Dinosaurs and The Creases. To catch HAIM outside of Splendour, you'll have to get yourself to Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Thursday, July 20 — it's the only show they're doing. Sisters Este, Danielle and Alana scored a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for their 2013 release, Days Are Gone, and have been working on their hotly anticipated follow-up. 23-year-old English singer-songwriter George Ezra is returning to Australia after selling out his 2015 tour here. His debut album, Wanted on Voyage, sold three million copies and, yes, you can expect to hear hits 'Budapest' and 'Blame It On Me'. Ezra will be at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Tuesday, July 18 and Melbourne's Forum Theatre on Wednesday, July 19. Another songwriter to catch is Sweden's Tove Lo. She's been writing hits — for both herself and others — for more than ten years and inspired one million album sales in the process. Her latest album Lady Wood is best known for single 'Cool Girl'. She's also lent her pen and ear to a bunch of chart toppers, including Flume's 'Say It', Coldplay's 'Fun' and Broods' 'Freak of Nature'. See Tove Lo in Sydney at the Metro Theatre on Wednesday, July 26 and in Melbourne at the Prince Bandroom on Friday, July 28. English blues man Rag 'n' Bone (Rory Graham), who mixes the blues tradition with hip hop and beats, will be making his Aussie debut at Splendour, before setting off for Sydney's Metro Theatre on Friday, July 21 and Melbourne's 170 Russell on Monday, July 24. Meanwhile, Maggie Rogers, discovered by Pharrell Williams at an NYU masterclass last year, will be playing her headline shows at the Corner Hotel, Melbourne, on Sunday, July 23 and the Factory Theatre, Sydney on Tuesday, July 25. Her debut EP, Light is Fading, is out now and its single 'Alaska' has racked up 31 million views on YouTube. LA-based songwriter Bishop Briggs, known for her gritty vocals and unique songwriting, will be at Sydney's Oxford Art Factory on Thursday, July 20 and Melbourne's Howler on Friday, July 21, while rock 'n' roll duo The Lemon Twigs will be landing in Australia after appearances at Coachella and Glastonbury, to play the Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, on Saturday, July 22 and The Curtin, Melbourne, on Tuesday, July 21. Finally, catch LANY from LA, whose track 'ILYSB' won hearts and minds online, at Max Watts, Melbourne on Friday, July 21 and Metro Theatre, Sydney, on Saturday, July 22.
In the most unlikely of suburban streets, S'more, hidden way up in Sydney's north shore, is a fun and laidback steakhouse with serious food and imagination to spare. The interior is kept to the bare minimum, with a few white curtains to give it that breezy suburban feel, while a large blackboard sets the tone for the evening with chef's specials galore. You may find the metal chairs a little stiff, but don't worry, as the smooth jazz soundtrack and easy Motown will have you mellowed out in no time. You don't have to dress up to come here, but you do have to book ahead, and when you book, be prepared to pay as there is a minimum for each diner. Opened by "Big" Sam Young and his partner Grace Chen, they bring years of experience from Sydney institutions such as Mr Wong. Totti's and Queen Chow. They're offering begins with a Siberian caviar menu, which can be paired with a bottle of 2015 Dom Perignon for a hefty fee. Alternatively, you can begin the night with some rock oysters with fermented hot sauce and grilled scallop 'cafe de smore' butter. Be sure to order some shallot bread with miso butter to soak up the salted egg yolk with potato cake. Small plates at S'more include soy honey butter sweet corn with sansho pepper and sweet and sour pork rib with aged vinegar caramel. Vinegar and caramel may be an unlikely pairing, but that's what these guys do best, pairing classics with fresh flavours, it brings a touch of sophistication to the otherwise casual vibe. The hibachi grill is the star attraction here, however, and the 550g O'Connor dry-aged bone-in sirloin is an absolute winner. There is also a 900g MB9 wagyu bone-in ribeye and a 1kg Jack's Creek t-bone to keep you honest. If steak isn't your thing, you're well looked after with romaine lettuce, yuzu ranch and shiso, a specialty lobster pasta and 150g Glacier51 toothfish with black bean and shimeji. S'more's wine list is impressive with plenty of juicy whites and an impressive selection of bubbles including a 1964 Dom Perignon which will set you back quite a lot. The reds have a strong Australian lean with some Barossa classics like 1999 Rockford Basket Press shiraz on offer as well as a magnum of 1986 Penfolds Grange. By the glass, there are plenty on offer across all grapes. The spirit list is impressive, with all kinds of whisky, gin, tequila and everything else inbetween. Images: Jiwon Kim Appears in: Where to Find the Best Steaks in Sydney
Two Chaps is one of the best things you'll find behind a garage roller door in Sydney. The Chapel Street cafe has a strong following among vegetarians and pastry lovers, and for good reason — everything on the menu is vego and the kitchen bakes all its own bread and pastries. Plus, almost everything can be done vegan or gluten-free. There are two menus on offer, the day menu and the Two Chaps night menu. The day menu features pastries, brioche burgers — such as the spiced pumpkin version with onion jam, mint coconut yogurt, and pickled beetroot — as well as a seasonal salad bowl and eggs on sourdough. For drinks, there are a range of coffees and teas to choose from and an array of cold drinks, including smoothies, cold brew and a fruity frappe, if you're feeling fancy. You can drop by and purchase the aforementioned baked goods each day — along with one of three daily sandwich options — or sit in for what is one of Sydney's best brunches. Keep in mind — the cafe kitchen closes at 2:30pm daily. Alternatively, the night menu features a set dinner menu, alongside vegan and gluten-free alterations. Think stracciatella with grilled radicchio; handmade polenta with porcini sauce and rosemary oil; and cauliflower gratin with confit leek and pangrattato. For dessert, the roast banana mille-feullie and the mandarin granita are the perfect way to end a satisfying meal. For vegan and gluten free alternatives the friendly staff will guide you through the ever changing options. The set menu requires reservations, so make sure to book either the 6pm or 8:15pm time slots. There is also a BYO policy with a small corkage fee. Images: Alana Dimou. Appears in: The Best Degustations Under $100 in Sydney The Best Cafes in Sydney Where to Find the Best Breakfast in Sydney
Remember how it rained all last winter? Well get set for another rainy season, folks: as I write this I'm looking out on to a rain-sodden Oxford Street. What with Sydney being all about beaches and carousing in the sun, we seem to cope less well with the wet and the cold. But there's so much this city has to offer, and in particular when it's miserable out and the nights get too cold to venture outdoors, one of the nicest things to do is hang out with a book. Or better yet, hang out in one of Sydney's lovely independent bookshops, which we should all be supporting. With this in mind, we present to you our pick of Sydney's ten best bookstores. 1. Gertrude & Alice Where: 46 Hall St, Bondi Beach Wall to wall books. Books from ceiling to floor, interspersed with communal tables. Gertrude & Alice is what Shakespeare's is to Paris, and provides a welcome haven amongst the surfers and backpackers of Bondi Beach. The food served is fresh and universally excellent, and it's one of the best places to go if you're feeling a bit lonesome, because the welcoming communal tables ensure that you'll always feel at home. Named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, the famous expat American couple who encouraged the careers of Hemingway and Henry Miller, amongst others, there's a lot of heart to this place, as well as lovely velvet sofas and delicious chai. They also boast a Hemingway room, quieter and lined with reference books and the perfect place to woo another attractive bookworm. 2. Better Read Than Dead Where: 265 King Street, Newtown I have spent a lot of money in this place. I only realised how many times I was in there over the summer when one of the sales girls said to me "You're in here all the time, and I've always wanted to say I really like your dresses." Which was lovely to hear, because the rest of my scanty budget goes towards dresses. Better Read Than Dead have one of the best staff recommendation systems around, and they'll often hook you up with things you'll love forever which you'd never find on your own. Everyone working there is incredibly helpful and chatty if you engage with them, but they'll otherwise leave you to your own devices. Close to Camperdown Memorial Park, one of the nicest things to do when it's sunny is to get yourself a book and find a tree to lie under and read. 3. Berkelouw Books Where: 19 Oxford Street, Paddington, 8 O'Connell Street, Newtown, 70 Norton Street Leichhardt and 708 New South Head Road, Rose Bay Berkelouw are kind of everywhere right now - seriously, there's one adjacent to a carpark in Cronulla. But each of them feels individual, and each of them are awesome. The better branches of Berkelouw are the older ones: Paddington and Leichhardt, as well as the newer, but adorable, Newtown branch. Berkelouw comes with a cafe and comfy leather couches for you to squish up in and read for hours, and there's also a separate second hand section which is always worth a look. I would personally recommend the Newtown Berkelouw, if only because of its close proximity to T2 and Guzman y Gomez, it's welcome student discount, and the fact that the first time I went in they were playing The Smiths. 4. Gould's Book Arcade Where: 37 King St, Newtown You cannot argue with this place. It is the undisputed king of second-hand books in Sydney. You could disappear into this place and never come out again. I would wager you could find a gateway to Narnia in Gould's. With a liberally relaxed policy when it comes to organisation, you'll find Marxist histories of industrial labour sitting side by side with a 1996 travel guide to Slovakia. But stick around for a couple of hours (and you can, it's open until midnight, after all) you'll find treasure for a pittance. At the centre of the store was, until his death in May of 2011, Bob Gould himself, the silvery-bearded stalwart of Sydney's sixties counter-culture who was once arrested for his anti-Vietnam and anti-establishment activities. 5. Kinokuniya Where: Level 2 The Galleries, 500 George Street, Sydney Kinokniuya is the only big chainstore included on the list, but this list would be nothing without it. The Japanese bookstore giant believes in promoting art and culture, not just hocking the best-selling pulp-literary tat to people, and has been one of the most welcome additions to the city in the past few years. Kinokuniya is awesome - it has everything, the stuff you can't find anywhere else, ever. You can spend hours hanging out in the light-filled building which overlooks the criss-crossing pedestrian traffic of the George and Park Street intersection. It boasts an entire Japanese section, the best range of graphic novels and manga and an incredible range of art and design books, as well as every kind of fiction under the sun. Kinokuniya also features an in-store gallery to showcase emerging artists. 6. Gleebooks Where: 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, 536 Marrickville Rd, Dulwich Hill and 191 Glebe Point Road, Glebe (Antiquarian & Second-Hand) Gleebooks is a Sydney institution. The city's most reliable independent bookseller for many years, they stock an unbelievably vast range of books; fiction and non-fiction alike, and often play host to talks by international and national figures, including The Chaser boys. When they talk about independent booksellers being in peril, you know that Gleebooks will be the last to go. Its second-hand and children's sections are located further up Glebe Point Road, and are completely worth the walk up the hill. Also, a Dulwich Hill branch recently opened up which is a very welcome addition to an often neglected portion of the Inner West. 7. Ariel Books Where: 42 Oxford St, Paddington and 103 George Street, The Rocks Ariel have a fantastic selection of art, architecture and design books adorning their shelves. The shop's interior is open and clean, although there are some delightful lanterns which pretty up the place, and it has the benefit of being open until midnight. Mostly it's the awesome range of books and the atmosphere of the place which makes Ariel so nice, but you can also get yourself a Moleskine, some Mexican kitsch ornaments or some chocolate, if they take your fancy. A stone's throw away from the College of Fine Arts and on the edge of the city's hipster quarters, the place is filled with a mix of spaced-out locals, art school kids and some very attractive bookish types. 8. Sappho Books, Cafe & Wine Bar Where: 51 Glebe Point Road, Glebe Sappho's is a cafe and wine bar as well as a second-hand bookshop, and has the loyal custom of many of the local Sydney University students. The pokey little shop has a huge range of books on every subject matter and has been hosting regular poetry nights for the last couple of years. You're always certain to find what you're looking for, and often in really nice editions: some of the copies from the '50s and '60s you'll find are so nice you'll want to frame them. This is also the only place on this list where you can sit with a book and a glass of wine, or a jug of sangria, until the wee hours under the shade of the jasmine and banana trees. 9. Ampersand Cafe Bookstore Where: 78 Oxford St, Paddington So easy to miss amongst the tumultuous crowds on Oxford Street, Ampersand is bigger than it looks from the street and a haven away from the city and the crowds. With a good range of second-hand books tucked away across three floors and offering amazing, cheap first-edition copies of books like The Master & Margarita and The Human Stain, Ampersand also wins on the coffee front - it is truly excellent. Downstairs is a communal table if you feel like making some friends, or you're perfectly welcome to hang out on your own. 10. Journeys Bookstore & Cafe Where: 127 Trafalgar Street, Annandale Journeys is another very cute bookstore and cafe, housed in a converted terrace, where you're invited to flip through the pages of books while sipping some tea. The titles are all handpicked, and there'a seriously good travel section. Upstairs is the best bit, a bright airy room decked out with comfy couches, and surrounded by seven bookcases. Each case represents a region of the world, and you'll find travel guides, history, fiction and travel literature to match every country in that part of the world. If you wish you were elsewhere there's no better place to imagine it.
On the north shore, this easy going date spot is an excellent place to step up your date nights. On Sundays, it has live music, which will add the perfect soundtrack to your evening out. Its extensive menu makes it a crowd-pleasing dining option, too. Opt to share tapas-style plates of chorizo, zucchini frites, chicken wings, oven-baked haloumi and wild mushroom risotto balls. Or if you're not quite in sharing territory yet, go for the pie of the day or a beef burger. [caption id="attachment_779825" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cassandra Hannagan[/caption] Images: Cassandra Hannagan
After a short-lived stint on Bayswater Road, Turkish eatery Izgara relocated to Clarence Street with a contemporary new look and a whole different approach to the dining experience, shifting the vibe from fine-ish dining restaurant to a more laidback, more loose street food menu and great cocktails. The change paid off. The menu is adaptable to whatever your after — an affordable lunch meeting, a pre-theatre date night or a rambunctious long dinner with your extended crew. You can easily do a few snacks and a glass of wine or get giddy with a full set menu and paired wines. Begin with an order of pide (courtesy of Malika Bakehouse) to mop up the super delicious char-grilled Turkish chilli peppers and smoked labneh. Don't fear the chilli as they're mild on the heat and sweet so you can eat the entire thing. The kibbeh, which you order in individual units, is some of the best I've encountered in Sydney. Most kibbeh has a tendency to dry out but Head Chef and co-owner Efe Topuzlu has managed to balance an excellent textural crust with a fragrant lamb mince filling that is succulent enough to eat without the garlic yoghurt it's served with. [caption id="attachment_949545" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The succulent kibbeh at Izgara[/caption] Izgara means grill in Turkish, and the grill here is the centrepiece of the main menu. Yamba prawns, lamb kofte and chicken kebab all highlights of the menu that receive the char-grilled treatment or there's börek and baked eggplant options for vegetarians. The drinks list is pretty impressive. The cocktail lineup is short but sweet with just four signature serves (the sour cherry margarita is a highlight). The wine list on the other hand is more expansive — reaching from around the country and all over Europe including Turkey. Izgara is doing affordable, fun laidback dining in the city — something that's been severely lacking in days gone by. Images: Katje Ford
Jolene's Sydney is a Nashville-inspired bar boasting one of the biggest collections of whiskies in Sydney. Located across from Sammy Junior and the Prince of York, Jolene's comes from Simon Rose-Hopkins, who has worked across other American-themed Sydney venues like Surly's American BBQ and Nola Smokehouse and Bar. The CBD venue boasts a collection of more than 150 different whiskies, including 100 sourced specifically from American whiskey distillers. At Jolene's, you can opt for your whisky neat, on the rocks or in one of the bar's many exciting cocktails. Try the Country as Fuck (with bourbon, blackberry, lemon and sweet tea), Redneck Sangria (with vermouth and prosecco) or Tennessee Truck Stop (with Jack Daniel's, vanilla, pancake syrup and banana). Head down for the happy hour from 4–6pm on Tuesday–Saturday. Taking influence from whiskey-loving Nashville, the dimly lit bar has red velvet booths named after country singers. You can spend your night in the Chris Stapleton, Johnny Cash or pop-country queen Taylor Swift booth, or big groups can book out the 12-seat VIP Dolly Parton booth. The Nashville influence doesn't stop there. Keeping in the spirit of the southern musical hub, Jolene's hosts local country and rock musicians three nights a week. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8–11pm, you can stop by for back-to-back sets from artists such as Steve Edmonds Band, Lozz Benson, Blake Dantier and Duncan Toombs. Rose-Hopkins, a frequent visitor to Nashville, says, "The bar is my way of paying homage to some of the best nights of my life and bringing that genuine Southern hospitality to York Street." Food-wise, patrons can expect a reserved menu of diner-style American snacks. Think hot dogs and tater tots. And, while the drinks menu is obviously veered towards whiskey aficionados, there are gin and vodka cocktails on offer, alongside a selection of craft beers on tap. Top image: Michael Klimentos Bottom image: Jo Forster
Sydney's clubbing scene farewelled a bona fide giant in March when ARQ, the longstanding LGBTQIA+ nightclub that anchored the Oxford Street nightlife landscape, closed its doors for the final time. For 26 years, the Darlinghurst darling was at the forefront of Sydney's queer nightlife scene, with DJs and performers from around the world taking to the stage over its lifetime, including a still-talked-about surprise gig by Lady Gaga in 2011. But this June, the Flinders Street spot will be reborn as AURA, an inclusive, multi-genre, multi-room nightlife destination that promises a stacked lineup of local and international DJs, immersive productions and themed events several nights a week. It's being brought to life by a team of Sydney nightlife heavyweights, including Dave Auld (SEADECK Sydney), brothers Ricardo and Umberto Monfardini (Movement), Bryan Ro (Puzzles Records) and Justin Muscat (ALLFRIENDS), who are promising to "honour the past, celebrate the present and set a new standard for Sydney nightlife". Regular visitors might notice some significant cosmetic changes in the new space. AURA will feature new-look decor, upgraded lighting systems and more seating than ARQ, to encourage comfort and connection. One key element that the new owners are keen to maintain, though, is ARQ's management team, to provide a sense of continuity for both patrons and promoters alike. "We're not here to wipe the slate clean," says Auld. "We're here to build on a foundation of loyalty, passion, and culture, evolving it for a new generation, while honouring the community that made this place iconic." [caption id="attachment_681185" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Katje Ford[/caption] A huge part of what made ARQ "iconic" was, of course, the music, and AURA will be coming in hot with a huge weekly, multi-night program of performers and events. It kicks off with the colourful Carnivàle Thursdays, where you can expect Latin-inspired music and performances. Friday nights will be reserved for a rotating mix of events by a range of promoters, while Saturdays will see the venue make full use of its two floors, with upstairs pumping out melodic, afro and commercial house, while the notorious basement will host DJs playing deep house and minimal tech, backed by a new state-of-the-art lighting rig. And if you're looking for somewhere to take a time out, you don't need to default to the smokers' — AURA will also boast a secluded sensory retreat space, inspired by legendary Ibiza lounge Café del Mar. "ARQ has always been an impressive venue, it's a purpose-built nightclub that's lasted the test of time," says Auld. "Twenty-six years is an incredible run and we acknowledge that legacy with great respect. But like most things, it's time for evolution. AURA is our next chapter, one that celebrates the heritage while pushing the boundaries of what a modern nightclub can be." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aura Nightclub (@aura.club.sydney) AURA is slated to open in June 2025 at 16 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst. For more information, head to the venue's website. Top image: Katje Ford.
The allure of a Mediterranean beach holiday might seem tempting, but you'll find a bounty of worthy vacation spots located right here in your own backyard. And if sun, sand and surf are on the agenda, there are plenty of idyllic island escapes up and down the coast of Queensland, just waiting to be explored. Indulge in a tropical getaway to Hamilton Island, or embrace the beachside life with a few days spent lounging in The Whitsundays. We've done the hard work for you and pulled together a list of the most idyllic island accommodations you can book in Queensland. Pick a favourite, pack your sunscreen and get ready to feel the sand between your toes. Recommended reads: The Best Hotels in Brisbane The Best Glamping Sites in Queensland The Best Dog-Friendly Accommodations in Queensland The Best Islands in Australia to Visit Any Time of the Year Central Airlie Holiday Home, Airlie Beach This Airlie Beach gem has room for the whole gang, but it's the divine deck and pool overlooking the Whitsunday Islands that'll steal your heart. From $545 a night, sleeps 10. Luxury Private Retreat Villa, Urangan Your own tropical haven, just minutes from the beaches of Hervey Bay. This breezy villa boasts contemporary styling, gorgeous outdoor living and a private pool. From $235 a night, sleeps six. Yacht Club 33, Hamilton Island This newly built island escape is a study in luxury living, complete with high-end features, pool access and sweeping ocean views throughout. From $1715 a night, sleeps nine. The Little Bush Hut, Nelly Bay On a secluded patch of island paradise, this stylishly restored hut is couples' holiday perfection. Fall in love with the private setting and the covered outdoor tub. From $310 a night, sleeps two. Headland House, Picnic Bay This architectural stunner boasts a covetable location on Magnetic Island, with luxurious spaces indoors and out, and epic ocean vistas to match. From $1752 a night, sleeps ten. Point Blue, Hamilton Island With its sleek interiors, picture-perfect views and abundance of outdoor living, this island home is the answer to all types of tropical holiday cravings. From $2164 a night, sleeps eight Point Lookout Townhouse, Point Lookout This stylish townhouse comes complete with panoramic water views, a gorgeous indoor-outdoor set-up and access to the complex's infinity pool. From $580 a night, sleeps seven. Complete Straddie Beach Retreat, Point Lookout Blissful island days await at this vibrant villa, perched just metres from the beach. Enjoy the romantic loft bedroom, sun-drenched deck and shared pool. From $219 a night, sleeps three Ascension, Point Lookout Luxe out in this sprawling holiday mansion, set overlooking the waters off Point Lookout. There's a huge deck, spa room and telescope for whale-watching. From $1000 a night, sleeps 12. Romantic Dog-Friendly Cottage, Macleay Island With leafy surrounds and pristine water views, this high-set cottage makes for a dreamy island hideaway. Split time between the cosy fireplace, luxurious spa and sunny deck. From $295 a night, sleeps four. Elementa House 1, Airlie Beach Unwind in style with a stay at this Whitsundays stunner, complete with private garden, shared infinity pool and master tub with breathtaking views. From $637 a night, sleeps six. 14 The Cove, Airlie Beach This next-level waterfront stay is what holiday dreams are made of. Indulge in show-stopping views from the open-plan living zones, sprawling deck and pool. From $960 a night, sleeps six. La Boheme Studio, Jubliee Pocket Experience your own little slice of Whitsundays magic at this contemporary coastal cottage, flitting between porch hammock and incredible magnesium pool. From $155 a night, sleeps two. Shorelines 23, Hamilton Island You'll feel on top of the world at this soaring Hamilton Island apartment, featuring panoramic ocean views and a stunning shared pool located just metres away. From $495 a night, sleeps six. Hamptons House on the Hill, Airlie Beach Boasting incredible vistas across the Whitsundays, a private pool and lots of luxury features, this award-winning Hamptons-style home is total bliss. From $375 a night, sleeps four. The Moreton Mansion, Tangalooma This generous three-level abode makes for a lavish group getaway, overlooking the waters of Moreton Bay. Plus, enjoy full access to the nearby resort facilities. From $1050 a night, sleeps 16+. Bedarra Island Villa, Bedarra Island A glam island paradise surrounded by leafy palms and lapping blue ocean. This designer villa boasts a stunning deck and delightfully secluded beachside setting. From $1258 a night, sleeps eight. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy. Images: Courtesy of Airbnb
Creating a list of the very best Thai restaurants in Sydney is no easy feat. We're spoilt for choice when it comes to places that serve up the perfect green curry, pad thai and tom yum soup. But while us Aussies love these classic dishes, each of Sydney's best Thai restaurants serves up stacks of other regional delicacies that must be ordered — either keeping traditional dishes as authentic as possible or totally reinventing them for a new audience. These are the Thai diners in Sydney where you can safely go off-piste. Ask the server for recommendations or simply close your eyes and pick something totally random. Let fate decide. Whatever option you choose, you won't be disappointed by the food, drinks and service at the best Thai restaurants in Sydney. Recommended reads: The Best Japanese Restaurants in Sydney The Best Indian Restaurants in Sydney The Best Restaurants in Sydney The Best Ramen in Sydney
Hidden down the south end of King Street in Newtown, Bloodwood is handy before an Enmore gig and easy to get to from the station. You can grab a seat in the bar or head to the dining area on the upper level of Bloodwood, where bare light bulbs hang both precariously and artistically from the ceiling. The menu, created by head chef and owner Claire Van Vuuren, is eccentric and inventive while still maintaining that homey, hearty feel. Most of the dishes are designed to share. A fan-favourite is the vegan pecan pâtê served with charred bread, they are also selling these by the jar to take home. There are plenty of other vegetarian dishes like a chickpea pancake with zucchini, peas and feta. Or, the sautéed butternut with cucumber, chilli, coconut and a crunchy hit of puffed rice. For carnivores, there's a hearty braised lamb shoulder served with peperonata, polenta and zhug (a green Yemeni hot sauce) and a fragrant grilled pork with cavolo nero. The wine list at Bloodwood is also a standout, boasting sustainable, natural wines on a list that's won more than a few critical acclaims. You'll also find several cocktails on the menu, plus beers of the local, international and 'fancy' varieties. Images: Cassandra Hannagan
In these belt-tightening times of inflated living costs and cautious spending, the arrival of a new cheap-eats option is cause for celebration. Joining the collection of eateries at the newly minted dining hub, Sydney Place, Sil Bi Jip is a bricks-and-motar venue with the spirit of a pocha — a Korean street food stand. Its economic philosophy is captured in the restaurant's name, which roughly translates to 'the actual cost'. The price of a meal closely matches the cost of the ingredients it contains, offering diners incredible value for money. The menu stars Korean street food's greatest hits, which, during lunchtimes, is served in the style of dosirak (lunch boxes), gimbap (rice roll), Korean hot dog or the quintessential Korean rice bowl, deop bap. In the evening, Sil Bi Jip shifts gears, becoming a lively neon-lit bar serving a broad range of street snacks and classic Korean beverages, including 21 types of Korean liquor including soju and makgeolli. Diners can choose from a selection of small plates including makhoe (fisherman-style sashimi), tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), gyeran mari (Korean-style rolled omelette) and mok sal gui (char-gilled pork neck), ideal for an informal supper over a few drinks. "At Sil Bi Jip, our goal is to feed people nourishing, high-quality dishes at an affordable price point, offering everything we love about Korean street food", says Sil Bi Jip's owner Dennis Oh. "Whether you're looking for a warming and filling rice bowl by day or some snacks and specialty drinks by night, we can't wait to welcome the community in to experience our 'small Korea' right in the heart of Sydney." Sydney Place is one of the most recent additions to the city's boom in hospitality precincts. Located on the doorstep of One Circular Quay, where a luxury residential development and Australia's first Waldorf Astoria Hotel are currently under construction, Sil Bi Jip joins an impressive roll call of more than 20 venues ranging from slick afterwork drinking dens like Bar Besuto and Jacksons on George, to fast-casual dining options such as Malay Chinese Noodles, Lode Pies and Kosta's Takeaway. Find Sil Bi Jip at CQT12/180 George Street, Sydney, open Monday–Friday, 11.30am–3pm, and Monday–Saturday, 4.30–10pm. Head to the venue's website for more details. Images: Kera Wong
Mega-chain Chatime started off in the bubble tea motherland — aka Taiwan — back in 2005, and, since then, has expanded to over 2000 outposts worldwide. And 120 of those are in Australia. Sydney specifically boasts 30 stores citywide, with more than 10 locations in the CBD alone. It serves up all of your usual suspects, including brown sugar pearls, matcha and oolong milk teas, plus heaps of fruity, no sugar and soy options — and they're all done well. For true fans, there's also a Chatime app and free 'loyal-tea club', which gets you perks like freebies on your birthday, points for every dollar spent, queue skipping and other members only benefits. In a win for the environment, the chain is also aiming to eliminate all single-use plastics — including straws, cups, lids, cup seals and bags — by the end of 2020
Maybe your day hasn't truly started until you've had your caffeine fix. Perhaps you like the ritual of the coffee shop experience. Or, you might just love pairing your cuppa with a cafe spread. Whichever applies, you'll have your favourite spots for a coffee — and you'll know that not all venues slinging it are created equal. According to the first-ever Top 100 Coffee Shops list, the very best place for a cuppa on the planet is Down Under. Toby's Estate Sydney flagship cafe and roastery in Chippendale in has been named the best in the world in the inaugural ranking, which made its picks based on the quality of coffee, barista experience and customer service, as well as each venue's approach to innovation, ambience and atmosphere, plus its sustainability practices, food and pastry quality, and consistency. Combined, Australia and New Zealand account for a tenth of the list, with eight other Aussie spots joining Toby's Estate, alongside one from Aotearoa. Two of those other Australian coffee shops also made the top ten: Proud Mary in Melbourne at fourth and Coffee Anthology in Brisbane at eighth. From around the globe, they were joined by Onyx Coffee Lab in the USA at second, Gota Coffee Experts in Australia in third and Tim Wendelboe in Norway at fifth — then Singapore's Apartment Coffee taking sixth place, Kawa in France at seventh, Malaysia's Story of Ono in ninth and Colombia's Tropicalia Coffee at tenth. Back to Down Under coffee havens, Veneziano Coffee Roasters in Melbourne came in at 19th, fellow Melburnian Calēre Coffee ranked 28th, Adelaide's Exchange Coffee placed 37th and Fonzie Abbott in Brisbane took 70th spot. Next came Melbourne's Vacation Coffee at 71 and Seven Seeds, also in Melbourne, at 87. Flying the flag for NZ, Rocket Coffee in Hamilton notched up 62nd place. [caption id="attachment_733568" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Proud Mary[/caption] So, in plenty of cities across Australia and Aotearoa, you've got no excuse to drink a subpar coffee. While Toby's Estate's Sydney flagship earned the list's love, it also has locations in Brisbane and Melbourne locally. "At Toby's Estate, coffee is at the heart of everything we do, and I think that's reflected in our customer's experience. Our whole team puts in an immense amount of effort to make the best coffee possible, so we're absolutely delighted to be awarded this incredible recognition," said the brand's General Manager Jody Leslie about the win. [caption id="attachment_992420" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Toby's Estate[/caption] [caption id="attachment_935274" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fonzie Abbott[/caption] [caption id="attachment_631878" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Vacation Coffee[/caption] [caption id="attachment_918220" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Seven Seeds[/caption] [caption id="attachment_992421" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Toby's Estate[/caption] For more details about the Top 100 Coffee Shops list, head to the ranking's website.
In 2003, Balmain locals protested against the private development of their much-loved heritage-listed Fenwick building. That resulted in the council acquiring the property and, this year, a stunning new cafe and restaurant has opened in the space. A win, for sure — as it is whenever a historic space is saved from private development (or demolition) and turned into a spot that the public can enjoy. There are quite a few spaces like this around Sydney — heritage-listed art deco-style banks that have been turned into pizza spots and historic former paper mills that are now dining precincts. These are little slices of Sydney history that you can visit basically whenever you like. Brunch inside them, dine inside them, have after-work drinks in them. Talk to the sandstone walls, see what you can get out of them.
Hidden among the high-rises of central Parramatta's George Street is a gem serving comforting classics and first-rate brews. Housed in an airy industrial space, Homage has quickly become a well-loved mainstay of the local community, slinging breakfast, lunch and coffee from Monday to Saturday. Cosy up with the chilli scram with pecorino and chives, Middle Eastern breakfast eggs with whipped garlic labneh, chickpeas and cauliflower, or lemongrass chicken salad. If you're craving something more carb-heavy, there are Brooklyn Boy bagels with a selection of spreads and jaffles and toasties galore, including the popular bolognese, cheeseburger or zucchini parmigiana options. What stands out most, however, are the hundreds of five-star Google reviews that note the cafe's unparalleled service and warm staff, so make sure you sing out with any coffee queries or just say g'day.
Armchair economists, let alone real ones, received something of a nasty surprise today, as the RBA announced inflation figures climbed in the September quarter, with consumer prices rising at an annual pace of 3.2 percent. Considering the June quarter was measured at 2.1 percent, it's safe to say that anyone holding out for another interest rate cut (or cheaper groceries) in the near future has had their hopes dashed. Yet one piece of positive news headed our way could be the price of coffee. While it has felt like the cost has gone up and up over the last year or two, procurement experts at Proxima are predicting that coffee prices will stabilise, or even fall, in 2026. According to Proxima, arabica coffee futures have jumped 55 percent year-on-year. At the same time, the average caffeine hit in Australia has increased 37 percent since pre-pandemic lows of $5.50. Yet the "perfect storm of supply chain disruptions" is expected to ease soon. With global coffee stocks falling to 20-year lows, soaring coffee prices were partly caused by extreme weather events that slashed exports from Brazil and Vietnam by 30 percent. As Australia imports 90 percent of its beans, it's no surprise the cost at your local cafe took off. Although cafes still face major hurdles — rising rents, wages, operational costs and more — at least getting the beans in the grinder might be a little more affordable. Sure, it won't fix the cost-of-living crisis, but ordering a flat white that won't break the bank is a small win worth celebrating. Looking for a cheap meal? Check out the Ten Best Places to Dine Out Under $20 Right Now.
The dots are stunning. The pumpkins, too. Her use of bold colours and shapes is also dazzling. There's another reason that Yayoi Kusama's art is so beloved, however: whether via mirrored infinity rooms, oversized tentacles or getting exhibition attendees putting stickers everywhere, she wholeheartedly embraces immersing her audience. It's true of Dancing Pumpkin, one of her famous gourd sculptures, which is on display in Melbourne right now — and when NGV International's massive Yayoi Kusama exhibition opens in December, it'll prove true again and again, breaking a world record in the process. Since April, the NGV has ben promising that its summer blockbuster exhibition — an Australian-exclusive as well — will be big. Across Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025, it will feature 180-plus works from the acclaimed Japanese artist, in the largest Kusama retrospective that the country has ever seen. Now, the gallery has also revealed that it'll boast ten of the talent's immersive installations, which is the most that has ever been assembled in a single location before. [caption id="attachment_950475" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Chandelier of Grief 2016/18, Tate Modern, London. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro. © YAYOI KUSAMA.[/caption] One is a brand-new piece that's world-premiering in Melbourne, so when visitors enter Infinity Mirrored Room–My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light, they'll be among the first people on the planet to experience the work. Inside, the space appears to open into an infinite celestial universe. Kusama's latest creation adds to her ongoing fascination with infinity mirror rooms, which she has been creating since the 60s. See also: 2016's Chandelier of Grief, which features baroque-style chandelier spinning within a hexagon of mirrors; 2013's Love Is Calling, where tentacles in different colours spring from both the floor and the ceiling; and 2017's The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens, which gets viewers peering at glowing pumpkins as far as the eye can see through a small peephole. [caption id="attachment_981012" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Dots Obsession 1996/2015 at Kusama's solo exhibition YAYOI KUSAMA: IN INFINITY, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark. YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts © YAYOI KUSAMA.[/caption] Also relying upon mirrors heavily: the newest version of Dots Obsession, a room where the walls are reflective and biomorphic inflatables lurk. And yes, it's meant to inspire existential thoughts — and also feel as if the space goes on forever. Then, in Invisible Life, convex mirrors line a twisting and multi-hued corridor. With its six-metre-tall tendrils — which are covered in polka dots, naturally — the yellow-and-black The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe from 2019 is striking without using a looking glass (or several), and will make its Australian premiere. Prefer flowers instead? Set within a dotted space, All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever from 2013 sees a trio of giant tulips loom over audiences. [caption id="attachment_950473" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama's The Obliteration Room 2002–present. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: N Harth, QAGOMA.[/caption] If you went to the comprehensive Kusama showcase at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art back in 2017–18, or to the same site when it has also hosted the artist's The Obliteration Room at other times, then you'll know all about this sticker-fuelled experience. Even if you haven't taken part before, you've likely seen photos of it on social media. In Melbourne as in the other places that it has popped up, this artwork gets you popping coloured dots everywhere — 'obliterating' it, as Kusama calls it — to cover an apartment interior that's completely white otherwise. The idea is to fill every single millimetre with stickers over time. It's an all-ages (and free) part of the exhibition, displaying in the NGV's children's gallery, but expect as many adults there as kids. Flower Obsession is another participatory piece, returning from the 2017 NGV Triennial. Again, you're asked to add to the work. This time, though, red flowers are applied to a domestic space — and again, obliterating it is the mission. [caption id="attachment_950474" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's Flower Obsession 2017 on display in NGV Triennial from 15 December 2017 – 15 April 2018 at NGV International Melbourne. © YAYOI KUSAMA Image courtesy of NGVImage courtesy of NGV.[/caption] Alongside the ten immersive installations — plus the five-metre-tall Dancing Pumpkin in NGV International's Federation Court — Yayoi Kusama will step through the 95-year-old artist's eight decades of making art via a thematic chronology. Some pieces hail from her childhood. Some are recent. Her output in her hometown of Matsumoto from the late 30s–50s; the results of relocating to America in 1957; archival materials covering her performances and activities in her studios, especially with a political charge, in the 60s and 70s: they'll all appear. Half of the exhibition is devoted to the past four decades — so, pumpkins galore, giant paintings and more. Again, this is a hefty exhibition overall, complete with a new version of Narcissus Garden made of 1400 30-centimetre-diameter stainless silver balls, a Kusama artwork specific to NGV's Waterwall, over 20 experimental fashion designs by the artist, Infinity Net paintings from the 50s and 60s, Accumulation sculptures and textiles from the 60s and 70s, and a recreation of her New York studio. It's one of the most-comprehensive Kusama retrospectives ever staged globally, in fact — and the closest that you'll get to experiencing her Tokyo museum without leaving Australia. [caption id="attachment_979066" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama's Dancing Pumpkin 2020 now on display for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Sean Fennessy.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_950480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_979065" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama's Dancing Pumpkin 2020 now on display for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Sean Fennessy.[/caption] Yayoi Kusama displays at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets. Top image: Yayoi Kusama, The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe 2019 at Kusama's solo exhibition Yayoi Kusama: All About Love Speaks Forever at Fosun Foundation, Shanghai. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts © YAYOI KUSAMA.
Mark + Vinny's Spaghetti and Spritz Bar opened this April, and, as promised, it's turning out some seriously radioactive-looking pastas. These colourful creations are brought to you by restaurateur Mark Filippelli (co-owner of Melbourne's Matcha Mylkbar) and his best mate Vince Pizzinga, who are offering Sydneysiders sustainable, ethical and vegan fare, some of which looks like it came from another planet. Set in an intimate space along a quiet strip of Waterloo Street, the restaurant sits between the stalwart cafe Orto Trading Co. and the Light Rail construction. This means the block is completely dead on a Tuesday night — apart from the bustling Mark + Vinny's, that is. For its first week it was an impressive sight — every table was taken within the first hour and the space was filled with excited chatter. Although the restaurant fits barely more than ten tables inside, the servers move around seamlessly and the friendly service adds to the lively vibe. Maybe it was just the spritzes talking, but people really seemed to be indulgently enjoying themselves. With a menu of 20 spritzes on offer, it's hard not to feel the urge to try a few, though the sheer size of the menu is overwhelming and we found it best to ask the server for suggestions — round after round. Filippelli and Pizzinga both have their own namesake spritzes and, of the many we tried on the night, they did prove to be some of the best. The Vince comes with theatrically scorched, Frangelico-soaked hazelnuts, along with blood orange and wattle cola — a combination that is reminiscent of a classic Venetian spritz but taken to the next level. The Mark better resembles a tropical cocktail, made with white rum, watermelon and sparkling coconut water, then garnished with a whole lychee and served in a coconut shell to boot. The drinks do take a bit to come out, but you can hardly blame the bartender considering the number of ingredients and tiny space with which they have to operate. Despite the wait, the drinks were beautifully executed every time. The nearly-a-bar vibe almost had us fooled, but in truth it's not really a place to come just for drinks — though the outdoor patio seating begs for an aperitivo hour in warmer weather. Food-wise, we came for the main drawcard: the neon blue spirulina pasta. On the menu, it takes the form of a blue swimmer crab tagliatelle, topped with cured fish roe and crunchy breadcrumbs. We were surprised how well it worked, with the blue colouring complementing the oceanic ingredients. The pasta itself had a nice bite to it, and, apart from the neon aspect, tasted like any freshly-made pasta ought to. The modern spins are accompanied by some hearty classics, like the maccarruni calabrese, a recipe from Pizzinga's nonna that is made with beef rib ragu, which is slow-cooked the traditional Calabrian way. The long and chewy pasta is miles away from the macaroni you've had as a kid and is likely the best on the menu. In terms of the vegan carbonara, we can finally confirm that the vegan egg really does ooze like real yolk and adds the creaminess needed; the house-cured mushroom is a pretty convincing pancetta replacement, too, though the texture of the activated charcoal bucatini needs some work. The duo has smartly recruited head chef Adrian Jankuloski (Icebergs, The Dolphin Hotel). You'll find his personal touches in the entrees, like the burnt eggplant dip served with charred Italian flatbread and a whole red chilli from Jankuloski's backyard; or the zucchini flowers stuffed with smoked almond curd instead of cheese, served over a nutty red capsicum sauce. Overall, the menu is thoughtfully done and certainly sets the restaurant apart, though we have a feeling its the traditional over the unusual dishes that will keep customers coming back.
It's hard to say when it started, but the bubble tea craze in Sydney has well and truly taken over. What originated as a Taiwanese sweet treat has grown into a global phenomenon, and Sydneysiders are all too happy to embrace the trend. Our deep love of tapioca balls in milky or fruity teas has taken on a force all of its own. The ever-growing list of boba shops in our city is astounding. To help you find the best of the best, we've put together our list of the best bubble tea stores in Sydney. From mega chains and traditional Taiwanese operators to homegrown Sydney talent and all the cheese foam you could ask for, this list has you covered.
A terrific talent begetting another terrific talent: that's the Kurt and Wyatt Russell story. An on-screen presence since the 1960s, the elder Russell has basically done it all, from being a child actor to becoming a Hollywood legend. Since the early 2010s, the younger Russell keeps proving one of film and television's must-watch stars. Both weaved sports careers — Kurt with baseball, Wyatt with hockey — between their early acting credits. The physical family resemblance is also unmistakable. The father-son duo now play the same role in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the initial giant step into television by the Monsterverse, the franchise that's sprung up around the recent American-made Godzilla and King Kong movies (2014's Godzilla, 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong, with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on the way in 2024). When we say that Kurt has virtually done it all, we mean it. He kicked Elvis Presley in the leg in his uncredited debut (It Happened at the World's Fair), became a Disney teen star (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him, Now You Don't and The Strongest Man in the World) and played Elvis in his first collaboration with John Carpenter. He kept working with the director (Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape From LA), and acted opposite partner Goldie Hawn multiple times (Swing Shift, Overboard), including while playing Santa (The Christmas Chronicles and its sequel). He's stepped into Wyatt Earp's shoes, toyed around with Stargate, featured in Quentin Tarantino movies (Death Proof, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and made both Marvel (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) and Fast and Furious (Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious and Fast and Furious 9) appearances. Entering the kaiju realm is a first, however, although sharing the same part with the Black Mirror-, Ingrid Goes West-, Lodge 49- and Under the Banner of Heaven-starring Wyatt is not. It was back in 1998 that Wyatt earned his first-ever screen credit, not by booting a music icon but as the younger version of his dad's character in Soldier. Twenty-five years later, the same dynamic exists in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which flits between time periods to deploy both Russells as Lee Shaw. In the 1950s, Wyatt plays him as another soldier, a colonel who helps found the titular Monarch with scientist Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto, Pachinko) and cryptozoologist Bill Randa (Anders Holm, Inventing Anna). Kurt follows in his son's footsteps this time, playing the elder version of Shaw in the 2010s, when the world knows about Godzilla but the titular government monster-hunting outfit is conflicted about how to handle it and its fellow titans — and about its history with Shaw, Miura and Randa. If making the two Russells its biggest stars — well, its biggest human stars — doesn't immediately give it away, then getting mere minutes into Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' ten-episode first season does: this is a kaiju tale where people matter. That hasn't always been able to be said about the Monsterverse, and both series itself and the saga overall is all the better for the new show's approach. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also happily nods to Kurt's past when it gets him battling creatures in icy surrounds, which took him back into The Thing territory. "Very much so. We flew up every day in a helicopter. And, you know, you put it all together — the helicopter, whiteout, ice, glacier — it took me back 40 years, 40 years plus, something like that," Kurt explains. It might seem like an obvious choice to enlist the Russells to share the role of Shaw. It's certainly dream casting for viewers, and it's impossible to imagine Monarch: Legacy of Monsters with anyone but them in the part. But despite previous attempts to get them to work together again since Soldier, collaborating here — working together again at all, in fact — was a matter of being pitched something different. With Monarch: Legacy of Monsters currently screening its debut season on Apple TV+ — premiering in mid-November and running through until mid-January — we chatted with Kurt and Russell about only reteaming because the right project came up and getting into the same headspace. Also included in the round-table conversation: the opportunity to do something special, what they've learned from each other and their pre-Monsterverse experiences with the monster to end all monsters, aka Godzilla. ON SHARING A PART AGAIN, THIS TIME WTH ADDED GODZILLA Wyatt: "It was the right project coming up. It wasn't ever something we looked for or actively sought out. It was the idea that came from Ronna Kress, who is the casting director of Monarch, and Matt Fraction and Chris Black [who developed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and also co-wrote and executive produced]. They came up with the great casting idea, but we had never really actively looked to work together." Kurt: "In fact, when we'd been asked that, we said nobody's done it before. Well, we had and we forgot about it. We forgot that we've done it before." ON EMBRACING A GREAT CASTING IDEA AND SEIZING AN INTERESTING OPPORTUNITY Kurt: "It was a chance to really do something special, and do something that had really never been done: two known actors that were father and son playing the same character. We actually recently just looked around about that — it had never been done. But we didn't even think about that. It was just like 'oh, this is an interesting opportunity and maybe we'll never get this opportunity again'. So we really wanted to go hard and try to make it work, because we didn't want to do something that we felt wasn't going to be at least as good or better than the idea itself of us playing the same person." ON EARLY MEMORIES OF GODZILLA, AND THE EXPERIENCE OF JOINING THE MONSTERVERSE Wyatt: "My earliest memories of Godzilla would have been when I was probably really young and I saw some Godzilla stuff on TV. I grew up in the 90s. I was thinking of this yesterday — I was a child of the 90s and I don't remember very many Godzilla things being around then. They didn't really start making Godzilla movies — somebody will say I'm wrong and they'll be right — but they weren't big in [US] movie theatres until a little later. I just didn't grow up with it. So this is my first real introduction to to Godzilla. I obviously knew who he was. Then joining it, we wanted to make something that was more character-based than what had been previously done, and previously the stories that have been told. Because it was a ten-part series, you could dive into characters, and that was relatively more interesting than just watching the monsters for for us. So I think that was a big, big reason." Kurt: "I was young kid, probably six or seven. First monster I remember. There was also The Blob, which was truly terrifying to me. Godzilla was just kind of like 'that's awesome, he's cool'. Then throughout the years, Godzilla was always around and stuff, but like Wyatt, I wasn't waiting for the next Godzilla movie to come out. I didn't really know much about it. I don't know much about the Godzilla lore — I learned more on this. So this was really more of understanding that with Godzilla, it was going to be a big plate. It was going to be a backdrop. And we had the sense from talking to the guys that Apple was very, very much behind it, and all that stuff was going to be great. But what we needed to do was make sure that over the ten-hour period, the people that you were watching dealing with these monsters were as compelling a story as just watching the monsters themselves in terms of entertainment." ON BOTH LEARNING FROM AND TEACHING EACH OTHER Kurt: "He has a very, very — I was always natural, but I was natural in my own way. Then when I wanted to play different characters, I would just invent them in my head, or maybe it was drawn off a little bit of somebody I'd seen or knew. Wyatt is naturally extremely real. He's just extremely real. I think that's a great quality in an actor to be able to do that. It isn't necessarily yourself, it might be a different character, but to be real in that character, it's really fun to watch Wyatt do that. I think I've learned that. Also patience. I watch Wyatt deal with certain things in a more patient fashion than generally have. In our family when I grew up, it was baseball that was the focus. And as Wyatt was growing up, hockey was his focus. And therefore our business was sort of how we made our money to run the family. Obviously Goldie and the kids all had to deal with the notoriety and whatnot. But Goldie, both Goldie and I, that wasn't a part of our home life. Wyatt didn't grow up in that kind of thing. So I tried to, I suppose, show him a world that naturally, to me, was a real one. I didn't really pass anything down to Wyatt in terms of specific knowledge or direction, and we never had any conversation in our family like that. It just wasn't the way our family was. We were just a family living our life. And yeah, we did something that people would recognise us from, but the importance of that was given very little — in fact, most of the importance of that came from the fact that we just sort of dealt with it. Sometimes, it was kind of in the way too much. Other times, you just avoided it. Other times, you understand you have to, it's time to go to work. You accept it. I guess you guys saw all of that. I mean, that's all I tried to pass — I didn't pass anything on Wyatt. Wyatt was Wyatt. He was always just Wyatt. I don't know how to say it other than that, he was just who he is. It's pretty much the same thing [now] with a beard — a five-year-old with a beard." Wyatt: "I like my dad more so as a parent, nothing with acting specifically. He's just a good, great dad and I love being around him, and we have a great time together — and we got to spend a lot of time together, more than most dads probably, because when he was working I could go to set, and when he wasn't working he was just around all the time. So yeah, it's like 'be a good person' and 'say please and thank you', and hopefully, you know, just being a good person. That's what I learned from my dad and my mum." ON GETTING INTO THE SAME HEADSPACE Wyatt: "Everything that we do is uniquely its own, and so drawing on characters of the past, at least for me, was not going to help this character. Although I guess I did characters that were similar in certain ways, but I don't think I really referenced them." Kurt: "I think that the obvious truth is you'd have to be pretending not to have seen things. You know what I mean? So I've seen a lot of what Wyatt's done, and vice versa. And so therefore, there's some things in our minds. We do know kind of where we are — I'll call them strengths. We also know our weakness. And what we wanted to do here, being in a Godzilla gigantic landscape, we didn't want to misuse that. We wanted to use it properly. So that was a focus of ours in co-creating the character, I guess you'd say, with the writer, head writer and the showrunner, Chris Black and Matt Fraction." Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams via Apple TV+. Read our review.
Paddington's Italian eatery Barbetta wears many hats, including daytime cafe, gourmet smallgoods store and workshop space. The venue on Elizabeth Street is the casual sister venue to nearby Cipri Italian and the owners are, not surprisingly, focusing on classic Italian food. Open for breakfast, lunch and afternoon coffee, the all-day cafe is designed by ACME & Co. — that is, the team who brought you a long list of successful Sydney favourites including The Grounds of Alexandria (and The Grounds of the City), Archie Rose, Fred's and Happy as Larry. The contemporary, bright interior adds nostalgic elements that are reminiscent of classic Italian cars and 1950s movies. For breakfast, think deconstructed Sicilian buckwheat pancake with fresh ricotta, figs and crushed cannoli ($16) and Italian sausage with baked free-range eggs, Tuscan cabbage, baked ricotta and toasted sourdough ($20). Lunch will focus on heartier dishes, like house-made lasagne and spinach ricotta ravioli ($22 each), porchetta paninis ($18) and spicy meatball burgers ($21), along with salads and snacks. The cafe's Neapolitan pastry-chef is also turning out a daily selection of Italian desserts, cakes and gelato to accompany your afternoon coffee break. On the drinks side of things, the requisite coffee and juice is paired with milkshakes and Italian soft drinks. The venue doesn't have a liquor licence just yet, so at present there's a sweet no-corkage BYO deal. Plans for an Italian snack bar are also on the horizon. In the smallgoods deli, takeaway meals like lasagne, gnocchi and slow-cooked lamb shanks will be on offer, along with fresh pastas, sauces, cheeses and meats. The store's selection of packed Italian products include coffee, condiments and biscuits, and pre-packed picnic sets are ready for Centennial Park lazing. If you're looking for your next date idea or just want to learn a new skill, Barbetta is also hosting twice weekly pasta making workshops on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Classes include a hands-on cooking demo with antipasti and BYO wine, followed by dinner/lunch and the pasta you made to take home. Images: Nikki To Appears in: The Best Italian Restaurants in Sydney for 2023
Hunters Hill's beloved local has entered a new era. After more than a century serving the community, the Hunters Hill Hotel — which first opened as the Fig Tree Hotel in the 1880s before adopting its current moniker in 1940 — has unveiled a top-to-bottom transformation that introduces bright, airy new spaces behind the familiar exterior. The extensive restoration, led by Squillace Architects, preserves the hotel's original art deco bones while adding warmer, more textured interiors and contemporary extensions. On the ground floor, you'll find a light-filled bistro and beer garden serving elevated pub fare, from reworked classics like steaks, parmies and pizzas to new favourites straight from the parilla lava rock grill — think whole lemon sole and whole roast chook. A sprawling sports bar sits beside the dining areas, featuring an eight-metre LED screen and plenty of beers on tap for match days. [caption id="attachment_1042303" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Onecut Studios[/caption] Upstairs, a new cocktail lounge adds a touch of sophistication, while an expansive weatherproof indoor-outdoor terrace — complete with retractable roof — is built for everything from long lunches to relaxed sundowners with views over the treetops. Behind the redevelopment is the Gallagher family, which has owned and operated the hotel for the past decade and lived in Hunters Hill for much longer. As locals themselves, they've reimagined the pub with the community at the front of mind, blending its heritage with smart contemporary updates to create a space that feels new without losing its familiar warmth. [caption id="attachment_1042305" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Onecut Studios[/caption] Images: Steven Woodburn/Onecut Studios.
Where do artists find inspiration? The answer to that question is virtually endless, as perusing the Archibald Prize finalists every year illustrates. For the acclaimed Australian portraiture award, sometimes actors, musicians, comedians and filmmakers provide a spark. Authors, footballers, the folks doing the painting themselves: they all fit, too. Frequently, though, fellow artists inspire others to get the creative juices flowing. Among recent Archie winners, that was true for Tony Costa with Lindy Lee, Blak Douglas with Karla Dickens and Peter Wegner with Guy Warren, for instance — and, in 2025, it's also the case for Julie Fragar with her likeness of Justene Williams. This year's pick for the prestigious prize, Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), is also an instance of one Brisbane artist painting another to claim the $100,000 award. Fragar's win makes it three in a row for women at the Archies since 2023, following Laura Jones in 2024 with her portrait of author Tim Winton and Julia Gutman the year prior for a depiction of Montaigne. That said, Fragar is still just the 13th woman to win the 104-year-old art accolade. Even with recipients who've emerged victorious more than once — Judy Cassab in 1960 and 1967, and Del Kathryn Barton in2008 and 2013 — this is still only the 15th time that the prize has gone to a female talent. [caption id="attachment_1003358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar 'Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)', oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter.[/caption] "You work your whole career imagining this might happen one day. Thinking back to myself as a 17-year-old showing up at the Sydney College of the Arts — a kid from country New South Wales — it's incredible to think I have won the Archibald Prize," said Fragar about her win. "Portrait painting wasn't taken as seriously in the 1990s as it is today. I have always regarded the Archibald Prize as a place that understood the value of portraiture. To be the winner of the Archibald Prize is a point of validation. It means so much to have the respect of my colleagues at the Art Gallery. It doesn't get better than that." Fragar is the Head of Painting at the Queensland College of Art and Design, where Williams is the Head of Sculpture. "Justene is incredible. I feel very fortunate that she allowed me to do this portrait. There is nobody like her. The work is a reflection on the experience of making art to deadlines, and the labour and love of being a mother," said Fragar of her now-Archibald Prize-winning subject. "Here are two of Australia's great artists in conversation about what matters most to them. Julie Fragar has a sumptuous ability to transcend reality and depict her subjects technically but also psychologically. Justene Williams is a larger-than-life character, a performer — cacophonous and joyous," noted Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Maud Page about 2025's pick. "In this work, she is surrounded by her own artworks and, most important of all, her daughter Honore as a tiny figure atop a sculpture. It speaks to me as a powerful rendition of the juggle some of us perform as mothers and professionals." Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene) was selected from a pool of 57 finalists, including another awarded two-artist combination in Abdul Abdullah's portrait of fellow creative Jason Phu, aka 2025's Packing Room Prize recipient. Other contenders included likenesses of Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Boy Swallows Universe star Felix Cameron, Miranda Otto, Grace Tame, Vincent Namatjira, filmmaker Warwick Thornton and comedian Aaron Chen, as whittled down from a total pool of 904 Archibald Prize entries for 2025. AGNSW also awards the Wynne and Sulman prizes at the same time as the Archibald — and across all three, from 2394 submissions, 2025 marks the first year that there were more finalist works by women artists in the accolades' history. [caption id="attachment_1003359" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Wynne Prize 2025, Jude Rae 'Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal', oil on linen, 200 x 150.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.[/caption] For $50,000 Wynne Prize, which is all about landscape painting — and is Australia's oldest art award — Sydney artist Jude Rae's Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal was picked from 52 finalists and 758 entries. This is the third time that Rae has made the top batch of Wynne contenders. She's also been an Archie finalist four times (in 2014, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and was a Sulman finalist in 2021. "There is something compelling about the constantly flashing gantry lights and the floodlights blasting away in those hours just before dawn. I am up at various times and love to watch the pre-dawn light, when the sky is just starting to change colour. From my bathroom window on the fifth floor of my building, I have a clear view of that scene. There is no way to photograph it — it's too subtle and too fleeting. It's a big sky and we're all really little," Rae said about her piece. [caption id="attachment_1003361" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Winner Sulman Prize 2025, Gene A'Hern 'Sky painting', oil and oil stick on board, 240 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.[/caption] The Sulman rewards genre painting, subject painting and mural projects, with Gene A'Hern 2025's pick for the Blue Mountains-inspired Sky painting, getting the top nod for the $40,000 gong from this year's 30 finalists and 732 entries. "Painted with expansive movements to capture a sense of scale and colour, this painting unfolded as I immersed myself in skywatching, while reflecting on the ceremonial choreography of the surrounding environment. It conveys a sensation of nature's gestures, composed to resonate from within, translating an omnipresence that comes from dust and returns to dust," said A'Hern. "The work draws on charged memories — birds singing in harmony, branches sighing in the wind, the closing curtain of the setting sun, all forming a living landscape that I breathe with and through. For me, the sky and the Blue Mountains intertwine and reveal themselves as a place of origin, deep memory and belonging." 2025's winners and finalists across all three prizes are on display at AGNSW from Saturday, May 10–Sunday, August 17, 2025, before touring to Geelong Gallery, Gosford Regional Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Mudgee Arts Precinct and Shoalhaven Regional Gallery over the 11 months afterwards. Archibald Prize 2025 Exhibition Dates Saturday, May 10–Sunday, August 17, 2025 — Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW Saturday, August 30–Sunday, November 9, 2025 — Geelong Gallery, Victoria Saturday, November 22, 2025–Sunday, January 11, 2026 — Gosford Regional Gallery, NSW Saturday, January 23–Saturday, March 7, 2026 — Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, NSW Friday, March 20–Saturday, May 3, 2026 — Mudgee Arts Precinct, NSW Saturday, May 16–Sunday, July 19, 2026 — Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW 2025's Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prize-winners will display at various locations around the country from Saturday, May 10, 2025. If you can't make it to any of the above exhibition dates, you can check out the winners and finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes on the Art Gallery of NSW website. Top image: Excerpt of winner Archibald Prize 2025, Julie Fragar 'Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene)', oil on canvas, 240 x 180.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Justene Williams. Excerpt of winner Wynne Prize 2025, Jude Rae 'Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal', oil on linen, 200 x 150.4 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio. Excerpt of winner Sulman Prize 2025, Gene A'Hern 'Sky painting', oil and oil stick on board, 240 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio. Installation images: Installation view, 'Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025', Art Gallery of New South Wales, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.
Chef Dany Karam might just be the hardest-working man in Sydney hospitality. Since wrapping a five-year stint as Executive Chef at The Star's fine diner BLACK in 2022, he's taken on several consulting gigs, brand ambassadorships, and even launched a catering business. And come November, the celebrated chef will return to the pass as he brings a taste of the city's high-end dining scene to Southwest Sydney with three new venues in Cabramatta. The first to arrive are Magma, a fire-led fine diner, and Caffè Vicini, a sprawling all-day cafe and bakery, both set to open on Sunday, November 16. They'll be followed in mid-2026 by Primitivo, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, completing the Karam-led lineup inside the Cabravale Club Resort — a $230-million redevelopment of the former Cabra-Vale Diggers, anchored by a Novotel hotel with resort-style amenities. The headline act is Magma, an ambitious grill-focused restaurant Karam describes as "four years in the making". Designed around a central open kitchen, the space will put diners front and centre of the action, with dramatic charcoal flames fuelling a menu that brings together premium Australian produce with Karam's Lebanese heritage and Japanese precision. Expect a tight edit of high-quality proteins, boutique vegetables and bold fire-kissed flavours, crafted with Karam's signature flair. Adding to the theatre is The Butchery, a purpose-built facility set within Magma that will service all three venues. Here, meat and seafood will be dry-aged and prepared in-house, ensuring a consistent quality and supply chain across the precinct. While Magma promises the drama, Caffè Vicini — 'neighbours' in Italian — will provide the comfort. The all-day cafe will serve specialty coffee alongside house-baked pastries, focaccia sandwiches and light snacks featuring seasonal produce and meats prepared at The Butchery. The final piece of the puzzle will arrive in 2026 with Primitivo, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant set to further bolster the precinct's dining credentials. Karam has carefully hand-picked his suppliers and team for the new venues. He's continuing a 12-year partnership with David Blackmore Wagyu, while also collaborating with Appellation Oysters, Caviar Luxe, boutique local farms and artisanal producers like Simon Johnson. He's also reassembled his dream team from BLACK — Executive Chef Sebastien Geray and Restaurant Manager Tim Chen — who helped earn the venue a reputation as one of Sydney's best steak restaurants. "To say I am excited about bringing my home community these new dining experiences is an understatement," says Karam ahead of the openings. "My team is dedicated to creating and delivering a standard of dining that knocks people over. I can't wait to get back on the grill and welcome my guests on the floor." Magma and Caffè Vicini are slated to open on Sunday, November 16 at Cabravale Club Resort, 1 Bartley Street, Canley Vale. Primitivo will open in 2026. For more information, head to the precinct's website.
Following the world-altering whirlwind that was 2020, award-winning Eau-de-Vie closed down, promising to return in the near future. While it took a little longer than expected, the sleek cocktail bar that was once 13th on the World's 50 Best Bars list has officially reopened to the public in Sydney's CBD. The Speakeasy Group (Mjølner, Nick & Nora's) and its directors Sven Almenning and Greg Sanderson have revived Eau-de-Vie at the Brookfield Place development inside the Beneficial House site at 285 George Street, joining Shell House, Romeo's, Edition Coffee, Gojima, NeNe Chicken and PappaRich in the complex. All of the class of the original Eau-de-Vie is on show at the new opening with moody lighting, a smooth jazz soundtrack, the signature Whisky Room and private whisky lockers within the building's basement. The cocktails are built to impress, starting with the Hall of Fame section of the menu featuring Almenning's signature Smoley Rob Roy which combines two types of whisky, Diplomatico Mantuan rum, sweet vermouth and orange bitters before being served under a cloud of smoke. There's also a tangy take on the Moscow mule made with yuzu curd and your choice of rare aged spirit, Eau-de-Vie's famous old fashioned served hot or ice cold, and the Espresso Zabaione which reinvents the espresso martini with cold drip coffee, maple syrup, saffron and vanilla mouse and a touch of liquid nitrogen. All of this is on just page one of the ten pages of cocktails on the menu. A considered list of snacks, both raw (oysters, tuna tartare) and cooked (lamb croquettes, wagyu beef cheek pastry) are available at Eau-de-Vie, but if you find yourself hungry, you should head upstairs to the bar's lavish sibling venue The Sanderson. Appears in: Sydney's best Underground Bars for 2023
For some reason, food just tastes better served from a truck. These delicious, roving bites generally cost about a tenner and add a little bit of the thrill of the chase to your taco/burger/jaffle consumption. Sydney is continually amping up its street food scene — we've even got a dedicated food truck app, just so you know where to find you favourite at every turn. Whether it's a quick CBD lunch, a break from beer tasting at the local craft breweries, or roaming the markets and festivals, there's bound to be a food truck somewhere nearby dishing up something delicious from their window. So here are Sydney's best food trucks and where to find them. MAMA LINH'S The Vietnamese know their street food, and Mama Linh's is a wonderful homage to the tradition. The food truck is hailed for its 'pho-style' beef roll ($10), which slow cooks brisket in Mama's 18-hour pho master stock before being hand-pulled and soaked in the master stock gravy. Served on a signature crispy baguette with an array of pickled veggies and special 'pho' mayo, this combination is just genius. The banh mi menu is really a winner across the board though, from the crispy chicken thigh marinated in a secret, quarter century-old blend of spices to the 12-hour slow-cooked pulled pork. In additional to their usual Tuesday to Friday spots at Wynyard and Metcalfe Parks, on weekends you'll find the truck across the inner-west brewery circuit, including Wayward, Batch, Willie the Boatman and Young Henrys. Best for: Vietnamese street food. What to order: Beef 'pho' banh mi. Where to find it: Mama Linh's have usual Tuesday to Friday spots at Wynyard Park in the CBD and Metcalfe Park in Pyrmont, and on weekends you'll find the truck across the inner-west brewery circuit, including Wayward, Batch, Willie the Boatman and Young Henrys. To find out where they'll be next, check their Facebook page. mamalinhs.com.au CAMINITO If you haven't had Caminito's choripan ($7) yet, you better start running after their truck. The name means 'chorizo in fresh baked bread', and their version is topped with a traditional chimichurri sauce and is a quintessential South American street food. The choripan rojo gourmet ($10) is a paprika-infused sausage served with Spanish onion, sliced tomatoes and fresh rocket — and we suggest you go gourmet or go home. Best for: South American street food. What to order: Choripan rojo gourmet. Where to find it: Caminito is always rolling around to festivals, and can also be caught regularly at Peakhurst's Foodies Organic Market. Watch their whereabouts on their Facebook page. caminito.com.au BUSBOY Okay, it might not exactly be a truck, but Busboy deserves honourable mention on any roving snacks best of. The 'mobile cargo-bike' is turning out self-proclaimed 'fat boy food'. The menu is down-home country cooking, like the Redneck fried chicken sandwich, served on a southern-style biscuit. Owner Ben Ogden takes chicken and biscuits to the next level with The Trucker: buttermilk fried chicken, streaky bacon, cheese and fresh onion rings all topped with white sausage gravy. Best for: 'Fat boy' food. What to order: The Trucker fried chicken sandwich. Where to find it: Busboy is regularly hanging around the local craft beer favourites of Batch and Wayward, and has a regular spot at Young Henrys every third Saturday of the month. For other appearances, keep an eye on their Facebook page. busboy.com.au AGAPE Sydney's food truck scene wouldn't be complete without an organic option in the mix. Chef Simon Lawson uses all organic, seasonal produce, and their rotating menu is full of street food goodness. The must-have on the menu right now is their spelt rollers — and for good reason. With options like the 14-hour slow-braised, grass-fed wagyu and pasture-raised pork ($13 each) to the sustainably-sourced, golden crispy fish ($15), you really can't go wrong. Each of the spelt buns incudes coleslaw and chimichurri, with the special house-made barbecue sauce slathered on the red meat options. You can find this fire engine red truck parked all around town, from Sydney Olympic Park and Zetland to Surry Hills and a few CBD locations. Best for: Organic. What to order: One of their spelt rollers. Where to find it: The truck can commonly be found at Joynton Park in Zetland, and Customs House and Wynyard Park in the CBD. Find their full schedule on Sydney Food Trucks. facebook.com/AgapeOrganicFoodTruck EAT ART TRUCK Since winning Good Food's best new food truck award back in 2012, Eat Art Truck has continued to rev its engines all around Sydney. The truck combines a love for American street food and local street art, even being repainted by a different street artist each month. On their menu sits all the usual suspects — like nachos and crispy fries (both $5) — but the must-try is the eight-hour hot-smoked pulled pork bun ($12). This best-seller and crowd favourite comes with tangy mustard cabbage and bourbon barbecue sauce — a gorgeous excuse for a chow down. If you want to rent the truck out for a more intimate gathering, they've got you covered with a new cart, which is perfect for summertime rooftop parties. Best for: American street food and local street art. What to order: Pulled pork bun. Where to find it: The Eat Art Truck roams the city, and is a fixture at many big events around town. Follow their Facebook page to find out where to catch them next. eatarttruck.com VEGGIE PATCH VAN The Veggie Patch is devoted to providing high quality vegetarian food using seasonal produce sourced from local growers. The truck itself was a combined effort from TMOD Design and Yulli's, and is as environmentally friendly as the food — running on recycled vegetable oil, solar powered equipment, and composted rubbish. With herb boxes hanging from the facade, you know you're getting a fresh meal here. The mushroom and kale salad ($8) is worth a mention, however the star here is easily the haloumi burger ($10). The cheese is perfectly grilled and topped with passionfruit ketchup and an herby dill mayo, and the crunchy lettuce and sweet Spanish onions come together to make this dish a masterpiece. With all meals $10 or under, the Veggie Patch Van is a good choice for your tummy and your wallet. Best for: Vegetarian and vegan enthusiasts. What to order: Haloumi burger. Where to find it: The van can be found at various events around the city. Watch their Facebook page for their whereabouts. veggiepatchvan.com.au NEW YORK PASTRAMI DELI NYPDeli — or, the New York Pastrami Deli — has become a staple in Sydney, which had previously been sorely lacking in the food truck delicatessen department. The award-winning meat is made at the family factory Pastoral Small Goods, and the menu, from hot dogs ($8) to rare roast beef on a bagel ($10), is as New York as it gets. First timers cannot miss the Reuben ($10): the hot corned beef is topped with impossibly melty Swiss cheese, crispy sauerkraut and heaps of Russian dressing on fresh rye. Best for: Deli lovers. What to order: The Reuben. Where to find it: You can catch the NYPDeli for lunch every Wednesday in Millers Point (12-3pm) and every Friday in Metcalfe Park (12-3pm), as well as other various spots during the week. Find their upcoming locations on their Facebook page. facebook.com/nypdeli URBAN PASTA Pasta may not seem like typical food truck takeaway, but this cart is bringing Nonna's cooking to the streets — and we are ever so grateful. Serving up fresh pasta with homemade sauces, the process here is simple: choose your pasta, then your sauce, and add extra parmesan or chilli flakes at your discretion. Our favourite is the gnocchi arrabbiata ($11.50) — the pillowy gnocchi is well coated in a light, spicy tomato sauce, giving a slight kick whilst also fulfilling that carb craving. And the best part? It's one of the few food trucks that stays open late in the CBD. Best for: Carb-full dinner on the go. What to order: Gnocchi arrabbiata. Where to find it: You'll find Urban Pasta in a few locations a day, from Joynton Park in Zetland to Circular Quay's Customs House. For a full list of locations, visit Sydney Food Trucks. facebook.com/UrbanPasta JAFE JAFFLES This food truck is as much loved for its pimped Kombi van and hilarious sandwich names as it is for its righteous jaffles. The jaffle — a pressed version of its cousin grilled cheese — is an Aussie staple and breeds nostalgia among patrons. The fan favourite is by far the Jean Claude Van-Ham, a succulent combination of leg ham, oozy cheese and tomato. Other celeb jaffles that sit on the menu include David Jafflehoff — spaghetti Bolognese in a pocket — and the Goldie Corn ($6 each). Best for: The Australian nostalgic classic: jaffles. What to order: The Jean Claude Van-Ham jaffle. Where to find it: While they may not be taking regular spots around town, Jafe Jaffles is chilling at all of the local festivals, as well as corporate and private functions. Keep up with their location on their Facebook page. facebook.com/JafeJaffles CHERRY HWY Cherry Hwy brings patrons back to the days when the ice cream man circled the block. Housed in two retired Bedfords, owner Rode Vella transformed the 'twins' into a traditional ice cream and sorbet shop on wheels. The flavours span from classic vanilla to salted caramel and blood orange sorbet. Our go-to though is the peanut butter fudge (one scoop $4.50, two scoops $7). Creamy, chocolatey and nutty, this is the perfect icing on the cake to any trip down memory lane. Best for: Dessert. What to order: Peanut butter fudge ice cream. Where to find it: You can catch the truck regularly at Barangaroo's Headland Park. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for other locations. cherryhwy.com.au
Drink West is the fresh-to-the-scene brewery and brewpub backed by Sydney UFC legends Tai Tuivasa and Tyson Pedro plus Penrith Panthers' Nathan Cleary. The sell? "The first beer made out here, and the first beer made for us." The range of crisp west-born frothies include the flagship lager, which according to the owners "pairs perfectly with a fresh pair of TNs and tall stories about how your old man nearly played for Penrith". Luckily, it also pairs with the loaded hotdogs and burgers. If lager doesn't tickle your fancy, there's also a nitro stout, oat cream XPA, pale, pils and hibiscus lime gose — plus a zero-carb mid. From Wednesday to Sunday, you can swing by or book a table in the huge brewery space (complete with a staggering mural of the players and black and yellow team colours), catch some live music, cheer on the big game or just hang out on the lawns beneath the palms. Appears in: The Best Sydney Brewery Bars for 2023
The CBD is undergoing a bit of sprucing with a collection of contemporary Australian artists adding some design to the streets as they brighten up construction sites across the city. The Site Works initiative saw the City of Sydney hold a nationwide call-out with more than 520 artists submitting considered, colourful and eccentric designs. From the hundreds of artists, just ten Aussie talents were selected to kick off the program and create the arty hoardings currently decorating our streets. What is a hoarding you ask? They're those imposing fences placed around construction sites to hide the demolition, drilling and excavating from the street. With this initiative, the chosen artists have transformed these featureless facades into vibrant, creative spaces, and have pushed the initiative to a much larger scale than what's similarly popped up in cities like New York and Toronto. Both established and emerging Australian artists were the focus of Site Works, with the diverse contingent chosen from across the country, each getting the opportunity to have their work viewed by thousands of passers-by daily. These colourful hoardings will bring to life areas of Sydney undergoing transformation and, on the whole, make the city a more evocative and engaging place to live and work. The lively hoardings are now mandatory on all high-visibility construction sites in the CBD, so you can say goodbye to boring building site coverings for good. To delve a bit further into the initiative, we had a chat with some of the selected artists to take a look at the eye-catching hoardings you'll see springing up across Sydney. [caption id="attachment_632104" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] OBSTACLE COURSE BY ELLIOTT BRYCE FOULKES Sydney-based designer Elliot Bryce Foulkes applied all his hometown expertise to produce his hoarding design. With the imaginative designs featured on the hoarding representing various existing and in-development Sydney architectural sites, the work is fittingly located at Wynyard Station, which is currently an obstacle course of development with the construction of the light rail. Foulkes' work typically employs strong typography, language, graphics and space to explore ideas around identity, publication, art direction and design — with Obstacle Course symbolically expressing the individual experience of wandering throughout the city. Find Obstacle Course at Wynyard Station. [caption id="attachment_632113" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA BY EGGPICNIC Bird-lovers Camila De Gregorio and Christopher Macaluso, aka Eggpicnic, merge spirited design with wildlife conservation to kickstart conversation around preventing animal extinction. Currently situated near the intersection of Kent and King Streets (and Bay Street in Glebe), Birds of Australia features an eclectic mix of iconic and endangered Australian birdlife species, serving to highlight the "uniqueness and ecological power of Australian birds". "The aim of our work is to open hearts and minds," explains De Gregorio. With their work already receiving a great reaction from city dwellers, De Gregorio says Eggpicnic hope their art can continue to "reconnect an increasingly disconnected human population with the environment we not only come from, but also rely on." Find Birds of Australia near the intersection of Kent and King Streets, also on Bay Street in Glebe. [caption id="attachment_632111" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] POLY UBIQUITOUS BY CYNTHIA SCHWERTSIK Finding the seemingly "endless trail of plastic pollution" was getting her down, Adelaide-based artist Cynthia Schwertsik went in search of beauty within the humble plastic bag. Located at 201 Kent Street, Schwertsik's Poly Ubiquitous appears at first glance to feature effervescent and abstract forms, but on closer inspection images of submerged plastic bags surface. "I am quite excited that this work is up and around in Sydney, and I really hope that it brightens up the streets," says Schwertsik. "But I do hope people discover the origins of the work and how there are landscapes full of plastic bags. In a way, this work is a recognition of a possible future — so we want to make more conscious decisions today." Find Poly Ubiquitous at 201 Kent Street. [caption id="attachment_632107" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] REAL MYTH BY CAPTAIN PIPE Inspired by the "bonkers shenanigans" of 15th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, Neil McCann, aka Captain Pipe, presents his offbeat party scene at 71–79 Macquarie Street. Having recently been exploring how "our ideas shape the way we view the world around us" and how these stories can create meaning in our lives, McCann says he created his hoarding "in a style that was accessible and riotous to look at." "It was so weird seeing the work so tall — taller than me! The original drawings are only three-to-five centimetres high, so seeing them over two metres tall was confronting. I feel really proud to be part of the street." Find Real Myth at 71–79 Macquarie Street. [caption id="attachment_632100" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] DOUBLE-TAKE BY RACHEL HARRIS To create Double-take, South Australian designer Rachel Harris worked closely with the folks at the City of Sydney Archives, sourcing historical imagery of Sydney before photoshopping present-day objects into the frame. As her work currently occupies the busy corner of Bathurst and Sussex Streets, Harris explains how the brief was to create an artwork that would be viewed repeatedly, so it was really important to her that the audience uncover something new each time they view the work. "To me it was really important I created works that would engage viewers multiple times, and to offer them something new every time they saw it. Most importantly I wanted people to have some fun with the work and give them a game to play during their daily commute." Find Double-take at the corner of Bathurst and Sussex Streets. [caption id="attachment_632099" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Katje Ford.[/caption] STONE JEWELS BY FIONA CURREY-BILLYARD Fiona Currey-Billyard is an emerging artist, whose films, photography and paintings utilise new media and experiment with the viewer's experience. Having long held an interest in Indigenous art and culture, Currey-Billyard illustrated Stone Jewels to showcase the vivid stone cutting tools that were made from materials quarried and shaped by various Indigenous populations and have been unearthed all throughout New South Wales. Crafted from materials like glass, basalt and greenstone, the luminous stone cutting tools are almost like precious jewels. So, Currey-Billyard depicted these tools as the jewels they are in their many striking colours. Find Stone Jewels on the corner of Bathurst and Sussex Streets. [caption id="attachment_634050" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Katherine Griffiths.[/caption] A SONG FROM NATURE BY DANLING XIAO Best known for her daily food-art creations on Instagram, Danling Xiao's work focuses on sustainability, ethical eating and leaving minimal waste. Through her Mundane Matters moniker, Danling hopes to use creativity as a means to reflect on how we interact and affect the natural environment. "I have complex feelings about construction. On the bright-side it is about progression and making our city more vibrant and accessible for our growing population. On the downside it creates noises, pollution and disruption," describes Xiao. "Through my design I am hoping to remind people of the bright side of our city life." Find A Song For Nature at 24-30 Springfield Avenue, Potts Point. [caption id="attachment_634768" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Katherine Griffiths.[/caption] SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE AT NIGHT BY EMILY CROCKFORD Capturing one of Sydney's most unmistakable icons, Sydney-based painter and visual artist Emily Crockford depicts the Sydney Opera House at midnight on New Year's Eve as glowing fireworks light up its famous sails. The use of colour is central to Crockford's paintings, sculpture and plush works, boldly combining delicate patterns with solid blocks of bright colours. Describing the Site Works project as "awesome and really exciting," Crockford is supported by Studio A — a local social enterprise dedicated to "providing creative programs with whole-life outcomes for adults with disability". Emily Crockford has previously worked as part of UNSW Art & Design's Cicada Press initiative, held a residency with prominent furniture and design brand Koskela and exhibited at the Underbelly Arts Festival. Find Sydney Opera House at Night 21 Bent Street. Top Image: Katje Ford.
Whenever a public holiday with a religious history rolls around, it means different things to different people. Easter is one of them — a four-day period filled with bunnies for some, oh-so-many chocolate eggs for most, and a relaxing break from work for many. That makes finding the perfect Easter viewing a bit trickier than most occasions. Unlike Christmas movies, paschal flicks haven't become their own category. Unlike Halloween and horror films, there's not an existing genre to tap into, either. And, when a movie has clearly been made with Easter in mind, it tends to fall into one of two camps: religious-themed epics and rabbit-filled, kid-focused family fare. If you're keen to mark the occasion through cinema — and eager to find something to watch while you're binge-eating all of those hot cross buns — don't worry. No, you don't have to settle for the obvious. Instead, fill your long weekend with everything from Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka and Keanu Reeves as humanity's saviour to Jordan Peele's take on bunnies, all thanks to our 16 classic and eclectic Easter streaming options. Donnie Darko The creepiest rabbit in cinema belongs to one movie: Richard Kelly's (The Box) 2001 sci-fi thriller Donnie Darko. Once you've met Frank, as the eponymous teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal, Road House) does while he's sleepwalking one night, then you can be forgiven for feeling more than a little unnerved. Making quite the bold, striking and memorable filmmaking debut, Kelly's film saddles Donnie with plenty of other worries, too. Doomsday visions, wormholes and time loops; hosting a Halloween party; general adolescent angst — they're all included. So is Patrick Swayze (whose footsteps Gyllenhaal follows in in the Road House remake) as an unsettling motivational speaker, Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Deuce) playing her real-life brother's on-screen sister, and a mind-bending movie that proves both ominous and dreamy all at once (and boasts a great 80s-themed soundtrack). Donnie Darko streams via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Wonka In 2023, the world was gifted a new sweet treat. Casting Bones and All, Call Me By Your Name, Dune and A Complete Unknown favourite Timothée Chalamet as a young Willy Wonka in a film directed by Paddington and Paddington 2's Paul King was always going to get the film-loving world's attention. Wonka thankfully proved a delight, too. Your best Easter viewing, then? Pairing it with the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is also still a gem. It's a magical ticket of a book-to-screen adaptation, thanks in no small part to the inimitable Gene Wilder. We all know the tale by now, which follows a poverty-stricken child who wins a chocolate contest and gets a super-exclusive tour of the eponymous figure's sweets-making outfit, and it keeps standing the test of time for great reason. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory streams via Binge, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Wonka streams via Netflix, Binge, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Who Framed Roger Rabbit It's the part live-action, part animated film that's really not for kids, and it's still a delight more than three decades later. Who Framed Roger Rabbit steps back to 1947, plays with both neo-noir and comedy, and creates a world where humans and cartoons — or Toons as they're called — co-exist. A who's who of Hollywood's late-80s best and brightest were all considered for the part of private detective Eddie Valiant (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's Harrison Ford, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire's Bill Murray and Candy Cane Lane's Eddie Murphy among them), but Bob Hoskins is pitch-perfect in the role. Also working a charm is the film's dark but funny tone, its exceptional special effects, and the reteaming of Robert Zemeckis (Pinocchio) and Christopher Lloyd (The Mandalorian) after Back to the Future. Oh, and the fact that this always-entertaining PI tale is basically an oddball take on all-time classic Chinatown. Who Framed Roger Rabbit streams via Disney+, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections In one of the biggest sci-fi franchises of the past two decades, one man is chosen to save humanity, with the anointed hero navigating difficult trials and tribulations in the process. While the original trilogy of The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions are all jam-packed with futuristic imagery and dystopian drama, writer/director siblings Lana and Lilly Wachowski (Sense8) spin a story that's also laden with spiritual symbolism — so much so that a religion called Matrixism even popped up. Obviously, who wouldn't want to worship Keanu Reeves (John Wick: Chapter 4) as Neo? These movies did the first time around, and repeated the feat with Lana Wachowski's solo effort The Matrix Resurrections as well. The middle two flicks are nowhere near as impressive and entertaining as the first or latest, but The Matrix franchise always makes for thrilling piece of science fiction. The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions stream via Stan, Prime Video, YouTube Movies and iTunes. The Matrix Resurrections streams via Stan, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Us As a director using genre to lay bare society's oppressive ills — and to entertain audiences with audacious and ambitious horror stories in the process — Jordan Peele is three for three on the big screen. Nope was a 2022 standout. Before that, back in 2017, Get Out felt like a breath of fresh air with its smart and savage tale of racial alienation. And, that feeling coursed through 2019's Us, too, a film that simultaneously splashes in the same thematic pool and rides its own narrative wave. Focusing on a family of four, a summer vacation to Santa Cruz and sinister lookalikes who start stalking their every move, Peele finds a new way to ponder America's divisive reality both historically and at present, all while making an immensely unnerving addition to an already unsettling genre: the doppelgänger movie. Playing dual roles, Lupita Nyong'o (A Quiet Place: Day One) puts in a phenomenal performance as the matriarch doing whatever it takes to fight for both her family and her freedom, while many of the film's meticulously crafted visuals — and plethora of rabbits — are pure nightmare fodder. Us streams via Netflix, Binge, Paramount+, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Cool Hand Luke "Nobody can eat 50 eggs", Lucas Jackson (the late, great Paul Newman) is told in 1967 prison drama Cool Hand Luke. If that sounds like a challenge you're willing to take up, you're in good company. Naturally, you're currently thinking about chocolate eggs; however, Newman's famous character endeavours to eat 50 of the real deal. Even locked up in a Florida chain gang for vandalising parking metres, that's the kind of rule-breaking, authority-defying guy he is. Nominated for four Oscars and winning one (for Best Supporting Actor for George Kennedy), this is one of cinema's anti-establishment standouts, tracking the penal system's repeated attempts to put Luke in his place, and his continued determination to flout every restriction that's thrown at him. Cool Hand Luke is also layered with religious symbolism in its narrative and in its imagery — as you'd expect in a tale of a man repeatedly persecuted for remaining faithful to his true nature. Cool Hand Luke streams via SBS On Demand, Max, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Con Air Whatever occasion happens to be upon us, there's a Nicolas Cage movie for it. The Family Man and Trapped in Paradise are set around Christmas, for example; Moonstruck and Wild at Heart are pitch-perfect Valentine's Day viewing; and you can choose from the likes of Mandy, Vampire's Kiss and Color Out of Space at Halloween. For Easter, Con Air fits the bill. It is the movie that has Cage exclaim "put the bunny back in the box," after all. Here, he plays a former army ranger-turned-paroled convict who's trying to head home when his prison flight is hijacked by fellow criminals. And it's particularly apt viewing after Cage played Cage in meta comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent recently, and Con Air played a pivotal part in it. Con Air streams via Disney+, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Easter Parade Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Easter, and a dazzling array of singing and dancing? Blend them all together, and that's Easter Parade. A huge box-office hit upon its initial 1948 release, this lively musical understandably makes the most of its stars — who act, croon and show off their fancy footwork opposite each other in their only cinematic collaboration. Astaire plays Broadway hotshot Don Hewes, who's far from happy when his dance partner breaks off their pairing. Emotionally wounded, he vows he'll catapult the next dancer he meets to fame. That'd be Garland's Hannah Brown, although the path to success (and to romance) is hardly straightforward. As Easter Parade charts the ups and downs of Don and Hannah's new arrangement, though, it's obviously absolutely overflowing with show-stopping song-and-dance numbers. Easter Parade streams via Max, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Aardman has enjoyed an enviable track record over the stop-motion animation studio's 50-year career, as well as its two-plus decades making movies. But while the OG Chicken Run is great and the delightful Shaun the Sheep flicks aren't just for kids, Wallace and Gromit hold a soft spot in everyone's hearts. That makes their first full-length movie outing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit extra special. Parodying monster movies, including old-school Hammer horror films, it tasks a certain cheese fiend and his canine sidekick with trying to rid a village suddenly plagued by bunnies. An Oscar-winner for Best Animated Feature, the result is an amusing, offbeat and energetic adventure with clever sight gags, an eccentric vibe, an array of intelligently used pop culture references, and guest voice work from Helena Bonham Carter (One Life) and Ralph Fiennes (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar). Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit streams via Binge, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Celia Australian cinema is filled with stellar classic titles — films that engage, enthral, say something about our country and showcase the depth of our filmmaking talent. Sadly, the almost-forgotten Celia isn't cited among such company enough, although it deserves to be celebrated as one of the best features that we've ever had to offer. Set in 1957, its tale is dark, ominous and oh-so-telling as it blends small-town prejudices with fearful childhood imaginings. Written and directed by Ann Turner, the film focuses on an unhappy, grieving nine-year-old school girl (Rebecca Smart, Skin Deep) surrounded by a community that's paranoid about communists and unwelcoming to pet rabbits. Yes, there's that Easter-appropriate link — and this is kind of coming-of-age horror effort Australia rarely makes. Celia streams via Brollie, YouTube Movies and iTunes. The Last Temptation of Christ If you're going to watch one serious film about the obvious religious figure this Easter, make it Martin Scorsese's (Killers of the Flower Moon) The Last Temptation of Christ. Faith is one of the great veteran filmmaker's favourite themes and, here, he tackles it with his trademark smarts and depth, all while presenting Jesus not as a revered icon but as a person. Willem Dafoe (Nosferatu) plays the Judean carpenter in the spotlight, turning in one of his reliably fantastic performances. Also popping up among the cast: Harvey Keitel (Paradox Effect), Barbara Hershey (Beacon 23), and Twin Peaks alumni Harry Dean Stanton and David Bowie. Like many a movie that's dared to take a provocative approach to this tale, the 1988 film earned protests, censorship and bans when it originally hit cinemas — and nabbed Scorsese an Academy Award nomination for Best Director as well. The Last Temptation of Christ streams via YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Monty Python's Life of Brian When famed comedy troupe Monty Python turned their attention to religion, they didn't take the obvious route. Instead, their satirical comedy follows Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a Jewish man who happens to be born on Christmas right next door to Jesus, and gets mistaken for his neighbour as a result. As one well-known line of dialogue has told us all for decades, "he's not the Messiah — he's a very naughty boy". Eventually, he'll be trying to look on the bright side of life as well. Written by the whole group, and starring them as well, Monty Python's Life of Brian is the silliest, most irreverent biblical-related flick you're ever likely to see. Unsurprisingly, when it was released back in 1979, it was accused of blasphemy. Monty Python's Life of Brian streams via SBS On Demand, YouTube Movies and Prime Video.
When Shazam first hit mobile devices in 2008, it helped iPhone users solve a minor but common and often frustrating problem. By listening to a snippet of a song, the app identifies exactly what the tune is — so if you hear some music on TV, the radio or in the background but don't know what it is, you can easily find out. That's all well and good for songs that are playing somewhere around you, of course. But it doesn't help if you've got a ditty stuck in your head, have absolutely zero idea what it is and are becoming increasingly desperate to know what has wormed its way into your brain. We've all been there, and we've all been annoyed by it, too. Via a new addition to its search functions, however, Google has just announced a feature that resolves this very issue. If you want to find out what a specific tune is called, now all you need to do is hum, whistle or sing it — and Google will listen, then tell you what it is. The feature is available via mobile devices, through the Google app, the Google Search widget and Google Assistant. On the app and in the widget, you need to say "what's this song?" or click the "search a song" button before you start busting out a melody. With Google Assistant, you'll say "hey Google, what's this song?" first. It doesn't matter if you're not quite in tune (or nowhere near the right pitch), thankfully. After listening, Google will provide search responses that it thinks matches your song, so you can learn more about it, watch music videos, listen to the song itself, find the lyrics and more. The function uses Google's machine learning algorithm, building on work the company has been doing with artificial intelligence and music recognition technology — and it's now available in English on iOS, and in over 20 languages on Android, with plans to expand to other languages in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW61PpKJGm8&feature=emb_logo To use Google's new 'hum to search' feature, either visit the search engine on your mobile device or use Google Assistant. For further details, head to Google's blog.
It seems Sydneysiders can't get enough of making what's old new again. With the wave of gentrification hitting pubs, hotels and long forgotten spaces across the city, once lifeless urban spots have now been given a second chance. Hidden among the high-rises of the CBD's bleak concrete jungle, an oasis from the daily grind awaits. Wearier office dwellers delight, we've found just the place for you to escape. Tucked away behind King Street, Skittle Lane Coffee is a welcome breath of fresh air for inner city locals. Featuring New York-inspired interiors, the cafe's high ceilings and large steel windows demand attention from the casual passer by. Yet once you push through those sleek glass doors, this striking light-filled store makes you feel right at home. Behind the machines, the friendly Skittle Lane crew is ready to serve Sydney up some seriously killer brews. Owners Jodie Foster and Dean Wooding wanted to create the same laidback ambiance of Melbourne's iconic laneway cafes in this inner city location. "When we first viewed the space we instantly fell in love," says Jodie. "The building is grand and elegant and the Skittle Lane is being restored to its former glory. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to create something unique in the Sydney CBD." The laneway itself has been given a major revamp by The Crown Group over the past few years, seeing the thoroughfare dotted with boutique shops, eateries and most recently apartments. Keeping things sleek with a monochromic colour scheme, Skittle Lane Coffee is cool and contemporary. From the black marble block counter to the modern light fittings hanging overhead, they know how to nail the finishing touches. Aside from its aesthetic charm, these guys deliver first and foremost as a top-notch coffee shop. Serving up their own roasted coffee, Skittle Lane's seasonal blend offers a punchy full-bodied cup while their rotating selection of single origins keeps coffee geeks on their toes. With guest appearances from Marvell Street, plus specialty made ceramic mugs, plates and bowls courtesy of Melbourne designer Takeawei, diners can take these gorgeous goodies home thanks to Skittle Lane's stellar retail section. Pop in on your way to the office for a quick Brewtown Brewnut or pastry from Penny Fours, or stop by for a tasty grab-and-go Sonoma toastie to curb that lunchtime rumble. With everything from cold brew to espresso on the menu, Skittle Lane brings a slice of Melbourne's coffee scene to Sydney's burgeoning new alleyway. Images: Daniel Kukec.
Despite brighter-than-summer colours and clearer-than-Crater Lake sound, virtual reality is still bigger on virtuality than it is on reality. That's largely because the acceptance of digital life demands the denial of touch, smell and taste. Researchers at the National University of Singapore, however, are hoping to change this. They're one step closer to adding at least one sensory dimension to cyberspace. An electrodes-driven simulator has been developed that stimulates the tastebuds to recreate four of the sensations essential to the gustatory experience: sweet, salt, sour and bitter. A digital interface enables micro-alterations in temperature. Engineer Dr Nimesha Ranasinghe told the UK Telegraph, "It uses two methods — electrical stimulation and thermal stimulation to stimulate the tip of the human tongue non-invasively ... By manipulating the magnitude of current, frequency and temperature — both heating and cooling — thus far salty, sour, sweet and bitter sensations have been successfully generated ... Simulating food is one of the future directions of this technology." It's intended that users will be able to share meals virtually and taste the results of popular cooking shows. However, there's still work to be done. The simulator is yet to prove successful at stimulating at the fifth basic flavour, umami. Plus, researchers have acknowledged that our experience of taste is shaped by a variety of complex factors, including texture, colours and smell. In a side-project, the team is simultaneously developing a digital lollipop. The plan is to provide consumers with a sweet hit without the usual risks: weight gain and tooth decay. Previous attempts at facilitating digital taste have been rendered unsuccessful by their dependence on chemicals. Requiring constant mixing and frequent renewing, they're messy, costly and impractical. Via PSFK.
It's true every time the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras arrives: whether you're keen on the parade action, browsing stalls, partying in pools, hitting the dance floor, catching drag performances or plenty more, there's no shortage of options at the Harbour City's celebration of LGBTQIA+ pride and culture. For 2026, the lineup spans the return of Fair Day, the festival's usual beloved splash-filled soirees, as well as performance, talks, cinema and community gatherings — and that's just the beginning. In total, more than 80 LBGTQIA+ events will be taking place throughout Sydney between Friday, February 13 and Sunday, March 1, 2026. The overarching theme of Mardi Gras' 48th year is ECSTATICA, which celebrates joy as power, protest and connection — and feels especially vital in our current climate. The program once again kicks off with the Progress Pride Flag Raising at Sydney Town Hall on Friday, February 13, and sets the scene for a big opening weekend. That evening sees the return of Ultra Violet at City Recital Hall — a femme-driven, multi-sensory celebration from Sveta Gilerman and Jess Hill — while the following night, Black Cherry spotlights trans and gender-diverse artistry at the National Art School's historic Cell Block Theatre. Fair Day returns to Victoria Park on Sunday, February 15, filling the park with stalls, picnic rugs, performances, a doggy parade, the always lively Drag King Games, the Queer Fashion Runway and a full day of community connection under the summer sun. Other returning favourites include Kaftana Pool Party at Ivy Pool Club (Wednesday, February 18), Laugh Out Proud at the Enmore Theatre (Friday, February 20), Queer Art After Hours at the Art Gallery of NSW (Wedmesday, February 25), and the 33rd Mardi Gras Film Festival by Queer Screen, running in cinemas across the city (February 12–26). Among the new events for 2026 is Mardi Gala — a couture-meets-culinary spectacle at the Ivy Ballroom on Tuesday, February 24 — plus fresh theatrical additions including Perfect Arrangement at New Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company's revival of The Normal Heart at the Sydney Opera House. As always, the action culminates in the 48th Annual Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday, February 28, when Oxford Street, Flinders Street and Anzac Parade transform into the beating heart of LGBTQIA+ pride. Expect thousands of marchers, floats awash with colour, and that unmistakably pulsating parade energy. And as ever, the party doesn't stop after the parade — that night brings the return of PARTY, reimagined for 2026, while the beloved Laneway returns to take over The Beresford and Hill Street on Sunday, March 1, to close the festival with a bang. Rounding out the program is Mardi Gras+, the open-access stream championing queer artists, storytellers and communities across Sydney — from Rainbow Beaches activations to cabaret, comedy, walking tours, markets and more. Images: Jordan Munns, Joseph Mayers, Ann-Marie Calilhanna, Ken Leanfore, Lexi Laphor, Jess Gleeson, Ash Penin,
Banchō Bar, from the team behind Surry Hills' much-loved yakitori bar Tokyo Bird, brings an acclaimed cocktail roster to Haymarket with its 100-seat laneway space. It reminds Sydney that the small bar scene isn't limited to the Inner West or CBD, but rather extends to Haymarket and beyond. That's done with Suntory spirit-based cocktails, an array of whiskies and pan-Asian bar snacks. Cocktails are at the forefront of Banchō's menu and feature Asian ingredients sourced from Chinatown's nearby grocers and markets. The list is extensive — split into five categories with 12 cocktails in all — and specifically takes influence from China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Seasonal cocktails include the Dragon's Tears (Koyomi Shochu, jasmine tea, finger lime and apple) and the fiery Smoked Whaler (Hennessy VS Cognac, Woodford Reserve Rye, sweet vermouth, honey water, bitters and applewood smoke). One of the most complex house specialties is likely the Okinawa Vice, which mixes Herradura Plata Tequila, coconut rum, pineapple, aged port, lime, sencha tea, strawberry and kaffir lime foam before clarifying the lot with milk. Beyond the main variety of cocktails is a real love for highballs, with a build your own approach taking centre stage. Simply choose one of six sodas and one of three whiskies, or saké, chochu or cognac, and you're off to the races. Like at Tokyo Bird, a long list of whiskies is on offer, expanding from Japanese to Scotch, Taiwanese and Australian varieties, along with independent distillers. One very special drop on the list is Suntory's extremely rare Hibiki 30 Year Old. For repeat offenders, the bar also offers over 30 bottle lockers for storage in-between visits. A menu of bar snacks accompanies the drinks, like pork crackling or soft shell crab bao and potato croquettes with mixed veg and tonkatsu mayo. For cocktail-induced nibbling, there's also the requisite edamame, pork crackling and rice crackers. Images: Jeremy Plaisance.
Before the pandemic, when a new-release movie started playing in cinemas, audiences couldn't watch it on streaming, video on demand, DVD or blu-ray for a few months. But with the past few years forcing film industry to make quite a few changes — widespread movie theatre closures and plenty of people staying home in iso will do that — that's no longer always the case. Maybe you've been under the weather. Perhaps you haven't had time to make it to your local cinema lately. Given the hefty amount of films now releasing each week, maybe you simply missed something. Film distributors have been fast-tracking some of their new releases from cinemas to streaming recently — movies that might still be playing in theatres in some parts of the country, too. In preparation for your next couch session, here are 13 that you can watch right now at home. CRIMES OF THE FUTURE It takes a brave filmmaker to see cancer and climate change, and think of art, evolution and eroticism in a possible future. It takes a bold director to have a character proclaim that "surgery is the new sex", too. David Cronenberg has always been that kind of visionary, even before doing all of the above in his sublime latest release — and having the Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly helmer back on his body-horror bent for the first time in more than two decades is exactly the wild and weird dream that cinephiles want it to be. The Canadian auteur makes his first movie at all since 2014's Maps to the Stars, in fact, and this tale of pleasure and pain is as Cronenbergian as anything can be. He borrows Crimes of the Future's title from his second-ever feature dating back 50-plus years, brings all of his corporeal fascinations to the fore, and moulds a viscerally and cerebrally mesmerising film that it feels like he's always been working towards. Long live the new flesh, again. Long live the old Cronenberg as well. In this portrait of a potential time to come, the human body has undergone two significant changes. Three, perhaps, as glimpsed in a disquieting opening where an eight-year-old called Brecken (debutant Sotiris Siozos) snacks on a plastic bin, and is then murdered by his mother Djuna (Lihi Kornowski, Ballistic). That incident isn't unimportant, but Crimes of the Future has other departures from today's status quo to carve into — and they're equally absorbing. Physical agony has disappeared, creating a trade in "desktop surgery" as performance art. Also, a condition dubbed Accelerated Evolution Syndrome causes some folks, such as artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen, Thirteen Lives), to grow abnormal organs. These tumours are removed and tattooed in avant-garde shows by his doctor/lover Caprice (Léa Seydoux, No Time to Die), then catalogued by the National Organ Register's Wippit (Don McKellar, reteaming with Cronenberg after eXistenZ) and Timlin (Kristen Stewart, Spencer). Crimes of the Future is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. NOPE Kudos to Jordan Peele for giving his third feature as a writer/director a haters-gonna-hate-hate-hate name: for anyone unimpressed with Nope, the response is right there. Kudos, too, to the Get Out and Us filmmaker for making his third bold, intelligent and supremely entertaining horror movie in a row — a reach-for-the-skies masterpiece that's ambitious and eerie, imaginative and expertly crafted, as savvy about cinema as it is about spectacle, and inspires the exact opposite term to its moniker. Reteaming with Peele after nabbing an Oscar nomination for Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya utters the titular word more than once in Nope. Exclaiming "yep" in your head each time he does is an instant reaction. Everything about the film evokes that same thrilled endorsement, but it comes particularly easily whenever Kaluuya's character surveys the wild and weird events around him. We say yay to his nays because we know we'd respond the same way if confronted by even half the chaos that Peele whooshes through the movie. As played with near-silent weariness by the always-excellent Judas and the Black Messiah Oscar-winner, Haywood's Hollywood Horses trainer OJ doesn't just dismiss the strange thing in the heavens, though. He can't, even if he doesn't realise the full extent of what's happening when his father (Keith David, Love Life) suddenly slumps on his steed on an otherwise ordinary day. Six months later, OJ and his sister Emerald (Keke Palmer, Lightyear) are trying to keep the family business, which dates back to the 1800s, running. The presence lurking above the Haywoods' Agua Dulce property soon requires just as much attention, though. Just as Get Out saw Peele reinterrogate the possession movie and Us did the same with doppelgängers, Nope goes all in on flying saucers. So, Emerald wants the kind of proof that only video footage can offer. She wants her "Oprah shot", as well as a hefty payday. Soon, the brother-sister duo are buying new surveillance equipment — which piques the interest of UFO-obsessed electronics salesman Angel Torres (Brandon Perea, The OA) — and also enlisting renowned cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott, Veni Vidi Vici) to capture the lucrative image. Nope is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE BLACK PHONE The Black Phone didn't need to star Ethan Hawke. In a way, it doesn't really. Fresh from Moon Knight and The Northman, Hawke is definitely in this unsettling 1978-set horror film. He's also exceptional in it. But, his top billing springs from his name recognition and acting-veteran status rather than his screen time. Instead, superb up-and-comer Mason Thames gets the bulk of the camera's attention in his first feature role. After him, equally outstanding young talent Madeleine McGraw (Ant-Man and The Wasp) comes next. They spend most of their time worrying about, hearing rumours of, hiding from, battling and/or trying to track down a mask-wearing, van-driving, child-snatching villain — the role that Hawke plays in a firmly supporting part, almost always beneath an eerie disguise. Visibly at least, anyone could've donned the same apparel and proven an on-screen source of menace. There's a difference between popping something creepy over your face and actually being creepy, though. Scary masks can do a lot of heavy lifting, but they're also just a made-to-frighten facade. Accordingly, when it comes to being truly petrifying, Hawke undoubtedly makes The Black Phone. He doesn't literally; his Sinister director Scott Derrickson helms, and also co-wrote the script with that fellow horror flick's C Robert Cargill, adapting a short story by Stephen King's son Joe Hill — and the five-decades-back look and feel, complete with amber and grey hues, plus a nerve-rattling score, are all suitably disquieting stylistic touches. But as the movie's nefarious attacker, who has been terrorising north Denver's suburban streets and soon has 13-year-old Finney Blake (Thames) in his sights, Hawke is unnervingly excellent, and also almost preternaturally unnerving in every moment. Whenever he opens his mouth, his voice couldn't echo from anyone else; however, it's the nervy, ominous and bone-weary physicality that he brings to the character that couldn't be more pitch-perfect. The Black Phone is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. OFFICIAL COMPETITION Every actor has one, albeit in various shades, lengths and textures, but sometimes one single hairstyle says everything about a film. Wildly careening in whichever direction it seems to feel like at any point, yet also strikingly sculptural, the towering reddish stack of curly locks atop Penélope Cruz's head in Official Competition is one such statement-making coiffure. It's a stunning sight, with full credit to the movie's hairstylists. These tremendous tresses are both unruly and immaculate; they draw the eye in immediately, demanding the utmost attention. And, yes, Cruz's crowning glory shares those traits with this delightful Spanish Argentine farce about filmmaking — a picture directed and co-written by Mariano Cohn and Gastуn Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen), and also starring Antonio Banderas (Uncharted) and Oscar Martínez (Wild Tales), that it's simply impossible to look away from. Phenomenal hair is just the beginning for Cruz here. Playing filmmaker Lola Cuevas — a Palme d'Or-winning arthouse darling helming an ego-stroking prestige picture for rich octogenarian businessman Humberto Suárez (José Luis Gómez, Truman) — she's downright exceptional as well. Humberto decides to throw some cash into making a movie in the hope of leaving a legacy that lasts, and enlisting Lola to work her magic with a Nobel Prize-winning novel called Rivalry is quite the coup. So is securing the talents of flashy global star Félix Rivero (Banderas) and serious theatre actor Iván Torres (Martínez), a chalk-and-cheese pair who'll work together for the first time, stepping into the shoes of feuding brothers. But before the feature can cement its backer's name in history, its three key creatives have to survive an exacting rehearsal process. Lola believes in rigorous preparation, and in testing and stretching her leading men, with each technique she springs on them more outlandish and stressful than the last. Official Competition is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING No one should need to cleanse their palates between Mad Max movies — well, maybe after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, depending on your mileage with it — but if anyone does, George Miller shouldn't be one of them. The Australian auteur gifted the world the hit dystopian franchise, has helmed and penned each and every chapter, and made Mad Max: Fury Road an astonishing piece of cinema that's one of the very best in every filmic category that applies. Still, between that kinetic, frenetic, rightly Oscar-winning movie and upcoming prequel Furiosa, Miller has opted to swish around romantic fantasy Three Thousand Years of Longing. He does love heightened drama and also myths, including in the series he's synonymous with. He adores chronicling yearnings and hearts' desires, too, whether surveying vengeance and survival, the motivations behind farm animals gone a-wandering in Babe: Pig in the City, the dreams of dancing penguins in Happy Feet, or love, happiness and connection here. In other words, although adapted from AS Byatt's short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Three Thousand Years of Longing is unshakeably and inescapably a Miller movie — and it's as alive with his flair for the fantastical as most of his resume. It's a wonder for a range of reasons, one of which is simple: the last time that the writer/director made a movie that didn't connect to the Mad Max, Babe or Happy Feet franchises was three decades back. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that this tale about a narratologist (Tilda Swinton, Memoria) and the Djinn (Idris Elba, Beast) she uncorks from a bottle, and the chats they have about their histories as the latter tries to ensure the former makes her three wishes to truly set him free, is told with playfulness, inventiveness, flamboyance and a deep heart. Much of Miller's filmography is, but there's a sense with Three Thousand Years of Longing that he's been released, too — even if he loves his usual confines, as audiences do as well. Three Thousand Years of Longing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BULLET TRAIN Buy the ticket, take the ride, strap in for an onslaught of frenetic locomotive-bound fights: that's high-octane action-comedy Bullet Train on- and off-screen. Set on a shinkansen hurtling from Tokyo to Kyoto, in as stylised a vision of Japan that anyone not named Quentin Tarantino has ever thought of, this neon-lit adaptation of Kōtarō Isaka's 2010 page-turner Maria Beetle couldn't be more onboard with its central concept. That premise isn't snakes on a plane, but rather assassins on a train — plus one snake, one of nature's hitmen, actually. Cramming all those killers onto a single engine sparks mayhem, banter and bodies, not to mention chaotic frays in the quiet car and almost every other space. And when it works, with John Wick and Atomic Blonde's David Leitch steering the show, Tarantino and Guy Ritchie alum Brad Pitt as his main passenger, and a lifetime's worth of references to Thomas the Tank Engine slotted in, Bullet Train is as OTT and entertaining as it overtly wants to be. It doesn't always completely work, however; every journey, zipping along on a high-speed train or not, has its dips. Still, there are plenty of moving parts trying to keep the movie in motion — and plenty of plot, for better and for worse in both instances. In his second 2022 action-comedy after The Lost City, Pitt plays Ladybug, who is back riding the hired-gun rails after a zen break packed with new-age self-help platitudes. That's what he spouts to his handler (Sandra Bullock, The Unforgivable) by phone, in-between rueing his bad luck, as he tries to carry out what's supposed to be an easy job. All that Ladybug needs to do is take a briefcase, then disembark at the next station. But that piece of luggage is being transported by British assassin double-act Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, The King's Man) and Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry, Atlanta), as they escort a Russian mobster's son (Logan Lerman, Hunters) home. To up the hitman ante, the shinkansen is also carrying The Prince (Joey King, The Princess) and Kimura (Andrew Koji, Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins), who have their own beef, as well as the revenge-seeking Wolf (Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, Fast and Furious 9). Bullet Train is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. BEAST Idris Elba fights a lion. That's it, that's Beast, as far as film pitches go at least. This South Africa-set thriller's one-sentence summary is up there with 'Jason Statham battles a giant shark' and 'Liam Neeson stares down wolves' — straightforward and irresistible, obviously, in enticing audiences into cinemas. That said, the latest addition to the animals-attack genre isn't as ridiculous as The Meg, and isn't a resonant existential musing like The Grey. What this creature feature wants to be, and is, is a lean, edge-of-your-seat, humanity-versus-nature nerve-shredder. Director Baltasar Kormákur (Adrift) knows that a famous face, a relentless critter as a foe, and life-or-death terror aplenty can be the stuff that cinema dreams and hits are made of. His movie isn't completely the former, but it does do exactly what it promises. If it proves a box office success, it'll be because it dangles an easy drawcard and delivers it. There is slightly more to Beast than Idris Elba brawling with the king of the jungle, of course — or running from it, trying to hide from it in a jeep, attempting to outsmart it and praying it'll tire of seeing him as prey. But this tussle with an apex predator is firmly at its best when it really is that simple, that primal and, with no qualms about gore and jump scares, that visceral. Elba (The Harder They Fall) plays recently widowed American doctor Nate Samuels, who is meant to be relaxing, reconnecting with his teenage daughters Mare (Iyana Halley, Licorice Pizza) and Norah (Leah Jeffries, Rel), and finding solace in a pilgrimage to his wife's homeland. But Beast wouldn't be called Beast if the Samuels crew's time with old family friend Martin (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll), a wildlife biologist who oversees the nature reserve, was all placid safaris and sunsets. Beast is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER What do you call a movie filled with giant screaming goats, magic weapons vying for attention like romantic rivals, a naked Chris Hemsworth and a phenomenally creepy Christian Bale? Oh, and with no fewer than four Guns N' Roses needle drops, 80s nostalgia in droves, and a case of tonal whiplash as big as the God of Thunder's biceps? You call it Thor: Love and Thunder, and also a mixed bag. The fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to focus on the now 29-title saga's favourite space Viking, and the second Thor flick directed by Taika Waititi after Thor: Ragnarok, it welcomely boasts the New Zealand filmmaker's playful and irreverent sense of humour — and the dead-serious days of the series-within-a-series' first two outings, 2011's Thor and 2013's Thor: The Dark World, have definitely been banished. But Love and Thunder is equally mischievous and jumbled. It's chaotic in both fun and messy ways. Out in the cosmos, no one can swim, but movies about galaxy-saving superheroes can tread water. Thor Odinson (Hemsworth, Spiderhead) has been doing a bit of that himself — not literally, but emotionally and professionally. Narrated in a storybook fashion by rock alien Korg (also Waititi, Lightyear), Love and Thunder first fills in the gaps since the last time the Asgardian deity graced screens in Avengers: Endgame. Ditching his dad bod for his ultra-buff god bod earns a mention. So does biding his time with the Guardians of the Galaxy crew (with Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper and company popping up briefly). Then, a distress call from an old friend gives Thor a new purpose. Fellow warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander, Last Seen Alive) has been fighting galactic killer Gorr the God Butcher (Bale, Ford v Ferrari), who's on a mission to do exactly what his name promises due to a crisis of faith — which puts not only Thor himself but also New Asgard, the Norwegian village populated by survivors from his home planet, at grave risk. It also puts Thor on a collision course with his ex-flame Dr Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, Vox Lux), who's changed dramatically since last they crossed paths. Thor: Love and Thunder is available to stream via Disney+, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. ORPHAN: FIRST KILL What's more believable — and plot twists follow: a pre-teen playing a 33-year-old woman pretending to be a nine-year-old orphan, with a hormone disorder explaining the character's eerily youthful appearance; or an adult playing a 31-year-old woman pretending to be a lost child returned at age nine, again with that medical condition making everyone else oblivious? For viewers of 2009's Orphan and its 13-years-later follow-up Orphan: First Kill, which is a prequel, neither are particularly credible to witness. But the first film delivered its age trickery as an off-kilter final-act reveal, as paired with a phenomenal performance by then 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman in the pivotal role. Audiences bought the big shift — or remembered it, at least — because Fuhrman was so creepy and so committed to the bit, and because it suited the OTT horror-thriller. This time, that wild revelation is old news, but that doesn't stop Orphan: First Kill from leaning on the same two key pillars: an out-there turn of events and fervent portrayals. Yes, a big twist is again one of the movie's best elements. Fuhrman (The Novice) returns as Esther, the Estonian adult who posed as a parentless Russian girl in the initial feature. In Orphan: First Kill, she's introduced as Leena Klammer, the most dangerous resident at the Saarne Institute mental hospital. The prequel's first sighted kill comes early, as a means of escape. The second follows swiftly, because the film needs to get its central figure to the US. Fans of the previous picture will recall that Esther already had a troubled history when she was adopted and started wreaking the movie's main havoc, involving the family that brought her to America — and her time with that brood, aka wealthy Connecticut-based artist Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland, Possessor), his gala-hosting wife Tricia (Julia Stiles, Hustlers) and their teen son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan, My Fake Boyfriend), is filmmaker William Brent Bell (The Boy and Brahms: The Boy II) and screenwriter David Coggeshall's (Scream: The TV Series) new focus. Orphan: First Kill is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE FORGIVEN Patience is somewhat of a virtue with The Forgiven. It would be in it, too, if any of its wealthy white characters hedonistically holidaying in Morocco were willing to display the trait for even a second. Another addition to the getaways-gone-wrong genre, this thorny satirical drama gleefully savages the well-to-do, proving as eager to eat the rich as can be, and also lays bare the despicable coveting of exoticism that the moneyed think is an acceptable way to splash plentiful wads of cash. There's patently plenty going on in this latest release from writer/director John Michael McDonagh, as there typically is in features by the filmmaker behind The Guard, Calvary and War on Everyone. Here, he adapts Lawrence Osborne's 2012 novel, but the movie that results takes time to build and cohere, and even then seems only partially interested in both. Still, that patience is rewarded by The Forgiven's stellar lead performance by Ralph Fiennes, playing one of his most entitled and repugnant characters yet. Sympathies aren't meant to flow David Henninger's (Fiennes, The King's Man) way, or towards his wife Jo (Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye). Together, the spiky Londoners abroad bicker like it's a sport — and the only thing fuelling their marriage. Cruelty taints their words: "why am I thinking harpy?", "why am I thinking shrill?" are among his, while she counters "why am I thinking high-functioning alcoholic?". He's a drunken surgeon, she's a bored children's author, and they're venturing past the Atlas Mountains to frolic in debauchery at the village their decadent pal Richard (Matt Smith, Morbius) and his own barbed American spouse Dally (Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram) have turned into a holiday home. Sympathy isn't designed to head that pair's way, either; "we couldn't have done it without our little Moroccan friends," Richard announces to kick off their weekend-long housewarming party. But when the Hennigers arrive late after tragically hitting a local boy, Driss (Omar Ghazaoui, American Odyssey), en route, the mood shifts — but also doesn't. The Forgiven is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING Timing is everything in Where the Crawdads Sing, the murder-mystery melodrama set in America's Deep South that raced up bestseller lists in 2018, and now reaches cinemas a mere four years later. Its entire narrative hinges upon a simple question: did North Carolina outcast and recluse Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh), cruelly nicknamed "the marsh girl" by locals, have time to speed home from an out-of-town stay to push star quarterback Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson, The King's Man) from a fire tower, then resume her trip without anyone noticing? On the page, that query helped propel Delia Owens' literary sensation to success, to Reese Witherspoon's book club — she's a producer here — and to a swift film adaptation. But no timing would likely have ever been right for the movie's release, given that Owens and her husband are wanted for questioning in a real-life murder case in Zambia. Unlike the film, those off-screen details aren't new, but they were always bound to attract attention again as soon as this feature arrived. One of the reasons they're inescapable: the purposeful parallels between Owens' debut novel and her existence. Like Kya, Owens is a naturalist. The also southern-born author spent years preferring the company of plants and animals, crusading for conservation causes in Africa. Where the Crawdads Sing is timed to coincide with Owens' own life as well; it's set in the 50s and 60s and, as a child (played by Jojo Regina, The Chosen) and a teenager, Kya is around the same age that Owens would've been then. Another reason that the ways that art might link with reality can't be shaken, lingering like a sultry, squelchy day: what ends up on-screen is as poised, pristine and polished as a swampy southern gothic tale can be, and anyone in one. There's still a scandal, but forget dirt, sweat and anything but lush, vivid wilderness courtesy of filmmaker Olivia Newman (First Match), plus a rustic hut that wouldn't look out of place on Airbnb. Where the Crawdads Sing is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. MURDER PARTY If Amelie and Knives Out combined, the end result would look like Murder Party. If Wes Anderson and Agatha Christie joined forces, the outcome would be the same. It's highly unlikely that first-time feature writer/director Nicolas Pleskof and his co-scribe Elsa Marpeau (Prof T) were ever going to call this feature Murder in the Game-Filled Mansion or Death While Rolling the Dice, but that's the overwhelming vibe. There's an escape room element, too — thankfully, though, nodding towards the Escape Room franchise isn't on the agenda. Murder Party's characters get stuck in intricately designed locked spaces and forced to piece together clues to secure their freedom, and are only permitted to remain breathing by keeping their wits about them, but no one's in a horror movie here. The feature starts with a killer setup: an eccentric crew of relatives, their brightly hued home on a sprawling country estate, an usual task given to a newcomer and, naturally, a sudden passing. Architect Jeanne Chardon-Spitzer (Alice Pol, Labor Day) is asked to pitch a big renovation project to the Daguerre family, transforming their impressive abode so that living there always feels like playing a game (or several). Patriarch César (Eddy Mitchell, The Middleman) already encourages his brood to enjoy their daily existence with that in mind anyway, including dedicating entire days to letting loose and walking, talking and breathing gameplay. But he's looking for a particularly bold next step. He's unimpressed by Jeanne's routine proposal, in fact. Then he drops dead, the property's doors slam shut and a voice over the intercom tells the architect, plus everyone else onsite, to undertake a series of challenges to ascertain the culprit among them — or be murdered themselves. Murder Party is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN If The Phantom of the Open was part of a game of golf, rather than a movie about the club-flinging, ball-hitting, bunker-avoiding sport, it wouldn't be a hole in one. It couldn't be; perfection doesn't suit the story that director Craig Roberts (Eternal Beauty) and screenwriter Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) are telling, which is as real and as shaggy — as so-strange-it-can-only-be-true, too — as they can possibly come. That other key factor in spiriting dimpled orbs from the tee to the cup in a single stroke, aka luck, is definitely pertinent to this feel-good, crowd-pleasing, happily whimsical British comedy, however. Plenty of it helped Maurice Flitcroft, the man at its centre, as he managed to enter the 1976 British Open despite never having set foot on a course or played a full round of golf before. It isn't quite good fortune that makes this high-spirited movie about him work, of course, but it always feels like a feature that might've ended up in the cinematic long grass if it wasn't so warmly pieced together. When Maurice (Mark Rylance, Don't Look Up) debuts on the green at the high-profile Open Championship, it doesn't take long for gap between his skills and the professionals he's playing with to stand out. In the words of The Dude from The Big Lebowski, obviously he's not a golfer — although what makes a golfer, and whether any sport should be the domain of well-to-do gatekeepers who reserve large swathes of land for the use of the privileged few, falls into The Phantom of the Open's view. So does a breezily formulaic yet drawn-from-fact account of a man who was born in Manchester, later settled in the port town of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and spent much of his life as a shipyard crane operator, providing for his wife Jean (Sally Hawkins, Spencer), her son Michael (Jake Davies, Artemis Fowl), and the pair's twins Gene (Christian Lees, Pistol) and James (Jonah Lees, The Letter for the King). Maurice had never chased his own dreams, until he decided to give golfing glory a swing. The Phantom of the Open is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. Looking for more at-home viewing options? Take a look at our monthly streaming recommendations across new straight-to-digital films and TV shows — and our best new TV shows, returning TV shows and straight-to-streaming movies from the first half of 2022. Or, check out the movies that were fast-tracked to digital in January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August.
Got a greasy pizza box that you can't recycle? Hold on to it, as you'll soon have a chance to put it to good use. That's because Pizza Hut is hosting its first-ever nationwide free pizza exchange, taking over stores across the country from 4–7pm on Friday, November 21, and celebrating the launch of their garlic and cheddar golden stuffed crust. Representing the latest evolution in Pizza Hut's ever-popular crust upgrade, this brand-new offering features a generous blend of cheddar cheese combined with signature hot dust garlic seasoning. Making for a golden, crispy finish that adds a whole new element to your slice, expect serious cheese pulls with every bite. With the prospect of free pizza almost impossible to resist, this fun-loving exchange will be up and running in four states. In NSW, head to Pizza Hut Surry Hills and Pizza Hut Waterloo, whereas QLD fans can visit Pizza Hut Forest Lake and Pizza Hut Runaway Bay. Meanwhile, Victorians can visit Pizza Hut South Melbourne, as those in WA are invited to complete the swap at Pizza Hut Morley. "Pizza Hut has always been about fun, flavour and innovation, and we wanted to give Aussies a reason to fall back in love with our crusts," says Pizza Hut Australia's Chief Marketing Officer, Wendy Leung. "The new Golden Stuffed Crust delivers on all three." If you decide to swing by your nearest exchange, the equation is simple. Just hand over a pizza box from any rival brand and walk out with a steaming hot Pizza Hut Golden Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza. Why a rival? Well, the idea is that Pizza Hut is the only place to get the real deal when it comes to stuffed crust pizza that never misses the mark. Says Leung: "The Get Stuffed Free Pizza Exchange brings that spirit to life by giving people the chance to trade in their pizza frustrations for something they'll actually love." The Pizza Hut Get Stuffed Free Pizza Exchange is happening at various store locations around Australia from 4–7pm on Friday, November 21. Head to the website for more information. Images: supplied
First-time visitors to Singapore have a lot on their plate with the city's cuisine, museums, attractions and parks. But dig a little deeper and you'll find a diversity of rich experiences that'll help you get under the skin of the city. Whether this is your first trip or your fifth, these off-the-radar destinations in Singapore will help you delve into the island's vibrant history. Along the way you'll explore pristine natural spots, see unique architecture, try exquisite eats and rub shoulders with locals. We've partnered with the Singapore Tourism Board to showcase some of the best hidden gems across the country. From former military enclaves and heritage neighbourhoods to beautifully repurposed spaces and island destinations, these spots will elevate your next Singapore adventure. [caption id="attachment_864395" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lim Wei Xiang (Singapore Tourism Board)[/caption] THE RAIL CORRIDOR A shining example of Singapore's bid to be hyper-modern while honouring its history, the Rail Corridor is a 24km-long green passage through the city's heartlands. The former railway track is a classic example of Singapore's commitment to being 'a city in a garden', while allowing wildlife to move between major green spaces. Parts of the corridor are still in development, but highlights include a former quarry, the Upper Bukit Timah Truss Bridge which was built in 1932 and a wealth of parklands. Visitors can also access the revamped (but non-operational) Bukit Timah Railway station, a conserved heritage building that first opened in 1903. [caption id="attachment_864396" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Robert Sim (Flickr)[/caption] CHANGI CHAPEL AND MUSEUM This poignant museum honours the prisoners of war and civilians that were held at the notorious Changi prison camp under the Japanese Occupation of World War II in February 1942. The families of those who were once interned at the camp have donated personal items, so the museum now offers unprecedented insights into the the fall of Singapore and prisoners' daily lives. The collection highlights include a 400-page prisoner diary and replicas of the murals painted by English bombardier and artist Stanley Warren. [caption id="attachment_864411" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Hisgett (Flickr)[/caption] HAW PAR VILLA Created by Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par — the sibling heirs to the Tiger Balm empire — this giant theme park in Pasir Panjang houses over 1,000 statues and 150 large-scale dioramas showcasing snippets of Chinese mythology and history. Built in the 1930s, the park was meant to provide moral guidance according to Chinese traditions. Though the original building was bombed during World War II, it was rebuilt and now features the newly revamped Hell's Museum — inspired by gruesome scenes from Chinese folklore — and dioramas depicting tales like the Legend of the White Snake and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. These days, visitors can take part in a scavenger hunt through the park for Zodiac animals or do a self-guided 'Instagram walk'. [caption id="attachment_864415" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marklin Ang (Singapore Tourism Board)[/caption] SUNGEI BULOH WETLAND RESERVE It might be a bright, modern metropolis but Singapore is home to plenty of green spaces and nature reserves, too. At Sungei Buloh, the city's first wetland reserve, you can wander through 87 hectares of rare mangroves. Along the way, you might see some of the cheeky native inhabitants which include water monitors, mud lobsters, monkeys, mudskippers, sandpipers and the odd estuarine crocodile. There are plenty of observation posts to stop at so you can take in the impressive natural grandeur of the area. And, it's far enough off the beaten path that you probably won't be rubbing shoulders with hordes of tourists. [caption id="attachment_864423" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] JOO CHIAT/KATONG Named for a wealthy Chinese landowner, the Joo Chiat/Katong neighbourhood was once a coconut plantation and weekend retreat for well-heeled residents. Over the 20th century, it developed into a residential enclave for middle-class, English-speaking Peranakans and Eurasians. The area retains its eclectic pre-war architecture, though the colourful heritage shophouses have been turned into charming eateries including 328 Katong Laksa, The 1925 Brewing Co., Birds of Paradise and Rumah Bebe, as well as boutiques like Cat Socrates that stock stylish homewares, decor and accessories. There are also numerous museums exploring the area's history and culture — The Intan, Katong Antique House, and Eurasian Heritage Gallery are all worth visiting. [caption id="attachment_864426" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] FORT CANNING Singapore is full of history but few places capture as much of the city's past as Fort Canning Park. Over the centuries, it has been the seat of 14th century Malay kings, served as the headquarters of the Far East Command Centre for the British Army and witnessed the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942. These days, the 18-hectare space boasts nine historical gardens, the boutique Hotel Fort Canning, military history attraction The Battle Box and hosts cultural events such as Shakespeare in the Park. There's also the Instagram-friendly tree tunnel, with its spiral staircase and enormous Rain Tree. [caption id="attachment_864441" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] THE ISLANDS Singapore might be a city-state known for its gleaming skyscrapers and modern infrastructure, but just off its shores there's an archipelago well worth exploring. St John's Island, once a designated quarantine centre for major diseases, is now a popular destination for pristine beaches and outdoor adventures, while Kusu Island (pictured above) — named for the Chinese word for tortoise — has hidden lagoons, religious monuments and quirky folklore. Another popular spot, Pulau Ubin, is a former granite quarry that draws visitors for its military history, adventure sports, 1960s vibes and the biodiverse Chek Jawa Wetlands. [caption id="attachment_864446" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Singapore Tourism Board[/caption] DEMPSEY HILL Named for Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey, a British soldier who had a decorated military career, Dempsey Hill was once an enormous nutmeg plantation called Mount Harriet and later in the 1850s became the British-run Tanglin Barracks. Since 2007, this has been a go-to dining and entertainment district. Sample Michelin-starred Peranakan dining at Candlenut, steaks and beers at Red Dot Brewhouse and local bites at Samy's Curry Restaurant. Then, browse the retail offerings at the iconic global fashion boutique Dover Street Market (pictured above), try a pottery class at Impressions Art Studio or visit Singapore's first gin distillery at Tanglin Gin. For more incredible ways to experience Singapore, head to Singapore Tourism Board's website. Top image: Yik Keat (Singapore Tourism Board)
Perfect for a nature-filled long weekend, Grampians National Park boasts some of Victoria's best mountain views, waterfalls, and wildlife. For those looking to temporarily ditch the hustle and bustle of city life, or are after a secluded getaway surrounded by lush greenery, visitors to Halls Gap and surrounding areas can hike to famous mountain lookouts including the Pinnacle, explore the town's food and drink options, or just stay in, light a fire and take in the scenery. That sounds relaxing. In order to keep it relaxing, we did the research and found some of the best stays in the area to rest, relax and enjoy great views. These are some of the region's best Airbnbs for your next kangaroo-and-cockatoo-filled weekend getaway. Recommended reads: The Best Hotels in Melbourne The Best Places to Go Glamping in Victoria The Best Dog-Friendly Stays in Victoria The Best Places to Stay on the Great Ocean Road Blue Ridge Retreat, Halls Gap After a day of exploring Grampians National Park's bushland, pour yourself a glass of wine and settle into this property's spa bath with leafy outlooks from all angles. From $370 a night, sleeps five. Hemley House, Halls Gap Take in the picturesque view of the Grampians' notable wildlife against the backdrop of the mountains from your seat in this property's heated jacuzzi. From $368 a night, sleeps eight. Wine Down, Halls Gap Within walking distance to Halls Gap town centre, this cosy spot offers plenty of activity options. Explore the town's food and drink options, walk any of the several nearby nature trails, or light a fire and unwind in the outdoor kitchen area. From $210 a night, sleeps four. School House Villa, Halls Gap Nestled amongst the trees not far from Halls Gap town centre, visitors of this cottage can enjoy the best of both worlds: the creature comforts of town and the rugged charm of the bushland. From $190 a night, sleeps two. Aztec Escape, Halls Gap Light a fire and ease into a bottle of wine in property's picturesque living area, or step outside and relax on either of its patio areas. From $240 a night, sleeps four. Awonga Cabins, Halls Gap Rent out one of these six cabins for their proximity to an easy 1.3 km walking path to Main Street or to enjoy an evening BBQ on the deck. From $180 a night, sleeps two. The Escarpment, Halls Gap What better way to end a day than by relaxing in the outdoor hanging chair of this treetop-level home with sandstone cliff views — plus, this particular stay is kid-friendly with highchairs and cots provided. From $180 a night, sleeps six. Mountain Hideaway, Halls Gap Enjoy views of the Pinnacle from this property's front verandah or take the 20 minute stroll along the path into Halls Gap for an evening in town. From $205 a night, sleeps six. Heath House, Halls Gap You'd be hard-pressed to find better panoramic mountain views than from the floor-to-ceiling windows of Heath House. From $514 a night, sleeps eight. Redgum Log Cottage, Halls Gap Trade out your usual address for this rustic log cabin with epic mountain views and you might be personally greeted by the local emus, kangaroos, birdlife, and the property's free-ranging chooks. From $289 a night, sleeps six. Halls Gap Cottages Couples Retreat, Halls Gap Under the famous Pinnacle, lay out on this property's outdoor sectional and enjoy the fresh mountain air, views and nearby wildlife. From $317 a night, sleeps two. Hillrise Cottage, Moyston If you're willing to venture a little further, this remote cottage is the perfect base for the explorer. And, if you happen to overheat during your adventures, you can cool off in the nearby dam. From $250 a night, sleeps five. Ironstone, Hills Gap If you want to splurge, check out Ironstone. Designed to be the ultimate couples' retreat, this home's best asset is its spectacular mountain views from the living area, bathroom and bedroom. From $524 a night, sleeps two. Views at Pomonal, Pomonal Settle onto this home's front porch that is the epitome of rural single-level Australiana living with a drink in hand and watch as sunsets colour the skies. From $175 a night, sleeps five. Bush Lodge Retreat, Halls Gap Centrally located in Halls Gap, this cosy holiday home has all you need to relax indoors or out. From $317 a night, sleeps four. Romantic Tiny Home, Halls Gap If you're looking to see if the tiny house craze is for you, this tiny home is compact without sacrificing comfort. However, it also has easy access to trails into the mountains and to town just in case you decide you need to temporarily escape the close quarters. From $177 a night, sleeps three. Dacelo, Halls Gap If you're seeking out an eco-friendly option, there are many places to take in the mountain views in this two-storey home, although the soaker tub might be hard to beat. From $310 a night, sleeps eight. Mount Ida View, Halls Gap Hang out with the visiting cockatoos and kangaroos and take in the scenery on this home's shaded back deck. Or, enjoy a short stroll to the town of Halls Gap and explore the area. From $220 a night, sleeps six. Top image: Redgum Log Cottage courtesy of Airbnb. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
There is only one way to enter the Darlinghurst dive bar, Shady Pines, through a shady-looking warehouse door down a Darlinghurst alley — super chill. As you descend the stairs adjust your eyes to the dark underground haze, stamping one boot on the peanut shells left dishevelled on the ground, and moving the other to the timeless twang of Johnny Cash, you then eye the bartender who is sporting a ten-gallon hat and a grand 'ol 'tashe and order some of the best whiskey in Sydney. Of course, there are other ways to enjoy this Nashville-inspired saloon and by that I mean there are other drinks worth tasting. Try from a range of boutique beers including Coopers Malt and Newcastle Brown then move up to a whiskey sour, or an old-fashioned. In between sips (or chugs) feast on the beer snacks and get comfortable in your bar stool as you let the learned bartenders regale you with stories of the perfect whiskey. If you are willing to try, prices go up to $25 a shot, but it's worth it. If you're more drawn towards a bargain, you're in luck — Shady Pines has a killer daily happy hour. Between 4–6pm, the bar mixes $10 margaritas and negronis and pours $5 wines and beers. The bar's don't-give-a-damn attitude coupled with its staff's expert liquor knowledge makes this a themed bar you will want to keep coming back to. Plus, there's country and Western music on Sundays. Appears in: Sydney's Best Underground Bars for 2023
