Cafe SydneyRestaurant

From the top floor of the sandstone Customs House at Circular Quay, this dining room has traded since 1999 on one of the better outlooks in the city - the harbour, the Bridge and the Opera House laid out beyond an open terrace. The cooking is contemporary Australian with a seafood lean, matched to a wine list the restaurant has been recognised for. It is a long-standing choice for occasion lunches and after-work sittings, and the volume of custom is high, drawing both a corporate Sydney crowd and visitors after the view. Reservations are the norm. Decades in, it remains an independent operation rather than part of a group, and one of the fixtures of the Quay's upper-end dining.