News
Where to find Sydney’s best crepes
08 Feb 2023
08 Feb 2023
Guide to Sydney's favourite French restaurants
French cuisine is the equivalent of romanticising life through food and while the French scene might not be as obvious and widespread as say, Italian or Japanese, there’s still no lack of great restaurants in the city to double down for a cosy treat-yourself night or a splashy first date. French cuisine boasts top-of-the-line technique and skills, and these are all the top spots in Sydney where you’ll get to try all the classics firsthand.
Restaurant Hubert has romance, service, and amazing food in spades. This intimate hideout is old-world French grandeur at its best. A restaurant that’s an ode to enchanting, retro-style dining rooms, a meal in Hubert will transport you into another time altogether. The sprawling space is split across several dining areas and even features a grand piano with jazzy live music.
The food at Hubert’s paints boldly with a proud French brush, and on the menu you’ll find escargots, duck parfait charcuterie, bavette, and chicken fricassee done to mouthwatering perfection.
What should you order at Restaurant Hubert? Dish Cult recommends the $89 Chicken Fricassee.
Restaurant Hubert also offers some of the best service in the Sydney dining scene.
While this Potts Point French bistro is a city-wide favourite spot for scoring amazing steak, the team here are also purveyors of killer French classics to boot.
The French-inspired menu here covers a variety of dishes from mixed charcuterie to spatchcock fricassee and their famed Steak Frites that’s 300g of succulent steak served with heavenly cafe de Paris butter.
In true French style, you can venture into more adventurous territory with their unique entrees, or opt for more familiar fare like caviar and scallops.
You’ll want to order the House Fat Aged Cote de Boeuf at Bistro Rex.
Bistro Rex’s steak is so good, it’s featured in our guide on where to find the Best Steaks in Sydney.
Inspired by French brasseries, Felix offers relaxed dining right in the heart of Sydney. Being as much of a French holiday as you can get here in Australia, everything about this joint is pure escapism from the red and white awnings to the baskets brimming with freshly baked baguettes.
The menu here is casual French, offering comfort food in the form of Wagyu sirloin steak frites, chicken liver pate and creme brulee for dessert. All dishes are done superbly and the menu here changes regularly so come with an appetite whetted for a surprise.
The $24 Chicken liver pate get Dish Cult’s pick at Felix.
Inspired by Parisian terrace bistros, all dishes here are done traditionally and you’ll find heavenly whiffs of the famous Parisian fragrant butter sauce wafting all throughout Bistro St Jacques.
Their $79 summer menu offers a 3-course a la carte special with the likes of seared scallops served with Basque Txistorra sausage, duck liver parfait, beef tartare, and pan-roasted pork cutlet. Dishes are made with carefully-sourced seasonal produce and each plate brings simple and uncomplicated flavours to the table; after all, there’s nothing complicated about delicious.
There are so many hospo big wigs behind the scenes of this dashing French outpost, it’d be almost a crime to expect anything less than fantastic from Bistrot 916.
The vibe here is romantic and intimate with soft candlelight and waitstaff decked in white chef jackets. The menu is unfussy and to-the-point and with only one page to its name, you cant start off your meal with their heavenly scallop quenelle and bread and bottarga buffeter before sinking your teeth into duck frites and poisson du juor. Dishes here are bold and eclectic, and you’ll find plates ranging from French classics to more unusual offerings with all of them having one thing in common: mouthwatering goodness.
The $44 Duck Frites at Bistro 916 is a must-have, and gets Dish Cult’s seal of approval.
