The best bars in Surry Hills

Bar Copains is a tiny but mighty wine bar in Surry Hills, and if you haven't checked it out yet, we recommend you do. Co-owners Morgan McGlone and Nathan Sasi both donated hundreds of wines from their personal collections. Together, they worked with Christian Robertson to curate the list, which features a mix of both local and international producers, natural and conventional wines, some funky, and some classics, plus a selection of rare vintage drops. Chat with the warm waitstaff, and we reckon you'll be sure to find something you love.

The Negroni. Gin, vermouth, Campari, three simple ingredients that when put together right, make for a sublime drinking experience of sophisticated bitterness and balance. When done incorrectly – better left unsaid. All this is to say, that if a bar is going to open as a Negroni specialist, you'd better hope you're in good hands. Thankfully at Bar Conte, Sydney's first dedicated Negroni bar, co-founder Raffaelle Lombard considers himself very well versed in the Negroni sphere, having thrown them back since his early 20s around the Amalfi coast. There are more than 30 Negronis on the menu, so round up your fellow cocktail lovers and get drinking.

What do you get when you cross a couple of Shady Pines barkeeps with a metric eff-load of tequila and a whole lot of owls? You get Tio’s, a Mexican party shack where the holiday vibes are on overdrive and even your can of beer comes with a salt rim and lime. At Tio’s, they’ve got around 120 different spirits on their books, and some of them are exceptionally difficult to get in this country, but after more than a decade in the game, this team knows what they're doing. So well, in fact, that over the last decade, they've served more than 100,000 Margaritas.

The Rover is by the team behind handsome subterranean steakhouses Bistecca and The Gidley, so the food, as well as the drinks, are great here. Located on Campbell Street, the low-lit den has got charm and dapper in spades, and date night written all over it. The Rover has been a part of Sydney's booze scene for more than a decade and it's still a strong option for when your thirst kicks in.

Lokal is a tiny natural wine bar located on a sunny corner on Fitzroy Street, directly across from The Cricketers Arms Hotel. It's run by two mates and long-term hospo veterans: Patrick Frawley and Nelson Cramp. When it comes to wine, Frawley is your guy, and if you're interested, he'll give you a backstory of each drop on the list. Cramp is in the kitchen pumping out flavour-packed small plates. Don't skip the Wagyu steak frites with confit parsnip sauce.

The Cricketers Arms is, arguably, Surry Hills’ – if not Sydney’s –most classic Aussie pub. The fact that they’ve hardly done a thing to the bottom floor and beer garden in decades is what’s given it its charm. There’s a place in here for everyone – for local barflies and the oldies who’ve been coming here forever, for uni students and skater punks wanting some cheap entertainment, for well-dressed Surry Hills creatives here for a knock-off drink, for live music lovers and those keen to boogie – even for those looking to knock the top off a cold one on the way to or from the cricket or footy at Moore Park.

Poly is tucked into the bottom corner of the Paramount Building in Surry Hills, a wine bar sibling to Mat Lindsay’s iconic Chippendale restaurant, Ester. While the underlying vibe is similar (woodfired oven, arches, elegant neutrals with a few pops of colour), where Ester is light and airy, Poly is sexy and cool. If you're after an excellent drink and an excellent feed, come here.

The Gilda was a snack first created in San Sebastian in 1946, around the time of the release of the film Gilda, starring American bombshell Rita Hayworth (as a character named Gilda). Lennox Hastie’s Surry Hills wine bar and restaurant – which he owns in partnership with the Fink Group (Bennelong, Otto Ristorante and Quay) – is named after both stars. It's a good-looking space – tables are topped with marble, windows are arched, banquettes are olive green, and there are brass finishings everywhere. Hot tip: swing by Gildas for Golden Hour (times across the week listed here) and make the most of the $12 cocktails and $5 gildas.

Once you tuck yourself into one of the tables at the Dolphin Hotel's Side Bar, prepare to go home with an empty wallet and full to bursting with vinous delights. This is the kind of place that can turn your whole understanding of wine upside down by pouring you a Chilean skin-contact muscat that’s as savoury as an antipasto board. 

Surry Hills watering hole Forrester’s has been serving locals comforting meals and refreshing pints for more than 100 years. Now overseen by Applejack Hospitality (also Rafi, June’s Shoppe and Bopp and Tone), the beloved tavern underwent an extensive refresh in 2021 by Guru Projects, complete with lush greenery and a cocktail bar – and is ready for the next 100.

This Japanese whisky bar tucked off Commonwealth Street on Belmore Lane is certainly not going out of its way to draw attention to itself. But the fact it’s a little off the beaten path just means your drink comes with a sense of achievement for having pinned down yet another bloody good small bar in Surry Hills.

Tropical vibes with an Italian twist is what you can expect to find at Tucano’s, a funky cocktail bar in Surry Hills. A colourful toucan mural by artist Bodie Jarman marks the spot. Here, fruit juices are swapped for amaros and vermouths, making the cocktails lighter, fizzier and more aromatic, while retaining a tropical taste.

40Res is the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it small bar of our dreams. You'll discover it tucked away down a side street (40 Reservoir Street, for those playing along at home) in Surry Hills just a short stroll from Central Station, away from the hubbub of Crown Street and the wow factor of the new Wunderlich Lane. And it’s all the better for it. Low‑key. Lo‑fi. Laid‑back. Lacking pretension. Luverly.

When it opened, this was the first distillery dedicated to rum on Sydney's streets in more than 20 years. It's an all-in-one inner-city distillery, cellar door, bar and eatery looking to restore rum’s forgotten reputation. Perch at the handsome bar that forms the centrepiece of the vast and open space, and choose from a novella-length list of rums from all over the world.

Found on Albion Street, just 70 metres up the road from Bar Copains, Bessie’s is a Mediterranean restaurant with wood-fired flair. But if you'd rather a short stop and a fantastic drop instead of a full-commitment restaurant booking, scoot on over to Alma's – the cocktail bar at the front of the room, with the same excellent snack and booze menu.

To the uninitiated, this spot could be overlooked as just another American-ish bar. But what’s good about this bar isn’t the vintage booze advertising, hobby paraphernalia and charity shop art that cover the exposed brick walls, or the fact that they’ve got Coors and Guinness to accompany your barbecue platter and chilli cheese fries. It’s that there's daily specials every day of the week, meaning you can get $5 tacos and $15 Tommy's Margs on a Tuesday, $1 wings on a Thursday, or our favourite: $15 Bloody Good Caesars on a Sunday (with a "big eff off garnish" for an extra $8). Heck yeah.

It was a mammoth job back in the day transforming the old Tailors on Central into a Japanese booze and snack palace. But they successfully banished the last vestiges of that dreary tavern and now Goros stands as a low-lit bar decked out in splashes of rainbow neon, figurines, lanterns and bamboo.

You know what happiness is? It's sitting down to a fried chicken slider, with an Old Fashioned on the side in the Golden Age Cinema’s subterranean bar. You don't even need to be there for a film, the Art Deco vibes are drawcard enough for a night out. You'll find a curated mix of locally sourced and international drops – but its cocktails are where it's really at.

Forget what you think about hotel lobby bars: the one at Ace Hotel is as cool as they get. Take a seat in the sunken chairs and order a wine from the list curated by Mike Bennie of P&V Merchants, a bunch of snacks, and strap in for a good time. The hotel's impressive fit-out by Flack Studios is reason enough to pop in. 

Dreaming of rum cocktails and jerk chicken but can’t quite muster the cash for a Jamaican getaway? On Crown Street there's a brightly coloured restaurant and bar that's bringing island vibes to Surry Hills to save you a trip, with excellent rum and good grub.

The Whisky Room at the Clock Hotel is a warm, low-lit enclave shut off from the hubbub of the rest of the hotel by two swinging saloon doors. And once inside, the amber glow of a bar stocked with over 200 bottles of the demon drink draws you in like moths to a highly combustible flame.