Sydney's best long lunch spots

The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay

Glebe

Watching your more athletic peers cut swathes through Blackwattle Bay in a variety of seacraft makes kicking back in these elegant surrounds and sizing up the freshly shucked oysters in front of you all the sweeter.

Fratelli Paradiso

Potts Point

The giant, wall sized blackboard menu may indeed be written completely in Italian, but it’s pretty easy to get the gist – especially when you’re having it explained to you by a bunch of swarthy Italian men dressed in fi gure hugging black. The minute steak is grouse, as is the fried calamari with aioli.

Chiswick

Woollahra

A place where brunch can easily turn into lunch and sometimes even dinner, the beautiful garden surrounds of Matt Moran’s latest offering make it an idyllic spot to while away the day with a whole roasted shoulder of lamb.

Glebe Point Diner

Glebe

Seasonal produce prepared and served with the utmost care. Simple, locally sourced ingredients are cooked with skill, the menu changes daily and the wine list has a local focus with an eye to the biodynamic.

Berta

Sydney

Here is you perfect middle ground restaurant. A cool place where you can have a meal without spending a million bucks and still eat amazing food. One of the stable of restaurants from Vini owner and chef Andrew Cibej – here it's a concrete bunker on Alberta Street filled with Italian wine, share plates of Italian food and a room buzzing with people having a good time.

Ormeggio at The Spit

Mosman

The jewel of the spit is Alessandro Pavoni's regional Italian restaurant where you can order up plates of buffalo mozzarella risotto, Spanish mackerel, and pumpkin and mustard apple tortelli while the yachts of Middle Harbour bob gently by.

Pilu at Freshwater

Harbord

Giovanni and Marilyn Pilu have one of the most beautiful restaurants in the area – it may have panoramic views of the beach, but you may be too distracted by the suckling pig to notice.

Popolo

Rushcutters Bay

Sundays mean family-style specials like slow-cooked lamb shoulder and the gutsy, rustic malloreddus – gnoccheti sardi joined by little bits of pork sausage, a fine dice of tomatoes and big shavings of pecorino cheese.

The Sailors Club

Rose Bay

This long, slender glass-walled room lined with bright banquettes, buttercup-yellow metal chairs and splashes of turquoise is a jaunty spot for a lengthy lunch overlooking Rose Bay.

Sean's Panaroma

Bondi

Sunday lunch is boss here. Aim for an outdoor table – perfect for people- and dolphin-watching and order up the light, whipped chicken parfait, some sort of hand cut pasta and whatever fish got pulled out of the sea that day.