Rockpool Bar

While Rockpool Bar & Grill is an iconic Sydney restaurant, the attached Rockpool Bar is also well worth a visit for a knockoff, luxe bar menu, or nightcap in an elegant CBD setting.

With a separate menu to the restaurant, Rockpool Bar offers snacks like Wagyu brisket-filled empanadas with pebre salsa or three-cheese and truffle toasties, and meals including wood-fired Cape Grim steak frites and a renowned bacon cheeseburger or Wagyu burger (which go for $21, or a bargain $29 with chips and a beer).

The full restaurant menu can also be ordered in the bar space—basically a hack for nabbing a table when the dining room is full.

On the drinks list, there are regularly changing signature cocktails crafted using innovative and low-waste methods, a neat but comprehensive selection of wines by the glass (with an additional premium sommelier's selection), premium spirits with a large focus on whisky, and a few beers. Rockpool's extensive by-the-bottle wine program can also be enjoyed in the bar.

Rockpool Sydney also offers one of Sydney’s best happy hours; swing by between 4pm and 6pm, Monday–Friday for RP Hour to make the most of $12 cocktails, a $15 bar snacks menu and $4 fries. There's also a sommelier's selection of $15 wines and $7 beers.

The twinkling installation of exactly 2,682 wine glasses is the main feature of the bar space, which has bar counter seating, small tables for two or four, and a couple of larger banquettes perfect for groups to fill out following a visit to the restaurant. Rockpool Bar is walk-in only.

Read up on more of the best bars in the Sydney CBD here.

Image credit: Supplied