Public Dining Room

Set in an off-the-beaten-path location in the suburb of Mosman, Public Dining Room is an elegant local eatery with its own swimmable beach and pier with boat access. The dining space is bright, airy and flooded with natural light thanks to floor-to-ceiling retractable glass windows, which on a sunny day, make up for the restaurant’s lack of outdoor seating. The menu combines seasoned technique with fresh produce, and dishes might include seared scallops with pancetta and black pepper caramel and homemade tagliatelle with king crab and baby zucchini.

The dining room is relaxed and Scandinavian in style, making use of materials like oak, marble and steel. Unlike many of the well-known restaurants downtown, here you’ll find local suburbanite families dining on the weekends and young families and businesspeople for lunch during the week. Public Dining Room’s best asset though, is its location on Balmoral Beach. The restaurant boasts a modestly sized but lovely sandy beach set on a protected section of the bay, so kids can splash in the water and cannonball off the pier while parents linger over a glass of wine or flat white (Sydney’s answer to a cappuccino), before walking out to the dock to board their boats for a last few hours of afternoon at sea.