The Room
Oncore by Clare Smyth opened in 2021 on level 26 of Crown Sydney in Barangaroo. The dining room is dressed in serene cream and brass with floor-to-ceiling windows over the harbour and the city skyline. Clare Smyth — the first female chef to have run a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Britain (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay) and now the chef-patron of Core in London — built the Sydney room as her first international project, with a similar premise: classical British and Australian ingredients, refined to the highest international register.
The dining room seats 90; a chef's counter holds 12 directly facing the kitchen. Service is brigade-British in rhythm with Australian floor warmth. The booking window is six to ten weeks for weekend evenings.
The Food
The eight-course tasting at AU$295 rotates seasonally and pulls from a serious Australian ingredient bench: Tasmanian salmon, Riverina lamb, native finger lime, Yamba prawns, NSW oysters. The signature Potato and Roe (caviar with a perfectly poached potato in dill cream) made the cross-Pacific transit from Core London. The pairing menu at AU$195 is the right way in.
Wine programme is one of Australia's deepest — Burgundy and Bordeaux benches alongside Tasmanian sparkling, Hunter Valley Semillon and Margaret River Cabernet.
Best Occasion Fit
Proposal: The chef's counter at Oncore on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening is one of the most-photographed proposal seats in Sydney. Notify the staff at booking; the kitchen will arrange the moment.
Impress Clients: International visitors recognise Clare Smyth's name and the La Liste top-50 designation without translation. The eight-course tasting frames Australian ingredients at the highest international register.
Birthday: Oncore handles birthdays with quiet British discretion — a candle on the dessert, a signed menu, the captain's acknowledgement.