Best Vegan Fine Dining in Sydney 2026

Why vegan fine dining is thin but strong in Sydney

Sydney is a seafood-and-fire town, so a dedicated plant-based fine-dining scene was never going to be large. What it has instead is one excellent specialist and a tier of ambitious rooms that take vegan cooking seriously when asked. That second category matters more than it sounds. A kitchen run by Clare Smyth or Peter Gilmore can turn a vegan brief into the most interesting menu of the night, because the discipline of building flavour without animal fat is exactly the kind of problem these chefs enjoy. The catch is that almost none of it is on the printed menu. You have to ask, and you have to ask early.

The list below leads with Yellow, the only fully vegan room here, then runs through five high-end kitchens that confirm a vegan tasting on request: Oncore by Clare Smyth at Crown, Aria at Circular Quay, Sixpenny in Stanmore, Bennelong at the Opera House and Ester in Chippendale. Every name links to its full review, with the price you should plan around and the exact channel for requesting the plant-based menu. For the rest of the city, start with the Sydney dining guide, and for menus built on dairy and eggs see the Sydney vegetarian tasting menu guide.

The vegan list

Yellow

Plant-based · Potts Point · $125 six-course tasting

Vegan menu: dedicated — the whole kitchen is plant-based

Yellow is the reason this page exists. Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt turned a former vegetarian room on Macleay Street into Australia's first vegan restaurant to hold two chef's hats. The six-course tasting is $125, a three-course lunch is $75, and the cooking heroes heirloom vegetables grown by farmers around Sydney rather than meat-substitute tricks. Hildebrandt's list is built on vegan-friendly wines, so the pairing is genuinely plant-based too. This is the one Sydney table where you do not have to ask for anything: the default menu is already vegan, start to finish.

Oncore by Clare Smyth

Modern British · Barangaroo, Crown Sydney · tasting from ~$295

Vegan menu: on request — note it in the booking dietary field

Clare Smyth built her name at Core in London on vegetable cooking that outshone the protein, so a vegan brief here lands in friendly hands. Oncore sits on Level 26 of Crown Sydney with a wall of harbour glass, and the kitchen will compose a full plant-based tasting that runs alongside the standard menu. Smyth's signature potato dish is the proof of concept: a humble vegetable treated like the centre of the plate. Flag vegan in the dietary note when you book, several days ahead, and the team will confirm. This is the most ambitious vegan meal in the city after Yellow.

Aria

Modern Australian · Circular Quay · five or eight courses

Vegan menu: on request — ask at the time of booking

Aria, the Matt Moran room facing the Opera House, publishes its position plainly: extensive vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menus, requested at the time of booking. Executive chef Joel Bickford runs five and eight-course tastings, and the vegan version moves through the same seasonal produce and harbour-view ceremony as the meat menu. It is the easiest of the grand rooms to organise, because the request is a standard part of the reservation rather than a special favour. Book the window tables for the bridge view and put the vegan note in when you reserve.

Sixpenny

Modern Australian · Stanmore · $265 seven-course tasting

Vegan menu: on request — tell them when you book

Sixpenny, the small terrace room in Stanmore, runs a seven-course tasting at $265 built around a kitchen garden and a wood oven, and that vegetable-first kitchen adapts cleanly to a vegan brief. Chefs Daniel Puskas and his team cook native and homegrown produce, so the plant-based path is the natural one here rather than a workaround. The room seats only a few dozen, which is why the dietary note matters: flag vegan when you reserve and they will plan the menu around it. It is the best vegan meal outside the harbour postcodes and worth the trip inland.

Bennelong

Modern Australian · Sydney Opera House · chef's menu

Vegan menu: on request — email the reservations team in advance

Peter Gilmore cooks inside the sails of the Opera House at Bennelong, and his vegetable cooking is among the most decorated in the country. A vegan tasting here is not on the card, but the kitchen will build one if you email the reservations team ahead of time rather than leaving it to the night. Gilmore's produce-driven plates translate well to plant-based, and the setting under the shells is the most theatrical dining room in Sydney. Give them notice, ask specifically for vegan rather than vegetarian, and confirm before you arrive.

Ester

Wood-fire modern Australian · Chippendale · a la carte and set

Vegan menu: on request — the wood oven does the heavy lifting

Ester, Mat Lindsay's industrial room in Chippendale, is the least formal table on this list and in some ways the most fun for a vegan. The wood oven that defines the kitchen treats vegetables with the same char and smoke it gives meat, so a plant-based meal here tastes built rather than subtracted. Lindsay leans on native ingredients and natural wine, much of it vegan-friendly, and the kitchen will steer a vegan group through the menu if you flag it on booking. It is the relaxed, lower-priced end of serious vegan dining in Sydney.

How to ask for a vegan menu in Sydney

Only Yellow needs no warning. Everywhere else, the vegan menu lives in the dietary note of your reservation, and the rule is consistency: ask when you book, not when you sit. Aria treats the request as routine and wants it at the time of booking; Bennelong prefers an email to its reservations team; Oncore and Sixpenny handle it in the booking's dietary field; Ester will sort it on the night but does better with notice. Say the word "vegan" rather than "plant-based" or "no meat", since kitchens read vegan as the strict brief that also rules out dairy, honey and butter. If wine matters, ask whether the pairing is vegan too, as not every bottle is. For more ways to plan the evening, see Sydney anniversary dinners and a Sydney first date, or compare against the best vegan restaurants worldwide and the best tasting menus worldwide.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the best vegan fine dining in Sydney?

Yellow in Potts Point is the clear answer: a fully plant-based kitchen from Brent Savage and sommelier Nick Hildebrandt that holds two chef's hats, the first vegan room in Australia to do so. Its six-course tasting runs $125. Beyond Yellow, the city's grandest rooms build full vegan menus to order, among them Oncore by Clare Smyth at Crown, Aria at Circular Quay and Sixpenny in Stanmore. For the full week, see the Sydney dining guide.

Does Sydney have a fully vegan restaurant with chef's hats?

Yes. Yellow on Macleay Street, Potts Point, was the first vegan restaurant in the country to earn two chef's hats in the Good Food Guide. Brent Savage runs a vegetable-led tasting built around heirloom produce from growers around Sydney, and Nick Hildebrandt's list is stocked with vegan wines. The six-course menu is $125 and a three-course lunch is $75. It is the only dedicated plant-based room in this guide; the rest accommodate vegan diners on request.

Which Sydney fine-dining restaurants do a vegan tasting menu on request?

Several of the best. Oncore by Clare Smyth, Aria, Sixpenny, Bennelong and Ester all build a full vegan tasting when you flag it in advance. Aria asks you to request the vegan menu at the time of booking; Bennelong wants an email to its reservations team; Sixpenny and Oncore handle it in the dietary note on the booking. The rule across all of them is the same: tell the kitchen when you reserve, not when you sit down.

How much does a vegan tasting menu cost in Sydney?

At dedicated Yellow it is $125 for six courses. At the high-end rooms that cook vegan to order, you pay the standard tasting price: Sixpenny's seven-course menu is $265, while Oncore and Aria sit at the top of the market with multi-course menus from roughly $250 upward. A vegan menu is generally priced the same as the meat menu at these rooms, so the figure to plan around is the restaurant's headline tasting price, not a discount.

Is Yellow in Sydney vegan or vegetarian?

Yellow is fully vegan. It began life as a vegetarian restaurant and went entirely plant-based, removing dairy and animal products from both the food and much of the wine list. The kitchen heroes heirloom vegetables from local farms, and the wine program leans on vegan-friendly bottles. If you want strictly vegetarian rather than vegan, Yellow can still flex, but the default menu is vegan throughout. See our Sydney vegetarian tasting menu guide for rooms built around dairy and eggs.

Menus and prices verified against each restaurant's published information in June 2026; confirm vegan availability directly when you book. Restaurants for Kings is editorial, not sponsored. Some reservation links may earn an affiliate commission, which never affects a ranking or a score.