Marrickville

Neighbourhood dining 

Once the hub of Sydney’s Greek community, Marrickville is now a diverse suburb with two major eat streets (Illawarra Road and Marrickville Road) bringing together some of the best Vietnamese, Filipino and Greek food in Sydney. The original Greek institution is 40-year-old diner Corinthian Rotisserie Restaurant. Try northern-style Vietnamese food (a Marrickville speciality) at casual street side eats like VN Street Foods, Pho Viet Xua 1919 and Banh Cuon Ba Oanh, or nab a bánh mì at the original outpost of the famous Marrickville Pork Roll. Lazza gives a traditional taste of Filipino food while Tita Carinderia serves it up in a modern, cute cafe-bakery. For a rare taste of home-style Portuguese cuisine in Sydney, there are three community clubs off the main strip, Casa Do Benfica, Sydney Portugal Community Club and Portugal Madeira Club, each with a great restaurant.

VN Street Foods, Marrickville

Innovative dining 

Marrickville isn’t the destination for fine dining – instead, the top-end restaurants here are fun, playful and reverent to the traditions and cuisines that have shaped the area. 20 Chapel plates up premium steaks alongside Hawkesbury produce, Baba’s Place takes the diverse recipes of southwest Sydney to an industrial area, and Hello Auntie is a new take on Vietnamese. Drop into Pepito’s for a Peruvian-styled bar-bistro or Two Chaps for an all-vegetarian Italian-ish set menu in a rejigged warehouse.  

Hello Auntie, Marrickville

Cafes, sweets and bakeries  

Marrickville has one of the best cafe scenes in the state, with local roasters, innovative menus and a diverse range of styles. Ona treats coffee like wine with a long menu sorted by provenance and production style while cafes like Double Tap and Superfreak prioritise atmosphere and simplicity. Blend in Japanese flavours at Kurumac and American influence at the Valentinas, or just pick up a great takeaway from the coffee bars of Deluca, Algorithm or Coffee Alchemy.  

Caffeinate with a pastry at sourdough specialists Goodwood Bakeshop or at the old-school Greek bakery Athena Cake Shop. Sydney’s famed Gelato Messina has their HQ in Marrickville, a gelato palace with over 40 flavours, chocolates, ice-cream cakes and pastries. For a more relaxed, traditional Italian approach head to Gelato Franco.  

Cod roe toastie at Kurumac, Marrickville

Breweries and distilleries  

Marrickville has more breweries than any other suburb in the country, most with open doors for you to try their brews and tour the tanks. Line up a few visits, plus some behind the scenes insights, with Dave’s Brewery Tours or Urban Legends, or make your own walking tour. Drop the hops for juniper and stop by the distilleries and bars of Moonshiner Gin Distillery, Ester Spirits and Unexpected Guest Distillery to try left of centre tipples that are as fun as they are delicious.  

The Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre - Credit: Jessie Ann Harris

Nightlife 

Marrickville is just one of four Sydney ‘burbs to be accredited with a Purple Flag, which means Marrickville evenings are diverse, safe and vibrant. As well as the breweries and distilleries (many of which have bars, food truck collabs and events), Marrickville has a lively pub scene with highlights being the courtyard and stage at Vic on the Park, the saloon-simplicity of The Marrickville Hotel and the family-friendly atmosphere and casual cuisine-blending menu at The Henson. Switch the pub halls for the intimacy of a small bar with natural wine specialists Where’s Nick; cocktail and taco bar Titus Jones; or the unpretentious snacks, wines and cocktails of We Three. 

Almost every night there’s a show to see. The Factory Theatre is the big hitter with ticketed comedy and music acts, and The Red Rattler Theatre is a smaller, more eccentric, queer-positive option. For a retro, relaxed night of live music, find the eccentric bars of Lazybones Lounge and Camelot Lounge, or the blaring, tiny stage of Gasoline Pony.  

Band performing at Camelot Lounge, Marrickville

Things to do 

Part-charity, part-venue, part-gallery, Addison Road Community Organisation is the spiritual and cultural centre of the suburb. On Saturday morning, the grounds host one of Sydney’s best markets; check out Stirrup Gallery to experience the artistic profile of the suburb; walk the centre’s heritage trail; and check the events schedule for anything from vogueing parties to one-off feasts. In between meals or activities, take a leisurely stroll or cycle by the Cooks River, picnic at Henson Park while catching a local footy game (the grounds have been home to the Newtown Jets since 1937) or take yourself on a self-guided tour of the ‘burb’s street art – looking up to spot Ces Camilleri’s famous figures that stand atop the shopfronts, and looking down for footpath mosaics.  

If you have extra time, BlocHaus is an inclusive bouldering gym with routes for total newbies and hardcore climbers, MANIAX will introduce you to the joys of axe throwing, and Clay Sydney will set you up with a potter’s wheel and a lesson in ceramics. Or join one of many communities on the barefoot lawns at the Marrickville Bowling Club, then stay for live music or a meat raffle.  

BlocHaus Bouldering, Marrickville

Shop 

Any food-obsessed traveller should start with the organic produce and multicultural snacks of the Marrickville Organic Food & Farmers Market every Sunday. From there, try Italian-style soft cheeses at the historic Paesanella Cheese and anything from olives to a full deli roll at Lamia Super Deli, the local Greek deli. Fruit and veg is high quality and good value at Illawarra Road’s Vietnamese grocers; plant-based, organic-focused cooks should head to Village Wholefoods; and meat eaters can find two of the best and most ethical butcheries in Sydney at Feather and Bone and Whole Beast Butchery. Match what you buy with a local or imported brew from Bucket Boys. 

Marrickville Organic Food & Farmers Market, Marrickville - Credit: Stephen D Choularton

If you’re want a new outfit rather than a pantry fit out, join the locals for sartorial treasure hunting at Casablanca Vintage, That Vintage Shop or the Japanese-vintage-focused 108Warehouse. Find a new set of vintage-inspired jeans from Aus label Dricoper Denim or search the stacks at the flagship of Made590, an ethical and inclusive (all sizes from 8 – 26) fashion brand that started in 2004 in nearby Newtown. 

Be sure to check out the incredible enterprise known as Reverse Garbage, which has been “creatively reusing” garbage since the mid-1970s. Each year, it receives some 35,000 cubic metres of items that would have otherwise ended up in landfill, and then teaches people how to reuse those items in awfully creative ways in workshops.