Sydney travel guide
8 Hours in Sydney: How Much You Can Actually Eat on a Long Layover
We had about 8 hours between flights in Sydney on our way to Melbourne, so instead of sitting in a lounge we built a quick loop: the Sydney Fish Market, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and a swing through Chinatown before racing back to the airport.
Where we ate.
Nicholas Seafood
Sydney Fish MarketSushi counter inside the fish market
Get: Six assorted nigiri, including scallop and salmon
Our first meal after skipping a full day flying in from LA, and it delivered: the scallop had an almost buttery texture, and the salmon had close to zero fishiness, the kind we said we'd move to Sydney just to keep eating. At $3.90 a piece for that quality, it felt like theft.
Cafe de Wheels
WoolloomoolooAussie meat pie truck
Get: The beef curry pie ($8.50)
A classic Australian meat pie with a curry twist: tender beef in what tasted almost like a curry stew, wrapped in extremely flaky pastry with curry powder dusted on top. A quick, cheap bite worth the detour.
A Chinatown bakery
Sydney ChinatownBakery, Portuguese egg tart
Get: Portuguese egg tart
Compared to the Chinese version we know from home, this one was creamier and a touch sweeter, though not by much, close to the Portuguese egg tarts you'd find in a Hong Kong bakery. We also grabbed our first Australian sausage roll nearby: flaky, if a little dry, with a beefy, slightly gamey flavor we wished had a side of mustard.
Good to know before you go
- We flew in from LA on a Thursday night and, thanks to the international date line, landed Saturday morning, worth planning around if you're trying to maximize a layover.
- The Fish Market was surprisingly not crowded on a Saturday morning, though we were told that's because it was the tail end of the slow season heading into winter.