Where to eat in Pyrmont after 9 pm

Pyrmont's dining reputation ends at the fish markets, which close at four. What visitors miss is that the suburb's best kitchens sit inside The Star and run to eleven — later on weekends, later still at the bar.

Two rooms do the work. Sokyo, the Japanese restaurant on the podium level, runs a menu that follows the fish-market buy each morning. BLACK Bar & Grill faces the harbour and works ironbark grills into an argument for staying in.

Sokyo: the counter over the room

The dining room is good; the counter is the reservation. From there the sashimi team works in front of you and the evening becomes a performance that the room's tables only watch. Ask for the counter when you book — we hold seats there most nights.

Order by seasons rather than by habit. The menu moves with the market, and the signature dishes — the tuna, the temperature egg — are dependable but not the point. The point is whatever arrived that morning.

"Eat where the kitchen can see you. The counter isn't a seat; it's the show."

From a Sokyo regular's review

BLACK and the late options

BLACK does the grill work: dry-aged beef over ironbark, a wine list deep on the big Australian reds, and the window tables that see the water. The rib eye for two is the anchor; order it and build around it.

For the late hour, Cherry takes over — the martini list runs until 2 am and the small plates cover the space between dinner and the last drink. Room service at The Darling runs all night; the club sandwich at 1 am has rescued more than one review.

Booking the evening

Fridays and Saturdays hold the pressure. Tell us the occasion and we'll match the room — counter for the experience, window for the view, private room for anything that shouldn't share air.

Dietary notes go to the kitchen when we book, not on the night. That single habit changes more dinners than any tip about ordering.