Latest news with #TimeOutSydney
Time Out
a day ago
- Business
- Time Out
Qantas has just dropped a major international sale with cheap flights from Sydney to Fiji, Japan and beyond
Winter is well and truly alive and kicking, the call of Euro summer is deafening, and mid-year burnout is real. We're not medical professionals, but we do have one cheeky cure that will fix (almost) all of your problems: a holiday. And right on cue, Qantas has dropped a huge international sale, with discounted flights on more than 30 routes across Asia, the Americas, the United Kingdom, Africa and the Pacific. Qantas' one-week-only International Red Tail Sale kicks off on Tuesday, July 30 and ends at 11.59pm on Monday, August 4 – so you'll need to act fast. With 350,000 discounted seats up for grabs across almost the entire international network, the sale covers various travel dates between July 2025 and May 2026. We won't judge you for leaving the kids at home, but you can also bring them for the ride with many of the deals falling during Aussie school holidays, including the summer break, Easter, and the September to October break. So, where can you jet off to? For $549, you could fly from Sydney to the sparkling white shores of Vanuatu and back, and $599 will score you flights to Fiji and back. Got a bit more budget? Snag return flights from Sydney to Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangalore for $949. Fancy going further? Discounted fares are also on offer from Sydney to Los Angeles and Dallas, with discounted flights flying from other Aussie cities to Santiago, Vancouver, New York, Mexico, Johannesburg and London. You can explore more destinations available on Qantas' International Red Tail Sale here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter
Time Out
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Pizza Bros
✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. In case you were wondering, the bros behind 'Pizza Bros' are actually real-life brothers, Joey Pepperoni and Marty McFly. And I'm not joking about their names, either – they got them legally changed to live and breathe the dream. The bros have worked at a bunch of top Sydney pizza joints – including Bella Brutta, Gigi's and The Dolphin Hotel – before starting Pizza Bros as a pizza truck in 2019. Their first bricks-and-mortar venue opened on the rooftop of T he Imperial Erskineville at the end of 2023 – and I say: long may the good times (and slices) continue. The vibe By 6pm on a Saturday, every table at Pizza Bros is pretty much full, plus there's a bunch of people hanging by the bar knocking back Spritzes and ales and just basically having a whale of a time. Under the red-and-white striped awning at the back of the space is where the magic happens. You'll see the chefs cooking the pizzas in that bedazzled gold wood-fired oven – a wink to their home in the fabulously queer safe space, The Imperial Erskineville. It's a pretty casual, laid-back affair, and that includes the service, with ordering done by QR code, and you head up to the bar to get your table water. It feels like you're at a pizza party at your friend-of-a-friend's house – and (mostly) anything goes. The food The guys use a combination of Australian and Italian flour to create their pizza dough, which is then left to ferment for 72 hours before it's topped with quality ingredients and cooked in the wood-fired oven at 400°C. The result is an excellent puffy and chewy crust with trademark charred leopard spots. One of their signature pizzas is the hot honey, which comes dotted with 'nduja, melted fior di latte, ricotta, a sprinkle of toasted and nutty sesame seeds and a drizzle of hot honey. It hits the sweet, salty, creamy and fiery notes, but – and I can't believe I'm saying this – it's too ricotta-heavy for me. Better is the quality beast, which features a tomato base, slivers of sweet red onion, LP's salami and pork sausage fragrant with fennel. Elsewhere, there's the Rick and Morty, which sees LP's mortadella paired with pesto and garlic oil; the waterword, which has a kick thanks to fermented chilli alongside prawns and pancetta; and if you feel like going all out, the cacio e pepe comes with double cream, black truffle, pecorino and parmesan. There's also a Margherita for those who like to stick to the classics. Snacks on the menu wouldn't go astray, nor would a salad or a garlic and cheese pizza in lieu of garlic bread – but these bros are serious about pizza, and the proof is in the (excellent) pie. The drinks The booze menu features all your usual suspects, including a bottle of sparkling from South Australia for a steal at $50, and a solid selection of wines by the glass for $10 (in this economy?!). The cocktail menu has all the cheeky classics – including a Pornstar Martini – and there's a bunch named after popular Sydney drag queens, like the Etcetera Etcetera, made with Beefeater gin, Limoncello, orgeat and Peychaud's, for a sweet and citrusy punch. Time Out tip: Firstly, you gotta book – I've tried to walk in a bunch of times and every table was full (which I love to see – go Sydney hospitality, you good thing). And if it's your first time, make sure you enjoy a drink or two at The Impy's downstairs bar. It's one of the best places in Sydney to see wonderful drag queens in action – just be sure to wear your favourite colours.
Sky News AU
22-07-2025
- Science
- Sky News AU
Two major meteor showers will peak at the end of the month and light up night sky over NSW
Sydneysiders are expected to get a rare celestial treat at the end of the month with two meteor showers set to light up the night sky. The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Capricornids will peak days apart from each other - with the former peaking on July 28 and the Capricornids peaking on July 30. Speaking to TimeOut Sydney, Associate Professor Devika Kamath from Macquarie University's School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences said the best times to view the meteor showers are between midnight and 4am. 'In the early evening, the radiants (the points where meteors appear to originate) rise in the northeast," she said. "By midnight, they're high in the northern sky, and by pre-dawn, they drift toward the northwest. Scanning this arc will maximise your chances of catching long, dramatic trails.' But Sydneysiders expecting to see this spectacle may want to travel outside the Sydney area to areas like the Blue Mountains or regional areas outside the city. Last year, a full moon ruined the chance of many Australians to view the Geminid meteor shower before Christmas. Speaking to SBS News about the Geminid showers last year, professor of astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland Jonti Horner said viewing meteor showers is often contingent on the light that is available. 'What a full moon does is it puts a lot of natural light pollution up in the sky, and so it hides the meteors," she said. She also said that artificial light pollution from the cities can also mask the meteors. Meteors are space rocks that burn up in the atmosphere, most of them originating from a comet or an asteroid field. Some pass through intact, but others burn up leaving a trail which has been termed as a shooting star.
Time Out
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Kolkata Social
✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. The poetry of Tagore. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. The roar of a cricket match at Eden Gardens. Kolkata – once the capital of British India and formerly called Calcutta – pulses with poetry, politics and passion. And now, you can have a taste of the 'City of Joy' on Newtown 's vibrant King Street. After spearheading Colombo Social, Kabul Social and Kyiv Social, man on a (social justice) mission, Shaun Christie-David, founder of Plate It Forward, opened Kolkata Social in March. You might remember Ukrainian eatery Kyiv Social won Time Out Sydney's Impact Award 2025, so we're excited to see what's on offer. It's a sunny Sunday when we are seated in a cobalt blue room with a view to the open red-tiled kitchen where the chef Ahana Dutt is in charge. Kolkata-born, Dutt earned her culinary cred at Firedoor and Raja before Christie-David roped her in. With every set menu ordered, Kolkata Social donates meals to those in need – one in Sydney and one in Kolkata via their charity partner, Calcutta Rescue. This isn't your typical Indian restaurant There's no chicken tikka from North India, or idli sambar from the South. Instead, Kolkata Social is a celebration of Bengali cuisine – and we're here to savour it. First up, our entrées. The dry chilli chicken features boneless chicken bits, batter-fried then tossed in a garlicky sauce with green capsicum and onions. One bite and we're transported straight to Kolkata's Chinatown, the birthplace of 'Indian Chinese ' (IYKYK). Next, moong dal el boram. The menu says 'think falafels, but Indian', and most Indians will recognise them as dal vadas (lentil fritters) sold at street corners as an afternoon snack. Made from a mix of ground moong dal with spices and finely sliced green chilli for punch, these moreish morsels are deep fried and sent to our table piping-hot. We dunk them in the tamarind chutney and think how we'd gobble them up on a rainy day with a cup of chai. Speaking of which, our drinks are served: a lebu cha which is refreshing lemon iced tea with a zing of marmalade; a lassi slushie made with crushed ice; and a glass of Majama Zibibbo – a floral Hunter Valley white with notes of Turkish delight. The drinks menu itself is a nod to nostalgia. Printed on a replica of an old-school Indian inland letter, it's got a variety of whites and reds, beers like Mountain Culture x Kolkata Social lager and the ever-popular Indian beer Kingfisher, as well as some interesting offerings like mini mustard Martinis and vodka-spiked lassi. Our mains arrive – and this is where chef Dutt's homage to her Bengali roots shines The barramundi is served in a smoked yoghurt sauce with a generous slick of mustard oil, the mainstay of any Bengali kitchen. The result? Subtle, smoky, sublime. While Aussies claim barra as their own, you also get Indian barramundi in the mangrove estuaries of West Bengal where it is called 'bhetki'. How's this for a fish curry that connects countries? Our waitress tells us that the goat kosha has been slow cooked for more than six hours – evident from the way the meat falls off the bone into a thick, aromatic curry. We sprinkle the jhoori aloo bhaja – crisp matchsticks of fried potato – over the goat and this combo reminds us of Salli boti, a beloved Parsi dish. Paired with our mains is the birista pulao, taken from Bengali Muslim households, where onions are fried until caramelised and stirred through fragrant, cardamom-scented rice. And then, as a surprise from the kitchen, began and bori is brought to us. Instead of the smokiness of a baigan bharta, this eggplant is cooked down to a luscious sweet-sour pulp in panch phoron (Bengali five-spice) that's perfectly mopped up with some flat bread. Kolkata Social is an ode to chef Dutt's mum Sharmila Basu Thaur and her home-style cooking – apparent from her mural by artist Marlon Dalton in the inner mustard-yellow room that's kissed by the afternoon sun. The menu is novel; the dishes are nuanced. There are no flourishes of this and foams of that, but the food is cooked with finesse. It is food that you can eat with your hands and comes from the heart. Food that makes us want to go in for just one more bite despite the waistband of our protesting jeans. So we oblige, ordering a dessert to share. Not the familiar Bengali sweets of rasgollas or mishti doi, but patishapta, a jaggery and coconut-stuffed crêpe, flambéed in rum and nestled in custard. It's doused with a peg of rum and flambéed in front of us. Devoured in seconds, it's a fitting finale to an exceptionally fine meal.
Time Out
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Osteria Mucca
✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here. There are a lot of beautiful dining rooms in Sydney – the kind that, when you step inside, whisk you away to another world; where thoughts of to-do lists and Everest-like piles of laundry melt away like lemon granita under the Amalfi sun. Bennelong, tucked within the city's white sails, is one of them. So too is the coastal kitsch of Sean's in Bondi. Osteria Mucca, a charming trattoria from the Continental Deli crew that opened in April this year, is another such room. Found on Newtown 's happening Australia Street, the 50-seat Italian restaurant had a past life as a butcher. Those 115-year-old forest-green-and-white tiles are the originals. Candles flicker on top of white tablecloths, Art Deco-style vintage lights hang from the ceiling – creating the perfect dinner-date glow – and vintage plates jazz up the walls. This is the work of Sarah Doyle, co-owner and creative director of Paisano & Daughters, who has a knack for creating venues with their own soul. (It just takes one peep into siblings and neighbours – eclectic fisherman's den Mister Grotto, honey-hued plant celebration Flora, and Continental Deli with its big Euro energy – to fully appreciate her talent.) The room feels like an occasion, so we bypass the Limoncello Spritz and Mucca Martini in favour of a glass of Sella & Mosca's sparkling from Sardinia, poured (and appreciated) tableside. Cheers. The timeless space isn't the only thing I'm a big fan of Leading the kitchen is Janina Allende, who ran the pass at Sydney favourite Pellegrino 2000 for more than two years, and also spent time on the pans at Alberto's Lounge and Bar Vincent. At Osteria Mucca, Allende is spotlighting regional Italian classics, with home-style recipes and handmade pasta. In a nod to the restaurant's former life – and because the group knows their way around meat (Osteria Mucca shares DNA with the award-winning Porteño) – they also do all their butchery in-house. FYI – 'Mucca' means 'cow' in Italian. But we start with land and sea – a riff on puntarelle alla Romana, which sees ribbon-like curls of the slightly bitter, crunchy and cool puntarelle coated in a punchy anchovy dressing tempered with creamy, veneer-white buffalo mozzarella. So good. Meanwhile, hunks of pickled cauliflower, carrot and onion rest atop a smooth, nutty fava bean dip doused in olive oil, and are best mopped up with a crusty ciabatta roll that the team source from Brickfields. Next comes our cotechino – a dish that tastes both new and familiar. Soft, house-made pork sausage meat fragrant with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg rests on a bed of slow-cooked buttery-sweet lentils and vegetables. It's adorned with a vivid salsa verde, chewy mustard fruits and delicate shavings of horseradish. Originating from northern Italy, cotechino con lenticchie is traditionally eaten on New Year's Eve; the coin-shaped lentils symbolising wealth and prosperity. I say to our waiter it tastes like Christmas, and he says it's a hit then, too. Also a hit: our bottle of 2022 Montesecondo Rosso sangiovese from Tuscany that's cherry-red and lovely with soft tannins. Ping-pong-shaped balls of ricotta gnudi, so soft you can cut them with a spoon, sit in a pool of browned butter and topped with crisp sage leaves and thin shavings of lemon rind that cleverly cut through and lift. This, and whatever season of Survivor, and you can stick a fork in me – I'm done Formidable pastry chef Lauren Eldridge is behind the desserts at Osteria Mucca (and the three other Paisano & Daughters venues), which features house-made gelato (right now it's grapefruit); cassata with ricotta, chocolate and candied fruit; and bonèt alla Piemontese – a chocolate and amaretti custard topped with marsala Chantilly. If I wasn't stuffed like a, well, gnudi, I'd go for one of those. On this Tuesday night, the room hums with songs my grandparents would have danced to, the clink of glassware and the laughter of friends. There's not a table free. I say goodbye to the team, pull on my coat, step into the fresh night air – and glance back one last time. For a few hours it was all about that bellissimo dining room, those knockout gnudi and the person across from me. That's the power of a great restaurant. Now, back to life admin.
