Poly

· Wine list Mat Lindsay's Poly is the wine-led counterpart to Ester next door, and the bar section — fourteen stools facing the open kitchen — has become a destination on its own terms. Head sommelier Alanna Sapwell-Stone built a list that takes Australian producers as the starting point — Ochota Barrels, BK Wines, Yetti and the Kokonut — and stretches outward to Burgundy and the Loire only when the comparison is interesting.

The food programme leans hard on the wood oven: roasted bonito, kingfish belly with green chilli, a faultless flatbread. The glass list rotates monthly and is priced to encourage exploration. Number four because the kitchen-to-glass synchronisation is the most precise of any wine bar in Sydney, and because the room remains genuinely walk-in-friendly in a way Ester rarely is.

For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in Sydney, the broader Sydney wine bars guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.