EAT > Otto, Wooloomooloo (16/20)

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OTTO is Sydney’s original la dolce vita wharf restaurant: a polished, sun-struck slice of Italo-Sydney glamour where seafood, pasta and people-watching all arrive at roughly the same high gloss.

AMBIENCE >

Along Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf, OTTO is the restaurant that still looks like the postcard: linen-draped tables marching along the boardwalk, super-yachts bobbing in front, city skyline hovering just beyond the rigging. There’s a particular Sydney theatre to it all – suited lunches sliding into Negroni sunsets, occasion dinners, tourists angling for Opera House glimpses on the stroll over – but this is a restaurant that stays casually relaxed rather than hushed.

I have been visiting OTTO fairly regularly for most of its 25 years, it is a known quantity. The food is predictably good, the clientele amusing to observe, the prices are high and the views over the water are lovely. It is perhaps at its very best on warm afternoon watching boats and letting the magic of Sydney Harbour soak over you.

Inside, the palette is clean and quietly nautical: blond timber, white tablecloths, contemporary art and enough glass to keep the harbour view essentially inescapable. Service is classic Fink – warm, tightly drilled and present without hovering – which goes a long way to softening the edge of the price tags. Sit outside on a still evening and it becomes that quintessential Sydney fantasy: ferries gliding in the distance, a breeze off the water, and the distinct feeling that there are more wine lists than parking meters in this part of town.

EAT >

The kitchen plays modern Italian greatest hits, but with enough precision and produce obsession to keep it from coasting on the view. Crudo-style seafood and vibrant antipasti are where you feel that first jolt: pristine raw fish, olive oil that tastes of somewhere specific, and clever acidity that respects the harbour just beyond the glass.

Pastas are OTTO’s comfort zone and calling card – think long, perfectly glossy strands and plump ravioli pitched between trattoria nostalgia and city-lunch polish. Saucing is confident rather than showy; there’s richness where you want it, but enough brightness and restraint to get you to a secondi without fatigue. Mains lean into the restaurant’s “special occasion” brief – generous seafood, prime cuts, a grill that understands both char and timing – and desserts finish on the lighter, more contemporary side: clean flavours, good fruit, and just enough indulgence to match the setting.

Vegetarians and vegans are unusually well looked after for a big-ticket waterside room. OTTO has long run dedicated meat-free menus that feel considered rather than afterthought, with cashew-cream textures, judicious smoke and smart use of seasonal vegetables doing the heavy lifting instead of token substitutions. It’s all pitched at prices that will not surprise anyone who knows the postcode, but the execution and consistency justify treating it as a “proper” occasion rather than a casual drop-in.

DRINK >

The wine list here reads like a love letter to Italy with a strong supporting cast from Australia and beyond, built for both long lunches and sharp, three-glass business deals. There’s depth in the classic regions – Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto – but also thoughtful representation from local cool-climate producers, so you can drink the view in Italian or speak fluent New World if you prefer.

By-the-glass options are broad enough to build a gentle progression across a tasting menu without committing to full bottles, and staff are happy to steer you into something off the beaten path if you give them a few preferences. Aperitivo is naturally a strong suit – Negronis, spritzes and bittersweet Italian classics poured with the confidence of a room that does this all day, every day – and the overall feel is of a list designed to flatter both the food and the waterline outside.

CONCLUSION >

Come to OTTO when you want Sydney turned up to full brightness: harbour, linen, polished service and plates that look and feel like a long Italian holiday edited for city reality. It’s not the newest room on the wharf, but that’s the point – this is a grown-up institution that knows exactly what it is, and still delivers la dolce vita on Woolloomooloo Wharf, one well-timed plate of pasta at a time.

OTTO Ristorante is a long‑standing waterfront institution on Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf, known for its modern Italian cooking, old‑school hospitality and sun‑drenched terrace overlooking the marina. For more than two decades it has also been inseparable from the legend of broadcaster John Laws, who lived upstairs on the wharf and treated OTTO as his second living room, lunching and often dining there almost every day for around 25 years. Laws’ loyalty saw him effectively “assigned” his own spot — most famously table 53 on the deck, with a backup table inside when the weather turned — and he became both patron and proprietor after taking a majority stake in the restaurant with developer Lang Walker between 2002 and 2006. During that era OTTO evolved into a social hub for Sydney media and visiting entertainers, with Laws holding court at his regular table and enthusiastically spruiking the restaurant as his favourite on air, a relationship now commemorated by the decision to open bookings to his once‑permanently reserved table 53.

OTTO isn’t just another wharf restaurant; In 2006 John Laws and Lang Walker sold the restaurant and it became part of the Fink stable (that includes Quay, Bennelong and OTTO Brisbane), a group built by long-time restaurateur and chairman Leon Fink.

Fink’s philosophy is to pair singular locations with serious culinary teams, and OTTO was an early expression of that idea – a place where la dolce vita energy met an Australian sense of ease and sunshine. Over time the group has expanded interstate and refined its leadership bench, but OTTO remains the Woolloomooloo anchor: a flagship that still tells the story of how Sydney learned to dress up, eat pasta on the pier and call it everyday life, and John Laws continued to hold his table 53 right up to his death in 2025.

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