Darling Square: Guide to eating, drinking, shopping, & playing

We may be biased but we reckon Darling Square’s alleyways have better vibes and better food than a certain southern city. 

Our personal favourite is Steam Mill Lane, a compact, pedestrianised street that’s all alfresco dining, cookie shops, and vibey bars. There’s a hole in the wall cocktail bar called Bar Babu that does a mean mango margarita, and a cookie shop called KUKI serving flavours like brown butter choc chip, and black sesame white choc (did you just drool too?). Nakano Darling is a neon lit, late night Izakaya straight out of a Tokyo Alleyway, that does a near perfect yakitori (chargrilled skewer). Further down the laneway there’s a branch of the iconic Marrickville Pork Roll, which was once called the best banh mi outside of Vietnam. There’s even a pet spa so you can spoil your pooch after spoiling yourself. 

There are some great spots around Darling Square green and Tumbalong Blvd too, like Auvers Cafe, a boujee little cafe who serve a luxurious lobster omelette for brekky and yum stuff like an ox tongue dry noodle for dinner. There’s the best gelato in Australia at Gelato Messina, and fun pancake stacks (and more) at Pancakes on the Rocks. And you’ll find the ‘best dish in the world’ according to celeb chef David Chang, at XOPP (the XO sauce pippy noodles) in the Exchange Building. 

Nearby Little Hay St has some great food too, like casual Cantonese at Lilong, coffee and donuts (what a pairing) at Shortstop, and Xing Fu Tang who claim to do the best brown sugar boba in the world (we tend to agree). 

These mentions are just the start. The most fun way to eat at Darling Square is to wander around laneways, foodcourts, rooftops and parkside eateries to find whatever you’re in the mood for.