Head to The Spot for one of Sydney’s best eat streets

Dolce Fiori makes an impression even before taking a seat at one of its tables. You can’t miss it. How to describe it: over-the-top-romantic with an Italian bent, perhaps? There are love hearts, roses, romantic table settings … and add a kerbside flower-laden bike while you’re at it. At night the place positively shines: a fantastical beacon of red and pink. And inside is more of the same: ideal for a date or an anniversary, that’s for sure.

The menu is impressive, even before you get to the mains. Salads can be ordered as entrees and also as sides, the small salads being a simple but welcome idea. Larger salads are equally inviting, like the burrata salad with burrata cheese, tomatoes and lemon. Want to excite your taste buds some more? Try the crudo di pesce, thinly sliced fresh fish fillet with citrus segments, avocado mousse and caper berries or the San Daniele prosciutto Sicilian arancini – slow cooked beef mince and peas with mozzarella cheese inside arborio rice balls.

Dolce Fiori aptly describes itself as being ‘all about love, food, experience’. Esattamente!

Dish Cult’s top pick: Tagliere di fiori - San Daniele prosciutto, parmigiano reggiano, mortadella, salame Felino, asiago, Italian olives, truffle honey and rosemary focaccia ($38, large)

At Dish Cult, we love finding good value for money, consistency, great food and good service. Arthur’s Pizza is all of the above. There are franchises welcomingly dotted all around inner Sydney and the eastern suburbs. It all started at Charing Cross in Sydney in 1970 – with The Spot in Randwick being the third Arthur’s location – but when you dine at the restaurant it feels like the ‘only’ Arthur’s.

There are no bells and whistles – you can dine inside in a small linear line of tables or at one of three outside tables, but what you get is a simple and enticing menu: reliable Italian food in the middle of Randwick. We usually alternate on each visit: pizza one time, pasta the next, but always with garlic bread, a glass of pinot gris, and a salad.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Sassari pizza – lamb fillets, feta cheese, red onions, sweet potato and mint ($18, medium)

Del Punto is described online as ‘Spanish tapas and cocktails in a stylish, cosy restaurant with a large mural of Barcelona street’. That is very true but doesn’t do it justice. We would describe it as a welcome piece of Barcelona with an indoor/outdoor, relaxed feel, inviting menu and tempting cocktails: Barcelona in Randwick, without the tourists!

Want a taste of what’s waiting for you? Try this pairing: Empanadillas (14-hour slow cooked beef brisket and caramelised onion, served with jalapeno feta dipping sauce) with the very old fashioned – Matusalem 15 year old rum and Pedro Ximenez poured over a brown sugar cube infused with Aztec chocolate bitters. Delicioso!

Dish Cult’s top pick: Panceta de cerdo – roasted pork belly served with an apple cider glaze and shots of warm apple and brandy sauce ($28.50)

The Ritz Cinemas at Randwick is a rare and special breed: an independently-owned art deco Sydney cinema specialising in arthouse (and mainstream) cinema: new releases and retrospectives.

It is also a breed of cinema that offers boutique wines and craft beers sourced from New South Wales vineyards and breweries (for beer drinkers this includes Sydney brewers like Young Henrys, Brookvale, Grifter and Modus Operandi). The Ritz also offers a selection of classic cocktails. And the drinks aren’t only alcoholic. Coffee drinkers can enjoy another local product: Mecca Coffee and Teadrop tea. There are soft drinks on offer as well as kombucha by The Bucha of Byron.

The Randwick Ritz not only offers the potential of a dine and movie experience through its proximity to so many great restaurants, it’s also a bar in its own right: a place to drink and watch at The Spot.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Ritz cocktail ($12)

Kürtőskalács (Kürtősh for short) is the name of a traditional Hungarian chimney-shaped pastry made of a caramelised, crispy, flaky outer pastry with soft inner layers. Add nuts, chocolate or spices and you have the famous dessert that is also the name of this excellent cafe.

Also add coffee because Kürtősh does coffee as well as it does cakes. The locally roasted coffee blends change seasonally as do the sweet treats on offer, but there is a consistency in quality and flavour that makes Kürtősh a go-to place for coffee once the sun goes down.

It’s the perfect place to enjoy everything The Spot has to offer.

Dish Cult’s top pick: Nutella Kürtősh ($13.20)