Uber Eats is helping Sydneysiders save big on fine dining — here’s how

• Sydney is leading the global rollout of Dine Out, the latest feature from Uber Eats.
• Dine Out will help Sydneysiders save big on their favourite restaurants, including Catalina, Fabbrica and Mary’s.
• We went to the launch event to see what it was all about.

We’re still riding high on the fact that Sydney was handpicked to launch Uber Eats’ latest feature, the first time Australia has ever piloted a product of this scale. Sorry, New York, London and Melbourne — this one’s just for us.

Uber Eats has entered Sydney’s dining out deals scene, utilising its huge database to partner with some incredible (and fancy) restaurants.

What can you save?

Included is the stunning Rose Bay waterfront restaurant, Catalina, which will be giving Uber Eats members 20% off from midday to 10pm, Monday to Friday. This means guests can save big on their boujie menu, with discounts on dishes like their hand-picked and dressed Queensland Mud Crab, Black River caviar churros and Fremantle octopus bruschetta.

It’s not just fine dining restaurants. Other deals include 30% off orders over $20 at favourite Paddington salad bar, Daily Greens and 20% off orders over $25 at Eastern Suburbs staple Harry’s Bondi.

Sleek Woolloomooloo venue Sienna Marina is offering 30% off the menu, and Thai Tharee, one of Darlinghurst’s highly-rated Thai restaurants, is doing 20% off.

If you log onto your Uber Eats app and click ‘Dine Out’, chances are you’ll find a deal worth leaving the house for.

READ MORE: Uber Eats launches in-restaurant dining deals with free pop-ups

Why was Sydney chosen?

Even though we’re ecstatic that a big company like Uber Eats chose Sydney over everyone else, it does raise the question: why Sydney?

Sydney was chosen as the first city to access Dine Out because it’s a city that loves to eat out; however, in the colder winter months, we do have a tendency to hibernate.

Dine Out is hoping to encourage Sydneysiders to get out and support local restaurants, especially in the winter months and off-peak hours, all while helping you save some cash. The app also encourages you to Uber to the restaurant (obviously), giving you the option to order the lift when you select the Dine Out deal. This makes booking the restaurant and booking the Uber one seamless experience.

At House of Eats, Ed Kitchen, the Managing Director of Uber Eats Australia & New Zealand, spoke on his excitement that Australia was chosen for the launch of Dine Out. He referenced Australia’s “enormous engaged customer base”, stating “every year, 10 million Aussies use Uber and Uber Eats”.

When Ed heard about Dine Out, he thought to himself, “We need to do it in Australia”. He continued,

“That really came from the conversations that I have with restaurants… one of the biggest things they want is more people in their restaurants. They want to fill bums on seats, they want to expose their customers to the amazing experiences that you get to have when you’re in a restaurant, and for us to have a thriving delivery business, we need thriving restaurants.”

This week, 350 restaurants located in the CBD and inner suburbs will be part of Dine Out. Echoing Kitchen’s hope that the new feature will tempt Sydneysiders to make the most of the deals on offer is Scott McComas Williams, executive chef of Fabbrica & Love Tilly Group. He told us,

“This is a great concept for Fabbrica and the industry as a whole, rewarding our regulars and enticing new guests into our venues, particularly during the colder, rainier months.”

Despite having venues dotted around Sydney, pasta haven Fabbrica aren’t playing favourites: their launch offer of 25% off the bill can be redeemed at their pasta bars in Newtown, Chatswood, CBD and Darlinghurst, and even includes their Bread Shops in Coogee and Rozelle. This means that you can secure their iconic creamy cacio e peppe for just $20.25, down from $27.

READ MORE: The Gold Standard: Saint Peter’s Tuna Wellington (by Josh Niland)

House of Eats

To celebrate the launch of Dine Out in Sydney, Uber Eats hosted ‘House of Eats’, an experience designed to bring attention to the incredible restaurants available on the new feature. Talented Sydney-based chef Danielle Alvarez put an innovative spin on dishes from Mary’s, Catalina and Fabbrica. A specialty wine pairing from P&V merchants, as well as an incredible verde Negroni, polished off the menu perfectly.

Before the 4-course dinner, we heard from Danielle Alvarez, who talked us through the menu and why she decided to cook for House of Eats. She said,

“When the Uber Eats team asked me if I would curate a menu that was all about celebrate the city that I love and call home, Sydney, I knew I had to do it.”

“Restaurants are like the fabric of our culture and it’s so important that we spend time in them… the more we can get people into restaurants, that’s something I want to be a part of championing and celebrating.”

We then headed upstairs to the dining area of Rainbow Studios, which is a small showroom in Darlinghurst, situated on the quiet side of Liverpool Street. You might think a huge and global company like Uber Eats would choose a huge, ritzy venue to host House of Eats; however, Rainbow Studios was a perfect choice for what they were trying to evoke: local and unpretentious neighbourhood dining.

The menu

Alvarez had explained to us that the Dine Out menu featured favourite dishes from each of the restaurants, which were “tweaked a little bit with their permission”.

Mary’s kicked the dinner off with a golden fried chicken, topped off with a spoonful of indulgently salty caviar. Known for flipping 10,000 burgers a week in their legendary Newtown location, the iconic Sydney chain has venues across Sydney, including Castle Hill, Circular Quay, Victoria Cross and more.

Next was a green salad by Danielle herself, paired with a 2024 Majama Inzolia from Hunter Valley, sourced by P&V wine and liquor. The salad consisted of a wedge of crisp lettuce dressed in a zesty green vinaigrette, sprinkled with pickled shallots, sweet candied pumpkin seeds and plenty of edible flowers. It also came with warm potato brioche rolls, Mary’s rich chicken gravy and soft butter.

We then moved on to a classic Fabbrica dish, cacio e pepe, which had an ocean-inspired twist. Named Bottarga e pepe, this was a lumache pasta tossed in Fabbrica’s signature sauce with bottarga, salted, cured fish.

On the topic of fish, enter Catalina, with a refined take on their coastal classic: line-caught snapper served with crisp potatoes, fresh parsley and capers.

To finish off the evening, Alvarez created a green pavlova — the very Aussie dessert now matching the colour of the Uber Eats branding. Filled with sorrel sorbet, rhubarb and yoghurt mousse, it was the perfect end to a delicious evening.

READ MORE: Is hotel dining finally having a moment in Sydney?

How can I get Uber Eats freebies?

We attended the media preview of the event; however, Uber Eats extended an invitation to the general public for the 4-course dinner on Friday, August 8. The event is completely free, and sold out in under a minute.

If you missed out, don’t worry, the fun doesn’t stop on Friday. There’s another opportunity to get free bites on Saturday, August 9, at Bondi institution Harry’s. They’ll be giving the first 300 people who rock up to Rainbow Studios a lemon and ricotta croissant with white chocolate and pistachio drizzle and a pistachio crumb, as well as a mandarin varietal of their iconic canned matcha.

How to use Dine Out

The Dine Out feature is now available to Sydneysiders in the Uber Eats app.

Simply log onto the Uber Eats app and click the Dine Out option. You’ll then be taken to a map showing deals all around the city. You can press on the deal and click claim, which will mean you can redeem the deal at the restaurant. If you want to get an Uber to the venue, simply click ‘Ride’ and it will take you to the Uber app, with the destination inputted.