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Favela
This place may actually be too flashy even for Sydney. A nondescript entrance leads into a designer's dream bar populated by dressed-up 20-somethings. If you want to splash your roubles, around A$600 will get you and your four most impressionable friends a Gold Room table (gold-tiled ceiling and walls) and two bottles of Moët. In the upstairs club, the ceiling's 8000 golden light-globes groove in time to the house beat.
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Flying Fish
One for the romantics, let the city lights sparkling over the harbour work their magic at the quiet end of this wharf, aided by an indulgent cocktail (around A$18 ). If you're not the mushy type, check this bar out for the coolest toilets in town - the clear glass stalls frost over only when you lock the door.
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Friend In Hand Hotel
This early opening down-home pub offers life drawing (around A$10 ) on Mondays, poetry slams on the first Tuesday of the month, crab races every Wednesday and comedy gigs every Thursday. Or just grab an eyeful of the bric-a-brac around you, and say hi to the cockatoo. The punters are a mix of grizzly old timers and raucous young 'uns.
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Fringe Bar
Sumptuous fringed red velvet curtains cover exposed brick in this cool bar hung with chandeliers and gilt mirrors. There's a busy weeknight schedule; comedy Mondays, trivia Tuesdays, fashion Wednesdays and - the backpacker's friend - all-you-can-eat pizza Thursdays.
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Gazebo Wine Garden
A hip wine bar in skanky old Fitzroy Gardens? Who would have believed it 10 years ago? This place is awesome - super-groovy decor, interesting mixed clientele and a high-tech storage system that shoots gas into open bottles, meaning 55 sometimes obscure wines are available by the glass to join the 300 by the bottle.
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Golden Sheaf Hotel
This handsome old pub complex rambles through a shady beer garden, large sports bar with pool tables, TAB, bistro, pokie palace, cocktail bar, dance floor and live music space. The music policy covers rock, soul, hip-hop, samba, house and funked-up folk - both live and DJ-delivered (see website for details). Something for everyone, then.
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Goodbar
Two-level and trendy, this popular, intimately-sized club is still attracting crowds of the pretty people. It boasts funk, R&B, hip-hop and soul, plus a chance at celebrity-spotting. The best nights to shake things up with the taut crowds are on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
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Govindas
Hare Krishna-run Govindas has an all-you-can-gobble vegetarian smorgasbord which you can combine with mainstream blockbusters, art-house fare and old favourites. There's incense in the air and plenty of cushions on the floor.
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Greater Union George St Cinemas
This monster-sized movie palace comes with 18 screens, plenty of eateries and a few youth-oriented distractions. It's an orgy of popcorn-fuelled mainstream entertainment, and disabled access is good. Discount night is colloquially known as Tight-Arse Tuesday.
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Green Park Hotel
Who's gay and who's straight? Who knows or cares at this place. It's the ultimate 'whatever' inner-city bar, where locals of all persuasions come to drink beer, shoot pool and chill out.
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Greenwood Hotel
It's all about the sandstone; the conversion of this impressive building (1878) from a school to one of the Shore's pumping-est pubs has left it largely unadorned apart from a giant mirror ball. School is not a distant memory for many of the punters, apart from the Friday night after-work brigade. Booty-shake to hip-hop and R&B on Thursday nights, or grab a ticket to the Sounds-On-Sunday day party for uplifting house in the substantial courtyard.
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Griffin Theatre Company
The Stables Theatre is the home of this important little company, dedicated to the development and production of new Australian plays since 1970. Cate Blanchett started her professional career here. On Mondays there are 'pay what you can' sessions.
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Harbour View Hotel
Built in the 1920s, the Harbour View was the main boozer for the Harbour Bridge builders and now it's fulfilling that role for the Bridge climbers. Head to the lovely 2nd-floor balcony and wave to the hardy souls as they traverse the nearby girders. On the weekends bands play in the main bar.
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Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace
Return to cinema's golden age via this fabulous Art Deco gem (1935). It still has its original Wurlitzer organ, which is played at special events and the monthly Wednesday Luncheons (movie, lunch and coffee).
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Hemmesphere
Like a giant living room that serves cocktails, this exclusive lounge is a quiet, low-slung alternative to the frenetic energy of the other drinking dens in the Establishment complex. DJs lay down soulful funk and lounge, and on Friday nights there's live music. Reservations advised.
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Hero of Waterloo
Enter into the roughly hewn stone interior, meet some of the boisterous locals and enjoy the nightly music (piano, folk, jazz or Irish tunes) of this historic, old-time bar. Downstairs is an original dungeon, where drinkers would sleep off a heavy night before being shanghaied to the high seas.
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Hollywood Hotel
This Art Deco pub looks nondescript from the outside but its dark intimate inside reveals a somewhat bohemian gay-friendly crowd and great place to kick-start a weekend. There's live jazz on Tuesday nights and a loungy DJ set on Thursdays.
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Home
This monster-sized pleasuredome took club design to a new level when it opened 10 years ago, and (at the time of research) was about to get a million-dollar overhaul - including a Roger Sanchez-designed DJ booth. Thursday's Rebel Rebel indie night is free and features live bands. The legendary Sublime (trance, hard house) is on Fridays, Famous on Saturdays (house) and Home On Sundays has an electro tinge.
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Hopetoun Hotel
This legendary little venue offers live music every night, running the gamut from folk to rock to rap. You'll occasionally catch internationally well-known indie acts playing here.
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Hordern Pavilion
Holding over 4000 people, the historic Hordern (1924) hosts plenty of big name rock gigs and, along with neighbouring venues, the spectacular Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Party. If these walls could talk.
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Hotel CBD
This lovely old corner pub is a multilevel escape for those who've had a tough day making money in the CBD. The ground-floor bar gets crowded after work but there are quieter options upstairs and a celebrated bistro.
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Hoyts EQ
The large movie complex in the Entertainment Quarter has more than a dozen cinemas. These include La Premiere, the cinematic equivalent of a first-class cabin, offering snuggle-friendly lounges, glasses of wine, and cheese platters. Art house films and ethnic film festivals tend to screen in Cinema Paris, just down Bent St.
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Hugo's
Hugo's reflects the changing face of Kings Cross, bringing the area a much-needed touch of class. The atmosphere is slick, the spaces contemporary and the outside lounge booths pure heaven. Order their signature drink, a mango daiquiri, and remember to dress well; clientele are sophisticated and even include celebrities. There's a street-level cafe.
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IMAX Cinema
If you're into being wowed (or made motion-sick) by the world's biggest movie screens, then IMAX is for you. Movies shown tend to be either thrill-fests or nature documentaries (some in 3D).
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Imperial Hotel
The Art Deco Imperial's drag shows inspired Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (the opening scene was filmed here). Any drag queen worth her sheen has played the Cabaret Room, while the Cellar Bar, Public Bar and Priscilla Lounge heave with chesty pool boys and raging house.
