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Statement Lounge
Hidden underneath the State Theatre, this low-lit jazz-era bar blends Deco features with a modern makeover. Slink into this atmospheric locale for a quiet drink (it's rarely busy) or a show tune belted out by a cabaret chanteuse.
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Steyne Hotel
Boasting nine bars on two levels, this place has a spot for everyone - from sport bogans to club kids. The internal courtyard isn't flash, but the upstairs veranda more than makes up for it with wicked views over the beach. Live bands and DJs play every day.
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Stonewall Hotel
The nightly drag shows and good vibe make this a popular choice out of the Sydney gay institutions and the nice airy location also helps. In recent times, the ceiling has collapsed here, causing one DJ to proclaim 'I finally brought the house down!'
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Strawberry Hills Hotel
This basic pub features the live jazz of the Eclipse Alley 5 on Saturdays and Bill Dudley's New Orleanians on Sundays. Plus there's a healthy three-and-a-half-hour happy hour, so throw down some around cheap schooners before the show.
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Sydney Comedy Store
In its purpose-built home in the Fox Studios, this comedy venue has stand-up and open-mike nights. Acts have included the crème de la crème of local and international talent.
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Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Located in the Botanic Gardens, this historic music venue showcases the talents of its students and their teachers. Choral, jazz, operatic and chamber concerts are held here from March to September, along with a range of free lunch-time recitals on Wednesdays (March to November).
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Sydney Dance Company
Made legendary by the extraordinary team of Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon, this is easily Australia's best dance company, with innovative choreography, spellbinding performances, great production values and the sexiest dancers. Catch anything you can, anytime you can - it'll be a highlight. Classes for all levels are also available on a casual basis.
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Sydney Entertainment Centre
A big concrete box purpose-built for superstar extravaganzas, seating just over 12,000 fans.
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Sydney Opera House
When it's not admiring itself in the mirror, the Opera House regularly hosts the Australian Ballet, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Bell Shakespeare, Musica Viva, Opera Australia, the Sydney Dance Company, Sydney Philharmonic Choirs, Sydney Symphony and the Sydney Theatre Company. Phew.
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Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
If you want your world rocked by 300 enthusiastic voices, this is your choir. They also have a 100-voice symphonic choir, 32-voice motet choir and a youth-based choir. Internationally renowned, you can generally find them at the Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall and St Andrew's Cathedral.
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Sydney Symphony Orchestra
The SSO is blessed with chief conductor and artistic director Gianluigi Gelmetti and plays with famous local and international musicians. Catch them at the Sydney Opera House or City Recital Hall.
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Sydney Theatre Company
Established in 1978, the STC is Sydney's top company and has been an important step in the careers of many famous Australian actors, including Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, Geoffrey Rush, Toni Collette and Cate Blanchett. Expect meticulously crafted works that appeal to mainstream sensibilities while still managing to push a few buttons.
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Tank
Basement spaces never looked so good. Dress up as fine as you're able, pretend you're a movie star and crash the VIP room; you might just run into someone famous. The punters here are young and thin, and gyrate to the funky house music whipped up by some of Sydney's best spinners.
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Tank Stream Bar
Hidden down a dark alley in the bowels of the swanky Establishment Hotel is this upmarket and atmospheric bar, populated mainly by suits getting over their working days. Flashes of steel and high stools add elegance to the original warehouse features.
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Taxi Club
Chances are if you can't remember the end of last night, you probably finished it off at the Taxi Club. Refreshingly seedy after all these years, this place is a national treasure that no tourist brochure's going to tout, but that no tourist's visit should be without. Mind the stairs, which are breakneck-steep, even when you're sober.
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The Eastern
This delicious Deco pub was saved from the wrecking ball and fully renovated when Westfield Bondi Junction was built all around it. It now has elegant but relaxed bars, a snazzy rooftop terrace, a decent restaurant and a popular electro-pop club-night on Wednesdays.
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Tilbury
By all means prop up the bar nearest the restaurant or nab a table out the front, but to get the best of this place head up and out - to the first floor bar and its spacious terrace. The Tilbury consistently has friendly staff, schmick decor, chilled beats and a good wine list, but it really comes into its own on a Sunday afternoon when a more bohemian, mixed crowd descends.
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Tonic Lounge
Just the tonic for snooty Sydney - a laid-back, clubby boudoir in a black-and-purple terrace house that feels more like someone's living room than anything hi-tech or haute couture . The fact that it's so un-Sydney attracts people who are also un-Sydney - expect backpackers aplenty.
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Town Hall Hotel
The upstairs of this smart old bar has lots of little nooks and crannies and a wraparound balcony that's great for brunch or a late afternoon tipple. Friday and Saturday nights see DJs (with the odd live accompanist) pulling in the single-seeking-other punters downstairs.
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Unity Hall Hotel
Its late hours make this ungentrified pub (1875) Balmain's traditional last port of call. It has its own house band which plays trad jazz on Sunday afternoons and Friday evenings. There's more live music on Thursdays (acoustic) and Saturdays (various), while booty-shakers are looked after by a DJ playing upstairs every Saturday night.
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Vanguard
This atmospheric and intimate restaurant and live venue has performers six nights a week, including some well-known names. Although the Vanguard is primarily a jazz, blues and roots club, you might hear anything from a Led Zep covers band to the latest pop starlet. Dinner and show deals are available. Check website for what's coming up.
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Verona Cinema
This cinema, part of the Palace chain, also has a cafe and bar where you can discuss the good (invariably non-mainstream) flick you've just seen. Mondays are bargain days and the complex is equipped with facilities for disabled patrons.
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Victoria Room
Plush chesterfields, Art Nouveau wallpaper, dark-wood panelling and bamboo screens - the Victoria Room is the spoilt love child of a 1920s Bombay gin palace and a Hong Kong opium den. Don your white linen suit and panama and order a Raspberry Debonair at the bar.
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Water Bar
Like something from the pages of Wallpaper* magazine, this stylish bar sits in the cavernous heart of the Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf. The drink menu is long (18 different tequilas!), the ceilings are high and the sofas are so comfy you may well find yourself horizontal in record time.
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Welcome Hotel
Extending a warm welcome since 1877, this cosy local pub hasn't lost any of its atmosphere. Come to watch the rugger, have a slap-up meal, while away a Sunday arvo in the beer garden, or commune with the ghost of Winston, a foxhound that supposedly haunts the place.
