Touch Wood Sydney: The Best Breakfast on the Harbour Is at the Fish Market

Sydney Fish Market, Glebe. Doors open 7am, seven days, on Blackwattle Bay.

The Room That Opens While Sydney Is Still Asleep

Nobody thinks about seafood at breakfast. That is precisely why Touch Wood works. Owner Tyson Rowsell says it plainly: when you think breakfast and brunch, you do not think seafood, and he built a room on that gap. Doors open at 7am seven days, which makes this the only venue in the entire Sydney Fish Market precinct trading before the rest of the waterfront has found its keys.

The result is a morning that feels borrowed from somewhere else. A 100 seat terrace facing north, sun on the water, the Anzac Bridge in the middle distance, and a flat white from a rotating cast of boutique roasters, all before nine. Commuters have already worked it out and stop in on the way through.

What makes it genuinely rare is that the room does not stop there. Breakfast until 11.30am, lunch straight through the afternoon, and dinner Thursday to Saturday. Three services, one kitchen, one view, and a standard that holds across all of them. Most venues pick a lane. Touch Wood runs the whole day and does it on the best aspect in the precinct, which is a much harder trick than it sounds and the reason this is a destination rather than a stop.

Picture: Touch Wood. The north facing terrace on Blackwattle Bay, where the day starts at 7am.

The Room Itself

You come around the corner at Bridge Road and the whole thing opens up at once. Blackwattle Bay in front of you, the Anzac Bridge holding the frame. Touch Wood sits on the upper ground level of the new Sydney Fish Market, tucked onto a north facing corner just far enough from the centre of the action to feel like a discovery rather than a queue.

The space is the work of Darren Kong of Studio Kong, the architect behind the Australian fitouts for Prada and Miu Miu. It shows. Warm timber runs through the 300 square metres, floor to ceiling glass does the heavy lifting on the view, and a large scale waratah mural pulls the Australian landscape indoors. Native botanicals soften the corners. Nothing here is shouting at you, which in a precinct this loud is the entire point.

There are 150 seats. Around 30 of them sit inside. The other 100 are out on the deck facing north, which means sun from sunrise through to sunset and a view that does not require a good table, only a table.

Picture: Touch Wood. Warm timber, floor to ceiling glass and a large scale waratah mural inside the 300 square metre room.

The BioHax Clean Plate Review

Head Chef Courtney Blyde came through Baba's Place, The Apollo and Cho Cho San, and brings a Samoan heritage and a New Zealand upbringing to a menu he describes as brunch with personality. He is not wrong, and the personality is the point. This is a kitchen with the technique to be precious and the confidence not to be.

Order these three and share them

This is the order. Do not overthink it. Three plates in the middle of the table and everyone gets to be astonished at once.

Crab and XO Butter Crumpets at $40 are the signature and the menu says so out loud. Fresh local crab piled onto sourdough crumpets with corn, XO butter and maple syrup. Sweet against savoury against the funk of the XO, and it should not work as neatly as it does. If you order one thing here, this is it.

Market Fish Congee at $26 is the sleeper. Broken rice, a 63 degree egg, cabanossi, prawn, crispy shallots, fresh ginger, spring onion, chilli oil and sesame. Gluten free and dairy free without announcing itself. Deeply savoury, gently warming, and the kind of thing you think about again three days later.

Buckwheat Porridge at $22 is the one that resets your idea of what porridge is allowed to be. Creamy buckwheat, poached pear, honeycomb and toasted pepitas. Gluten free and vegetarian. It reads humble on the page and arrives as the quiet triumph of the table.

*Prices subject to change.

Picture: Touch Wood. Left to right, the crab and XO butter crumpets, the market fish congee and the buckwheat porridge.

Elsewhere the range holds. Eggs and anchovy soldiers with 63 degree eggs and parsley oil. A coconut chia bowl with mango, passionfruit and yuzu caramel. Truffle mushroom and gruyere crumpets. A Big Market Breakfast built around a fish and prawn sausage pattie rather than the usual suspects. Breakfast runs until 11.30am, so there is no need to be heroic about the alarm.

For anyone eating with their body in mind, the seafood is the story. High protein, low inflammatory load, and 100% sourced from Australian fisheries and producers, much of it off an auction floor trading more than 100 species a day roughly a hundred metres from the pass. You will struggle to find a shorter supply chain anywhere in Sydney.

Come for brunch, stay for lunch, shop on the way out

Here is how to spend the morning properly. Arrive early, take the terrace, work through the three plates while the sun is still low on the water. Brunch sips open at 10am if you are in that sort of mood, and the Touch Wood Mimosa is built for exactly this. Breakfast runs until 11.30am and then the kitchen rolls straight into lunch, so there is no reason to move and every reason to order another round.

Then walk downstairs. You are standing in the largest seafood market in the southern hemisphere, and you have just spent two hours being convinced of what the produce can do. Take some home. The market floor trades until 4pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends, which gives you the whole afternoon and a very good excuse to keep going.

Picture: Touch Wood. The new Sydney Fish Market, the largest seafood market in the southern hemisphere, a staircase below the restaurant.

Or do not leave at all. Thursday to Saturday the room turns over for dinner from 6pm to 10pm, the light goes gold across Blackwattle Bay and the oyster shell Martinis come out. Very few venues in Sydney can take you from a 7am flat white to a 9pm Martini without ever asking you to change postcode, and fewer still can do it with this view. If you have found a table on that terrace, the correct response is to stay in it.

The coffee is a program, not an afterthought

Paul Cabezas Heathwood, formerly of The Grounds of the City and Veneziano Coffee Roasters, runs the coffee, and the list reads like a specialty bar rather than a restaurant afterthought. The house espresso is the White Knight Blend, and from there it opens right up. Single origin espresso rotates through roasters like White Horse and Headlands, so you might find a Bolivian Java with honey and lemonade notes at $7 or a Rwandan Red Bourbon leaning plum and pomelo at $11.

Then there is the pour over, which is where the room shows off. A slow hand crafted brew, roughly 250ml, running to a Diggy Doos Colombian honey strawberry Castillo at $21. Batch brew and cold brew sit at $7.50 for anyone who wants the good stuff without the ceremony. There is nitro on tap and a salted honeycomb iced latte at $9 for the other kind of morning.

*Prices subject to change. Single origin and pour over offerings rotate.

Picture: Touch Wood. The coffee and native tea program, from single origin pour overs to Indigiearth blends.

The drinks list for people who do not drink

This is where Touch Wood quietly out performs almost every venue on the harbour. The Not Coffee page is not a consolation prize. Cold pressed juices at $11 include a Green Detox of apple, kiwi, celery, kale, lime and ginger, and a Ruby Healing of pineapple, orange, carrot and beetroot. Iced matcha starts at $10, with mango, earl grey and strawberry variations.

The tea is the standout. Two native blends come from Indigiearth, a wholly Aboriginal owned business founded by Sharon Winsor, a Weilwan woman, operating out of Mudgee on Wiradjuri Country and buying its raw produce direct from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The Lemon Myrtle is the best known Australian rainforest spice and the world's richest known source of citral. The Corroboree blends native ingredients on a Daintree black tea base with crushed rosella, lemon myrtle, aniseed myrtle, cinnamon myrtle and native river mint. Both $8, and both a better use of eight dollars than most things on a Sydney menu.

*Prices subject to change.

Picture: Touch Wood. The bar, home of the oyster shell Martini.

Meet the Team

Touch Wood is run by a team that has come through some of the best rooms in the country.

• Tyson Rowsell, Restaurateur. The owner, behind Inner West cult cafe Dirty Red and formerly of The Grounds of Alexandria.
• Liam Briggs, General Manager. Irish born and the warm front of house presence that turns first timers into regulars.
• Courtney Blyde, Head Chef. Fifteen years across Baba's Place, The Apollo and Cho Cho San, bringing a Samoan heritage and a New Zealand upbringing to the menu.
• Abram Ponte, Bar Manager. The hand behind the oyster shell Martinis and the rest of the bar list.
• Paul Cabezas-Heathwood, Head of Coffee. Formerly of The Grounds of the City and Veneziano Coffee Roasters, running the rotating single origin and pour over program.
• Dylan Peters, Operations Manager. Keeping a 150 seat room across three services running from 7am.

Picture: Touch Wood. The team, left to right: Liam Briggs (General Manager), Tyson Rowsell (Restaurateur), Courtney Blyde (Head Chef), Abram Ponte (Bar Manager), Paul Cabezas-Heathwood (Head of Coffee) and Dylan Peters (Operations Manager).

Why It Stands Apart

• The only venue in the precinct open for breakfast from 7am
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner under one roof, which almost nothing on the harbour manages at this standard
• 100 north facing outdoor seats, sun from sunrise to sunset
• Seafood led brunch, a category almost nobody else in Sydney is running
• 100% of the seafood sourced from Australian fisheries and producers, backing the Country of Origin initiative
• Sourced from a wholesale auction trading 100 plus species daily, metres from the pass
• Gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian options marked across the menu, including a gluten free bread swap
• A serious non alcoholic list, cold pressed juices, matcha and native teas from Aboriginal owned Indigiearth
• Specialty coffee program with rotating single origin, pour over and nitro on tap
• Designed by Studio Kong, the practice behind Prada and Miu Miu Australia
• Fully accessible with direct car park access, and two hours free parking for mobility permit holders
• Three light rail stops within 700 metres, buses on Harris Street, and a ferry terminal due 2027
• Kids menu and school holiday activity table, so families are planned for rather than tolerated

Picture: Touch Wood. The kitchen carries the same standard from brunch through to lunch and dinner.

The Local's Case

Here is the thing that decides whether a venue lasts. Touch Wood photographs beautifully. The branded plates, the waratah mural, the light coming off Blackwattle Bay at nine in the morning, the crab crumpets arriving looking like that. You will take a photo. Everyone does. It is comfortably one of the most photogenic rooms on the harbour and the venue knows it.

But the room is not built for the photo. It is built for the fourth visit, and the fifteenth. Kids are welcome and planned for, with a menu for under 12s and an activity table through school holidays. Nobody minds if you turn up in gym gear. Nobody minds if you sit on a flat white for an hour with the paper. The staff learn names, which is a deliberate choice by a team that understands a waterfront venue lives or dies on whether locals come back once the novelty wears off.

That is the pitch to Glebe, Pyrmont, Annandale and Ultimo. Not a special occasion room you visit twice and photograph once. A local that happens to have the best aspect in Sydney, where a Tuesday breakfast costs what it costs anywhere else and the view is thrown in.

Picture: Touch Wood. Built for the fourth visit, not just the first photo.

Time It Right

Weekends are chaos and Sunday afternoon is the peak of it, so the play is a weekday morning or an early weekend sitting before the crowd finds the escalator. Get in by nine and the terrace is yours. Turn up at midday on a Sunday and you are joining a queue with the rest of Sydney.

Rowsell is candid that there is still work to do convincing Sydney to come to the fish market early. Take that as an invitation. Right now a 7.30am flat white on that deck is one of the quietest luxuries in the city.

Picture: Touch Wood. Breakfast on the terrace, the reason to set an early alarm.

The Precinct Is About to Change Completely

Touch Wood has landed early on a waterfront that is mid transformation. A new ferry terminal is due in 2027, and with it a boardwalk running the full way around to Barangaroo, linking through to Blackwattle Bay, Bicentennial and Rozelle parklands. The wider active transport network stretches roughly 220 kilometres of track between here and Parramatta.

Across the water, the old Sydney Fish Market site is being rebuilt as a residential precinct. The NSW Government has confirmed more than 1500 homes for the site following a fast tracked rezoning that added 320 dwellings, with Mirvac named preferred developer.

For now the precinct is built to hold 5000 people and the access is already better than most people assume. Come 2027 the ferry makes the whole thing reachable without a car at all.

Artist's impression: Infrastructure NSW. The future Blackwattle Bay precinct rising across the water from Touch Wood.

Getting here without the car

This is the part locals get wrong. Three light rail stops sit within a short walk on the L1 Dulwich Hill line, Wentworth Park at 400 metres, Glebe at 450 and Bank Street at 700, with services every six to 10 minutes on weekdays. The 389 and 501 buses run along Harris Street, and more routes come through Glebe Point Road. Central and Town Hall are a two kilometre walk, as is Gadigal metro, which puts the whole thing inside an easy walk of the new metro line.

If you are coming under your own steam, the Glebe Foreshore Walk delivers you to the door and there are bike parking hoops on Bridge Road out the front. Bring your own lock. A Sunday that starts with a ride along the foreshore and ends with crumpets is entirely achievable.

Picture: The Glebe Foreshore Walk, which brings you to the door on foot or by bike, the Anzac Bridge overhead.

Driving works, but know what you are dealing with. There are about 400 underground basement spaces for a precinct built to hold 5000 people, and the car park regularly fills by midday on a busy weekend. The first 20 minutes are free, rates start at $12 for up to an hour and scale to $90 for a full day, with a flat $15 evening rate after 5pm. Mobility permit holders get two hours free.

*Parking rates are set by Sydney Fish Market and subject to change.

Which is the real argument for the early breakfast. Arrive at eight on a Sunday and you park without thinking about it. Arrive at one and you are circling a basement while somebody else has your table.

Events and Private Hire

The room hires out, and it hires out properly. Touch Wood takes up to 200 guests standing on an exclusive venue booking, with the main dining room, the bar and the waterfront terrace working together or separately depending on the size of the thing. Smaller gatherings get carved out of that. Natural light all day, a flexible layout and direct bar access, which is the practical version of saying the space does what you need it to.

For a Christmas party this is close to the ideal room in Sydney. Harbour on one side, the Anzac Bridge on the other, and 100 outdoor seats for the part of the evening where everyone drifts outside anyway.

Picture: Touch Wood. The dining room and terrace can be booked exclusively for up to 200 guests, from a seated breakfast to a full Christmas party.

Canapes

Canapes run across four categories, market selection, light, substantial and sweet, and the menu is genuinely good. Natural Sydney rock oysters with grapefruit granita and saltbush oil. Market fish crudo with yuzu avocado cream and finger lime. A WA rock lobster roll with old bay on brioche. A filet o fish slider with curried tartare, which is exactly the kind of joke a confident kitchen makes. Vegan options are real rather than apologetic, including a smashed cucumber rice paper roll and an avocado, yuzu and edamame with blue corn chips.

• Option 1, priced per piece, minimum quantities apply
• Option 2, $50 per person. Two market selection, two light, one substantial, one dessert
• Option 3, $75 per person. Three market selection, three light, two substantial, one dessert
• Lobster upgrade on substantial items adds $3 per person

*Prices subject to change. Canape selections are subject to seasonal availability.

Stations can be added on top. An oyster station from $30 per person for a minimum of 100 guests, a grazing antipasto station from $26 per person for a minimum of 50, and a premium seafood station at market price.

*Prices subject to change. Confirm current packages with the events team.

Banquets

*Prices subject to change. Banquet menus vary with seasonal produce.

The breakfast banquet is the one to note given the room's strengths. Scrambled eggs and sourdough, the buttermilk skillet cake with lemon myrtle cream and honeycomb butter, crispy hash browns with tomato chutney, and the crab and XO butter crumpets carried over from the a la carte. It is the three plate brunch philosophy scaled up to a table of thirty.

The Deluxe tiers are built around the Grand Market Platter, which is a whole WA rock lobster, six natural oysters, six oysters kilpatrick, king prawns, house smoked snapper pate, tuna sashimi, pickles, condiments and bread. Select tiers run through market fish ceviche, garlic prawn spaghetti, za'atar chargrilled chicken, chop salad and chips, finishing on strawberry shortcake or tiramisu. Dietary requirements are catered for on request.

Drinks packages

*Prices subject to change. Terms and conditions on request.

Bar tab and cash bar are both available if you would rather let people loose on the full list, non alcoholic options included. Curated packages can be arranged for anything specific.

Getting your guests there

Touch Wood sits on the Upper Ground level of the new Sydney Fish Market, on the northern corner of the terrace. Rideshare and taxi drop off is 1 Bridge Road, Glebe. The L1 Dulwich Hill light rail runs frequently from Central, Chinatown, Darling Harbour and Pyrmont, with Wentworth Park the closest stop at 400 metres. For an evening function the flat $15 parking rate after 5pm makes driving straightforward, and the basement is far quieter at night than it is at weekend lunch.

*Parking rates are set by Sydney Fish Market and subject to change.

Events enquiries go to enquiries@touchwoodsydney.com.au or 0486 347 210. Terms and conditions on request.

Good to Know

*Prices, rates and trading hours subject to change. Confirm with the venue.

The Menu

Breakfast served until 11.30am.

*Prices subject to change and the menu changes seasonally.

Light

• Local bakery toast, white or seeded sourdough, cultured butter and berry preserve (v), $13
• Buckwheat porridge, creamy buckwheat, poached pear, honeycomb and toasted pepitas (gf/v), $22
• Coconut chia bowl, fresh mango, passionfruit, mango mousse, toasted coconut crumb and yuzu caramel (gf), $22

*Prices subject to change.

Eggs

• Eggs your way, two free range eggs on sourdough with cultured butter, $17
• Eggs and anchovy soldiers, sourdough soldiers, 63 degree eggs and parsley oil, $22
• Market fish congee, broken rice, 63 degree egg, cabanossi, prawn, crispy shallots, ginger, spring onion, chilli oil and sesame (gf/df), $26
• Braised beef hash, crispy potato, slow cooked onion, fried egg and creme fraiche (gf), $28

*Prices subject to change.

Bigger

• Crab and XO butter crumpets, the signature. Fresh local crab, sourdough crumpets, corn, XO butter and maple syrup, $40
• Buttermilk skillet cake, lemon myrtle cream, honeycomb butter, poached rhubarb, $30
• Corn and zucchini fritters, smoked scamorza, herb yoghurt, rocket and pickled shallot (v), $28
• Big market breakfast, two eggs your way, fish and prawn sausage pattie, hash brown, avocado, roast tomato and sourdough, $36
• Truffle mushroom and gruyere crumpets, roasted mushrooms, melted gruyere, truffle oil and thyme (v), $34
• Crumbed fish burger and chips, fish and prawn pattie, iceberg, fried egg, cheese, curried tartare and dill pickle, $32

*Prices subject to change.

Sides

• Fish and prawn sausage pattie, $12
• Two eggs your way, $8
• Maple cured bacon, $8
• Halloumi, $7
• Roast tomatoes, $6
• Avocado, $6
• Hash brown, $5

*Prices subject to change.

Kids, under 12

• Cheese toastie, $10
• Waffle with jam and fresh strawberries, $14

*Prices subject to change.

Brunch sips, from 10am

• Touch Wood Mimosa, crisp prosecco, fresh OJ and a dash of passionfruit, $19
• Red Snapper Bloody Mary, Blackwattle Distillery Gin and signature spiced tomato juice, $24
• Corroboree Tea Hot Toddy, native herbal tea blend, spiced rum, lemon, honey and charred cinnamon, $19

*Prices subject to change.

Coffee

• Espresso or piccolo, $5
• Long black, flat white, cappuccino, latte or mocha, $5.50 to $6.50
• Extra shot, decaf, alternate milks or iced, $1 each
• Salted honeycomb iced latte, $9
• Batch brew or cold brew, $7.50
• Single origin espresso, from $7. White Horse Bolivia Los Rodriguez, coco natural Java, honey and lemonade, $7. Headlands Rwanda Huye District, washed Red Bourbon, plum and pomelo, $11
• Pour over, roughly 250ml. White Horse Ethiopia Girma Bekele, CM natural Karume, jasmine and peach cream, $16. Diggy Doos Colombia Jairo Arcila, honey strawberry Castillo, mango and strawberry, $21

*Prices subject to change.

Not coffee

• Iced matcha, classic $10. Mango, earl grey or strawberry, $11. Hot matcha, $7 to $8
• Tea, English breakfast, mint, earl grey or green, $6
• Lemon myrtle by Indigiearth, $8
• Corroboree by Indigiearth, native blend on a Daintree black tea base, $8
• Cold press juice, orange $10. Green Detox with apple, kiwi, celery, kale, lime and ginger, $11. Ruby Healing with pineapple, orange, carrot and beetroot, $11. Pink a Colada with watermelon, raspberry, strawberry, red grape and apple, $11
• House sodas, pink grapefruit and lime, cherry blossom and pomegranate, or raspberry and classic lemonade, $7
• Sparkling water 750ml, $10. Coke or Coke Zero, $5

*Prices subject to change.

Bar

• Oyster shell Martinis
• Australian wine list, craft beer and cocktails
• Happy hour

*Prices subject to change.

Dietaries

Gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian options are marked throughout, and Nonie's gluten free bread is available on toast dishes for $3. Dishes may contain nuts. Advise your server of any allergies before ordering.

*Prices subject to change.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time does Touch Wood Sydney open?

Doors open at 7am seven days a week. Breakfast runs until 11.30am, lunch through to 4pm, and dinner from 6pm to 10pm Thursday to Saturday. It is the only venue in the Sydney Fish Market precinct serving breakfast from 7am.

Is Touch Wood only open for breakfast?

No. Touch Wood serves breakfast until 11.30am, then runs lunch through the afternoon until 4pm, then dinner from 6pm to 10pm Thursday to Saturday. Breakfast is the standout and the reason to come early, but the room is an all day venue and holds the same standard across every service.

Where exactly is Touch Wood?

Shop A2, 1 Bridge Road, Glebe, on the upper ground level of the new Sydney Fish Market. It sits on the north facing corner overlooking Blackwattle Bay, slightly removed from the centre of the precinct.

Do I need to book?

Bookings are available online through SevenRooms and are strongly recommended for weekends. Sunday afternoon is the busiest trade of the week. Weekday mornings are the quietest and the easiest walk in.

How do I get there without driving?

Easily. Three L1 light rail stops sit within 700 metres, Wentworth Park at 400, Glebe at 450 and Bank Street at 700, running every six to 10 minutes on weekdays. The 389 and 501 buses run along Harris Street. Central, Town Hall and Gadigal metro are all around a two kilometre walk, and the Glebe Foreshore Walk comes to the door. A ferry terminal is due in 2027.

Is there parking?

Yes, about 400 underground basement spaces. The first 20 minutes are free, rates start at $12 for up to an hour and scale to $90 for a full day, with a flat $15 after 5pm. It fills quickly by midday on busy weekends, so come early or take the light rail. Mobility permit holders get two hours free and the venue is fully accessible with direct car park access. There are bike parking hoops on Bridge Road out the front, so bring a lock.

*Parking rates are set by Sydney Fish Market and subject to change.

Is Touch Wood family friendly?

Very. There is a dedicated kids menu and an activity table during school holidays, and the terrace gives children room to be children without anyone minding.

Can I hire the venue for an event?

Yes. Touch Wood holds up to 200 guests standing on an exclusive booking, with smaller spaces available for anything under that. Canape packages run $50 and $75 per person, banquets from $45 per person for breakfast up to $125 for dinner deluxe, and drinks packages from $55 per person for two hours. Contact the events team on 0486 347 210 or enquiries@touchwoodsydney.com.au.

Is there a breakfast option for events?

There is, and it is unusual. A $45 per person breakfast banquet including coffee and tea, built around scrambled eggs and sourdough, the buttermilk skillet cake, crispy hash browns and the signature crab and XO butter crumpets. Very few harbour front venues in Sydney will do a proper seated breakfast function at all.

Is the seafood Australian?

All of it. Touch Wood is a supporter of the Country of Origin initiative and states that 100% of the seafood on your plate is sourced from Australian fisheries and producers. The adjacent wholesale auction trades more than 100 species daily, metres from the pass.

This listing is editorial and provided for general information only. It does not constitute health, medical or nutritional advice. Menu items and prices are subject to change. Confirm details directly with the venue.