The end-of-year festive parties are done and dusted, you’ve (hopefully) done all of your gift shopping, and your out-of-office has been turned on. Yep, we’re approaching the finale of silly season.

There’s just something about the city in that week between Christmas and New Year that I’ve always loved. Maybe it’s because that’s typically when summer well and truly announces itself, or maybe it’s because most tourists are home with their families, so for a week you feel like Sydney exists just for Sydneysiders. And sure, the beaches and all the rest of it are completely packed, but the rest of town typically feels emptier and more relaxed.

It’s also a low-key amazing time for going out to eat. Here’s what our Hot List restaurants, bars and cafes are doing over the break – and how to get in on it.

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Hot List activity this week

• Most trending restaurant: Olympus
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Superfreak

What to do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Have you made it to the original Kosta’s Takeaway, in Rockdale, yet? Christmas Eve is your chance. If you’re the clever sort of person to do most of your Christmas lunch cooking the day before, you should fuel up the right way by having a schnitzel sandwich the size of your head.

If more regular portion sizes are more your thing, you can always head over to Reuben Hills, one of the OG key players in the Surry Hills brunch scene, to catch a coffee and a meal before the cafe shuts until the December 27.

Of course, plenty of people don’t celebrate Christmas. And if that’s you, your day is full of possibilities. Why not go to Ho Jiak Haymarket? While I try and fail for the millionth time to enjoy turkey, you and your crew could be tucking into char koay teow and other Malaysian classics. I know what I’d rather be eating. It’s open all the way through the break. Ama – home to, I think, the most raved-about soup in Broadsheet Sydney history – is also open throughout the holiday period, but if you’re not the Christmas type, I can think of few better alternatives than a bowl of noodles here.

That weird post-Christmas, pre-New Year time

This is where it gets good. A lot of places are staying open for this awkward period. Especially post-Boxing Day. You can try what could be Sydney’s favourite pancakes over at Happyfield in Haberfield. Or get yourself to the top of Paramount House and order as many pastries from AP Bakery as you can hold (we won’t judge if 90 per cent of the ones you choose are the Aleppo pepper and asiago scroll). It’s open all the way through the break – with an earlier close on New Year’s Eve.

In other carb news,Good Ways Deli, over in Redfern, is open as normal from December 27 to 30. If you’ve never tried kangaroo mortadella, this is the perfect week to do it. If you fancy a tipple, the crack teams over at Paski and Earl’s Juke Joint will be open in that in-between week.

Otherwise, if you can jag a table, some of Sydney’s finest restaurants will be kicking on, including Sean’s Panaroma, Saint Peter, Jane, Ormeggio at the Spit and Lankan Filling Station.

End 2024 right

Ever been at a New Year’s Eve party you didn’t want to be at, looked around and thought “Is this really the people I’m ending my year with?” Maybe we should be that discerning with the very last things we decide to eat in 2024. It’s a big choice.

I could think of worse ways to do it than with breakfast at the very influential Bills Darlinghurst, which kickstarted a global breakfast movement. But there’s a lot of people who have never been. Why wait till it’s a New Year’s resolution? It’s open on the morning of New Year’s Eve. Go and get those ricotta hotcakes.

If you’re off to a house party somewhere in the inner west, it’s worth stopping by for a pint or two at The Magpie on Enmore Road. They’ll be open till 10pm, which gives you plenty of time before the countdown.

Last but not least, Attenzione, one of our favourite new restaurants of 2024, is doing a special New Year’s Eve menu. That’s how to end 2024 right, and go into 2025 with a sore head and a full stomach.