Island Radio Redfern: Where Southeast Asian Soul Meets Sydney Style

There is a corner of Redfern where the air smells of lemongrass and pandan, where a full moon of fibreglass hangs from the ceiling and the bass from a DJ booth cuts clean through the chatter of a packed dining room. That corner is Island Radio, and if you have not eaten there yet, you are genuinely missing one of the most exciting restaurant openings Sydney has seen in recent memory.

Tucked inside the Wunderlich Lane precinct — the new hospitality and retail hub sitting squarely on the border of Surry Hills and Redfern — Island Radio is the kind of place that makes you feel like you have been transported somewhere hotter, louder and altogether more fun. The food draws from a broad arc of Southeast Asian culinary tradition: the hawker stalls of Kuala Lumpur, the noodle shops of Singapore, the bold heat of Indonesian cooking and the refined minimalism of Japanese technique. All of it lands on one menu, and it works.

This is not a restaurant that hedges. From the moment you walk in, it is clear that House Made Hospitality — the group behind the venue — had a specific vision and executed it with conviction.

What Is Island Radio, Exactly?

Island Radio is a Southeast Asian eating house and noodle bar that seats 140 people across two distinct spaces. The front of house is a walk-in noodle bar where you can pull up a stool at the cocktail counter, order a bowl of laksa and be on your way within the hour. The back section — the main eating house — is a different proposition altogether. It is bookings-recommended, more relaxed in pace and designed for the kind of long, lingering dinners that end with another round of cocktails and a debate over dessert.

The aesthetic has been described by the venue itself as tropical futurism. That phrase sounds like it belongs in a design magazine rather than a restaurant, but one look at the space and it clicks. Deep jewel-toned walls, pendant lights that glow like low-hanging moons, tropical foliage threaded through a fitout that somehow feels both futuristic and warmly familiar. It is a 140-seat room that feels intimate, which is no small feat.

The music matches the room. A revolving roster of DJs means the soundtrack shifts through the week — sometimes punchy and upbeat, sometimes deeper and more contemplative — but it never dips into background noise. At Island Radio, the music is part of the dining experience, not an afterthought.

The Food: Bold, Seasonal and Shareable

Executive chef Andy Wirya leads the kitchen, and his food reflects both classical training and a genuine affinity for the flavours of Southeast Asia. The menu is built around sharing — smaller snacks and bites, followed by larger plates designed to sit in the middle of the table and be torn into together.

A few standout dishes have earned particular attention from diners and reviewers alike:

• Scallop silks with Andy’s sambal — silky, lightly smoky and finished with a sambal that has real depth without overwhelming the delicacy of the scallop.
• Raw kingfish skewers — clean, citrus-bright and a good example of the Japanese influence running quietly through the menu.
• Smoked beef nasi goreng — a comfort dish elevated by careful smoking technique and quality brisket, a pairing that somehow feels both familiar and entirely new.
• Yellow rock flathead curry — a regional Australian fish treated with Malay-influenced spicing, seasonal and satisfying.
• Wagyu beef rendang with toasted coconut — a slow-cooked rendang that is rich without being heavy, the coconut providing lift at the end.
• Duck lumpia — crisp, generously filled and a crowd favourite at the table.
• King prawn roti — yielding, buttery roti alongside prawns cooked with care. A combination that earns its place on any table.
• Prawn and pork wonton laksa — available from the noodle bar, the broth is the kind you want to mop up with extra bread if you could.

The pricing sits in a range that feels honest for the quality and location. With mains and sharing plates between $40–120, the per-head cost across a full meal with drinks lands at a level that feels earned rather than inflated.

The Cocktail Bar: More Than Just Drinks

The bar programme at Island Radio is worth its own conversation. The cocktail list draws on the same Southeast Asian ingredient library as the kitchen — pandan, lychee, gula melaka, sesame, kopi — and the results are surprising in the best way.

The Island Martini combines gin with pandan liqueur, osmanthus, lychee and lime leaf. It is floral without being cloying, and the sourness from the lime leaf keeps everything grounded. The Kopi Old-Fashioned uses bourbon, coffee liqueur, sesame and gula melaka (a palm sugar used across Malaysian cooking) to produce a slow, roasted, deeply satisfying cocktail that goes extremely well with the richer dishes on the food menu.

The drinks side of things further reinforces that Island Radio is a destination rather than just a place to eat. Many diners start at the noodle bar with a cocktail before moving through to the eating house, and that flow makes sense given how the space is laid out.

Island Radio at a Glance

Detail	Information
Address	Corner of Cleveland & Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016 (Surry Hills Shopping Village / Wunderlich Lane)
Phone	+61 2 9072 9304
Website	islandradio.sydney
Cuisine	Southeast Asian, Modern Asian, Noodle Bar
Tuesday – Wednesday	5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Thursday	5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Friday	5:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Saturday	12:00 pm – 11:00 pm
Sunday	12:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Monday	Closed
Price Range	$40 – $120 per head (approx)
Google Rating	4.3 / 5 (359+ reviews)
Bookings	Recommended for the Eating House; walk-ins welcome at the Noodle Bar
Private Dining	Available
Outdoor Seating	Yes
Surcharge	3% gratuity (removable on request); 10% Sunday; 18% public holidays

Wunderlich Lane: The Broader Picture

Island Radio does not exist in isolation. It sits within Wunderlich Lane, one of Sydney’s most considered new dining and retail precincts, developed on what was previously industrial land straddling Surry Hills and Redfern. The precinct has retained several of the original heritage buildings from the Wunderlich tile factory that once occupied the site, and that industrial bones give the whole development a texture and authenticity that newer precincts sometimes lack.

Alongside Island Radio, the precinct is home to Olympus (a Greek restaurant from the team behind The Apollo), Bar Julius and the boutique hotel The Eve. What this means for diners is that a visit to Island Radio can anchor a full evening in the precinct — aperitifs at one spot, dinner at Island Radio, a nightcap somewhere else — without ever needing to hail a cab.

For the surrounding communities of Redfern and Surry Hills, Wunderlich Lane has added a genuinely neighbourhood-facing dimension. The noodle bar at Island Radio, in particular, functions as the kind of easy, affordable local option that a neighbourhood benefits from — drop in on a Wednesday evening, eat well, and leave without a formal occasion required.

Getting to Island Radio: Transport and Parking

The location at the corner of Cleveland Street and Baptist Street is well served by public transport. Redfern Station is a comfortable walk, and multiple bus routes along Cleveland Street stop within metres of the precinct entrance. For those driving, street parking on surrounding streets can be found in the evenings, and the surrounding Surry Hills area has a number of commercial car parks within easy walking distance.

The venue is wheelchair accessible, and the layout of both the noodle bar and the main eating house accommodates a range of group sizes, from intimate couples to larger groups of eight or more (for whom a 10 per cent service charge applies in place of the standard gratuity).

Who Is Island Radio Best Suited For?

One of the more interesting things about Island Radio is how well it serves genuinely different kinds of diners at the same time. That dual-space layout — noodle bar at front, eating house at the back — means the venue functions as two restaurants that share a kitchen and a cocktail bar.

• Couples looking for a date-night restaurant with atmosphere and interesting food will find the eating house section suits them very well.
• Groups of friends wanting a lively, shareable-plate style dinner with good cocktails are well catered for, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings.
• Solo diners and locals wanting a quick, satisfying meal without ceremony can pull up at the noodle bar with no booking required.
• Corporate groups and private events are accommodated through the private dining room, which makes the venue versatile for business entertaining.
• Food explorers curious about Southeast Asian cuisine beyond the typical takeaway staples will find plenty to investigate across the menu.

The common thread across all of these groups is that Island Radio rewards people who approach it with a degree of openness — a willingness to try the dish they do not recognise on the menu, to order the cocktail with the unfamiliar ingredient, to lean into the music rather than talk over it.

Practical Tips for Your Visit

A few things worth knowing before you head in:

• Book ahead for the eating house if you are visiting on a Friday or Saturday. The room fills quickly and walk-ins are accepted when space allows, but the best tables go to bookings.
• The noodle bar operates on a walk-in basis — this is the best option if you want flexibility or a shorter visit.
• The standard 3 per cent gratuity on all dine-in bills is removable on request if you prefer not to pay it.
• Sunday and public holiday surcharges apply (10 per cent and 18 per cent respectively), which is standard across Sydney hospitality.
• If dining in a group of eight or more, a 10 per cent service charge replaces the standard gratuity.
• The cocktail bar is a destination in itself — arriving early for drinks before your table is ready is a perfectly good way to spend the time.

What Else Is Nearby?

The Surry Hills and Redfern dining corridor has grown significantly into one of Sydney’s most interesting areas for food and drink. Within a short walk of Island Radio you will find some of the city’s most acclaimed cafes and restaurants, alongside independent boutiques, galleries and music venues. The neighbourhood has a creative energy that suits Island Radio’s own aesthetic — it is not a restaurant that would feel at home in a sterile shopping centre. It belongs exactly where it is.

Redfern itself has a layered history as one of Sydney’s most culturally significant suburbs — a place with deep Indigenous connections, a long tradition of political activism and, more recently, a wave of creative businesses and residents that have brought new energy without entirely erasing the suburb’s character. Island Radio fits into that evolving neighbourhood story in an interesting way: it is a high-quality hospitality venue that takes the local community seriously, rather than treating the suburb as a backdrop.

Frequently Asked Questions About Island Radio Sydney

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The Bottom Line

Island Radio has arrived in Redfern with a clarity of purpose that is genuinely refreshing. It knows what it is — a Southeast Asian diner with great cocktails, a serious kitchen, and a room designed to be enjoyed — and it delivers on that promise night after night.

Whether you pull up a stool at the noodle bar for a solo weeknight dinner, or settle in for a long Saturday lunch in the eating house with friends and a bottle of something cold, the experience is consistently one of the better things you can do with a Sydney evening. That is high praise in a city that does not reward mediocrity.

If you have not made the trip to Wunderlich Lane yet, Island Radio is a very good reason to go.