Rose Bay, meet your new all-day waterfront local. Ripples has landed on the marina and it is dangerously well suited to breakfasts that become lunches and lunches that refuse to end.
Ripples Rose Bay is open from early morning coffee through to seafood, generous share plates and easy dinners beside the water. It is relaxed, sun-soaked and built around the very sensible idea that Sydney is better when lunch comes with bobbing boats.
The venue sits beneath its glamorous Italian sister, Riva, at the same Rose Bay Marina address. Riva is your polished special-occasion option upstairs. Downstairs, Ripples is the one for coffee, casual catch-ups, family lunches and “just one drink” by the harbour.
Morning coffee to sunset cocktails
Ripples is designed to move with the day. The kiosk starts pouring coffee from 6.30am, walk-in breakfast begins at 7am, and the restaurant carries on through lunch and dinner seven days a week.
The interiors keep things breezy with timber, striped fabrics, bamboo trusses and natural materials that let the water and sunlight do most of the showing off. It feels put together, but nobody is expecting you to arrive in yacht shoes.
“We applied what we call the barefoot test, a place you can arrive barefoot for breakfast, lunch or dinner and still feel entirely comfortable.”
Perry Drakopoulos, Managing Director and Creative Director of SRG Hospitality
Seafood, share plates and no tiny portions
The modern Australian menu follows the setting, with seafood, seasonal produce and generous share plates at its centre. The current line-up runs from oysters, tuna crudo and split king prawns to a seafood platter, whole market fish and slow-cooked lamb shoulder designed for the middle of the table.
In other words, this is not the place to protect your order with a defensive fork. Bring people you are willing to share with.
The wine list mixes Australian producers with Italian, French and New Zealand bottles, covering bright whites, rosé and lighter reds that make sense beside the harbour. Cocktails keep things fresh with the Capri Spritz, The Bay, Coastal Marg and the Ripple Effect, a smooth mix of rum, Mr Black, macadamia, coconut and espresso.
Ripples is also fully licensed and allows BYO wine or Champagne for $18 corkage per bottle, which is always handy when someone has been saving something good.
What are we booking it for?
Breakfast by the water, a family lunch, catch-ups with friends, an easy date or a sunny Sunday that needs seafood, Champagne and absolutely nowhere else to be.
A closer look at Ripples
Swipe through for the striped details, sunlit tables and marina views.
Images: SRG Hospitality.
The Local Bird take
Ripples has nailed the brief for a true waterfront local: beautiful enough to feel like an outing, relaxed enough for a spontaneous coffee and flexible enough to carry you from breakfast to dinner. The only real danger is telling yourself you will pop in for an hour.
The details
What: Ripples Rose Bay
Where: 594 New South Head Road, Rose Bay
Kiosk: Daily, 6.30am–3pm
Breakfast: Daily, 7am–10.30am; walk-ins only
Lunch: Daily, 12pm–3pm
Dinner: From 5.30pm weekdays and 6pm weekends
Good to know: Breakfast is walk-in only. BYO wine or Champagne is $18 corkage per bottle. A 10% weekend surcharge applies. The venue advises that Ripples Rose Bay does not have wheelchair access. Opening hours and menus can change, so check directly before visiting.
