Sydney's best club dining

Forget sad buffets and soggy chips, the RSL clubs of today are hitting the culinary jackpot.

It used to be easy to guess what was on the menu at most of Sydney's RSL Clubs just by looking at the exterior.

Large grey bricks, timber features and sliding glass doors? You're looking at a buffet filled with limp fries, grated carrot and sweet and sour pork.

These days our clubs are making more effort. Large grey bricks now means salt and pepper squid, timber features means a mezze plate and sliding glass doors still mean a salad bar, filled to the brim with cold, grated carrot.

Things have gotten better, but there's a few clubs in the city and the burbs that are doing it the best.

Fairfield RSL

14 Anzac Avenue, Fairfield, 02 9727 5000

Fairfield RSL answers the question that has plagued man for decades: "What if Walt Disney moved to Australia and opened an RSL club?" There's a grandness on display here, the way the flaming torches illuminate the entrance and the way the guards warmly assist you in signing in. There are no rides here though, just hundreds of pokies, beeping and clinking in the middle of a room lined with comfortable brown couches and mirrors. Make sure you don't blow all your money, or you won't be able to eat at one of Fairfield RSL's six (seriously, six) restaurants.

You would think with that many dining options, they'd go the easy route and make just one of them a crappy buffet, but instead they're worth a look. From the Silver Spoon-inspired Italian at La Tratt, which sources its herbs and honey from the rooftop garden and beehives (can any other RSL in the world boast that?) to the casual Vietnamese Pho@Fairfield, with a menu that rivals the area's other Viet joints, Fairfield RSL is also home to a Parisian bistro, a resort style diner, a cafe and its newest addition: Sweet Child of Mine, a dessert bar offering ice-cream and cake pops.

Strathfield Sports Club

4a Lyons Street, Strathfield, 02 9701 0911

Korean-style fried chicken is the buzz word of 2015 (as well as 2014), popping up on new menus every other week. Strathfield Sports Club might offer tennis courts and soccer fields, but you might be better at their indoor sports – specifically the sport of eating an entire fried chicken to yourself on a Tuesday night.

Red Pepper is an incredible little Korean restaurant next to the bar. The kimchi pancakes and spicy rice cakes are worth ordering but the main reason to visit is the 11 kinds of fried chicken on offer. You can get it boneless, hot and spicy, covered in bulgogi sauce, spring onions or black sesame.

Sydney Portugal Community Club

100 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, 02 9550 6344

The Sydney Portugal Community Club is home to the Fraser Park Football Club, a fact it proudly announces on its impressive neon sign you've probably driven past a hundred times. Founded in the 60s by Portuguese immigrants, Fraser Park's team colours are the same as the Portuguese national football team, and the food served inside the club is pretty damn close to what you'd find in Portugal too.

Watch the young football stars of the future wait for their mums to pick them up after practice as you tuck in to Portuguese staples – garlic prawns, salt cod and potatoes, grilled octopus, pork with clams – best served with a jug of cheap sangria. Great for groups, especially ones partial to a slow waltz after their meal – most weekends see the hall filled with locals for live music and dancing.

Aphrodite Restaurant at Cyprus Community Club

58-76 Stanmore Road, Stanmore, 02 9550 3862

Similar to the Sydney Portugal Community Club, the Cyprus Community Club has close ties to a football club (the Stanmore Hawks), hosts regular live music and dance nights and features a menu of mostly grilled meats and seafood. Classic Mediterranean dishes feature prominently here, food seldom seen elsewhere in Sydney, served the same way they were when the club opened in 1929.

Start with some bread and tzatziki, move on to some grilled baby octopus, fried calamari and whitebait and finish your singing Old McDonald Had a Farm as you eat every animal you sing about. Lamb souvlaki, grilled veal sweetbreads, smoked pork sausage, grilled chicken schnitzel and a few quails will help you tick all the nursery rhyme's boxes – but make sure you dine on a Friday or Saturday night for Cyprus Club's signature dish – kleftiko. Slow-roasted pieces of baby goat with crisp skin and luxuriously soft meat, dripping juices all over crunchy roast potatoes. Good luck finding that in the buffet at your local RSL!