Things to Do in Parramatta: A Full Day, Walked and Eaten
Parramatta food is having a moment, and the rest of the city is finally catching up. This is a full day in Parramatta on foot, with a proper lunch stop and an even better dinner, and enough history and culture stitched in between that you'll forget you're 25 minutes from the Sydney CBD.
Everything below is within walking distance of Parramatta Square, most of it within 15 minutes of the next stop. This list of Parramatta things to do leans hard into food, history and a river walk. Lace up decent shoes, start mid-morning, and finish the night with a steak.
Top Tips
Morning: Parramatta Square and PHIVE, then a heritage walk through World Heritage-listed Parramatta Park and Old Government House
Midday: Lunch on Church Street's Eat Street precinct, with 500 Degrees Steakhouse as the standout stop for Parramatta food done properly
Afternoon: Riverside Theatres, the Parramatta River foreshore, and a browse through Church Street Mall or Westfield
Evening: Dinner back on Church Street or Marsden Street, capping off a day that's covered history, culture and genuinely excellent Parramatta food
Total walking: Roughly 6–7km if you do the whole loop, spread across the day
Morning: Parramatta Square to Old Government House
Start at Parramatta Square, right by the train station and light rail stop, so however you're arriving, this is the easiest place to anchor the day. Duck into PHIVE, the council's striking red-roofed civic building, even if you've got no reason to be there. The library spans two full levels with river views, and the building itself (designed by French architect Manuelle Gautrand in collaboration with local firms DesignInc and Lacoste + Stevenson) is one of the most photographed additions to the CBD in years.
From Parramatta Square, it's about a 10 to 12-minute walk south to the Pitt Street entrance of Parramatta Park. 85 hectares of World Heritage-listed parkland that's been public space since 1858, and Burramattagal Country for close to 40,000 years before that.
Inside the park, Old Government House is the drawcard. It's the oldest surviving public building in Australia, built by convict labour from 1799, and one of 11 sites nationally that make up the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage listing, inscribed in 2010. The National Trust runs guided tours on Thursday and Friday, 10am to 4pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 4pm. Even without going inside, the grounds are free to wander: follow the river path down to The Crescent for a view over the water, or cut through the Wisteria Gardens if it's spring.
Midday: Parramatta Food on Eat Street
Walk back north from the park towards Church Street, and you're in the middle of what's affectionately known as Eat Street, Parramatta's dining strip and one of the more concentrated stretches of restaurants in Sydney's west. It's worth timing your walk to arrive hungry.
For lunch, the 500 Degrees steak restaurant in Parramatta is on Marsden Street, a short detour off the main Eat Street run. The kitchen chargrills everything over open flame, South African Braai-style, and dry-ages its cuts in-house for 30 to 45 days. If you want a sense of what makes lunch in Parramatta worth building a day around, this is it: order something off the grill, take the upstairs mezzanine if it's a group, and don't rush it.
If steak isn't the mood, Church Street and the surrounding blocks offer the full spread of Lebanese, Indian, Nepalese, Spanish tapas, and Korean barbecue, reflecting the area's global makeup. The council has actively pitched Parramatta's food scene as one of the city's growth stories, and walking the strip at lunchtime makes the case better than any campaign could.
Afternoon: Riverside Theatres, the River Foreshore and a Bit of Shopping
From your lunch spot, it's a five to seven-minute walk to Riverside Theatres on the corner of Church and Market Streets. Western Sydney's biggest performing arts venue runs over 1,000 events a year across its stages, and even if nothing's on when you're there, it's worth a look at what's coming up. Riverside is currently mid-redevelopment into a larger arts precinct, so the building itself is part of the story right now.
Next, walk down to the Parramatta River foreshore, a flat, shaded stretch that runs behind the Church Street dining strip. If you've got the legs and the time, the Parramatta Light Rail's Church Street and Prince Alfred Square stops sit right along this stretch too, useful if you want to save your feet for dinner.
From there, Church Street Mall and Westfield Parramatta are a few minutes further on, an easy stop if anyone in your group needs a browse or an air-conditioned break mid-afternoon.
Evening: Back to Eat Street for Dinner
By early evening, loop back to Church Street or Marsden Street for dinner. If you didn't make it to 500 Degrees at lunch, make a booking for dinner.
If You Only Have 3 Hours
Not everyone's got a full day. If you're squeezing Parramatta into a lunch break or a stopover, cut it down to this:
Old Government House and Parramatta Park (60–90 minutes)
Lunch on Eat Street (60 minutes)
A quick look at Riverside Theatres or PHIVE (20 minutes)
This trims the full-day route down to roughly 3 to 3.5 hours and covers the history, the food and the architecture without the shopping or the river walk.
Visit For The Day, Then Come Back For More
If the day’s outing has you thinking about bringing a bigger group back for something more than dinner, 500 Degrees also offers function room hire in Parramatta for birthdays, engagements and private celebrations, and works just as well as a corporate event venue for client lunches and end-of-year dinners.
It’s worth a look if you're weighing up Parramatta venue hire options for later in the year.
FAQs
What's the best day to visit Parramatta?
Weekends work well for Old Government House, which only runs tours Saturday and Sunday (plus Thursday and Friday) – and Sundays currently come with a parking perk too (see below). If you want Eat Street quieter, a weekday lunch beats a Friday or Saturday night.
Where should I park in Parramatta?
The Parramatta Square car park is the most central option, open 24 hours with hourly rates. Until the end of March 2026, Council is offering up to four hours of free parking on Sundays at the Parramatta Station and Justice Precinct car parks, which is handy if you're planning your day trip to Parramatta on a Sunday. Otherwise, the Parramatta Light Rail and Parramatta Station both sit within a short walk of every stop on this route, so leaving the car at home is a genuine option too.
What's free versus paid in Parramatta?
Parramatta Park is free to enter and wander at any time. Old Government House charges entry for guided tours, but the surrounding grounds, The Crescent and the river paths cost nothing. PHIVE and its library are free to enter. Riverside Theatres ticket prices depend on what's showing. Everything else on this route – the river foreshore, Church Street Mall, the walk itself – is free.
Is a day trip to Parramatta worth it from the Sydney CBD?
Yes, and the through-line is Parramatta food as much as anything historical. A day trip to Parramatta covers 260 years of Australian history within a 15-minute walk, a dining strip that punches well above its postcode, and a river walk that most first-time visitors don't expect. Add a decent lunch and dinner and it's a full day, not a half one.