A shot of spice for the season: Winter in Spice Alley

The premise was simple: bring a piece of Asia's eateries into the hidden courtyards of what is now Sydney's award-winning street for Best Architectural Design at the 2016 Good Design Awards.

With a red-hot lantern glow, burning heaters and steaming bowls of every kind of broth, Spice Alley on Kensington Street in Chippendale is the perfect rendezvous point this winter.

Bordering the eastern edge of what previously served as a Carlton United Brewery, the previously abandoned street is now a lifestyle and recreation destination. Warehouses and fine-grain terraces have been tastefully converted into new creative spaces and are now filled with life.

Spice Alley is home to the Kopi-Tiam – four hawker-style diners under glowing lantern ceilings bordered by two small restaurants. This laneway meanders through the landscape of Asian cuisine.

From north to south end, Spice Alley vendors boast cuisines from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan. Fresh roti, laksa, udon noodles and shiu mai dumplings come together in this open-air dining space beneath a city skyline punctuated by red lanterns and fairy lights. And if being exposed to the elements isn't your thing, nab a table within the heritage terraces that frame the alley.

Dine on Singaporean dishes at Alex Lee KitchenBang Luck Thai Street FoodOld Jim Kee’s Malaysian spices and Cantonese street food from Hong Kong Diner. Book-ended by Japanese dining hall KYO-TO and Vietnamese fares from the glass-faced Mekong, Spice Alley unites family recipes from across the Asian continent.

* Images courtesy of Chippendale Creative Precinct