Going out for a nice dinner at a hotel never used to be a thing in Sydney. Even now, the idea is almost never met with as much enthusiasm as in big cities like New York, Tokyo and Paris.
But claiming Sydney doesn’t have any worthwhile hotel restaurants would be bold, especially now that we have perfectly viable dining options like Gowings at QT Sydney and Brasserie 1930 at Capella Sydney filling our four and five stars with top-quality culinary offerings.
The scene is still quite young. Years ago, going to a hotel restaurant in Sydney would be seen as unfashionable and naive. The experience was almost always disappointing. Apart from one or two exceptions, hotel restaurants and bars always felt like afterthoughts for brand’s unwilling to make the investment to improve their drinking and dining options.
By and large, it’s still very much like this, but there are a few gems holding up the scene and pushing standards sky high.
Compare this to a city like New York where almost every four and five star hotel has a destination-worthy restaurant that’s just as frequented by locals as it is by hotel guests. Restaurants like Grand Salon at The Baccarat Hotel, Dowling’s at The Carlyle, The Clocktower at The New York EDITION and The Osprey at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge are stunning bastions of hospitality and exceptional dining. They’re also hives of constant activity, filling these hotels with life and laughter and adding to the city’s definitive sense of community.
To showcase the Sydney hotel restaurants that go above and beyond, we’ve rounded up the best of the best. These restaurants are every bit as good as freestanding classics like Ester and Porteno, not at all feeling like a compromise and helping up the value for Sydney’s best hotels.
The best hotel restaurants in Sydney
1. Tilda Dining at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Tilda Dining is the newest hotel restaurant in Sydney and has already carved out its own identity for the city’s increasingly impressive dining scene. Although it’s only been open for a short time, diners have already been raving about the $39 bread-and-butter service prepared tableside with AP saltbush focaccia complemented by Pepe Saya butter, macadamia, jersey milk cheese, wildflower honey and wattleseed.
But the kitchen is so much more than its super-sized starter, offering all kinds of fun dishes like crab toast with seaweed butter, avocado and caviar, tiger prawn ravioli with tomato, lime and coriander, and market-price shellfish such as lobster and crab. Back a dinner up with some live jazz at next door Bar Tilda and you’ve just unlocked a new level of Sydney’s social scene.
Address: 61-101 Phillip St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8530 0138
Opening Hours: Monday – Tuesday (7am – 10pm); Wednesday – Friday (7am – 11pm); Saturday – Sunday (5:30pm – 10pm)
2. Gowings Bar & Grill at QT Sydney
Chef Sean Connolly took over the pots and pans at Gowings a few year ago now, almost immediately elevating the experience by chanelling the cocksure swagger of New York City’s Little Italy circa 1980. Theatrical tableside preperation, playful desserts and a top-quality steak selection ensure plenty of regulars are buzzing around the chic space each night, picking through highlights like baked Mooloolaba prawns, duck lasagne with mushroom cappuccino, and linguine alfredo made tableside with a grana padano wheel.
QT Sydney’s impressive dining options don’t stop at Gowings, however. The street-level Parlour is a smart and intimate Parisian cafe that plays off the hotel’s high-fashion aesthetic with a glowing atmosphere filled with French standards like streak frites and crepe suzette.
Address: 1/49 Market St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8262 0064
Opening Hours: Monday (5pm – 10pm); Tuesday – Saturday (12pm – 10pm)
3. Bentley Bar & Restaurant at Radisson Blu
Bentley Bar & Restaurant holds such an unimpeachable reputation in Sydney, being one of the city’s most dependable fine dining experiences, that people tend to forget that it’s technically a “hotel restaurant.” Not that it matters, but this elegant dining room is actually part of the slick Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel. Although the kitchen doesn’t handle room service.
Chef Brent Savage and Sommelier Nick Hildebrandt have crafted a culinary masterpiece amidst Sydney’s financial district, featuring set menus that change regularly based on the season’s best produce, along with crowd favourites like a $180 vegan tasting menu with luxurious dishes like golden beetroot with globe artichoke and calendula, and charred avocado with macadamia, pine nut and cucumber.
Address: 27 O’Connell St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8214 0505
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Wednesday (6pm – 12am); Thursday – Friday (12pm – 12am); Saturday (6pm – 12am)
4. Brasserie 1930 at Capella Sydney
The Bentley Group has hit another home run when it comes to upscale hotel restaurants. While the eponymous Bentley Bar & Restaurant is still the group’s heavy-hitter, the team have done some incredible things over at the elegant Capella Sydney with Brasserie 1930.
The glamorous dining room proves the perfect frame for glorious large-format dishes like a $170 whole roasted duck to share, crumbed swordfish served with pistachio, brown butter and black olives, and O’ Connors bone-in sirloin with red wine sauce. Refining brasserie standards with top-shelf Australian produce works remarkably well for the restaurant, offering a true five-star dining experience that extends seamlessly from Capella’s superlative sense of hospitality.
Address: 2/4 Farrer Pl, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9071 5000
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Friday (12pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 10pm); Saturday (5:30pm – 10pm)
5. Kiln at Ace Hotel
After stamping his name on Sydney’s culinary scene over at the now-closed ACME, chef Mitch Orr brings his penchant for mixing high- and low- brow over to Kiln. The rooftop restaurant of Surry Hills’ Ace Hotel is exciting, atmospheric and a consistent crowd pleaser with dishes like coral trout with shellfish sambal and roasted eggplant with macadamia and curry leaf.
The energetic 257-seat room is part of the magic. It feels like you’re dining at one of your hip friend’s Brooklyn apartments, surrounded by the glistening lights of Sydney’s high rises in the distance with floor-to-ceiling windows all around. Head on over during the day when the terrace roof is opened up to make full use of that breezy vista.
Address: Level 18/53 Foy Ln, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8099 8799
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Wednesday (5:30pm – 11pm); Thursday (12pm – 11pm); Friday – Saturday (12pm – 12am)
6. Oncore by Clare Smyth at Crown Sydney
One of the world’s most respected chefs, Clare Smyth, has now made her work on Sydney’s modest fine dining circuit with Oncore by Clare Smyth. Conceived as a sister restaurant to her iconic UK kitchen, this sky-high dining experience is one of the most whimsical and inventive in the entire country, matching that high price with a set menu that runs through dishes like roasted coral trout with Clarence river prawns, Swiss chard and brown butter, and Blackmore wagyu beef with Sydney rock oysters.
Crown Sydney’s collection of restaurants fits all tastes. You’ve got Woodcut for flame-kissed proteins and Nobu for premium sushi. a’Mare is the one you want for classic Italian food, but it’s Oncore by Clare Smyth that takes the crown as the property’s most sought after reservation.
Address: Crown Sydney, Level 26/1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8871 7171
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Thursday (5:30pm – 10:30pm); Friday – Saturday (12pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 11pm)
Other hotel restaurants in Sydney
Other hotel restaurants in Sydney that the Sydney Travel Guide team are yet to go hands-on with includes Bar Morris at the newly rejigged Morris Hotel and the upcoming rooftop restaurant from the Liquid & Larder team at TFE’s new Eve Hotel at Wunderkind Lane. There are several others that we’ve tried in previous months but feel they aren’t quite up to scratch just yet.
Sydney still has very far to go if this niche in the city’s dining scene steps up to similar quality found elsewhere around the world. But it’s clear that getting dressed up and going to a hotel for a nice lunch or dinner is becoming much more common, and less likely to net you a bunch of puzzled looks from fussy foodies.
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