Five Places to Dine with a View in The Rocks
Take in sea, sky, Bridge, House, schnitty and chateaubriand.
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Not only is The Rocks home to some of Sydney’s most secretive cafes and innovative restaurants, it’s also got the views. Situated directly across the water from Bennelong Point, the area is perfectly positioned for uninterrupted vistas of the Opera House, Circular Quay and the Harbour. The trick is knowing exactly where to find them. Here are five eateries in The Rocks where your meal comes with significant doses of sea and sky.
GLENMORE HOTEL
Book a table on the Glenmore Hotel's rooftop for 180 degree views of the Harbour and CBD. It's glorious in the sunshine, but even on rainy days, you can honour your lunch date, thanks to a retractable roof that'll keep you dry. Built across the road in the 1880s and moved, literally brick-by-brick, to its current location in the 1920s, the Glenmore is one of the few buildings on Cumberland Street to have survived the building of the Harbour Bridge. A nine-month renovation in 2012 brought it well into the 21st century. The menu offers hearty pub fare, from eight-hour beef brisket to beef and red wine pot pie to pan-roasted salmon with mixed quinoa.
96 Cumberland Street
MCA CAFE
The MCA Cafe combines multimillion dollar views with a casual feel. Its fourth floor, waterfront position means that the vista is extraordinary, taking in the Opera House, the Bridge and Kirribilli. But because the interior has been given a canteen-like fit-out, with red plastic chairs and counter service, you can adopt as relaxed an approach to lunch as suits you. The menu, taken care of by Fresh Catering, is varied, fresh and creative, featuring the likes of smoked trout salad with couscous, tomato, spinach, tarragon and nigella seeds, and roasted salmon with green beans and rosemary kipfler potatoes. Open every day from 10am – 4pm and late night Thursdays until 9pm.
140 George Street
ALTITUDE @ THE SHANGRI-LA
The Altitude Restaurant affords genuinely dazzling views. That's because it's on the 36th floor of the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel and it's fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows. The fancy-pants menu rises to the occasion. While you're working through your seared scallops with Iberico crumb, braised abalone, salsify and dried persimmon or blueberry sorbet with white chocolate, basil gel and sugar glass, gaze out over Harbour and city panoramas that stretch for miles. Try to get there for sunset.
THE DINING ROOM @ PARK HYATT
What Altitude offers in dizzying heights, the Park Hyatt Dining Room offers in its spectacular proximity to the water. A table here is about as close to the Harbour as you can get without jumping on a ferry. And the 4 metre, floor-to-ceiling glass doors make the indoor-outdoor transition seamless. Like Altitude, The Dining Room is for fine dining. Dishes include Darling River kangaroo loin with oscietra caviar, horseradish and lemon myrtle, and cobia and black sesame mousseline with pimiento del piquillo and chorizo condiment.
WOLFIES
Wolfies' home is a 19th-century sandstone storehouse in Campbell's Cove. For the best views, reserve an outside table. To mix historic atmosphere with harbour glimpses, opt for one of the cosy, mahogany-floored private rooms. Star attractions of the contemporary Australian menu include the hot and cold seafood platter loaded up with crayfish, tiger prawns, Balmain bugs and loads more; the grilled Moreton Bay bugs; and the chateaubriand.
Top image: The Glenmore.
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