Where to Drink + Dance in Sydney
15 March, 2018
- Words by
- Lauren Ho
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Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel
Sydney, Australia
Amazing view? Check. Great food? Check. Refreshing drinks? Check. Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel certainly has you covered. Score yourself a table in the sun and scoff down some killer soft shell crab sliders or a bowl of the crab spaghettini. On Sundays they hold crab races, so pick your favourite crustacean and cheer them on for the chance to win.
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Opera Bar
Sydney, Australia
Hands down, Opera Bar is one of the best spots in Sydney to watch the sun set with a drink in hand. Not to be outdone by the drinks and the harbour view, the food menu is also exceptional. With a charcuterie and raw bar as well as a café, the appeal of grazing on artisanal meats and cheeses while taking in the city is popular even with the locals.
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The Cliff Dive
Sydney, Australia
If you want to dance, you head to Cliff Dive. If you want a crazy cocktail that’s served in a monkey hat, again, you head to Cliff Dive. Part tiki bar, part nightclub and 100 per cent fun, we love the no-cover-charge good times that Cliff Dive offers. Get in before 10PM to avoid the long queues out the door and to bag yourself a booth.
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Beta Bar
Sydney, Australia
Offering a modern take on Greek mezze, Beta Bar can be found above its sibling restaurant, Alpha. Expect small dishes such as feta custard with duck-skin crisps matched to cocktails like the “Dirty Greek Martini”, in a raw, stripped-back space saturated with confectionary hues and metallic shimmers.
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PS40
Sydney, Australia
From the craft-soda company, PS Soda, comes PS40, a cocktail bar that focuses on drinks that use the brand’s core range (wattle cola, bush tonic, smoked lemonade and blackstrap ginger) such as batanga, a concoction of wattle cola, green-coffee-bean-infused tequila, lime and smoked salt. Aside from that, other cocktails are just as inventive – try the “Stockholm Syndrome”, a vodka drink mixed with cumin and dill, aquavit, lemon, pink Himalayan salt and pepper.
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Blu Bar
Sydney, Australia
The views don’t get more spectacular than from the Blu Bar on the 36th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel. Make sure you nab a window seat to indulge in the lofty vistas of Darling Harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, while sipping on the gloriously boozy rosemary old fashioned.
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Kittyhawk
Sydney, Australia
It’s about time a noteworthy bar opened in Sydney’s Financial District, and Kittyhawk has certainly been worth the wait. Channelling and old-world luxury (the Liberation of Paris in 1944 more precisely) with a standout list of cocktails including a full selection of rum and rye old fashioneds, it’s the perfect spot to let your hair down after a day in the office – so much so the place is rammed between 5:30 and 7:30PM.
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Smoke
Sydney, Australia
Up until now, waterfront boozing was always limited to high-end hotels, so the opening of Smoke on the rooftop of the multi-level dining destination, Barangaroo House is a real treat. Against a backdrop of harbour views, sip on cocktails with dreamy names like “Endless Summer” – a fresh concoction that mixes Aperol, lillet blanc, lemon, vanilla and passion fruit – and nibble on luxe bites like wagyu sliders and beluga caviar.