The verdict on iconic Sydney hotel’s $70 million revamp

It’s an elaborate yet graceful semi-circular glass, timber and copper “canopy” which wraps around a large portion of the erstwhile fifth-floor Garden Court terrace. The construction now provides not only shelter from the elements for patrons of the hotel’s Wentworth Bar but also acts as a noise dampener for guests in the rooms directly above.

Elsewhere, FK’s designers, in their choice of colour palette, have employed dark greens throughout, an effective nod, perhaps, to the natural patination tonings in the hotel’s sleek bronze facade and that still foliage-filled former Garden Terrace.

The room

My comfortable 28-square-metre room on level 17 of the 20-storey building room is billed as a luxury king Club Sofitel room, though no one informed me as to whether it included access to the attractive-looking and exclusive Club Millésime guest lounge on level five. The room, which overlooks the curvature of the hotel’s facade and includes all of the requisite mod-cons, has been tastefully, though not spectacularly refurbished with that multi-million dollar budget not stretching quite as the marbled bathroom.

Food + drink

Sydney, if not Australian, hoteliers have learnt how difficult it can be to make an in-house signature restaurant succeed financially, especially with local clientele. That reality hasn’t deterred the Sofitel Wentworth’s owners.

They’ve turned over much of the lobby to the snazzy, independently operated restaurant, the New York grill-like and recently well-reviewed Tilda.

Back up on the salubrious fifth floor, there’s also another newcomer, the French-Vietnamese but really more Vietnamese, Delta Rue, which also manages to double as the location for breakfast. At lunchtime, a mobile banh mi trolley, atop which what may now be Australia’s unofficial national dish is prepared and served tableside, is a cute and fun touch.

Out + about

The surrounding, if not all-encompassing, CBD is your saccostrea glomerata – er, Sydney rock oyster – with the burgeoning Circular Quay waterfront, The Rocks and the Royal Botanic Gardens a breezy stroll away.

Make your way to the Art Gallery of NSW straight across The Domain behind the Mitchell Library and NSW Parliament House, to view Australia’s first and not-to-be-missed retrospective of the celebrated Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte, running until early February.

The verdict

From grande dame to dowager and back again to grande dame, or near enough, the careful and considered revival of the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney is greatly belated and warmly welcomed.

Essentials

Rooms from $478. The Sofitel Wentworth Sydney 61-101 Phillip St, Sydney. Ph: (02) 9228 9188. See sofitelsydney.com.au

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Our rating out of five

★★★★½

Highlight

The hotel’s former Garden Court has been imaginatively reinvented with its new canopy alone worthy of an architecture award.

Lowlight

Those noticeably unrenovated bathrooms, both public and private, do detract from the overall effect, even though bathrooms admittedly are a costly aspect of any renovation.

The writer stayed as a guest of the hotel.