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

The hotel

Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney

Sofitel Wentworth remains one of Sydney’s most distinctive high-rise buildings.

Check-in

For too long this authentic swinging ’60s Sydney landmark has felt less Jean Shrimpton and more Mrs Havisham. Well, perhaps not quite that classic Charles Dickens character, but certainly expectations have been great that the Sofitel Wentworth’s owners should at last dig deep and fund a facelift for its dowager and restore it to its once near-supermodel status. Now the owners of the 436-room hotel – which speaking of the ’60s, is pushing 60 itself – have done just that. They’ve splashed $70 million on an extensive, though perhaps not quite comprehensive makeover, with such a seemingly generous amount only extending so far in these inflationary times.

The look

The open-air Wentworth Bar.

Originally commissioned by Qantas Airways in 1962 to provide contemporary international standard accommodation for its overseas jet-set era passengers, the US architect-designed Sofitel Wentworth remains one of Sydney’s most distinctive high-rise buildings.

The bulk of the bucks on the heritage-listed hotel with its striking semi-circular brick and bronze facade have been spent on its all-important internals even though the boldest, if not, most impressive feature of the entire makeover, led by the Melbourne-based architecture and interior design firm Fender Katsalidis, involves an elevated quasi al fresco space.

FK’s designers lean heavy on green.

It’s an elaborate yet graceful semi-circular glass, timber and copper “canopy” designed by a separate firm, the Sydney-based H&E Architects. The structure 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

Newly refurbished luxury king Club Sofitel 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 far as the marbled bathroom.

Food + drink

Glamorous New York-style grill, Tilda.

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.

Newly launched Delta Rue’s mobile banh mi trolley.

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

Art Gallery of NSW is within strolling distance.Credit: Wolter Peeters

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

Restored to grande dame again… or near enough.

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: [phone]. See sofitelsydney.com.au

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.