Cruise Bar

Editorial

All those views and no idea - Sydney really does know how to spoil a good thing. Look at the swathe of concrete across Bondi foreshore if you don't know what I mean.

Here at Cruise Bar, even the building itself is designed to look like the top half of a cruise ship, with million dollar views from the brilliant Museum of Contemporary Art, to the ferries at Circular Quay and across to the Sydney Opera House. What's not to love? Well, how about the huge, metal, spiked fence that is unceremoniously plonked around the perimeter. Bad design aside, the rest of the interior and spacious outdoor areas have proved a hit with the young, inner city suits.

Upstairs is a restaurant and cocktail bar for the more cashed-up guest; otherwise you can sit outside in solid outdoor furniture and wait until an ocean cruiser the size of a skyscraper gently slides up and docks alongside the bar - a truly rare treat at what some locals call a 'beer garden' although I'm still looking for the garden part.

The menu is a very tasty blend of modern Australian and European style dishes but it's the fresh seafood snacks that really go down well, especially hard to pass up is the house favourite served from 5-7pm every day, the Jug of Prawns, which of course has a very happy marriage with a jug of beer. Well, that's me done, what is everyone else having?

Din Heagney, March 2010

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