With spectacular service and food and drinks that kick goals across all three bars and the restaurant, Shell House in Sydney’s CBD has been designed with grown-ups in mind.
The “shell” of Shell House is only the beginning. The trappings and trimmings are great, but wait until you get your hands on the wine, cocktails and food. Wine director Shun Eto has designed lists that vary slightly depending on the bar – as a loose rule it gets a little more high-end the higher you go in the building – and the cocktails are a proper fine time as well.
In the ground-floor Menzies Bar, the wines by the glass are separated into regular reds, whites and rosés, and a bunch of what Eto calls “boujee" whites and reds – a solid excuse to try a Georges Deschamps Petit Chablis, say, or a Rocca di Montegrossi sangiovese. Among the cocktails, the Triple Axel – Lillet Blanc, mezcal, coconut, mandarin, thyme and soda – is a refreshing bubble of goodness that’s served across all three levels (hence the “triple”), while upstairs you’ll find level-specific concoctions such as the 9th Floor Fizz, which shimmers with whey gin and lychees, or the 10th Floor Fizz, which swaps the lychees for peach, apricot and yuzu citrus.
And the food, the brainchild of culinary director Joel Bickford, kicks goals at every turn, from the extravagant Rangers Valley dry-aged sirloin in the restaurant to the bouncy little lobster rolls served at the Menzies Bar’s Martini Hour from four to six each afternoon.
