Gowings Bar & Grill

The dining room at the city's most flamboyant new boutique hotel is also an exciting new restaurant. Head towards that beautiful old Art Deco lady, the State Theatre, and enter the hotel via adjoining Parlour Lane. A musical lift syncopates with your mood and then you emerge into a dark hotel lobby hung with nostalgic movie posters and a vintage luggage wall feature by Swedish designer Michael Johansson. Take the stairs to the next level and a wide space with a bar, open kitchen, wood-fired rotisserie/oven and seafood cabinet. Restaurateur Robert Marchetti and chef Paul Easson offer a classic bistro menu which impresses for its range and quality. Especially memorable moments include a 'raw plate' of live clams, cockles and mussels, expertly seasoned steak tartare, rare rib-eye minute steak with the appropriate tang of smoke and char, and john dory treated simply and with respect. The classic Gowings profiteroles are reason enough to visit.