Come 2022, the heart of Sydney’s CBD will look very different.
Now in the final stages of a hefty $170 million development set to completely transform what was formerly the MLC Centre, 25 Martin Place will be a beehive of shopping destinations, cultural spaces and a mega dining precinct filled with venues from hospitality juggernauts—like Good Group Hospitality’s Botswana Butchery, Nour Group’s Aalia, and Japanese restaurant, Kazan.
The entire project will basically see a smattering of new retail havens on Castlereagh and King Street, a whole new food and drinks locale fronting Martin Place, while also breathing life back into Theatre Royal Sydney (set to potentially open sometime in December 2021).
In terms of what’s been confirmed on the food front, a number of New Zealand restaurants and bars have worked their way in 25 Martin Place including White + Wong's, which will champion and give a slight twist to classic street food from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand. Next door, you’ll find New Zealand’s Sardine, a cocktail bar dedicated to custom drinks, a wine list filled with French and local drops, and actual "sardine tin" wallpaper inside. Botswana Butchery is another staple from across the pond with a razor focus on fine dining and fine cuts of meat.
Overlooking Martin Place is Cabana Bar, pretty much a holiday bar serving up Pina Coladas and tequila flights in the middle of the city’s constant chaos. L’uva is the Roman-inspired pasta and wine bar that will wrap you and your significant other in the perfect date-night love bubble. The wine list here has been created with Europe’s best boutique wineries in mind and oysters, champagne, handmade fusilli, and blue swimmer crab are what’s going around from table to table.
Aailia offers up age-old ingredients and cooking techniques found in 10th Century Arabic cookbooks and Kazan is all about the theatrics of Japanese cuisine with some slight influences from South America. Just below, you’ll also find an entirely new Theatre Royal Sydney, its entrance repurposed to show a 13-metre high floor-to-ceiling glass window into the foyer.
The redevelopment of the 25 Martin Place precinct is expected to be completed in 2022.
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