Astral Bar

Astral Bar has closed as of December 2010.

So you've eaten in Astral, chef Sean Connolly's fine diner perched on top of Star City Casino - but have you had a drink in the bar? The views out the window at Astral Bar are one in a million. It's a bit of a mission to have to wander through the casino to get to the bar but there's not a bad seat in the house - especially at sunset. View bars usually use the view as an excuse to underdeliver with their drinks but the beverages here are well made and well conceived. On Saturdays the bar's open till 2am and you'll need that long to get through the cocktail list - it's huge. There's the alarming – Vanilla Cherry Negroni, Watermelon Martini – but there's also the excellent. Be assured that you can order any classic cocktail at Astral and they'll make it with skill. And if you're driving, there are even a couple of non-alcoholic cocktails on the list. The cocktails, we must let you know, are not cheap. But they are good. We dig on the West Indies: Mount Gay rum, Tuaca liqueur (a citrus and vanilla-flavoured Italian tipple), pineapple juice and mint. It's refreshing, it's not too sweet and does a very good job of taking the edge off. Or give one of their 19 beers, both local and imported, a red-hot go. Bar snacks are available (twice-cooked pork belly skewers, garlic prawns, cheese plate) and they're totally fine. But for us, it's all in the the cocktail list - and the view.