Water Bar

Water Bar takes up prime real estate on Woolloomooloo Wharf inside the BLUE Sydney Hotel, and as far as hotel bars go, this is a good one. The drinks are great, the staff are very attentive and the fitout of the whole complex has a cool industrial-warehouse-on-the-water thing going on. The décor and music are pretty pedestrian, though. The leather and velvet furniture could have been plucked from any of the cocktail bars peppered along King Street Wharf, and sonically Water Bar is still stuck in 2002’s Café del Mar craze. That said, we’re here to drink, and the bartenders at Water Bar make a great cocktail. The list is long and thorough and in the unlikely event that you can’t see your poison on the page, the guys behind the bar will have no trouble making it. Their Applejack Sour is perfectly balanced and the La Poire is a must if you prefer your drinks more flowery and fruity. One obvious downside to the joint is its lack of windows. Those delicious drinks would taste even better with a view of the water, which, despite its name and prime positioning, the Water Bar lacks.