A Window Onto Syndey

By Kendall Hill

Travel + Leisure | January 2006

Manhattan-based designer Tony Chi (Chicago's restaurant NoMI; Spoon in Hong Kong) has given the classic French brasserie a Modernist makeover at Glass, the newly revamped Hilton Sydney's shimmering dining room. A traditional marble terrazzo in the foyer catches the changing daylight through transparent walls. Beneath a mirror-glass ceiling, the wine cellar rises almost 25 feet into the air, forming an imposing tower filled with 10,000 temperature-controlled bottles.

The main room's rustic floors are made from blackbutt timber recycled from Sydney wharves. In search of ideas for updated dishes to match the contemporary setting, Australian celebrity chef Luke Mangan ate his way through Paris and Lyons. The result—cauliflower soup with truffle oil and chives, pear-and-custard soufflé with ginger ice cream—is pure French fare, but with an Aussie attitude.

Glass, Hilton Sydney, 488 George St., Level 2; 61-2/9265-6068; www.glassbrasserie.com.au; dinner for two $120.