Monica is a fun, airy, light-filled 200-seat hotel meeting place that blends inside and outside beautifully.

January 11, 2026

Bar snacks$$

It’s quite a thing to watch a storm blowing in from the rooftop of The Olympia, Paddington’s newest hotel. It’s pretty hard to argue with any venue, actually, that serves views of lightning dancing across the East Sydney skyline with a side of mango daiquiris.

Some readers may remember this beautiful old art deco picture house as the Grand Pacific Blue Room (in 2003, this masthead described it as “crusty but cool”). Later still, it was an Italian(ish) pop-up, Don Peppino’s. Now it’s what real estate agents might call a hotel/lifestyle “experience precinct”.

There are four eating and drinking options at the hotel, three of which (The Palomar, The Mulwray and Jacob the Angel) are by London-based Studio Paskin, run by DJ-turned-restaurateur Layo Paskin and his sister Zoe. Monica rooftop bar, which is where I’m enjoying that lightning storm, is a fun, airy, light-filled 200-seat space conceptualised by hospitality company Ennismore. It blends inside and outside beautifully.

Soy-cured tuna.Louie Douvis

If Ace Hotel feels New York, The Olympia feels LA. Or at least, an artist’s impression of something that feels LA. It definitely gives the impression of being designed for content “moments”. There’s your neon sign (“Call for a margarita”) set up above plush armchairs and a rotary phone sitting on top of a Slim Aarons coffee table book. I’m going to blame the time of year for the amount of resortwear on show (I won’t say White Lotus brought to you by Shein, but it’s close) with the exception of the one gentleman in head-to-toe Ed Hardy.

The cocktail offering, from drinks boss Roean Patawaran, is planted firmly in the easy-drinking category. There’s plenty going on in the glass (check the Bird Streets, mixing blended scotch, peach liqueur, lemon, honey, ginger and beeswax care of beekeeper to the stars, Tim Malfroy) but the drinks themselves are designed for conversational fun on a roof, not for hunkering down alone in a dimly lit booth.

Beers, like Yulli’s easy-drinking Seabass, veer live and local with a few internationals in the mix (I’m sorely tempted to come back for a Guinness in the cooler months). And while the wines-by-the-glass selection is a little underwhelming, I imagine the $175 mimosa service (a bottle of champagne and a selection of fresh pressed juices, designed to serve three to four people) goes down very well on a balmy Sunday. Especially with a serve of culinary director Mitch Orr’s lightly devilled crab served with Jatz crackers (the cracker is one of Orr’s signature flexes). Or maybe the crisp-fried rice cakes painted with wasabi and finished with scarlet slices of soy-cured tuna.