The Cosmopolitan, in the heart of Double Bay, has been an Eastern Suburbs institution for more than 40 years. Ex-Keystone Group head honchos John Duncan and Ant Prior now hold the keys, and while they’ve kept the name, they’ve given the all-day bar and eatery a modern Mediterranean makeover with plenty of marble, oak bar tops, splashes of colour and cascading greenery galore.
Things are just as luxe on the menu, where breakfast includes the likes of lobster Benedict and a blue swimmer crab omelette, while lunch and dinner might begin with something from the sizeable raw bar and move to baked langoustines in Pernod butter or a grass-fed sirloin with coriander dipping sauce. In between, the back garden is prime for whiling away the hours over a bottle of Champagne and the bar is built for knocking a few cocktails back after dessert and well into the night – they’re licensed till 2am on Friday and Saturday.