This new luxury hotel will transform Paddington's dining scene

25Hours Hotel The Olympia opens later this year with a trio of new restaurants and bars by London’s Studio Paskin.
The new luxury hotel will also feature a rooftop bar inspired by the relaxed vibes of Santa Monica.
A Bib Gourmand Michelin restaurant leads to the lineup with the arrival of The Palomar
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London hospitality guns Studio Paskin will open a trio of new Paddington restaurants at the base of Accor’s forthcoming 25Hours Hotel The Olympia once it opens later this year.

This week’s announcement sheds some much needed light on the project, which has been years in the making and will transform Paddington’s former Grand Pacific Blue Room into a stylish luxury hotel that joins recent accommodation newbies like Redfern’s designer EVE Hotel, Newtown’s Australia Street Suites, and Josh Niland’s nearby Grand National Hotel.

The site’s importance to inner-Sydney’s creative community dates back to 1911, when the former Marshall’s Paddington Brewery was switched over to West’s Olympia Pictures, becoming a major site for movie lovers and a cinema over nearly five decades. Yet the site is best known as the oft notorious Grand Pacific Blue Room, a zeitgeisty nightclub that was once the chosen spot for Sydney’s elite before it fell into disrepair at the turn of the century.

Now it’s hoped 1-11 Oxford Street will revitalise and breathe new life into the ritzy end of Oxford Street, upping Accor’s already solid presence in Sydney with one of the company’s more adaptive boutique-luxury brands. This will make the first 25Hours hotel in Australia.

*25Hours will have fun, design-forward rooms when it debuts in Paddington later this year (photo supplied).*

Studio Paskin boasts an extensive portfolio across London, including Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table and Bib Gourmand The Palomar. A version of the latter will arrive at 25Hours Hotel The Olympia, shaping up the dining scene alongside award-winning cocktail and wine bar The Mulwray and a bakery concept called Jacob the Angel.

As reported by Good Food, the hotel’s General Manager Jeremy Colahan the menu for The Palomar would mirror the seasonal menu of London’s original, so diners can expect hearty fare like braised lamb belly with anchovy and rosemary sauce, and seabass crudo with blood orange. The Palomar in London is famous for its baklava and pistachio ice-cream sandwiches and it looks like those will be coming to the menu as well.

The 109-room hotel will sketch much of its social scene onto The Mulwray with an extensive lineup of wines and cocktails on the property’s ground floor. There’ll be a rooftop venue to complement as well, going by the name of Monica (a nod to its “Santa Monica vibes” with a 1960s Hollywood theme.

Having one single hospitality group conceive a hotel’s dining scene is becoming a bit of a trend around Sydney, and it’s worked incredibly well for Sofitel Sydney Wentworth so far. The five-star, which dances on the edges of the CBD and Circular Quay, has four venues (2 bars, 2 restaurants) all curated by the prolific House Made Hospitality, with everything from French-Vietnamese flavours at Delta Rue to a high-end bread-and-butter service at Tilda Dining.

25Hours Hotel The Olympia features in Sydney Travel Guide’s round-up of new openings coming to Sydney in 2025.