The opening of 25hours Hotel The Olympia in Sydney’s Paddington was the first time I’d heard of 25hours Hotels. The hospitality brand originated in Hamburg, Germany, and made its international debut in 2019 with the opening of 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord in Paris, followed by outposts in Florence, Dubai, and Copenhagen. Owned by London-based hospitality group Ennismore—also responsible for Hyde Melbourne Place and Mondrian Gold Coast—the brand’s Australian debut breathes life into the long quiescent West Olympia Theatre, which holds court on the corner of Paddington’s Oxford Street.
According to the brand’s website, each “unique, playful 25hours hotel has a soul inspired by its location and shaped by the art, culture, gastronomy, and stories of its surroundings.” For the new 25hours Hotel The Olympia, that entails paying homage to the site’s former establishments; namely, the West Olympia Theatre and the Grand Pacific Blue Room.
Allusions to the former are the most pronounced, with layered interior storytelling taking place within the heritage-listed building. Nostalgic and erring on the side of kitsch, the public spaces can only be described as “quirky,” with a retro ticket booth greeting guests before they make their way through a colourful lobby decked out with mismatched ‘80s style sofas in organic silhouettes, retro-futuristic egg chairs, and Wassily-style chairs, to a check-in desk styled like a retro video store, complete with a motley selection of video tapes that range from Seinfeld reruns to Last Tango in Paris, all of which are available for guests to borrow for in-room watching (should the more comprehensive curation of Netflix not appeal). Nods to the shuttered nightclub are more elementary — there’s a lot of blue throughout the public spaces and in rooms.
Whether or not the retro stylings are your thing, the hotel’s culinary offerings are destined to please locals and tourists alike. Another import—this time from London—the main gustatory offering, The Palomar, is a hotel restaurant that doesn’t feel like a hotel restaurant. Helmed by Mitch Orr (ex. Acme, Kiln), The Palomar transports Studio Paskin’s restaurant of the same name to Paddington, with the Levantine, north African, and southern Spanish flavours adapted for the locale. Retaining the greatest hits of the original outpost (the smashed cucumbers with green tahini and crispy chilli oil; and baklava and pistachio ice cream sandwich are firmly on menu), Orr crafts a menu that places Australian produce at the forefront while showcasing the team’s open-fire cooking finesse.
Read on for our full review of 25hours Hotel The Olympia.
The lowdown: 25hours Hotel The Olympia
The hook; why stay at 25hours Hotel The Olympia?
Tucked into a formerly disused heritage building, playful charm abounds at this inner-city bolthole, with a a sophisticated hotel restaurant sweetening the deal.
How to get there
The 25hours Hotel The Olympia is located in the inner-city suburb of Paddington, Sydney. It’s a 15-20 minute drive from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, or a 20 minute walk from Museum station.
Design and architecture
The facade of the heritage-listed building has been preserved, with the interiors of the public spaces and rooms designed by Shelley Indyk of Indyk Architects. The public spaces draw inspiration from retro cinemas and the spirit of arthouse culture, with an eclectic selection of colourful furniture and framed movie memorabilia in the industrial chic lobby and a check-in desk styled like a retro video store. A high-contrast colour scheme in both the public spaces and rooms provides a visual feast for the eyes, with custom-designed furniture and decorative objects serving as cinematic easter eggs for observant guests.
The motto at 25hours Hotel The Olympia is “come as you are,” with the hotel prioritising welcoming public spaces like the vibrant lobby and a little reading nook tucked into the staircase. A highlight is the new central courtyard; inspired by leafy Paddington, the lush plant life creates a calming environment that sits in the centre of the dining offerings and floods the hotel with light.
The food and beverage offerings were designed by Woods Bagot and take on a more sophisticated (read: less quirky and playful) tone.
The Palomar transposes elements of the London restaurant of the same name into the new Paddington outpost—including pink quartzite, navy leather details, dusty pink upholstery, and marble mosaic—while retaining most of the original walls and incorporating kitchen counter seating that provides select diners with a little ‘dinner with a show’ experience.
Meanwhile, The Mulwray makes for the ideal pre- or post-dinner cocktail. Sitting adjacent to The Palomar, the name pays homage to the elegance of Evelyn Mulwray from the 1974 film Chinatown, with a neon silhouette of the character greeting guests at the door. Exposed brick walls play host to dark leather and rich velvet upholstery which pair with moody lighting (perhaps a touch too moody — the menu is difficult to read) and brass accents to create an intimate, cinematic space.
There’s also a breezy rooftop bar, Monica, and a ground-floor cafe, Jacob the Angel, which brings a taste of London’s cafe culture to inner-city Sydney.
Rooms and suites
The 109-key hotel comprises 108 rooms and one suite across seven typologies, beginning with the 20-23m² Medium Queen Courtyard up to the single 69m² suite. The majority of rooms are sized from 23m² to 26m². We were hosted within one of the hotel’s Medium Plus rooms in the Renegades style, which comes with a private outdoor terrace. Our room entered directly into the bathroom, with facilities split across a small hallway — the green-tiled shower and toilet in separate pods on one wall and the sink on the other, flanked by a cavity in the wall for luggage storage and hanging clothes and the minibar fridge and tea/coffee facilities. A writing desk sits next to the minibar fridge, with a television on top facing the queen-size bed. A sliding glass door leads to the small outdoor terrace which is fitted with a table and two chairs.
Rooms are designed in two distinct styles, ‘Renegades’ and ‘Dreamers’, in a nod to archetypal protagonists in classic films. The former are housed on levels 1 and 3 and feature a bold, moody colour palette (think black ceilings with red and green accents), while Dreamers are on levels 2 and 4 and take shape in an airy colour palette of pale verdigris and baby pink, complemented by azure tiles in the bathroom. All rooms feature Dada-esque collage art by Sydney artist Kubi Vasak above the beds, as well as a functional rotary phone by the bed. There’s a fun little ‘do not disturb’ door hanger, filled with a book of excuses and inveiglements to either circumvent or request room service.
The in-room minibar is billed as complimentary, however offerings are limited to a bottle of coke (full fat, mind you!), a tonic water, and a can of beer. They were left untouched.
Tea and coffee
25hours Hotel The Olympia provides in-room tea and coffee facilities in the form of a kettle and a Chemex. Tea bags are by Origin Tea, with a single bag of green sencha, peppermint, English breakfast, and chamomile tea provided. Despite the presence of the Chemex and coffee filters, no coffee was actually present in the room.
Bathroom products
Bathroom products are by Australian skincare brand The Skills, from the brand’s hotel-specific Stay Club range. Expect to find full-sized bottles of the brand’s Look Alive body wash, No Reply shampoo, and Silent Treatment conditioner in the shower, as well as the Feel Free hand cleanser and the Remember When body lotion by the sink.
Comfort factor
The mattress and bedding were serviceable and the temperature control good, however the lack of slippers provided left us feeling cold underfoot. Coupled with the petite room size with little space to move about, it felt more akin to baby’s first studio apartment (strictly room for one) than a mid-range hotel room.
Food and drink
The food and beverage options are where the 25hours Hotel The Olympia shines.
Moody cocktail and wine bar The Mulwray touts its 100-bin wine list, but don’t look past its spin on classic cocktails. We tried Somewhere In Chinatown (tequila, mistelle, pink fruits, rhubarb, and tea) and Right Hand Man (rum, coconut, bitters, campari, and chocolate bitters); the former was mellow with nuance courtesy of the tea, while the latter was like velvet on the tongue, tempered with just the right amount of bitterness.
On a Friday night less than a month out from opening, The Palomar is promisingly buzzing with people — fortunately, kitchen counter seating is available. The menu is conceived by culinary director Mitch Orr, with Luke Davenport and Chloe Sharp on the tools. We’re told the cucumbers with green tahini and a chilli almond crisp (direct from the London menu) are a must-have, so they’re a blind order, as are the flatbread, baba ganoush, and whipped cod’s roe. While the famous cucumbers are undeniably flavoursome (if a touch sweet), it’s the localised dishes that catch the attention of our palates — morsels of grilled maitake mushrooms on a perilla leaf, white asparagus with a triumphant broad bean pesto, tangy artichoke hearts with mint and green peas, grilled roman beans with muhammara, and eggplant fire-roasted until it falls apart on the fork; the latter two dishes suffused with woodfire smoke that lends added depth. The thread tying each plate together is the multi-layered flavour of each dish, with the full taste spectrum present within each bite, creating something of a gustatory exploratory mission when consumed together.
Dessert is equally boastful; there’s a reason the baklava and pistachio ice cream sandwich made it onto the menu, but the tahini cheesecake proves just as (if not more) worth saving room for.
Tell us about the breakfast
Ground-floor cafe Jacob the Angel serves up decent coffee by Ona, with a concise menu and pastries by Lune Croissanterie (thankfully free from the lines the brand’s dedicated outposts receive of a morning). Try the almond croissant and kouign-amman.
Spa and facilities
There’s no swimming pool, spa, or fitness facilities.
The service
The service by hotel staff is simultaneously friendly and indifferent; closer to what you’d expect from a coastal backpackers hostel with transitory staff passing through on their travels than a mid-range inner-city hotel. Upon check-in, the front desk seemed understaffed, with only one person manning the phone line and the check-in desk (meaning it was necessary to wait for a phone call to wind up before checking in). A request (made via the functional rotary phone) for a dental kit on our first night took over half-an-hour to arrive and a call to ask for (the missing) in-room coffee on the following morning was answered after a lengthy ring time, but the coffee itself never manifested. On the ground floor, staff were appropriately apologetic and offered to check on the issue, by which time we simply resorted to a latte at Jacob the Angel.
In contrast, the service at both The Palomar and The Mulwray was consistently warm and efficient, with everyone from the maître d’ to the kitchen staff finding a happy medium between engaging conversation and recommending dishes and letting diners chat amongst themselves.
AR Verdict
Quirky charm and vibrant communal spaces coupled with the buzzy 25hours name are sure to cater to the unflappably good-humoured, easygoing wanderers in search of the next vibey hotspot among us, though the lack of polished service and lack of on-site facilities and basic comforts (no coffee or slippers in room, meagre minibar offering) are likely to leave more discerning travellers feeling shafted considering the price point. That said, the hospitality offerings will impress all and are more than reason to pay a visit to the 25hours Hotel The Olympia for an evening — if not for a night.
25hours Hotel The Olympia is open for bookings, with rooms priced from $399AUD/night.
Address: 1 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW, Australia
Words by T. Angel
