Just In: Big Changes Are Coming to Hotel Ravesis

On the corner of Campbell Parade and Hall Street sits Bondi’s pastel-pink beauty. Hotel Ravesis, with its arching floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking our most iconic beach, has long been a Sydney favourite. But it’s about to get a new look and feel as Alzado, a coastal Spanish restaurant.

“For a few years now I have been feeling like we’re not actualising the potential of this great dining room,” owner Aya Larkin tells Broadsheet. “[Ravesis] is a restaurant now – it’s not a pub with a restaurant level. That’s how the whole thing started, so I’ve still got that residual feeling for the room.”

With a long-held love of the intentional simplicity of food in San Sebastian, Barcelona and other Spanish coastal gems, Larkin had the blueprint – ideal for a neighbourhood sidling right up to the Pacific. Spanish-born chef Pablo Tordesillas (ex-Ortiga, Merivale) then refined the menu, bringing his “incredible” knowledge of the cuisine, and head chef MJ Olguera will be in the kitchen.

“I think [Spanish food has] often been put in the basket of being garlic-heavy, fried, rich, rather than the subtleties you can get with great grilling and great produce,” Larkin says. “Know exactly the heat of that grill – know exactly when to get it on, get it off. Just getting out of the way of that produce.”

Expect salt, olive oil, parsley oil and lemon to be the flavours up front. Go-tos like jamon croquetas and pan con tomate will start off the pintxos, along with spicy fried calamari sangas and grilled sardines dressed simply in the full-flavoured Hojiblanca extra-virgin olive oil and salt. There’ll be grilled lamb ribs, garlicky calamar à la plancha and arroz caldoso, a rice-powered seafood stew prime for sharing.

Interiors compete with the bright blues of the beach across the street. The art deco building underwent a major revamp in 2016 , and Alzado’s arrival will do something similar – new art pieces and design elements throughout, a lick of paint and a new staircase – while retaining the parquetry floorboards and arched glass doors that’ve overlooked the surf since 1914.

Ravesis’s street-level space will remain a public bar, with a new bar menu giving a taste of upstairs with cheesy bikini sandwiches and some snacky exclusives. The Apollo’s Sam Christie is leading a drinks menu that heroes sherry and vermouth.

“Drinks will always be a part of what we do,” says Larkin. “Great drinks, celebratory occasions that involve cracking a bottle or having a nice glass of something. But [Alzado] is all about food, the identity of this restaurant and the integrity of great Spanish coastal cuisine.”

Alzado opens on the first floor of Hotel Ravesis, 118 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, in early October 2025.