Would you pay $39 for bread and butter? I think I’d be so intrigued by the dish I’d have to ditch dessert to make room in my budget. At Tilda, the just-opened 110-seater within the revamped Sofitel Wentworth, I’m doing exactly that. It arrives this week along with Bar Tilda next door, a 90-seat space with live jazz, cocktails and cacio e pepe popcorn.

Back to Tilda’s starting moment: the bread service. A tray arrives tableside, laden with chives, spring onions, a dark round of AP saltbush focaccia and a mountain of whipped Pepe Saya. Theatrically, your server spoons the fluffy, Sydney-made dairy onto a plate, then tops it with the flavour. A serve of grilled Jersey milk cheese, sticky with honey and topped with crushed hazelnuts, comes to the table as well. It’s too much for one, and pushing it for two, but works as a shared starter; with three, we’re down to $13 each.

“We want you to feel like it’s a real special occasion,” Justin Newton, a House Made Hospitality director, tells Broadsheet. “The Australian view of luxury is very different to how people around the world see luxury – it’s not about chandeliers or marble; in fact, that stuff makes you feel uncomfortable. We’re very laid-back. Tilda’s designed to make you feel like you’re in someone’s lounge room.”

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Aussie seafood stars in funky starters like seaweed butter-topped crab toast and a collection of charcoaled mains, like fillets of ruby snapper or rock flathead, butterflied King George whiting and swordfish chops.

It would be sad to skip dessert, which leans into old-school Aussie cakes: upside-down pineapple boozed up with whisky anglaise, passionfruit yo-yos and cloud-like scoops of lemon and cheesecake trifle.

Next door, Bar Tilda is designed to feel like 1960s Sydney, when the Sofitel Wentworth first opened. “The days when hotel bars were actually frequented by non-hotel guests,” notes Newton. “You could have a Martini, a beer or you could order a steak.”

The menu takes you from lunch till late, and there’s live nu jazz on Fridays and Saturdays. Jason Williams, another House Made director, is focused on the booze. There’s a Martini trolley, and a whisky-laden armoire holds more than a 100 drops, focusing on rare and Aussie-made bottles.

Bar snacks span LP’s salumi, cacio e pepe popcorn – a salty, cheesy, peppery bowl that works best alongside a crisp pour – and chippies with bacon aioli. Mains move from burgers and pasta to a zingy house chop salad and market fish with a melty, “bloody delicious” round of curried cafe de Wentworth butter inspired by a 1980s Wentworth Hotel recipe book the House Made team found.

For its latest era, the heritage-listed hotel underwent a $60 million revamp. Redesigned rooms join a fresh wellness centre and lobby, and four dining spaces delivered by the House Made team. Tilda and Bar Tilda are here, and Delta Rue and Wentworth Bar are expected soon.

The CBD’s in a state of flux, with The International – a slick multi-venue offering from the Shell House team beside Harry Seidler’s Modernist Mushroom building – arriving imminently, too. This summer, it’ll be nights out in the city.

Tilda and Bar Tilda
61–101 Phillip Street, CBD

tilda.sydney
@tildadining.sydney

Hours:
Mon & Tue 7am–10pm
Wed to Fri 7am–11pm
Sat 5.30pm–11pm
Sun 5.30pm–10pm

bartilda.sydney
@bartilda.sydney

Hours:
Mon & Tue 6am–11pm
Wed to Fri 6am–late
Sat 7am–late
Sun 7am–11pm