Sydneysiders love a rooftop – our weather begs us to. And Monica, on top of 25 Hours Hotel The Olympia, ticks all the boxes. Snack-heavy menu, ace drinks, stellar views. Tick, tick, tick.

The fifth-floor Oxford Street space has a top team: Mitch Orr on food, Roean Patawaran (ex-Oncore by Clare Smyth, The International, Firedoor) on drinks, with London-based hospo group Studio Paskin leading the charge.

Orr resurrects his elevated-Jatz play, serving the biscuits with devilled spanner crab dip, and there are betel leaves topped with tuna tartare and tomato jelly. The brief is West Hollywood, governed by small, local producers and light, fresh flavours.

Prosciutto arrives with roasted figs and rosemary, cucumbers and honeydew are dressed in a garlicky ajo blanco, and sliced Pioik sourdough is hedged by radishes, koji butter and, if you like, anchovies.

It’s all in service of Patawaran’s cocktail list. Picante Margs are revved up with fermented jalapeno and habanero bitters, while a Negroni is fresh with Hotel Starlino’s orange aperitivo and a candied hibiscus crown. There’s even a Mimosa service, with bubbles arriving with house-pressed juices to pour as you like.

The indoor-outdoor space has room for 200. Green and white umbrellas shade tables on the balcony, and there are lounges, sunbeds and a firepit. High stools sit at a tiled bar overlooking Paddington and down Oxford Street to the eastern beaches. Plus, spy Sydney Tower poking over the top of the city skyline and a teeny slice of the Harbour Bridge.

Larger plates span a ponzu-dressed noodle salad, a fried chicken burger sticky with soy, and curls of hand-rolled strozzapreti with zucchini flowers and mint.

Monica is just one of the Paddington hotel’s four venues, led by the award-winning hospo group. Soho favourite The Palomar has been imported to Sydney, bringing its Levantine flavours to a ground-floor space. Plus, there’s cocktail bar The Mulwray and Jacob the Angel, a coffee stop that’s also the only spot to get Lune pastries outside of Lune’s Sydney kiosks.