The Atrium

Ph: (03) 9653 7744; Hotel Sofitel, 45 Collins St, Melbourne 3000 www.sofitelmelbourne.com.au

Cocktail/Wine Bar, $ -
Open Sat-Thur 5pm-noon Fri 4pm-noon; Licensed; AE, BC, DC, MC, V

Mietta's Review
Piano bar with a good but pricey (though less than some) cocktail list. In spite of its 35th floor location the views are restricted to the toilets. The attractively dark bar itself is located in the middle of the building.

Other published opinions

The Age Cheap Eats 2008 "Yes, it's a hotel bar and it's full of loaded tourists, but it's also one of the most spectacularly posh settings for a drink in town: 35 floors up, in a vast mirrored atrium with an ethereal cone of fabric flowing from the ceiling"

The Age Clem Bastow, 28-6-2007 "the Atrium Bar's appearance - seemingly laser-cut from gold leaf and dark crystals - is a breath of (albeit climate-controlled) fresh air. The curved bar has been conjured from graphite, metal veneer and zinc, and surrounded by lacework screens and low-lighting, and extravagant (but always subtle) vases of orchids and other blooms. The obligatory five-star-hotel grand piano seems less an unnecessary extravagance here and more an absolute must."

The Age Michael Harden, 5-12-2006 "with the Atrium, "glimpses"is the operative word. Despite the lengthy, slightly swaying trip in the express lift to level 35, the views from the bar are disappointingly limited. The Atrium Bar is positioned, obviously, in the atrium at the centre of the skyscraper on a raised mezzanine so you have to swivel and twist to catch the vista. After dark, the lighting is low enough to allow the few slivers of city lights available to become an atmospheric background. But, unless you go to the loo or choose to eat at Cafe La, the views are an afterthought rather than the main event."