Dean & Nancy on 22 is Australia's best hotel bar — a glamorous 1960s-style cocktail lounge floating 22 floors above the Sydney CBD, from the team behind Maybe Sammy. It pairs skyline views with old-world decadence and a thematic cocktail menu, and in 2025 it won Hotel Bar of the Year at the Australian Bar Awards. It sits at No. 9 on our national ranking.
The hotel bar is one of the hardest categories to win, because it has to be all things to all people: a refuge for a jet-lagged guest, a destination for a local marking an occasion, and a glamorous stage for a first date, all at once. Dean & Nancy does it with rare confidence. Step out of the lift on the 22nd floor and you find a room of gold-veined marble, mid-century glamour and wraparound city views — a bar that feels like a scene from another, more decadent era, and one of the most transporting places to drink in Sydney.
Why it's Australia's No. 9 bar
The anchor is the award. At the 2025 Australian Bar Awards, Dean & Nancy on 22 took Hotel Bar of the Year — recognition that, in a notoriously tough and competitive category, it stands at the top in Australia. Hotel bars are judged against an unforgiving brief: they must serve a broad, ever-changing clientele to a consistently high standard, in a setting that could easily coast on its view alone. Dean & Nancy refuses to coast, and the industry's vote confirms it.
We rank it No. 9 because a hotel bar, however excellent, leans on setting and view for a large part of its appeal in a way that a pure cocktail room does not — and because its glamour is a beautifully executed homage rather than a boundary-pushing original idea. But that is no criticism. Dean & Nancy is a destination bar that happens to sit inside a hotel, not a hotel amenity that happens to serve drinks, and the difference is everything. It earns its place as the definitive Australian hotel bar and one of the most glamorous nights in the city.
Twenty-two floors up, in the 1960s
The setting is the headline. Dean & Nancy occupies the 22nd floor of the A by Adina hotel in the CBD, and the elevation does a great deal of the work: wraparound views over the Sydney skyline give the room a sense of occasion the moment you arrive. But the design earns its keep too. The bar summons the spirit of a 1960s New York cocktail lounge — a black-and-gold colour scheme, gold-veined and black marble, brass accents, intimate tables and a mid-century decadence that feels both glamorous and warm.
What makes it work is that the glamour never tips into coldness. This is a room designed for lingering: for a slow cocktail as the city lights come on, for a celebration that deserves a view, for the kind of evening you remember. The combination of height, design and mood makes it one of the most transporting bars in Sydney — a place that, for a couple of hours, lifts you out of the city even as it spreads out beneath you.
The Maybe Sammy team behind the bar
Dean & Nancy is run by the team behind Maybe Sammy, our No. 2 bar in the country and one of the most celebrated cocktail bars in the world. That pedigree is the single biggest reason Dean & Nancy rises above the typical hotel bar. This is a group that has spent years on The World's 50 Best Bars and made world-class, theatrical hospitality its calling card, and it brings exactly that sensibility to the 22nd floor: the same commitment to service as performance, the same glamour, the same technical polish behind the drinks.
That connection means Dean & Nancy is not a hotel bar that hired good staff; it is the work of one of the best bar teams in Australia, applied to a high-rise hotel setting. The result is a room where the view would be enough to draw a crowd, but the drinks and the service are good enough that they would hold up at street level too. That is a rare thing in the hotel-bar world, and it is why this venue wins its category so convincingly.
The drinks: the Time Machine menu
Dean & Nancy's cocktail programme is thematic and thoughtful, structured around storytelling rather than a bare spirit-by-spirit list. Its signature Time Machine menu presents a set of cocktails inspired by key legends, events and pop-culture moments of the mid-century era — a concept that suits the room's 1960s glamour perfectly and gives each drink a narrative to go with the flavour. It is the kind of menu that rewards reading and conversation, and it reflects the same creative, character-driven approach to cocktails that made its sibling bar famous.
The execution matches the concept. These are precise, well-balanced drinks made by a team that knows exactly what it is doing, served with the polish you would expect from this group. There is also a food offering, overseen by a serious kitchen, that lets you settle in for longer than a single round — and an aperitivo happy hour in the early evening that is one of the best-value ways to experience the room. Whether you come for one glamorous cocktail at sunset or an entire evening, the drinks live up to the setting rather than hiding behind the view.
Who drinks here, and what to order
Dean & Nancy draws a mix of hotel guests, locals marking an occasion, couples on a special date and visitors chasing the best of glamorous Sydney. It is a destination bar in the truest sense — a place you go to feel that the night is an event — which makes it ideal for celebrations, romantic evenings and impressing an out-of-towner. To get the most from a visit, aim to arrive around dusk so you catch the view as the city lights come on, order from the Time Machine menu and let the story of the drink guide your choice, and consider the early-evening aperitivo if you want the glamour at a gentler price. Above all, take a table with a view and give yourself time; the setting rewards lingering.
The neighbourhood and where to go next
Dean & Nancy sits high above the Sydney CBD, close to Circular Quay and the harbour, which makes it a natural centrepiece for a glamorous night out. It pairs beautifully with its sibling bar Maybe Sammy in The Rocks for a full evening of the group's signature glamour, or with our No. 3 bar Old Mate's Place for contrast. For a nightcap in a different register, the whisky den The Baxter Inn is nearby. Our full Sydney bar guide maps the city, and the national best bars in Australia ranking shows where Dean & Nancy sits among the country's best.
Planning your visit
Dean & Nancy on 22 is on Level 22 of the A by Adina hotel at 2 Hunter Street in the Sydney CBD — take the lift up, and the view announces the bar before you reach your seat. It is a short walk from Wynyard and Martin Place stations and close to Circular Quay. Because it is a glamorous destination bar with a finite number of the best seats, booking is a good idea, especially for a window table at sunset or on a weekend; the early-evening aperitivo window is a smart time to visit for both value and a quieter room. Check current hours and reservations on the venue's website before you go.
On price, Dean & Nancy sits in the $$$ bracket — this is a glamorous, world-class hotel bar with a view to match, and the drinks are priced for the occasion — but the aperitivo happy hour makes the experience more accessible if you time it right, and the setting more than justifies a splurge for a special night. Dress with a little intent; the room rewards it, though there is no rigid code. Come ready to enjoy some genuine glamour, take in the skyline, and you will understand exactly why Dean & Nancy on 22 is Australia's reigning hotel bar.
The view, and the best time to catch it
It would be dishonest to discuss Dean & Nancy without dwelling on the view, because it is central to the experience. Twenty-two floors up, the bar looks out across the Sydney skyline, and the way that vista changes through the evening shapes the whole visit. The magic hour is dusk: arrive as the sun is going down and you get the full sequence — golden light on the buildings, then the slow switch-on of the city as night falls, all from a marble table with a cocktail in hand. It is one of the most romantic sequences available anywhere in the city, and it is free with the price of a drink. A window or terrace-side table at that hour is the seat to angle for, which is why booking ahead pays off.
The height also gives the room a sense of separation from the city that a street-level bar can never match. Up here, the noise and rush of the CBD fall away, and the bar feels like a glamorous world of its own, suspended above the streets. That feeling of elevation — literal and figurative — is a large part of what makes a visit feel like an occasion, and it is why the bar works so well for the nights that are meant to be memorable.
Why hotel bars are hard, and this one wins
Hotel bars are one of the toughest categories in the business, and it is worth understanding why Dean & Nancy's win is so meaningful. A hotel bar has to serve everyone: the guest who wants a quiet nightcap, the local out to impress, the group marking a milestone, the solo traveller killing an hour. It has to be excellent every day, to a rotating cast of strangers, in a setting that could easily lean on its view and let the drinks slide. Most hotel bars settle for being pleasant. Dean & Nancy refuses to. Backed by the Maybe Sammy team's world-class standards, it treats the cocktails, the service and the storytelling with the seriousness of a destination bar, so the view becomes the bonus rather than the whole offer. That is exactly the distinction the Hotel Bar of the Year award is meant to reward, and it is why this room stands at the top of a very competitive field.
The food and the aperitivo
Dean & Nancy is more than a view with a cocktail attached; it is a place you can settle into for a proper evening, and the food is a real part of that. The kitchen offers a menu designed to work both for full dinners in the main dining area and for casual grazing at the bar, so you can match your cocktails with something substantial or simply pick at a few plates as the light fades. That flexibility means the bar rewards a long, unhurried visit rather than a quick photo and a single drink.
The smartest entry point for many visitors is the early-evening aperitivo. A happy-hour window in the early evening makes the glamour more affordable and the room a little calmer, and it lines up perfectly with sunset — arguably the best possible time to be twenty-two floors up. Coming for aperitivo, then staying as the city lights come on, is the connoisseur's way to do Dean & Nancy: you get the full sweep of the experience, from golden hour to glittering night, without necessarily committing to a big spend from the outset.
How Dean & Nancy compares
Within our national top 20, Dean & Nancy shares clear DNA with its sibling Maybe Sammy, our No. 2 — the same glamour, the same theatrical hospitality, the same reverence for a bygone era — but transplanted to a high-rise hotel setting and paired with a skyline view. It also sits in interesting company alongside Melbourne's Gimlet, another grand, glamorous room that proves Australia does the big, polished bar as well as anywhere. Where those win on ground-level grandeur, Dean & Nancy adds altitude and a view. As a destination for a glamorous, occasion-worthy night, it is the best hotel bar in the country and one of the most transporting rooms in Sydney.
The verdict
Dean & Nancy on 22 is the bar we send anyone who wants a night that feels like an occasion — glamorous, elevated and beautifully run, with a view that turns a cocktail into a memory. Backed by one of the best bar teams in the country, it rises above the usual hotel-bar compromises to become a genuine destination in its own right. Hotel Bar of the Year is the industry's confirmation of what a single visit makes obvious: for glamorous, high-rise Sydney drinking, nowhere does it better. Book a table for sunset, order from the Time Machine, and let the city glitter beneath you.