Sydney’s award-winning seafood restaurant Cirrus will have its final service on 1 September, after failing to strike a deal to renew the lease with the site’s new landlord. Co-owners Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt described the move as “disappointing” in a statement, saying it was a bittersweet decision.
The move comes eight years after the Barangaroo restaurant first opened, dazzling diners with its sparkling waterfront views and finessed seafood-forward menu. Part of Sydney’s leading Bentley Group, Cirrus marked the group’s fourth venue when it opened in 2016, billed as a love letter to seafood. The restaurant quickly cemented itself as a top Sydney spot to salute the sunset with an oyster or two and a bottle of something cold, white, and excellent (and excellence is in no short supply on Cirrus’ wine list, with the restaurant currently holding the title of the Australian Wine List of the Year).
Cirrus’ closure marks the second significant change to the Bentley Group’s portfolio in 2024, with swanky CBD wine bar Monopole, winner of Gourmet Traveller’s Wine Bar of the Year award in 2021, recently morphing into a French restaurant, with a special prix fixe menu.
Meanwhile, Savage and Hildebrandt’s newest venture, enigmatic pan-Asian diner King Clarence in Sydney’s CBD, was recently named a finalist for Best New Restaurant at the annual Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards, with winners to be revealed on 19 August.
And the owners promise there will be more good news to come. “Although this is disappointing, it has opened the door for new opportunities, which will be announced soon.”
In other words, watch this space.
Cirrus will host a handful of events before closing its doors, including Crablis Sunday (a celebration of crab and chablis) and a Cirrus alumni event, before a special send-off service for the restaurant’s final day.
Cirrus will continue to trade as normal until 1 September.
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