Nikki To
A good hotel restaurant should have more in common with the neighbourhood around it than the building it occupies. Its personality should be drawn from the ocean at its doorstep, the producers in its radius and the energy of the chef and their team, rather than the rooms and suites upstairs. Flaminia, which opened at the end of 2025 inside Sydney’s Pullman Quay Grand hotel on the edge of Sydney Harbour, pulls off this precarious trick with grandness and grace.
The restaurant is only the second existing operation for hospitality power couple Giovanni and Marilyn Pilu. Their flagship, the Sardinian-leaning Pilu at Freshwater, has been a beloved fixture of Sydney’s dining scene since 2004, and they took a fair bit of convincing to expand. Lucky for Sydney diners the persuasion worked, because the urban Flaminia has easily cemented itself as a worthy sibling to Pilu’s coastal prettiness.
Flaminia’s concept moves the diner beyond Sardinia, honouring six of Italy’s most famous port regions, from Venezia in the north to Palermo on the southern island of Sicily. A good meal here should begin with a selection from the raw bar, which takes prime position in the centre of the room. Shark Bay scallops perhaps, or a half dozen oysters, dressed with shaved fennel and bottarga, or the Neapolitan insouciance of simple lemon and olive oil.
Then you can build your own menu from different regions: Venetian baccala is a salty starter, followed by a bouncing orecchiette from Bari. A Cagliaritan lamb shoulder is fragrant and filling, while Napoli might inspire your dessert in the form of a light limoncello baba. If all this geography-hopping gets too much, there’s also the option of A Trip Through the Ports sharing menu. Think of it as a guided culinary tour.
The drinks are equally adventurous: cocktails based on Sardinian gin and bitters, a glorious selection of Italian vermouths and a wine list that explores Italy’s coastline with highlights from Sardinia as well as Australian wines with Italian varietals.
Designers Studio Gram took visual inspiration from the busyness of the quay outside, with curves and textures that echo the shoreline. Flaminia itself is a seafaring name; a passenger vessel that brought Italian migrants to Australia’s shores in the mid 20th century. Its likeness is captured in several evocative photographs on the wall.
The hotel is not forgotten entirely of course; guests and long-term residents have become regulars. But fundamentally, Flaminia sails its own ship.
How we pick the Gourmet Traveller Hotel and Travel Awards winners
All winners in the Gourmet Traveller Hotel and Travel Awards have been determined by Gourmet Traveller editor David Meagher, deputy editor Ceri David and digital editor Georgia Condon. We also sought input from our team of luxury food and travel industry experts including our Victoria state editor Michael Harden, Queensland state editor Elliot Baker, New South Wales state editor Alexandra Carlton and travel writer Carrie Hutchinson.
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