Sofitel Martini Lounge

Address: Duke Street PO Box 1797, Queenstown and Arrowtown, 9300, New Zealand
Tel: (+64)345 00045
Website: view Sofitel Martini Lounge’s website
Door: Open door
Style: Hotel bar
Food: Bar Snacks

Review

A champagne and cocktail lounge that we must first caveat as being on the cusp of being refurbished into a 'Club Lounge', though the hotel owners have been cagey about what that will entail. On our visit earlier this year we found a sophisticated and contemporary styled basement lounge with a small service bar. The menu contained a good list of vintage champagne, some of it very pricey. Cocktails range from twisted classics (some of it dangerously experimental - a 'Candypolitan' served on 'a cloud of candy floss', for example) to some interesting signatures including the Chartreuse Martini (gin, green Chartreuse and dry vermouth).

Attracting business clients and moneyed sporting holidaymakers, this is a refined sort of place but could be criticised for being too sterile and lacking in atmosphere, while customer service could have been stronger given its role in town as a plush place to stay - no doubt some of these factors have influenced the plans to give it a facelift, and with a former head barman of Queenstown's Bunker bar expected to be at the helm we have high hopes.