Levantine culture comes alive inside Sydney haunt Babylon – a rooftop bar and restaurant with swooping arches and labyrinthine dining rooms inspired by a lost ancient city.

Aussie practice Hogg and Lamb and interior stylists Stewart + Highfield collaborated on the sprawling Sydney restaurant, which is set with hanging gardens, arcades and colonnades. The architects used a traditional Middle-Eastern bazaar as their starting point, with patrons drawn to ‘discover’ the eatery’s various settings across multiple visits.

Travertine plinths and arches connect Babylon’s rooms, which are furnished with velvet-upholstered dining chairs and marble-topped tables. Intimate but more informal booths are set into arched nooks in the walls – a motif mirrored by latticed ceiling arches and shimmering ceiling hangings. And in keeping with its namesake, hanging plants dot the restrained space and will evolve over time.

Head Chef Arman Uz is serving up a Levantine menu of dishes including Ali Nazki kebab with eggplant, yoghurt and burnt butter; and Hunkar Begendi with slow-cooked wagyu, smoked eggplant puree and mushroom.

Level 7, Westfield, Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

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