The Three Tier Superyacht On The Sydney Harbour

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Solaré Is The Super Yacht Restaurant Cruising Sydney Harbour

19 April, 2026

Words by:

Sarah Palmieri

A 150-foot yacht has found itself in Sydney. That alone might not sound like news, but what if I said it includes a restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a sun deck spread across three levels.

All aboard Solaré. It’s the latest project from Luxe Cruising Group founder Scott Robertson, built around the idea of long lunches, slow evenings and a more relaxed kind of harbour luxury.

Let’s be honest, Sydney has to be Australia’s flashiest city, and that’s coming from someone who lives in Melbourne. Where our play usually happens underground, in a dive bar, an alleyway or, well, a basement, Sydney has always preferred to do things above board. So when a superyacht that is also a restaurant starts cruising the Harbour, it is going to get attention.

I’m talking about Solaré, the latest venture from Luxe Cruising Group founder Scott Robertson.

Robertson has introduced a 150-foot classic superyacht with a full-service restaurant. It’s an ambitious hospitality project spread across three levels, with a dining room, cocktail bar and sun deck, drawing on Mediterranean summers and the slower pleasures of European coastal culture. In a city already comfortable with luxury, Robertson believed there was still room for something new.

“It came more from a feeling,” Robertson tells The Modes. “I’ve always been drawn to places that make you slow down, that sense of escapism. Where time stretches out, nothing feels rushed, and everything is considered without trying too hard.”

Few cities are better built for outdoor leisure, yet many harbour experiences lean toward private excess or loud entertainment. Robertson saw room for something more considered, where food, design and atmosphere mattered equally.

“There wasn’t really a place that treated the harbour as a backdrop to a refined, design-led dining experience,” he says. “Somewhere you’d go for a long lunch, a sunset dinner, a martini, and just stay.”

The project began when Robertson found the yacht for sale in Hong Kong as the world emerged from Covid. He was taken by its scale and three open-plan decks, but the idea properly took shape later, while taking in the seaside hospitality of Croatia, Greece and Italy.

“That trip was really where the inspiration started to take shape,” he says. “The Mediterranean was a big influence, especially places where food, music and setting all sit in balance.”

The lower level is The Dining Room is set up for long lunches and dinners. Above that, the Terrace Deck moves into cocktails and shared plates. At the top, the Sun Deck leans into a more relaxed beach club feel, with daybeds, an open-air bar and skyline views.
The interiors, designed by Alex Zabotto-Bentley, carry a Mediterranean warmth with a subtle 1970s nostalgia. Artwork by Daimon Downey, Jeremy Kay and Tiarna Herczeg is splashed throughout the space. Robertson points to Slim Aarons as a reference, admiring “that sense of timeless glamour where nothing feels overworked and everything just feels natural.”

“Restraint,” Robertson says, when asked what makes a space intimate rather than simply impressive. “It’s easy to make something feel impressive, especially on a boat. But intimacy comes from scale, from sound, from pacing. Not overfilling a space, not overprogramming it. Letting moments breathe.”

At the centre of the experience is a culinary programme led by Executive Chef Pablo Tordesillas, known in Sydney for Totti’s Bondi and previously Brisbane’s two-hatted Ortiga, alongside Head Chef Nick Mathieson, whose background includes Bistecca and Otto. Together, they’ve shaped a coastal Italian menu filtered through Australian produce.

In the Dining Room, meals begin with oscietra caviar served with house-made crisps and cultured cream, before moving into smaller dishes like potato scallop with bottarga, chives and caviar, or royal red prawns with finger lime and bisque mayonnaise. Larger courses include reginette with Moreton Bay bug, crustacean butter and chilli, alongside market fish with clams and saffron butter.

Upstairs, the Terrace and Sun Deck menu is more relaxed. Queensland spanner crab tartlets, Moreton Bay bug sandos, and fior di latte ice cream topped with caviar.

The drinks programme, led by Ed Loveday, follows suit with Mediterranean wines, rosés and a cocktail list moving through aperitivo classics and poolside staples. Dining Room guests can also call for the Martini Trolley, with tableside service.

For Robertson, though, the real luxury is simpler than marble, martinis or harbour views.
“At its heart, it’s the idea of escapism,” he says. “Not in a dramatic sense, but in small, well-executed moments.”
“I think the idea of luxury itself has changed. For me, real luxury is being able to slow down and actually enjoy those moments.”

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