Our love for The Rabbit Hole Bar & Dining is no secret; we have fawned over their extensive cocktail list since the bar's opening early last year. It seems we have been joined by people from all over the world as well, with the bar's many accolades impressively piling on top of their molecular food and drink creations.
The night crawlers of Sydney have developed a certain attachment to The Rabbit Hole which bars around Sydney rarely see nowadays. City-wide there is a loyal, dedicated fanbase who have fallen in love with the playful décor, the personable service, and of course, the dinner and drink menu. But this time it's strictly about those roaming around busy Elizabeth Street at lunch time, looking for some delectable French cuisine in a venue that's a complete escape from the daily grind; Rabbit Hole is an oasis for these folk.
Executive Chef Jeremy Metivier has created a lunch menu of artistic French-inspired food to pair up with the long list of exceptional cocktails. The six-item menu gives you just enough variety without overwhelming you with the pressure that comes with too many options. All six lunch items are set at $19.
It was the first time my guest had fallen down into The Rabbit Hole, and so a quick tour guide of the complex list of molecular cocktails was in order. My personal favourites, the refreshing Effen Island ($19) and the Wood & Smoke $22, were in order. As we watched Doug Laming (the head honcho of The Rabbit Hole) studiously create the fabulous concoctions, my guest remarked that he'd never seen someone look so deep in concentration while cocktail making. I'd have to agree; it seems like every single thing here is made with great focus and discipline, unlike that in any other similar establishment.
Their cocktails are unquestionable and Rabbit Hole have completed the picture time and time again by pouring just as much creativity into their food. As such, the new lunch menu is the perfect marriage of art and delicious produce, with a contemporary approach to French food.
The Quinoa salad with vegetable tagliatelle, poached egg, and lemon oil is an excellent refresher; delivering an exceptionally clean taste and dressing the dish up with so many fresh ingredients that you'd feel light as a feather after a serving of this. Beautifully presented, the salad dances around a perfectly poached egg, which when cracked floods the salad bowl in that thick and rich yolk which seeps into the vegetables and fills them with flavour. It was a great start to an even greater feast, and a dish which was filling in itself, speaking well for the value.
The Grilled flat head with strawberry aioli and carrot & beetroots chips is superb. Again, the dish is plated beautifully, with two long and thick pieces of flat head breaking apart to reveal some very well-cooked fish. The key here to use as much strawberry aioli as you can, adding a very unique flavour to the fish and also providing a nice dip for the gorgeous, thin carrot & beetroots chips.
The Slow cooked beef pie with carrot and orange cream is full of the Chef's flair and sense of playfulness; decorated so that the crispy puff pastry resembles a pair of rabbit ears. Break this away and you get to some beautiful beef, which has a flavour that relies heavily on the carrot and orange cream; I believe I tasted some star anise in there as well. The meat tastes similar to massaman beef, giving a nice exotic flavour which pairs incredibly well with the layers of puff pastry and a sweet cocktail.
Their Wagyu beef burger on a brioche bun with brie cheese and house-made tomato relish comes with the highest expectations of the day. With Rabbit Hole scoring the status of having one of the top 5 burgers in the WORLD, it was expected that this large and rather plain looking burger blow my mind. While it was fantastic, I wouldn't exactly call it the best I've ever had. The house-made tomato relish is something else, giving the wagyu a nice sweet and tangy taste. It's distinctive and unlike most other burgers in the city; but it may not creep into your personal top 5.
More favourable was the Reconstructed goat cheese tart with caramelised onion marmalade, pumpkin, and mixed nut salad. It's incredibly sweet, with the pumpkin and mixed nut salad providing some nice textural variation to spruce up the overall taste of the dish. The tart itself is well-made, with the very rich goats cheese teetering this item between savoury and dessert.
My personal favourite of the day was the classic French essential: the Croque monsieur with smoked mozzarella, apricot, green peas and bacon. The apricot adds a really interesting flavour to the cheesy sandwich, with melted cheese covering absolutely everything. It might make you feel like fairy heavy and bloated, with the overall taste not exactly clean or refreshing; but there's no way anyone could regret something as satisfying as this.
*Chocolate skull image from Rabbit Hole's 1st Birthday party
An imported and seemingly rare pastry called 'Tongue of Cat' was being silently prepared in the kitchen while we perused the cocktail menu yet again and looked for something worthy enough to finish our feast. We soon found out that Doug wanted us to fit in one last treat; a special preview of their upcoming new dinner menu by way of an extraordinary little dessert with the working title Paris Bliss.
Now I already know the potential for desserts in the Rabbit Hole, with our last visit being their first birthday party where they prepared awe-inspiring chocolate skulls. This time, the dessert was just as playful, taking us back about 20 years when even the smallest amount of fairy floss would get the heart racing. Here, the fairy floss served as a topping for vanilla bean ice cream, sat right beside hazelnut mousse and the aforementioned 'tongue of cat' pastry which had been shaped into a mini Eiffel Tower.
Carrying our fair share of food, my guest and I waddled up the spiral staircase, but not before knocking back two more select cocktails.
Back onto the busy Elizabeth Street is when Rabbit Hole's biggest effect hits you; the venue's ability to make you feel detached from the stress of the CBD is admirable and unique. As such, time moves slowly in the Rabbit Hole and we soon discovered we'd been down there for almost three hours, despite the food coming at a nice rate. Either we'd been too caught up with the excitement of both the presentation and taste of the dishes, or those cocktails are deceptively strong. Whatever it was, we were both glad we decided to work our way through the entire lunch menu, giving us enough range to confidently state that The Rabbit Hole Bar & Dining is the place-to-be come lunch time. Chalk up another overwhelmingly positive experience down in the magical space that is the Rabbit Hole.
Rabbit Hole Bar & Dining
Address: 82 Elizabeth Street, Sydney (Basement Level)
Contact: 02 8084 2505
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 12pm-3pm and 6pm-9pm; Saturday 6pm-9pm
Website: www.rabbitholebar.com.au