Bar Lafayette

I am a big fan of the Brookfield Place complex. They have done such a wonderful job of putting together an amazing collection of restaurants and bars. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a few but Bar Lafayette was one I had yet to visit. A friend of mine was across from the East and we needed somewhere to catch up in the CBD so I figured that the time was right to finally get myself to this popular new watering hole.

We caught up at around 6ish on a Thursday and initially when I wandered inside I mistakenly thought that the whole seating area was just outside, with a small section in front of the bar. But as we soon discovered, if you wandered past the bar around the corner there was a huge range of seats available. And we arrived at just the right time and these beautiful big black and white leather chairs had just opened up. So we sat ourselves down and looked through the menu. As I found out the drinks list is definitely slanted towards those of the cocktail persuasion but there were still a few white and red wines on the menu, so that pleased me. We found a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, which we ordered through our friendly waiter. I really liked that they had table service. Meant the place really wasn’t overly packed. Still a great crowd, but not over the top, on this night at least. I liked it.

We took a quick look at the bar snacks menu and ordered a serve of the Black Pig Chorizo and some of the mixed olives. The chorizo had been beautifully grilled and was full of flavour. Always an added bonus when a lemon wedge is included on the side. The zesty juice really helps to cut through the indulgently fatty goodness that is chorizo. I thought it was an interesting selection of olives they provided, they were delicious, but my only issue was that there was a lot of really little ones and while I liked to try and be lady like and get them with the tooth picks that were provided but hmmm….. what was it that Julia Roberts infamously said, “Slippery, little suckers” well it was true of the snails in Pretty Woman and it’s true of teeny tiny lil olives at Bar Lafayette, they are super tricky to pick up, particularly with a tooth pick. Thankfully I was in the company of a very good friend so switching to plucking them out with fingers was acceptable 🙂 Perhaps upsizing the olive mix just slightly would be my only suggestion, only so I could appear more lady like I suppose 🙂

So we sat and snacked on these tasty morsels and sipped on our wine. It was a delight. I loved the fit out, quite plush with all the Chesterfields, beautiful polished floorboards and carefully chosen lamps and coffee tables – they’ve done a brilliant job. And staff were so friendly and helpful. The snacks menu might only be brief, but it’s a lovely spot to visit for a drink and a bit of a bite. I look forward to heading back soon, perhaps to sample some of their signature cocktails. Another big tick for Brookfield 🙂