Get us in your inbox

Search

The Rabbit Hole Bar and Dining

  • Bars
  • Sydney
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Advertising

Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

Jelly shots, bubble drinks, bunnies. This new inner city bar has ’em all

Jelly shots. Yes, jelly shots. Stay with us. This is the first jelly shot in the history of this magazine that we’ve ever enjoyed – nay – liked. Here, a clear, firm cube of gin and tonic-flavoured jelly sits atop a round of cucumber, topped with a sugared rose petal. It’s a massive improvement on those red cordial and vodka numbers that get shoved at you at bad house parties.
The Rabbit Hole specialises in molecular drinks. Cue cocktail dorks clutching their Japanese stirring rods, twiddling their moustaches furiously. Oh sure, using chemicals like calcium chloride to create different textures in drinks is a little retro as cocktail trends go, but if you look past the wordy menu, the drinks are really delicious. And nowhere near as fussy as they sound on paper.
Cut straight to the chase after a hard day with an XO Zombie: a citrusy, caramelly punch in the snout of Mount Gay rum, Cointreau, lime, mint, house-made passionfruit caramel, bitters, pineapple and orange juices. It’s the perfect tropical cure for everything that ails you. We'll be heading back for the Kraken’s Prey - a stir-down of rum, Licor 43, lime and walnut bitters released into a squid ink-rimmed cocktail glass - if only to say "release the kraken". We laughed, anyway.

You’ll find the bar on the old Bar Europa site near Martin Place. They’ve gone pretty hard on the whole ‘rabbit hole’ theme with the food (an excellent rabbit terrine appears on the food menu, as does a busy dish called the ‘carrot family’ – raw, pickled, fried and pureed carrots with a cocoa soil) but the drinks menu definitely has its own personality. The walls, like the menus, are decorated in cartoon bunnies; it's an interesting design choice for anything other than a daycare centre.

Yeah, the design choices are a little funny, and the food menu could use a tweak, but there are some talented bartenders at work here, making great drinks. Take a dive down the Rabbit Hole and be rewarded with this sweet inner-city bar.
Written by Myffy Rigby

Details

Address:
82-88 Elizabeth Street
Sydney
2000
Price:
$10-$50
Opening hours:
Mon - Fri noon - 2am; Sat 4pm - 2am
Advertising
You may also like
You may also like