Bar Brosé, Darlinghurst

EDIT: CLOSED

Bar Brosé has recently opened in Darlinghurst by the team that brought us ACME (Andy Emerson, Cam Fairbairn, Mitch Orr and Ed Loveday) with Analiese Gregory at the helm in the kitchen. And boy, is it amazing! Situated on the old The Passage site, Bar Brosé is perfect if you’re looking for a quick wine and a few snacks or, for a group such as us, an opportunity to eat our way through as much of the menu as possible 😛

On our first visit, we saw online that Bar Brosé opened at 3pm on a Sunday so we rocked up one arvo only to find that it’s a limited snack menu until 6pm 😕 We decided to order pretty much everything on the snack menu and come back another time for the full menu which I’ve combined into this post later on. We start with the Late night sandwich ($14), which smells buttery and absolutely amazing. The sammich has slices of aged Christmas ham glazed with pineapple and mustard, a schmear of nduja and gloriously melty comte cheese. We split the sandwich in quarters to share (in squares haha right Eric :P) but next time I’d def getting one just for myself! It is the perfect toastie- sweet and salty and loaded with cheese <3

The Weekly Terrine ($16) was a beautiful layering of pigs head studded with prunes and a jumble of pickled rhubarb, mushrooms and onion for some acidity. And how cute is the plate!

The 16 month Comte with onions and apples cooked in whey and housemade poppyseed lavosh ($18) doesn’t seem to be on the menu anymore but oh boy how I love the creamy nuttiness of Comte with the gentle sweetness of the jam! Perfect with a glass of white!

I had doubts when Sarah requested the Iceberg salad ($10) but when I saw that overload of buttery breadcrumbs I was sold! There was a creamy dressing that we thought had notes of yuzu and if all iceberg lettuce tasted like this I would be definitely be a salad convert.

The Warm mushroom salad with a tamari vinaigrette ($10) blows us away, it’s just so fricken tasty with such an incredible depth of flavour in the sauce. I wouldn’t have minded some rice to soak up all that tasty goodness but instead we mop it up with some bread.

To round off our snacks we order the Buffalo yogurt sorbet with maraschino cherries and meringue ($12). The sorbet is delightfully refreshing and sweet and I absolutely adore the torched meringue which reminds me of campfire marshmallows.

And then the following week we return so we can try the rest of the menu. We start with the Comté gougères ($6 each) which are fricken massive- they’re about the size of your fist BUT they are definitely not for sharing. Trust me. One bite into this incredibly light pastry with crisp golden edges and surprisingly fluffy innards and you will fall head over heels in cheesy love.

We couldn’t resist ordering the Blooming onion ($10)- a whole onion cut to resemble a flower. It’s battered and deep-fried for crunchalicious nirvana. Dunking a leaf into the creamy fermented habanero-spiked soy and tofu emulsion will make all your tastebuds dance with joy.

The Spaghetti carbonara ($20) was so amazing that after one bite we immediately ordered a second serve. It’s a bit on the small size but it is pretty rich considering the sauce is egg yolk (no cream allowed!) and we exclaim in delight at each crispy bit of pan-fried guanciale. Argh SO GOOD!

And because we love our carbs we also ordered two serves of the Potato gnocchi, lap cheong, chilli, kombu butter ($20). The gnocchi was impressively pillow light and after hating lap cheong for approximately 90% of my life until recently, I tried to hoard the curls of Chinese sausage to savour slowly one bite at a time.

The Poulet au Vin Jaune d’Australie ($30/half chicken) is another one where I wished I had a bowl of rice to soak up that sauce! Man what was in that sauce?! It was buttery and savoury, packed full of umami and was just lip smackingly tasty. Each and every piece of the chicken was super tender and juicy and oh man those shards of chicken skin was the bomb.

We’re ready for desserts and then the kitchen sends out the Wild fennel ice cream with fernet chocolate and walnut cake ($12) on the house. I wasn’t sure if I liked the fernet chocolate which tasted a lil bitter but we’re intrigued by the ice cream which was so incredibly smooth and with an unmistakable fennel flavour.

And the dessert that is fast becoming the talk of the town: Crisp potato, brown butter mousse, salted caramel ($12). It is unlike anything I’ve ever had and it is exactly the dessert that I never knew I needed in my life! From the super crisp, paper thin slices of potato, to the brown butter mousse that had me roll my eyes to the heavens and the swirls of rich salted caramel, it soon became a battle between spoons as we fought to ensure equal rights for our share of the dessert.

Pretty much everything at Bar Brosé is awesome but my picks are definitely for that late night sandwich, the gougères, the carbonara and the potato dessert! The wines list is pretty banging and affordable and the staff are super friendly and down to earth which ticks all the boxes for me!

Bar Brosé
231a Victoria St,
Darlinghurst

Trading Hours:
Weds – Thurs: 5pm – 12AM
Fri – Sat: 5pm – 1.30am
Sun: 3pm – 11pm