Review - Ananas Bar & Brasserie

For a camp take on date night, this one’s a scream – like stepping into a scene from The Birdcage that sucker punches you into believing it can’t house a top-notch chef.
Jerome Lagarde’s moved beyond three-Michelin, and is cooking here for kicks. In the bar that means dude-food, turned completely on its head: tacos, cones and test tubes have never been this slick!
Cocktails were such a triumph, I could feel my virtue unpick. Absolutely Ananas ($15) delivers namesake pineapple with an intriguing chilli bitters kick; while Le Resistance ($18) is quite clever, neatly hiding rum – though perhaps it’s a misnomer… when I left I had none.
Moving to the bed-I-mean-dining-room, it’s a surprisingly speedy affair – military kitchen precision aims to please on a one-hour ‘business’ lunch.
My breakfast-for-dinner highlight, a 65 Degree Egg ($20), delivered smoked cream, posh pig and porcini with a trumped-up googy egg!
Mains are quick and solid. Sir enjoyed Chateaubriand ($36), while...
...Madame appreciated her Scallops and Black Pudding ($30), right down to the unnecessarily luxurious lobster jus.
This left space for a perfect Salted Caramel Éclair ($12), consumed whilst giggling over an iPhone capture of the apparently offensive gents’ loo.
My take: it’s only really sexist because us girls didn’t get one too.
18 Argyle Street, The Rocks
Ph: (02) 9259 5668