The long awaited QT Melbourne has finally arrived and the quirky hotel’s entrance point to the world’s most liveable city is through adopting and blending with the city’s vibrant laneway culture. This of course means that QT needs a bar with an attitude, hence Hot Sauce, a 60-seated drinking den that drips with Korean and Japanese accents, flowing into their street food and cocktails, soundtracked by an energetic mix of on-trend 90’s hip hop, K-pop, and R&B.
Asian-inspired cocktails is where Hot Sauce will draw its heat, but the focus on street eats is just as enticing. To accompany that huge selection of Korean and Japanese beers, as well as rare Japanese liquors, you’ve got a thoughtful little menu designed by QT Melbourne’s Creative Food Director Rob Marchetti in collaboration with Executive Chef Paul Easson.
Expect food like Steam and Stuff Me Baos (including crispy fried chicken with hot sauce, kimchi, and American yellow melted cheese), something they’re calling Taiwanese Hot Dog Within A Dog served with crisp sticky rice bun, mustard greens, and crispy shallots, and a dessert curiously named Big Ass Bowl of Asia, giving diners the choice of mango ripple ice-cream with coconut ice and coconut cream or tapioca with chilli red bans, coconut sago, shredded coconut, pandanas liquid balls, plum kelly and sweet corn.
Bar-seating gets you up nice and close to QT’s mixologists who will be offering the likes of Gangnam 64, a mixture infused with umeshu and raspberry, and Shinshu Julep, a smokey build of Mars Iwai Japanese Whiskey and shiso umeshu, yuzu bitters, and shiso leaves.
Hot Sauce Laneway Bar
Address: 8 Portland Lane, Melbourne
Contact: 03 8636 8814
Website: qthotelsandresorts.com/melbourne/eat-drink
Hours: Mon-Sat 4:30pm-2am
Images supplied.
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