Easter AKA the longest public holiday of all time, is upon us once again. While chocolate is definitely what the doctor ordered for the four-day weekend, there’s going to be plenty of special menus and events offering all kinds of savoury and sweet deliciousness. We’ve rounded up some of our favourites in Sydney for you, letting you know the best spots of eat and drink whether it be Good Friday or Easter Monday.
The Grounds of Alexandria
When 6,500 people show up to your Easter celebrations you know you’re onto something special. The Grounds of Alexandria is always in high demand every other day of the year, but it seems like the promise of giant chocolate eggs is even more tempting that the usual offerings. For the third time this year The Grounds team will be holding a Community Cracking of a giant 2.8m tall Easter Egg that is currently being displayed on-site.
This enormous creation is made up of 400kg of rich milk chocolate, a sugary behemoth just waiting to be cracked. Inspired by Humpty Dumpty, the egg is now sitting on a brich wall, just asking for the moment on Easter Sunday where it’ll be smashed open in front of thousands and consumed by all.
It ain’t all about cracking the giant egg open though. Kids will get to run around The Grounds with a Kids Easter Egg Hunt, planned for Easter Saturday from 8:30am. The (totally real) Easter Bunny will be on hand to make sure it all runs smoothly as participants search for thousands of hidden chocolate eggs spread throughout the unique venue. One Golden Egg will be amongst this horde, the discoverer of which will take home a prize on the day.
Kid’s Easter Egg Hunt: Saturday 15th April from 8:30am
Community Cracking: Sunday 16th April from 2pm
Location: Shop 7A, 2 Huntley Street, Alexandria.
InterContinental Sydney Double Bay
As you’d expect, one of the Eastern Suburb’s most essential luxury hotels is tasking their resident Stillery lounge with an extremely decadent Easter menu. A partnership with Valrhona Chocolate doesn’t help, and together they will be putting on a limited offer menu designed by Executive Chef Alex Vilches and his pastry chefs.
A Valrhona Chocolate High Tea will be offered from now until Saturday 15th April (Easter Saturday) featuring the likes of: Azelia Milk Chocolate pear and macadamia parma brownie; Caraibe Dark Chocolate pink-salted caramel macaroon; Guanaja & Ivoire Dark & White Chocolate terrine; and Caramelia Milk Chocolate hazelnut praline choux. The menu will of course be complemented with a selection of teas and coffee for $59 per person. Those who aren’t too keen on the sweetness of it all can opt for a savoury selection for an additional $10 per person, and there’s also a specially-tailored Valrhona Chocolate High Tea for kids menu priced at $27 per child.
Bookings are essential. More information HERE.
Location: 33 Cross Street, Double Bay.
Kensington Street Social
Ever the creative bunch, the team at Chippendale’s inventive Kensington Street Social will be putting together quite the Easter Brunch Feast over the longer-than-long weekend. Starting from Friday 14th up until Monday 17th April, those making the wise choice to head along to restaurant will find an $80pp three-course menu, designed to share with dishes like lamb roast (with all the trimmings), bright and fresh salads, crispy roast potatoes, cheeses and desserts. The regular brunch menu will also be available all weekend.
Location: The Old Clare Hotel, 1 Kensington Street, Chippendale.
The Old Clare
If the above KSS offering isn’t enough for you, hop on over next door on 17th April (Easter Monday) because the Chippendale treasure is collaboration with Kakawa to host an interactive chocolate workshop. $60pp person will get you an afternoon with the chocolatiers of Kakawa, who will be guiding guests through a chocolate tempering demo, a bean-to-bar discussion (the process of growing and harvesting cacao to get it to its edible form), DIY Swiss-style truffles, and of course tastings.
Location: Level 4, The Old Clare Hotel, 1 Kensington Street, Chippendale.
InterContinental Sydney
While their Double Bay property has got a big Valrhona Chocolate partnership to brag about, the InterCon’s highly regarded city hotel will be charging into the Easter Weekend with a series of events held between their magnificent rooftop bar, Supper Club, and their stylish The Cortile. Those who want to take in the view can head up to Supper Club and indulge in a “Barney’s Egg Cocktail”, designed by the hotel’s pastry team with a build of Havana 7 y.o, Baileys, salted caramel, hazelnut bitters and milk, served to guests in a chocolate Easter egg with a basket of edible flowers and a Nutella pot on the side.
On the hand, there’s an Alice in Wonderland-inspired High Tea going on at The Cortile on both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. The space will be completely transformed with timeclocks, eccentric hates and lollipop swirls to help with the atmosphere while there’s an Easter Tea Party Buffet with the likes of Alice’s milk chocolate, pink grapefruit and passionfruit cups, vanilla and shortbread crème brulee, hot cross bunnies, Queen of Heart’s buttermilk vanilla scones, and more. That one will take place from 1pm to 2:30pm across both days or 3pm to 4:30pm, priced at $65 per person.
If you’re not able to head along on Sat or Sun, the hotel will also be doing their signature three-tiered stands but skewed more towards the whole Alice in Wonderland theme, planned for both Good Friday and Easter Menu, 11am-4pm both days at $60 each.
Location: 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
The Langham Sydney
Look, there’s a lot of Alice in Wonderland themed stuff for Easter but there’s a good reason for that. The hugely influential tale seems perfectly suited for an Easter themed occasion, and the good folk at the super lush The Langham Sydney realise this. As such, they’re putting on a Mad Hatter’s Long High Tea for all ages, and it’s also stretching past the Easter weekend with availability up until 25th April.
Expect a themed afternoon tea menu with mini hot cross buns, coconut macarons, champagne on arrival (hot chocolate for kids) and a gentle encouragement for guests to come dressed up, whether it be as the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit or Cheshire Cat. There will be prizes for best dressed, but everyone will end up taking home an Easter gift either way.
Location: 89-113 Kent Street, Sydney.
Camperdown Commons
As part of the recently launched “Harvest at Camperdown” series, the teams from acre, Pocket City Farms and Common Spaces will be uniting to stage three days of epic Easter festivities for all-ages in one of the inner-west’s most increasingly popular destinations.
Good Food & Wine Friday will help kick things off with a huge spread of Easter food favs while acre invite many of their premium suppliers down to showcase their best produce, some of them being Harvest Connect who are offering freshly shucked oysters from 12; Orgazmo Smoked Foods who are bringing their smoker down for fare like smoked salmon and trout; and a few wineries, like Paxton Winery from McLaren Vale, and Howard Park Winery from Margaret River.
Pocket City Farm Store will be popping up on both Friday and Saturday to showcase their freshly picked seasonal fruit and veg, all of which have come straight from the on-site farm (didn’t know there was a farm in Camperdown, did ya?) which will also be powering the farm-to-table long lunch on Easter Saturday.
Sunday will see Camperdown Commons become an Easter themed wonderland with craft workshops for kids, an egg-hunt and one-of-a-kind gingerbread easter eggs (and bunnies).
Location: 31a Mallet Street, Camperdown.
Burger Project
Neil Perry’s Burger Project chain won’t be doing much different over the Easter long weekend. You can still head along to get one of their reliable burgers, but a bit of Easter will find its way onto the menu via the limited edition Hot Cross Bun Ice Cream dessert. The ice cream sundaes here are pretty damn delicious, but this one is sounding extra special with vanilla soft serve, rum-soaked raisins and cinnamon, a chocolate shell topping, and a white chocolate crisscross. Not bad for something that’s $5.90 each. All Burger Project venues will have this on the menu, across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
For all locations head to the official Burger Project website: burgerproject.com
Image: InterContinental Double Bay
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