Into the Rabbit Hole we go for our next food motivated trip around Sydney. This edition is specially dedicated to Annette who unfortunately could not make it on the day - but if she could, I would've made the meta joke that she'd be late for our very important date! (Face it Annette, it's true :p). Just a 5 minute walk away from Redfern station, The Rabbit Hole is an organic tea bar that serves a large selection of unique tea blends as well as some delectable sounding tea-infused food. Perfect for a tea lover like me.
As the name suggests, the tea bar is vaguely Alice in Wonderland themed. The toilets are decorated with a Wonderland flair and your order number is given to you in the form of playing cards, which I thought was a cute idea. When you first step into the little restaurant, there's a Japanese minimalistic yet slightly rustic feel to it. It's simply decorated with wooden tables and paper lantern lights with a white and gold colour theme. In the center there's also a table displaying all of their tea blends and little paper cups are provided in case you want to try a sip of any of them. Unfortunately I didnt get to capture a photo of this though.
Honestly everything on the menu sounded amazing and I had a hard time choosing what to eat but I was craving noodles that day so I eventually settled on the "Green tea noodles with sesame vegetables and Earl grey vinaigrette." But if I thought choosing the food was already difficult enough, I wasn't ready for the even tougher question of what tea to pair it with. So many options - should I opt for a fruity tea or an earthy tea? A tea latte or a tea leaf blend? Or maybe even a tea soda? After spending a considerable amount of time mulling over all my options, I decided to choose "Dragonwell," which according to the menu is "A delicacy of buttery, pan roasted green tea."
The noodles came out first and I've gotta say, it was quite visually appealing. It was so colourful and the scattered rose petals added a nice extra touch of colour as well. Taste wise, the noodles were palatable. The Earl grey vinaigrette had a very subtle tea flavour which I thought could've been stronger, but the tartness made the noodles more addictive. Overall I was satisfied and it resolved my noodle craving.
Shortly after the noodles arrived, my tea came on a tray with a hourglass timer. The waiter pleasantly explained that once the timer was up, my tea would be done and all I'd have to do was turn the dial at the top of the teapot to clear away the tea leaves and voila! My tea would be ready. The entire process made my tea drinking feel much more exciting as I got to feel in control of my tea brewing, not to mention, watching the leaves clear away was super intriguing. The tea itself was really nice! I could definitely taste the buttery undertones and it was very aromatic yet not too bitter (although I do like bitter teas). Green tea is also my favourite type of tea so it was also great on that front.
I think if I ever got the chance to, I'd come back again, I mean, I've got so many more teas to try! And it's also a great place to bring your vegan/vegetarian friends to. Oh and before I forget, I didn't get to try them out this time but there were also a lot of tea-infused desserts which looked amazing. Perhaps next time, Annette?
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