QT Melbourne has created its very own late night hotspot with the launch of Hot Sauce Laneway Bar. The menu is quirky and mixes both Korean and Japanese street food flavours that delivers a powerful punch to the gourmet scene in Melbourne.
The space cranks up the cool factor with cool set up. TVs showing Japanese and Korean tv shows and imagery, a cool square bar in the middle so you can see the cocktail making up close and the kitchen on show at the back if you’re interested to see the chefs at work.
The menu features an array of unique dishes that are designed to be shared. Pick a few to graze on between drinks or go for it, like we did, and order enough for dinner.
Some items might look familiar like the baos, but the fillings bring together some interesting flavours unlike others around town. We tried the ‘Steam and Stuff Me Baos‘ with the fried chicken filling and the pork belly filling.
The Crispy fried chicken bao with hot sauce, kimchi and American yellow mellow cheese bao was a glorious mix of flavours, with the cheese a welcome addition to the mix that helped to balance the spiciness of the sauce and kim chi. The Pork belly bao was equally intriguing with the pickled mustard greens, hoisin and hot sauce with peanuts. The acidity of the pickled mustard greens cutting through the richness of the pork belly with a flash of heat from the sauce and crunch of the peanuts.
The menu also features a well known bar snack in Japan, Robata Yakitori sticks. You can choose between unagi eel, chicken, pork belly or wagyu balls. The perfect snacks to go with your beer or cocktail at Hot Sauce.
Unagi eel Robata Yakitori Sticks
Other outstanding dishes included the Curry tempura with crab filled chilli, sweet potato, nori, prawn, calamari and a special brown nashi pear sauce. This dish was the most interesting as it’s not often you get curry tempura and the special brown nashi pear sauce made this dish not just one that was all fried. A lovely contrast between the curry, the hotness of the chilli (note that you should have the crab filled chilli with other elements of the dish plus the sauce otherwise you’re in for a hit of chilli!) and the sweetness of the sauce. The great thing also is that it’s such a playful dish with accompanying scissors to help cut up the tempura and an sauce injector to add the nashi pear sauce.
Another dish we really enjoyed was the Special Cup of Caramel Fried Chicken ‘n’ Chilli with Black sesame. As its name suggests, it came in a cup but it wasn’t all filled with Fried chicken. It was half filled (in a separate section) with a Japanese Whisky and smoked cola drink. Meaning you could have a few bites of the delicious fried chicken and then take a break and have a sip of the drink underneath. An innovative and fun dish that is a must-try.
The cocktails are interesting, mixing Asian flavours with western to create the most delectable cocktails around Melbourne.
We loved the dishes at Hot Sauce. An eclectic and innovative mix of flavours that are all familiar but haven’t necessarily been put together like this before. Plus the addition of a wicked cocktail and drinks list, you won’t be thirsty or hungry by the time you’ve left.
Hot Sauce Laneway Bar at QT Melbourne, 133 Russell Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Open 4:30pm until 2am Monday to Saturday.
For more information visit https://www.qthotelsandresorts.com/melbourne/eat-drink/hot-sauce/
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