the lobo plantation

the entrance had potted plants and the stairway to the underground was laced with vines. the room was very large, ceilings were low and the walls had paint peeling off. i'm not sure now but they had table service during the weekday and the waiters will sit down beside you to take orders. lively, friendly and intimate bar.

thecocktailswere great, with a variety of differentcocktailsthat will surely satisfy everyone. it mainly sells cocktails, so the wine and spirits menu weren't as comprehensive. i thoroughly enjoyed the drinks and service. would recommend to give it a try.

nice night out but super packed and super loud for a thursday night. ate the 3 cheese sweet potato fritters, chicken empanadas and cuban sandwich. the cuban sandwich was awesome! coolcocktailsand quirky spot!

super chic place with a cosy and stylish ambience, bar was a bit hard to find as it was underground. friendly service, enjoyed 2 drinks on some comfy sofas - place is quite popular as it starts getting packed around 6. greatcocktails!

the ambience sold it for me. with classic rumcocktailsand hard to find caribbean local beers, the bar is great for an after work drink.

tip-try the cocktail with cinnamon sticks.
the bar tenders roast the sticks with a gasoline flame and stick it in the glass..flame it on the bar!

this is the coolest find ever. i love this place, with the long leather lounges and candles everywhere, how can you not feel right at home?
the bar tenders are friendly and know what they’re doing. they even use fire during the process of creating somecocktails(ahh so cool!).
being on clarence street also makes this bar very accessible as it’s quite close to town hall station and there are usually taxis driving up and down the street for you to catch if need be.
the only issue would be with actually getting into the bar itself if you’re disabled.. although the spiral stairs have a rail for people to hold, those who struggle in their feet may find the stairs difficult and a little dangerous as they are a little steep, winding and poorly lit. hopefully there’s a lift for people who wouldn’t be able to manage the stairs.
overall though, i love this place and plan to have many morecocktailshere 👌🏻

cuban and creole rhythm to get you going. coming from an island, the soothing touches of green and reminders of plantation days made me smile. i loved my little duck in my cocktail, had a fewcocktailswith cuban tunes playing in the background. nice little place.

after loving thecocktailsat kittyhawk, i really should have gone directly to the lobo plantation. it’s the precursor bar, owned by the same trio; jared merlino, michael hwang and eddie levy. the sticking point for me was the focus on rum…

the bar is named for the most famous havana sugar baron, julio lobo, who lived the high life in cuba. cuba’s richest man at the time, he was one of the last wealthy people to leave, a year after the 1959 revolution. on his way out, his art collection – which included paintings by diego rivera and salvador dalí – was confiscated by the state.

you enter this bar modelled on lobo’s exiled hideout through a candlelit row of potted palms, descending a grand curved staircase into a richly decorated room with hints of plantation mansion. the leather-bound cocktail menu gives a good selection of cocktail choices with plenty of detail, from a position statement to ingredients and an image so you’ll know if your resulting drink will be long or short. the bar’s real resource however, is its bartenders, like daniel “paris” hilton on the evening i visited. they’re happy to save you some reading and create you a bespoke drink centred upon your personal predilections. they’re also great ambassadors for rum...

an interesting pub set in the basement of a commercial building. it's got an interesting decor.
it's a spot hit up by the locals who work around the area who frequent the place for after work drinks and nibbles. it's also an nice spot for couples although the music gets a bit too loud later on making it difficult for couples to continue their conversation.

hits: rum basedcocktails(except for )
miss: nibbles - mexican starters
big miss: found the prices ofcocktailsto be steep (between aud 17-22)

my rating says it all.

amazing rumcocktailsand great vibe even on a weeknight! food portions are small though so i wouldn't come here for dinner 😉 definitely would return!

named after cuba’s last sugar baron, julio lobo, this bar prides itself on being as extravagant as the pre-revolutionary figure himself.

descend a set of spiral stairs into the depths of clarence street and you’ll find yourself somewhere in the caribbean. there’s plenty of potted plants, oodles of plantation feels, cane light fittings and a shit load of rum, imported from all corners of the globe. lobo plantation has a reputation for serving up some of the bestcocktailsin the land and if the pyrotechnics behind the bar are anything to go by, this place is on fire.

i will admit, i’m not the biggest rum drinker. something my pirate of a husband guffawed at when we were here. yet, despite the fact that this rum bar has few wines to choose from (yes, i appreciate how stupid that sentence sounds), i absolutely love this place. purely for the fact that you can fool yourself into thinking that you’re on holiday.

this little bar was such a nice setting as you walked through the doorway and descend down the stairs to a caribbean themed bar.

best part was they had greatcocktailsand known for the variety of rum, so reading through the menu will keep you busy.

the drinks were really delicious and looked amazing.

go down a set of stairs down to a really dark bar lit by candlelight. it has a nice atmosphere but what seemed like a promising evening became quite a disappointment. they have a lengthycocktailsmenu all starting from 22-24 bucks. i had a lengthy conversation with my bartender about getting fresh watermelon juice with a shot of vodka and he recommended that i get their clementine which was essentially fresh watermelon juice wirh liquor. i told him rhat rhe description said it was watermelon syrup and i didn't want sugar in my drink. he promised that he would make it eirh fresh watermelon.

when i got my drink, it had syrup in it and the waitress told me she added more lime to reduce the sugar syrup taste. so it wasn't fresh. and that's the only reason i ordered the drink. fail.

the empanadas we ordered weren't classic empanadas with the thick flour crust pastry but were squishy fritters. disappointment. not nice.

the pulled pork dish which was more expensive was more mushroom than pork. disappointment again

they also take your credit card and id from you at the start and hold onto it. seriously yiu can't run away without paying as the place is super congested and you can't really run up the rickety stairs.

dont like it.

great bar with fun cocktail options, energetic staff, appealing decor and a great vibe. pretty loud, so great for social but maybe not for intimate dates. as with all small bars, less packed on school nights. loved the sweeping stair case, rubber duckycocktailsand the free bar snacks (salted banana chips)...

nice ambience place for weekend drinks. love the vast variety ofcocktailsand the prices varies. there's special limited editioncocktailsthat's currently recommended

1950s cuba. you feel like you're in a time warp in this bar. it has that real colonial impression when you first walk in, it is quite dim inside to create this sense of mystique, enhance your curious senses and give of that exclusive vibe. they matched it very well with the grand staircase, flamboyant fixtures and furnitures. it was plasant to have a drink here but it felt outlandishly pretentious, so much so. still... my drinking companion and i both had threecocktailseach before dinner but i guess he didn't find the drinks all that special but i quite enjoyed my three cocktails.
they were alot stronger than one might think, which is good. walked out with a high after the cocktails... it whetted our appetite for something savoury. dinner time was calling or name! had we come here after dinner...? who knows how long we could have been there for!?
nice cocktail bar to stop off and grab a few fancy ones or a glass of vino.