Jackalberry is located on the ground floor of the Hyatt Regency on Sussex Street in the Sydney CBD. Set in a heritage building space, it’s nice to see they’ve kept the façade with a nod to Sydney’s historic past.

Whilst the Hyatt already has a few bars, including one of our favourites, Zephr, they have opened this new bar, with street frontage to appeal to bar trotters and those in search of good cocktail or two. We must add that this bar serves up what we currently regard as the best cocktails in Sydney and we’re sure this will become the bar on everyone’s lips in no time. They were even recently awarded Sydney’s best new bar at the Hotel awards.

Jackalberry, named after the native African tree, which is in fitting with its ‘around the world’ theming with influences from across the globe, it’s like an urban jungle where its décor features travel inspiration, from world globes, to shells and safari wallpaper, and plants to give that feel of an indoor oases.

The space is large and feels very chic with a circular booth seating, and bar stools where you can catch a glimpse of the talented French bartender/mixologist Remy carefully crafting some amazing cocktails.  The cocktail menu offers eight drinks with inspirations from around the world such as France, Netherlands, Japan, Greece, Cuba, Mexico and the UK. As a lover of all things Japanese, I began with the drink drawing inspiration from Osaka, Japan. Aptly titled ‘tea time’, this drink is made with Robu Gin, Yuzu puree, black sesame and Earl Grey syrup and lemon juice, it is a smooth and easy to drink cocktail, like enjoying a refreshingly sweet tea.

We’re grateful to Remy for introducing us to two new cocktails, to appear on their Spring menu when it launches. One was their version of a whisky sour made with Bullet Bourbon, lemon, shitake mushroom and topped with rocket. A slightly sour and drink, with a good amount of sweetness wand a hint of mushroom on the back palate, producing a drink with excellent flavour combinations.

We had a Lemon meringue pie cocktail, served in a tall glass, the Frangelico providing the flavour of the pastry based, very cleverly concocted. In addition, the ice cup resting on the glass with the meringue foam added that extra creative flair.

We love our food, so of course we were keen to try a few things on the menu, which showcases 14 dishes from around the world. The food here complements the theming and the cocktails beautifully. It is like a travel itinerary on a plate.

Beginning with a dish influenced by Bern, Switzerland, we try the ‘Tete De Moine’, which is essentially a fancy cheese plate with a beautifully presented fanned out slices of cheese with pickled walnuts, shiraz poached pears and shards of honeycomb, served with grissini. We loved this dish and the interesting intricacy of flavours.

Followed up by some refreshing vegetable rice paper rolls with a coriander and hoi sin chilli dip, hailing from Hanoi in Vietnam and the lightly fried stuffed pumpkin flowers with date, kumara puree and bronze fennel from Marrakesh, Morrocco. These dishes are good little tasting plates to accompany a drink or two.

The sliced butler steak was cooked nicely, served with chimichurri and skinny fries. The meat was seasoned perfectly with a rio grande spice rub and we feel this is a generous and more substantial meal that comes highly recommended. The Persian style lamb koftas, hailing from Tehran, Iran were also nice moist pieces of meat, nicely flavoured, accompanied with a spinach borani yoghurt.

My favourite of the night was their Kati Kati wrap, influenced from Camaroon, Africa. Whilst at first look, you may think it’s just a wrap, but that’s most certainly not the case. It is some amazing chicken that has incredible flavour combination of spices, served inside a flat bread and so tasty, we could have eaten a few of these. We also think this is a great bar snack.

Honestly, everything here is on point. The food and cocktail menu is in fitting with the theming and really creates a feeling of travelling the globe.

We feel it is well suited to the date night, catch up with friends or groups and on the night we visited there were a few couples, small groups and a few pre or post wedding guests. You could even hire this event out for a small party.

We would highly recommend Jackalberry for your next social occasion.

Address:  161 Sussex Street, Sydney
Phone:  02 8099 1234
Hours:  Mon – Sat – 7am – late
Website:  Jackalberry