Restaurant Labart is a modern restaurant with sophisticated Parisian bistro-style interiors, including a leather banquette, timber tables, an open kitchen and mirror-backed bar that seduces you into ordering that extra cocktail.
Owner and chef Alex Munoz Labart says, “Our sole purpose is to make people happy. We want to do away with the idea that delicious food needs to be served with stuffiness and formality. I want our guests to enjoy the experience, as much as they do the food. For me, one is as important as the other.”
Munoz Labart has an impressive resume including stints at some of Sydney’s top restaurants including Monopole, Cirrus Dining, Marque and Est. before making the seachange to the Gold Coast with wife Karla, who runs front-of-house at Labart, and is a warm and welcoming host.
Karla, who hails from the Gold Coast, recognised a gap in the local dining scene for Alex’s cooking: “We’ve been visiting Burleigh Heads for years, and for us, this is the perfect opportunity for a seachange. We want locals to embrace Restaurant Labart as their own and treat it as the kind of place you can visit once or twice a week, discovering new dishes and interesting wines each time.”
The menu changes daily, moving through snacks and small and large plates offering guests the opportunity to share plates or indulge individually.
A six-course set menu is also available, and is the obvious way to go at just $65pp! The set menu might include Burleigh Baker baguette with caramelised butter, Rangers Valley beef tartare with rice crisp, and then charred carrots with hazelnut and comté.
Larger individual plates rolling out of the kitchen include blue eye trevalla with rapini, pistachio and herb sauce, followed by duck with plum, thyme, and jus, and Pommes Anna with smoked sour cream, chives and kombu.
Be sure to leave room for dessert, though, as treats like chocolate mousse topped with popcorn ice-cream and hazelnut are bound to round out your night on a high note.
On the drinks front, the concise list is made up of wines from unique Australian producers and international winemakers, including biodynamic and natural wines.
Quickly claiming its seat at the table of destination-diners in the region, Labart is well worth the road trip from Brisbane and afar! Looking to make it a trip? Stay at the nearby bonSol apartments for four+ nights before October 31 and they’ll gift you $200 to spend at Labart!
If the sole purpose of Labart is to make people happy, goal achieved – the seriously delicious food and exceptional service make for a faultless dining experience in an unlikely location.
By Sally Scott of Alluxia.
