Garden Brasserie

The garden at Garden Brasserie is not your typical kind. It's an impressive four-metre vertical garden, which breathes an airy, outdoorsy feel through the rest of the two-storey bar. By weekday, Garden Brasserie is packed with corporate types, spilling out onto Grosvenor Street, enjoying the ‘6 before 6’ ($6 drinks before 6pm each day). But by weekend, the suits are cleared out in favour of a more relaxed crowd with a strong female contingent. Not that it’s surprising – both the decor (lights suspended in bird cages) and the cocktail list (sweet, pretty, and easy to drink) are aimed at the feminine crowd. Take the Kyoto Gardens Martini – rhubarb-infused sake, black cherry, iced Sencha tea, topped with Jasmine tea foam – what it lacks in booze-kick, it makes up for in taste. The wines are reasonable, starting at just $6 a glass, but it’s the extensive spirits list, which gets a menu of its own, that impresses the most.