Hoo Ha Bar

Overview

There are few places you can turn up for Friday knock-off drinks one night and be back the next morning for breakfast. And it will be there on that Friday, flicking through the leather-bound menu for cocktails or craft beers that your greedy eyes will spy a short but very sharp morning offering.

More tempting than the mouth-watering yet simple combinations – such as 12-hour slow-cooked pulled pork – are the prices. Be sure to save your last $20 on Friday night as that's all you'll need to come away with a hangover-curing breakfast and salted caramel milkshake, with change to spare.

Tucked away in South Bank next to the train station, but not on busy Grey St, Hoo Ha Bar is a polished but comfortable bar and cafe with an undeniably Australiana feel. The large space is filled with a mish-mash of of solid-wood tables and chairs and a set of brown leather sofas. The owners have sanded back many layer of paint to reveal brickwork behind the bar, one wall is painted a eucalypt green and native fresh flowers adorn each table.

It's refreshing to find a bar that is spacious, filled with seating and plays music at just the right level, and great music at that. Hoo Ha boasts a fairly enviable cocktail list and we can tell you, first hand, that the Bison Shake is not to be missed. A mix of vodka, peach schnapps, apple juice, passionfruit puree and grapefruit bitters are shaken until foamy and served martini style. They have their own take on a few classics, and those with a penchant for an espresso martini should get their hands on the Cuban Espresso – rum, espresso shot, coffee liqueur, Angostura bitters and cinnamon syrup. They have a number of taps serving craft beers that rotate regularly, the current selection is updated on their website.

Boozy nights call for a hearty breakfast to follow and if a fancy Mac 'n' Cheese won't do the trick, perhaps an eggs on toast stack will. Not to be called ordinary, Hoo Ha stacks rocket, a roasted field mushroom, haloumi, poached egg and homemade pesto on a slab of turkish toast for just $13. If vegetarian ain't your game, the aforementioned 12-hour slow-cooked pulled pork is served as a reuben sandwich on sourdough with house-made sauerkraut, gruyere and dijon, also $13, also out-of-this-world good.

They serve Supreme Roasters coffee – a very smooth drop. And you mustn't, I repeat, must not leave Hoo Ha without having tried the salted caramel milkshake. They dust this beauty with cinnamon, it mightn't sound like much but it truly takes it to the next level.