Southern Gold Coast’s Restaurant Labart’s surprising pre-dinner nibble a hit with diners

Before they’ve even ordered their first course, customers rave about a prestigious southern Gold Coast restaurant’s pre-dinner nibble. And you’ll soon be able to buy it and take it home.

THOSE who’ve dined at Burleigh Heads’ Restaurant Labart have one piece of advice for newcomers: try the butter.

The prestigious eatery has been named the best on the Gold Coast in the delicious 100 list, a comprehensive ranking of the state’s best resturants.

While its impeccable dishes made with Australian ingredients and French technique, stellar customer service and curated wine list are all reasons for the accolade, owner Karla Munoz Labart said customers can’t get enough of its pre-dinner edible.

INSIDE GOLD COAST’S NEW ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Owners Alex and Karla Munoz Labart at Restaurant Labart in Burleigh, the Gold Coast’s top ranked restaurant in the delicious. 100. Photograph: Jason O'Brien

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“We have bread and butter at the table, and the house-made butter has taken on a world of its own, people are obsessed with it,” she said.

“We’re about to start bottling it up in jars and sell it. The chefs have a whole process to make it – it’s caramelised butter, they melt it down and do a brown butter technique, then whip it. It’s next level.”

Recently celebrating its first birthday, Restaurant Labart is the product of Karla and her husband Alex Munoz Labart, an esteemed chef who has worked in some of Sydney’s most high-profile restaurants.

Ms Munoz Labart said the restaurant creates dishes that look simple but require superior skill to execute, bolstered by exceptional customer service.

“We came into this wanting to create a kind of restaurant we would like to eat at,” she said.

“We call it ‘new Australian’ – it’s basically simple, seasonal produce on the plate you might think you could cook at home, but the technique behind it takes it to that next level.

NAKED CHEF TO OPEN FIRST EATERY ON THE GOLD COAST

Could you make this at home? Unlikely. Cured mullet roe, white peach, pickled beetroot and witlof. Photograph: Jason O'Brien

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“When you’re dining the menu is dated with that date, because at least one or two things change every day.

“A dish that has been on since day one is the crab, it’s a local spanner crab with charred leeks and roasted crab broth, it takes almost 72 hours for us to make it.”

After listening to its customers, Restaurant Labart will have a strong focus on serving a “long” and “short” sample menu with a la carte options available for lunch and various evenings.

“When we looked at the data, 95 per cent do the set menu which shows they’re here for the full experience,” Ms Munoz Labart said.

Originally published as Southern Gold Coast’s Restaurant Labart’s surprising pre-dinner nibble a hit with diners