Prahran’s new eatery Grand Lafayette is double the fun — morning, noon and night
Meet Prahran’s new dining venue, Grand Lafayette, which by day caters to the brunch and coffee Instagram crowd, with Asian-style spins on classics and some quirky signatures. But by night turns into Japanese all-you-can-eat for the most frugal foodie.
Weekend
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Meet Prahran’s new dining venue doubling down on fun eats, treats and meets. By day, Grand Lafayette caters to the brunch and coffee crowd with Asian-style spins on classics and some quirky signatures.
But by night, this 100-seater turns into a Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant slinging karaage chicken, baked scallops and miso salmon for $32.80 per person.
Owners Solar Liang and Monique Wu opened Cafe Lafayette in Port Melbourne in 2014, but closed it this year to relocate to Prahran to open the bigger and more ambitious Grand Lafayette, which launched last month.
Day time spans naughty and nice, sweet and savoury — and often all at once.
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FOOD
Chicken & Waffles ($22.80) is a wild ride of fried chook pieces tussling with fruit, almonds and fluffy waffles, poured with a berry coulis. It plays with textures and tastes, but is ultimately let down by dry chicken.
More successful was the wasabi scrambled egg ($20), packing the exuberant sinus-clearing punch you expect with a keen green wasabi cream to anoint luxe folds of egg. On a black rice patty, the dish was also bolstered by radish, rocket and pickled cauliflower.
Also spied hitting tables on this sunny Sunday was the Wagyu beef burger ($22.80) with daikon and teriyaki sauce, and the matcha French toast ($19) with puffed rice and caramel popcorn.
The bao (two for $10) are also worth your time. There are five types of the springy steamed bun but pick of the bunch was the braised pork belly in a fragrant satay sauce with crushed peanuts, coriander and pickles.
Lafayette’s signature “raindrop” cakes ($9) have also made their way to Prahran — a clear bead of jelly flavoured with matcha, brown sugar, rose or mint.
DRINK
There’s reliably good Five Senses coffee, but most diners are flying with a super-sized Freaky Shake ($12).
We join the calorie club with the Double-Choc Brownie, a chocolate milkshake piled with cream embedded with candied popcorn and pretzels and a brownie square for an added sugar rush. Other cold sips include an iced matcha latte, freshly squeezed orange or apple juice, and the refreshing Monster’s Drink ($12) of coconut water flavoured with honey, rose or peppermint with iced spheres.
X FACTOR
Modern and multi-levelled, this sprawling space under a new-ish apartment complex looks the goods with white, grey and mint tones complemented by timber tables and well-placed greenery.
SERVICE
Proficient service gets the job done, and no one bats an eyelid when diners stand on the furniture to capture that obligatory food shot.
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
The Insta crowd won’t baulk at paying $20-plus for one of those artful, flower-decorated signature dishes, but more frugal foodies might prefer the all-you-can-eat dinner offering.
VERDICT
From popcorn and pretzels to fried chook and fruit, come here for a brunch, lunch or dinner less ordinary.
Grand Lafayette
9 Clifton St, Prahran
9510 0501
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