Marra Bar and Grill
(Inside Coogee Bay Hotel)
253 Coogee Bay Road
Coogee, Sydney
Marra Bar and Grill is a casual, relaxing venue with a unique ceiling that resembles a sand dune. The venue is inside the iconic Coogee Bay Hotel and overlooks the equally iconic Coogee Beach. This year Marra Bar and Grill celebrates 150 years and it is still going strong! To commemorate this they have put together Monthly Specials which are certainly worth checking out.
For drinks Sir had the 1940’s Mai Tai - Pampero Blanco, Cointreau, Ron Zacapa, lime juice and sweet orgeat syrup. This delicious cocktail was from their monthly Legacy Menu celebrating 150 years strong.
Mlady chose a signature cocktail, Lychee Dream. This had Tanqueray gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, Anna Spinato Prosecco, sugar syrup and soda. Mlady is quite partial to Lychee flavoured drinks and she did enjoy this.
We both love oysters, so as a starter we had a few to whet our appetites. They had a lovely cab sav vinaigrette which complemented them so well. The mix of tang and creamy oysters was delicious.
Our next starter was their amazing sweet corn ribs with dashi butter, nori seeds, lime and kewpie majo. These really were delicious. They had a nice juicy crunch, and the lime and kewpie mayo was wonderful. After we finished the ribs, the plate looked like a dinosaur’s graveyard!
Sir went with a steak for his main course - a Scotch Fillet. It was cooked perfectly as Sir ordered, medium rare, and came with a serving of its own lovely fluffy creamy mash and a very nice peppercorn jus. Steak and peppercorn jus are a good match together and this hefty and good quality cut of meat was delicious.
As part of the year long celebrations, great dishes from the past are being brought back for short “guest appearances”. From the 1970’s menu, Mlady could not go past the Bangers and Mash. This was pork sausages, caramelised onion, gravy and mash. Mlady loved everything about this. This combination is a favourite of hers. The sausages were tasty, the mash was fluffy and the caramelised onion and gravy completed this dish perfectly.
As a side we had broccolini with cashew pesto. This was a good choice as it went so well with both our mains.
Keeping with the theme of the 150-year celebrations, we both had a very nice CBH 150th Anniversary Shiraz from The Hunter Valley. It was a lovely drop of red and very easy to drink with subtle tones.
Mlady loves chocolate and chose the Chocolate Parfait for dessert. This was so smooth and cool with really good peanut and chocolate flavours that was so perfectly balanced.
Sir chose his dessert from the Legacy menu, had the Sticky Date Pudding with butterscotch sauce. Sir is a fan of Sticky Date and this really was mouthwatering with a scrumptious rich butterscotch sauce. The biscuit crumble added a nice mixture of textures to this lovely dish.
Marra Bar & Grill is a big place in an even bigger place - The Coogee Bay Hotel. That said, it doesn’t seem cavernous as they’ve split the area up into smaller spaces that all combine to work so well.
Sir and Mlady dined as guests of Marra Bar and Grill Coogee. Big thank you to Alana for taking time from her busy schedule to chat and look after us. Thank you also to Alana for looking after us on the night. Special thanks to Original Spin for arranging this visit.