Located within Chris Lucas’ lavish fine diner Society, Lillian Brasserie is a European-inspired bar and restaurant offering a more relaxed counterpoint to its sibling, equally suited to late-night cocktails as it is champagne-fuelled long lunches.
Executive chef Luke Headon (Ezard at Levantine Hill, The Fat Duck) takes classic French and European influences and continues Society’s strong seafood focus. You might order spanner crab linguine tossed with lobster oil and tarragon; King George whiting doused in sauce americaine; or Headon’s take on a classic niçoise salad. The kitchen also boasts a woodfired grill, turning out proteins such as a 650-gram rib eye steak with a bone marrow glaze.
Alongside a precise rendition of a classic Martini, the cocktail list is headlined by a signature creation blending Saint Felix bitter citrus aperitivo with gin, rosé, strawberry gum, and finished with a dusting of peppermint.
The wine program makes the most of Society’s 10,000-bottle cellar using a Coravin system. And, in a nod to high society of yesteryear, Dom Pérignon rosé is available by the glass.
As a child, Chris Lucas was enamoured with the opulence and style of influential fashion retailer Lillian Wightman’s Collins Street boutique, Le Louvre. So it was only natural that his lavish European brasserie – which overlooks the former site of Wightman’s shop from a sweeping outdoor terrace – would be inspired by the late style icon.
