Laundry Bar

What better way to break up a long drive down south than by stopping into one of the South West's newly opened small bars, The Laundry bar in Busselton. After three hours sitting in the hot car I couldn't think of anything better than an ice cold beer and some decent food to carry us over for the remaining hour and a half journey to our final destination.

As the name suggests, The Laundry is located in a renovated 96 year building formerly home to a laundromat/dry cleaners. The place looks great, polished wooden floors, exposed brick walls and modern furniture throughout. There's even a large portrait of some old industrial washing machines at the rear, paying homage to the buildings past life. We sat in the middle of the restaurant area opposite the semi open kitchen, which was both a good and bad experience, good because we were able to smell all the delicious food being cooked for us and other patrons but bad because it was making us incredibly hungry.

The seasonal menu had a small, but interesting selection of 'share portions' as well as sides. The drinks menu had a good selection of local reds and whites as well as locally brewed beers. It's not every day you find your new favourite beer and I don't bandy around the term 'favourite beer' without careful consideration. However, the Eagle Bay Brewing's Kolsch is currently my favourite beer, its brilliant, refreshing and plenty of hoppy flavour without being too overpowering. I am so glad i decided to order it as I'd been to the Eagle Bay brewery a few times before but always had the Pale Ale - another very decent drop. Food wise we ordered 3 natural oysters, a falafel salad, a plate of local venison chorizo with grilled octopus and a side of fries with aioli.

The food came out reasonably fast and was presented as well as it tasted. It was all great, the flavours were amazing and the portions were well sized. I love that they use locally sourced produce, our state's South West has some of the best produce in Australia and any bar/restaurant in the area would be crazy not to take advantage of it. My favourite would have to be the venison chorizo with octopus, it had a good spicy kick to it which was nicely countered by the sweetness of the roasted peppers on the plate and an absolute winner with the Kolsch.

Staff were really friendly and looked genuinely happy to be at work and the overall value was fairly decent too, just over $60 for the two of us. The next time you're driving down south and get to the Busselton roundabout, do yourself a favour and chuck a right instead of the usual left to Dunsborough, then head down to the Laundry Bar for a drink and some great food.