Visited the ADL J Lounge for the first time today since the refurbished lounge opened last weekish.
I like the space. It definitely feels a lot more welcoming and comforting compared to the old lounge (then again, when the old lounge opened, we kinda said the same thing). The greater inclusion of plant life in the lounge makes it feel less dull.
Food was cauliflower soup, DIY fish tacos (which is white wraps, crumbed fish nuggets, creamy coleslaw and tomato salsa, not the pico de gallo suggested by the printed menu), chicken pasta salad, coconut and chocolate cakes, assorted crudities with hummus (must say, the vegetables looked very fresh), cheeseboard (including muscatels and quince) and all the regular fixins for a toastie and crackers of all sorts.
As mentioned, the cooking station isn't up and running yet, but looking at the cooking equipment it appears to be best set up for pasta or noodles, and prepared-in-the-pan dishes.


Bar looks impressive and there appears to be a nice array of well appointed reds (especially) and whites.
There is definitely a lot of lounge seating, i.e. literally a lounge seat, encouraging groups to sit or individuals with appropriate space in between them. There are a couple of seating sections that appear to be "inside" pockets that provide the most privacy (one of them appears to have a curtain that can be drawn to provide even more of a semblance of privacy).
Admittedly, I would be curious to see how the lounge copes when there are the most flights departing, especially FIFO heavy in/out times and when flights are delayed.


Showers are good, with some oddities. The tile used in the shower rooms makes it naturally quite dark. The shower itself has both handheld shower and overhead shower modes, but the mode selector was placed very high up. I'm 175cm and I was just able to stretch to flip the tap-switch to change the output. Water pressure was more than adequate.
The tap at the vanity basin uses a sensor under the spout, but I think it must be quite sensitive or prone to getting covered by residual water easily. When I entered the shower room, it kept spurting out water in short spurts. When I tried to quickly "wipe off" the tap using a tissue, it stopped doing so. I think this would occur because many people might touch the bottom of the spout when using it.
