Hammer & Tong

Rear 412 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Date visited: 7th December 2013


Hammer & Tong has been another cafe on my wish list for quite some time now.  This place has been gaining more and more momentum ever since its opening in early 2013, and no wonder too, with head chef Simon Ward and manager Dennis Ferreira running the show.

Hammer & Tong is located just off Brunswick St.  The eating house is cleverly fitted out, beautifully light-filled, with furniture that speaks industrial chic.

We were offered a couple of seats at the communal table around the back.  MerlinFan had the Ice Coffee.  The coffee was a bit stronger than your average ice coffee.  The ice cream stood out - it struck us both as almost like salted caramel.

Ice coffee $6

I had a regular Latte, but for some reason, the waiter said it was a Skinny latte when he brought it out.  I don't believe in wasting food (or coffee), and figured skim milk can't do me harm anyway.  It was creamy and silky smooth.

Latte $3.80

Our food didn't take too long to arrive.  As usual, we decided to get a sweet and a savoury to share.  MerlinFan was in charge of savoury today - she picked the Duck egg, asparagus, truffle butter, parmesan briont.

Duck egg $18

Sounds deceivingly simple - classic egg on toast with a twist?  This was so much more.  The briont was certainly the star here, beautifully buttery, a clever hybrid of brioche and croissant, the best of both worlds.  It was topped off by a perfectly fried duck egg with runny yolk, thick parmesan shavings, asparagus and truffle butter.  A match made in heaven - MerlinFan and I agreed wholeheartedly that this was one of the best brunch dishes we've had recently.  

  

My pick of the day was the French toast, peanut butter, raspberry yoghurt ice cream and banana caramel.  Seriously.  This dish had me at peanut butter and banana caramel.

French toast $16

Pretty dishes deserve an extra photo

I loved this too.  I promise it wasn't as sweet as it looked.  The creamy, slightly savoury and melty peanut butter worked harmoniously with the tangy mixed berries and sweet caramelised and fresh bananas.  The raspberry yoghurt ice cream was simply beautiful.  

We were both enjoying our brunch immensely - until it started raining lemon.  MerlinFan was startled when a waiter cleared her neighbour's dishes and sent a used lemon slice flying from their eaten plate on her!  Luckily it didn't fall into her plate and ruin her food, though.  Don't think the waiter even realised @_@

On the way out, we saw the doughnuts by the cashier and couldn't resist getting two for takeaway.  

We chose the Rose custard and lychee with raspberry jam and the Salted caramel.

Rose custard and lychee with raspberry jam donut $5

Salted caramel donut $5

MerlinFan and I were both horrified when she opened up the takeaway paper bag to find a hair stuck on the top of the salted caramel donut (if you look closely you can see it).  To me, there's no worse faux pas than having hair in food, but I didn't want to waste it so I sliced off the top of the doughnut Oren-Ishii death scene style.

Both doughnuts were nice, not spectacular for $5.  I have simple tastes, the best doughnuts to me are the ones piping hot from a doughnut truck.

Overall, the food from Hammer & Tong was undeniably delicious and one of the better brunch offerings we've had in a while.  Hence, despite the boo-boos of flying lemon slices and unappetising hair in food, I am still tempted to return to try the dinner fare or have the duck egg briont again.





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