Hammer and Tong

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Rear, 412 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 9041 6033

My score: 3.5/5

Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, was an exciting food strip in the 1980s and early 1990s, strung with seminal restaurants and cafes like Mario’s, Joe’s Garage, Rhumbaralla’s and the Black Cat, plus a reasonable representation of immigrant cuisines like Afghan, Thai and Greek. Some of those golden oldies are still going but the buzz hasn’t always lingered. Today, I wouldn’t quite put Brunswick Street on my Melbourne must-munch list but there are definitely good things happening here.

Hammer and Tong is one of a new breed of modern players, doing the all-day dining thing from a stylish cobbled together space, entered from Westgarth Street just off the main drag (it’s where Brix flickered and fell). It’s got a good feel from morning to night, with eager, friendly staff and a sharing plate menu that zooms with the zeitgeist. Quinoa? Check. Flavoured butter. Yep. Edible soil. Ooh, yeah. Popping candy? You betcha.

There’s plenty of good stuff to eat and the pricing is keen. Crisp, light pumpkin fritters come with a lively coriander sauce. Subtle nettle and broccoli risotto is given a massive push by oozy taleggio cheese. A pumpkin dessert is a symphonic arrangement of savoury, sweet, salty, fluffy, sticky, crisp and dense elements – it’s an exciting journey.

Not all the food sings. I think it’s because cool ideas sometimes sprint ahead of the technique and consistency necessary to back them up. The ‘Fitzroy garden’, a composed salad, has elements both good (funky mushroom ‘soil’) and underwhelming (chilly shaved carrot and beetroot). A chicken main course wasn’t entirely satisfying. The fillet was juicy but it was on gluggy corn mush and garnished with shards of golden but not-quite-crisp chicken skin that spoke of good intentions not fully realised. I never love paying for bread ($4) and the enormous doorstops of brioche with a disproportionately small cylinder of (delicious) oat butter didn’t make it feel like a good deal. That brioche works much better for brunch, when it’s the gorgeous sop for duck egg and an intoxicating truffled brown butter sauce.

The coffee is great, the wine list is excellent, and I love the Turkish Delight soda, fizzy, fragrant and rosy pink, flecked with vanilla and sprigged with mint. Overall, there is lots to like: fine dining flourish comes at low, low prices, there’s caring service and a happy feeling that Hammer and Tong is part of a Brunswick Street renaissance.

See their website.

More Brunswick Street restaurants:

Yong Green Food, 421 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 9417 3338
The nearby Vegie Bar is the grand old dame of the meat-free scene but Yong is totally worthy. The international menu roams from Vietnamese salads to chilli beans to Japanese rice.

Rice Queen, 389 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 9419 6624
Transported from Smith Street, happily kitsch, and with a karaoke room down the back, Rice Queen serves up baby banh mi baguettes, curries, noodles and stir-fries. Try the Korean ‘tacos’.

Babka Bakery Cafe, 358 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, 9416 0091
Blintzes in the morning, pies for lunch, croissants any time and bread to go: that’s my Babka routine and I’ve stuck to it across two decades

First published in The Age, July 7, 2013