Hammer And Tong

Seated outside and ordered a coffee, which came promptly. After 30 minutes passed and our server going missing we left $ 5 under the water bottle and left. Very disappointing.

Terrible terrible terrible. So these People in hammer and tong doesnt understand what The good customer service is.
First when i came in and ordered a Coffee, and they spill the coffee to my shirt and to my hand. So now my shirt is dirty and smells terrible. I needed to go home and change the shirt. Not good, serious not a good thing.
And ofcourse when they spilled the coffee, all the waiters disappeared some where at least 2 minutes. So i can tell that 2 minutes can be quite long when your hand and Shirt is covered by coffee, and all the other customers are watching you. Embarrasing.
And when finally waitress came, and all she did is nothing but asks; is this your coffee? After that another waitress came and asked are you ready to order Food? Seriously!!! You can imagine, i was pretty angry then. And after those two guys, finally some one from the staff brought me some napkins.
I work in a hospitality aswell, and where i come from, we do not take care of things like this. We either offer a customer «his» meal or offer to pay «his» laundry expenses.
So this happening ruined totally my breakfast. It was impossible to enjoy about anything after that.
I was supposed to post nice photo and good feeling from hammer and tong to insta and Facebook… But its funny how everything will turn out the other way around.

This has been a place I have been looking to visit. Between the two of us, we had duck egg & candied bacon waffle, sweet & sour ribs and Kentucky fried haloumi nuggets. Everything tasted amazing, I started with the ribs and it was finger licking good. I had to share it with my friend and didn’t think it was enough for me. The waffle came with sirracha ice cream which is thick and creamy but only a tiny hint of sirracha, there was so many components to this dish and they all went so well together, sweet and savoury all mush up in your mouth.
Although some of the staff was friendlier than others. I think we will definitely be back to try the rest of the menu. The ceviche looks amazing and that is on top of my list of to-​try.

Okay, so I think I went on a bad day because I first tried the soft shell crab burger at the night noodle market from the Hammer & Tong stand and it was freakin’ amazing. Thinking that it would be even better at the café itself, I decided to suss it out months later while I happened to be in the neighbourhood.
But yeah. Nah. The soft shell crab burger on that particular day was less than spectacular, a little on the small side (but that was to be expected) and the breakfast ramen didn’t hit the spot either. I mean, for $ 19.50 you get some bacon, mushrooms and a 62 degree boiled egg with ramen noodles. Not that boiling it to 62 degrees makes it worth the price or anything. I guess the novelty of it is that the waitress pours the dashi broth into the bowl for you in an elegant manner. But I mean, I could do that myself for a smaller price tag.
But hey, I would still give the soft shell crab burger at the night noodle market another go. They’ve probably got one of the better soft shell crab burgers out there.

When thinking of where to take an out-​of-​towner to eat at on their first visit to Melbourne, Hammer & Tong has always been at the top of my list. While I haven’t actually been back here for a while (deterred by the huge lines here on the weekends and peak hours), I was eagerly waiting for a good excuse to go back and try their newer dishes. So when a couple of friends were visiting from San Francisco a few weeks ago, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take them here.
We were seated almost immediately as we had arrived before the lunch rush on a Monday morning. I already had my eye on one particular dish on the menu: the salt and pepper french toast topped with a fried duck egg, chorizo smoked oreo crumbs, maple and a serving of salted caramel ice cream. WHAT EVEN H&T.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at first but after a few bites, I was quite taken aback by how well all of the flavours worked together. And those oreo and chorizo crumbs! Kudos to the genius that had come up with this idea. The saltiness of the chorizo worked well to balance out the sweetness of the oreo and maple crumbs. The french toast itself was not too sweet, making its pairing with the fried duck egg all the more better. Top that all off with some salted caramel ice cream and you’ve got yourself a delectable party mix of sweet and salty flavours in your mouth!
Next on the list was another combination of sweet and savoury in the form of a seared tuna and banana split crumpet topped with a poached egg, banana malibu sauce, chocolate caviar, and served with banana and saffron ice cream. Although I did enjoy each of the components on its own (especially the banana and saffron ice cream), I wasn’t a big fan of how it all came together as a dish. The tuna and crumpet together was nice, but it did make for a bit of an odd combination in the end. All in all, this was my probably my least favourite dish of the lot.
Fun story — Amidst taking turns and waiting for everyone in the group to take their own photos, our server actually stepped in and said «I’ll just get you guys a new egg» before taking away the crumpet dish. We all sat there very confused until he came back with the dish and explained that it was the chef’s intentions that the egg be served fresh and that we could take only one more photo this time around: P
The last dish was one that I have had in the past before: the breakfast ramen served with a 62 °C egg, bacon, shiitake mushrooms and bacon dashi. The bacon pieces were delightfully thick and the broth was silky and flavoursome. My favourite part was that egg yolk melting through the noodles. I also liked that the noodles were topped with spring onions to give a fresh feel to an overall warm and densely-​flavourful dish.
I always leave Hammer & Tong with a pining to go back for their innovative and deliciously well-​constructed dishes. Undoubtedly after this meal my friends and I have been left with a newfound appreciation for unusual food pairings that may sound a tad bizarre in theory, but are surprisingly complementary in reality.

Was honestly amazed at the level of the food and service here, quite easy to see why it rates so well!
The French toast is an absolute must!

I have heard about their soft shell crab burger for a long long long long time and have been dying to try it. I didn’t realise Hammer and Tong is actually not too far from my place, so one fine morning I got a few friends together to check it out.
Knowing that I am going to indulge, I ordered a healthy freshly squeezed juice to balance it out. The juice was refreshing and really hits the spot!
Then of course I did order the soft shell crab burger. The charcoal burger was filled to the brim with crab, with it’s magnificent legs splaying delightfully up the sky. The soft shell crab was incredibly fresh and the herbs medley of coriander and spring onions really lightens the slightly greasy dish.
My dining companion ordered potato porridge with Vegemite biscuits. Don’t for one second think that this is healthy. «Porridge» in this case is actually mashed potato. Creamy, buttery, smooth potato. Ohhhh yeah. It was a massive dish but my dining companion managed to eat it all. I mean, how could you resist mash potatoes? I am not a huge fan of Vegemite so I couldn’t comment on the Vegemite biscuit, but my friends thought it was great although they were expecting the biscuit to be crunchy not soggy.
My other friend chose a prawny pasta dish which she thought was fantastic as well, although I found it a little bit rich for brekkie!
We shared a side of KFC haloumi which was amazing! Nom nom nom!
I also ordered a side of fried egg for bubs and they even put bits of micro herb on it for him! I love this place!

Well a chorizo crumble on top of a waffle and fried egg? Maple syrup? That is a serious dish and i’ve got to say it was very very good. The coffee was beautiful.
We came midweek and I believe it’s hard to get in on a weekend, well it was bloody busy on a Thursday morning.
The staff seemed friendly but I wasn’t 100% convinced. However the food was amazing and the coffee very tasty. A bit pricey but still really enjoyed.

Well, wasn’t there a large hype surrounding Hammer & Tong?! In my opinion, a well deserved hype. My oh my, my taste buds are still dancing!
Highlight: the kfc spiced haloumi chips. The accompanying sauce (not too sure what it was) complimented the ‘chips’ perfectly.
Lowlight: our coffee order was lost but after reminding the friendly staff member, with haste did the amazing beverage arrive.
Soft shell crab — a must! Even for a non-​seafood lover such as myself, it was pretty tasty.
The potato salad, wow like nothing I’ve ever had before! Potatoes cooked perfectly with a mix of subtly sweet and savory flavours. Doubt you’ll find anything like it elsewhere.
So, in summary if, you’re looking for somewhere to eat a little out of the ordinary then look nowhere else but to Hammer & Tong.

I have heard good things about this place, particular for really interesting eats, so I was keen to get here for lunch recently.
The menu is definitely more unique than most café brunch spots, but I was disappointed to see that it was still very bread and egg heavy — the two reasons why I tend to avoid brunch all together and aim for later eating. Not a bad mark on them, but if you’re looking to escape those things this isn’t the place.
There’s plenty of space here and there’s free wifi, which is a big plus. One of the girls serving was very friendly and helpful too. Unfortunately, the rest of the service was off. One staff member tried to offer me food right after my plate was cleared, but ran off too quickly to let me order coffee. My friend that met me there had to chase someone down for coffee, only for the order to be completely forgotten. After 20 mins, not a single person came back near us so we had to cancel the coffee and leave. Apparently this wasn’t the first time this has happened and seeing how awkwardly the floor was running, I wasn’t surprised.
For lunch I ended up ordering corn and zucchini fritters and opting for it without the egg. I wouldn’t recommend it, it looked a bit sad without the egg and was resting on a really large bed of unmelted cheese which I found a bit odd and not all that tasty.
This was on a Wednesday afternoon… so I wonder how they run on weekends and peak periods.
I might give it another shot if I was in the area, but maybe for dinner or one of the events they regularly host.

I enjoyed my breakfast here. I came mid week so there wasn’t that same rush as the weekends. The staff therefore weren’t too run off their feet to be attentive and friendly. The coffee was great. They had an experienced barista who did some clever coffee art on my latte. The food was delicious and prompt as well.
A little bit on the expensive side, but overall the prices are quite reasonable when you consider the standard of food and service you receive. I will be back!

I have eaten at a lot of different places around Melbourne to try and find the best place for food, service and atmosphere.
Hammer and Tong was the next on the list.
My first impressions were good, greeted with smiles and friendly faces and the look of the place was cool and casual… tick of approval.
Once seated I wanted to move my chair and one of the other waiters said I couldn’t, now thats fine I understand why but it was the way they went about telling me, rudeness gets no one anywhere in life and i felt a little upset that the experience was let down by a unhappy worker.
I ordered the Baba Ganoush and it was so light and delicious and filled my mouth with scrumptious flavour that I decided to let go the rudeness of the waiter and enjoy the experience.
In the end was happy customer, good coffee and great food!
I will be returning :) :)

Gorgeous
Staff are super friendly, attentive and professional you can clearly see they take alot of pride in their work.
Heading to Melbourne then head to brunswick and check this place out you will not regret it and i guarantee you will be recommending to all of your friends.
If you have a sweet tooth and adore breakfast then order the custard just do it !

There’s hundreds of places doing brunch in Melbourne; dozens of them just in Fitzroy. But not many of them can offer the diversity and quality of the brunch dishes offered at Hammer & Tong.
This is the kind of place you come when you want something a little more exciting than poached eggs on toast. Of course you can still have your poached eggs if you want, but why would you ignore the breakfast ramen made with bacon broth, the zucchini and corn fritters or what sounds like one of the prettiest things you could eat for breakfast — the lavender yoghurt custard? The coffee is from Dukes and delicious, though can be a little slow to come out.
I’m keen to get back here for dinner when the menu leans more to snacky things to have with drinks (beef cheek croquettes, lamb ribs and soft shell burgers) and spicy things to have with a bottle of wine (curry, twice cooked crispy pork).

A small upbeat café with fun décor of old irons, kitchen ware and almost warehouse like design.
We enjoyed beautifully designed coffees and a perfect chai (not too sweet and made from tea leaves).
For food we ordered:
–Corn & zucchini fritters, avocado manchego, spinach, chilli tomato relish, poached or fried egg/​17
–Breakfast ramen — 62c hens egg, bacon, oyster mushroom, spring onion, bacon dashi $ 15
–Haloumi $ 4
–Baba Ganoush $ 18
Worth the drive and the wait for a relaxing and friendly breakfast.

Wow. What a place. Nestled in the booming (it may have already boomed though I guess) café area of Brunswick, Hammer and Tong definitely stands out. Went during a weekday lunch period, and as you’d expect it was very busy and had to make the most of the bar bench. Whilst not ideal, I was able to though check out the old school grinders, filters and all other contraptions you’d never see anywhere else. I definitely enjoyed that.
Food wise it was pretty good. I ordered the soft shell crab burger. It was small, but delicious. I did suggest that they offer 2 for $ 20 (which fell on very flat ears) as they aren’t very big, and $ 14 for one is on the dear side, but it was definitely worth trying. My friend also had the corn and zucchini fritters. They were presented so amazingly well, and a very different variation on the normal burger styled fritter. Try them out, you’ll know what I mean.
It’s also one of the rare cafes that is also open for dinner, with a menu that looks just as good, or if not better than the lunch one. That’s one thing I’m definitely keen to do!

So before I came to Melbourne, I searched quickly for a good brunch place. And a few people had raved about this place. And usually I don’t listen to the hype, but I have to say it is all true.
Coffee here was fantastic! To make of this comment I made sure that I had more than one cup. It is a little bit smoother than I like, but still a great cup of coffee.
I had the breakfast muesli while a friend tried the breakfast raman. Both dishes were good and worth the money that we paid for them. Also, on our way out we made sure that we grabbed a salted caramel and cookies & cream doughnuts.
The staff were friendly, which is always a bonus. But we warned this place is small, so you might have to wait for a table.

I tell you what the portion of my devilled eggs was small (I did get informed by the spunky waitress) but unbelievably brilliant. Full of flavor and very creative. I nearly forgot it was breakfast and felt like I was having dinner in one of Dan Hunters restaurants.
Bravo

Sunday brunch has never looked so good. I have to admit we were both starving and we ordered 3 dishes between 2 people but there were no regrets only very happy diners.
I ordered the lamb admittedly this is much more lunch than brunch. The plate was beautifully presented with two perfect squares of minted lamb and a goats cheese pana cotta with a beautifully light apple and eucalyptus gel.
The other dishes ploughed into by my companion were both deliciously decadent. The bread was substituted for a light and fluffy brioche for both their signature soft shell crab burger and the duck eggs with mushrooms. The duck egg dish also featured fontina cheese melted onto the brioche and a very rich mayonnaise like sauce. This was a far richer dish than what I anticipated but oh so good.
Also noteworthy is their drinks menu with house made sodas and milkshake flavours including toblerone and golden gay time. The only complaint by my companion was that this wasn’t thick enough however the staff were more then happy to oblige and quickly corrected it.
To avoid the queues sit at the bar. It’s more fun and you get to meet the baristas and watch all the food creations come out.

Visited Hammer & Tong today for brunch with one of my best girlfriends. We arrived fairly early, just after 9am, and were seated immediately at a bench along the window.
Water was provided and a drinks order taken immediately. We then perused the menu trying to decide what to have! We both ended up ordering the corn & zucchini fritters which came with avocado, spinach & your choice of a poached or fried egg. We both opted for poached.
The food came out super quickly and was delicious! The eggs on both of our meals were perfectly poached with runny yolks and the avocado was delicious and creamy. The fritters were ball shaped and crispy. There were three generous sized fritters, plus half an avocado, spinach & the egg, all presented beautifully in a stack on the plate, with a chilli type relish to tie it all together.
I had a breakfast tea, followed by a soy chai, both of which were brewed very well. My friend has a soy latte which she also enjoyed.
All in all a yummy brunch with lovely, efficient service! We definitely want to go back & try more of the interesting menu!