Hammer & Tong

Have been delaying this for so long now, has been weeks ago that I visited Hammer & Tong. Has been good fun weeks going for baking classes and celebrating birthday. Hammer & Tong is actually not on the main street of Brunswick, thus you will find the sign, or rather their logo that direct you to turn right into the lane where it is situated.

Hammer & Tong's interior is of a rectangular space that got divided into what seemed like 3 spaces, with main area is levelled slightly higher, and the third area is an all white room. The kitchen area is pretty small and quite open, as you could peeped through the front rectangular glass as well as from the side through the cashier.

Of course we made our research on the cafe's menu and reviews before heading over. I was specifically attracted by the soft shell crab burger. Between four of us, two of us ordered it and the other two ordered slow cooked bbq pork.

The pork belly dish turns out to be superb in both presentation and flavour. It was braised with full flavour, accompanied with some brussel sprouts, black beans and spring onion. In addition to the broth, there are avocado cream and what I suspected to be creme fraiche. I'm definitely not an avocado person but this is very acceptable to my standard, for it being pretty light in flavour. This dish scored it, even the brussel sprout tasted so good, one thing it missed was for the skin to be crispier.

And for the soft shell crab burger, it looked abit of a pity in comparison to the complex plating of the slow cooked pork. The soft shell crab was deep fried and served up with sriracha mayonnaise. To be honest, I couldn't remember the exact taste of the burger, but one thing for sure is it was too salty, way too salty for all of us. This a simple dish but it is always harder to resist soft shell crab. 

In overall, the food here is great except for the soft shell crab being too salty. I will not be getting the soft shell crab again for my next visit, will definitely go for something else instead. However, the slow cooked pork is definitely worth ordering!