Address: 525 Little Collins St, Melbourne, 3000
Phone: 03 9614 3277
Website: www.henryandthefox.com.au/
Facebook: here
Twitter: @henryandthefox
Cuisine: Modern Australian
Price: $$$
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri: 7.30AM – 10PM
Foodie Partner: Nick Z
I’ve been wanting to try out Henry And the Fox for quite sometime, but never had a chance to. A opportunity had risen for Audrey and I to visit, however we found out that it wasn’t opened on the weekend :(
It so happened that my ex colleague had tweeted me whether I would be in town to have lunch, and it did so happen that I had the day off on the day, so I agreed to lunch. Of course the choice of the restaurant was left to me, so I asked Nick to visit me for lunch. It was great catching up with Nick, as I haven’t seen him since the time I resigned from my old work place. (Don’t confuse Nick Z, with the close friend Nick who went to Sharing house with me)
Whilst I was waited for Nick, I browsed through the drink menu.
Last time when I visited The Sharing House, I really enjoyed the Blood Orange Capi soft drink, I decided to order the cranberry flavour to try this time. I actually didn’t quite enjoy the cranberry flavour because it felt as though it had a slight salty taste to it, and a bit tart in flavour. I actually prefer the Blood Orange flavour. However I do like how saturated the colour was of the cranberry drink.
Through my recommendation, Nick ordered the Blood Orange flavour of the Capi soft drink. I cant exactly remember whether Nick liked it or not. But from a visual perspective I think the drink looked a bit paler than the one I had at The Sharing House. It might have been the slice of orange that brought more colour to the drink.
After our meal we also had drinks with our dessert (I generally don’t), and I had a hot chocolate and Nick had a short macchiato.
Whilst I generally don’t have more than one cup of hot chocolate in a day, that day was an exception for me, and I’m very glad I did because the hot chocolate was great. The hot chocolate that they served at Henry and the Fox, was the Kali organic chocolate. Kali organic chocolate is a premium drinking chocolate which is 100% natural, dairy and gluten free, that contains no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners. Which is probably why it made the hot chocolate taste great. It was very rich, and not overly sweet.
Both Nick and I commented on how nice the cup looked. It’s a cup that has two layers, one which holds the drink, and the other being the outer glass covering, which makes holding a glass of hot chocolate a much pleasant experience rather than burning your fingers (Although, given this crazy Melbourne Cold weather, I think holding a glass of hot chocolate is rather comforting!).
As for Nick’s short macchiato, I really liked the small ceramic cup which they used. A very bright orange minature cup, and the coffee art of the macchiato, looks very much like a star fish (twinkle! twinkle!)
Nick also had a glass of Hentley Farm Riesling, which I didn’t happen to take a photo of (Bad Peach Water! Bad! >_<)
To start off with we had some bread. Very fluffy and some nice butter to go with it. I kinda wish they gave us some salt though, because I love sprinkling salt on my bread with some butter.
Starters
Nick and I ordered three starter dishes to start off with:
Mixed Olives - Olives. Sadly 50% of our olives were left untouched. Whilst I don’t mind eating olives in pizza and other dishes, I felt that olives on it’s own isn’t all too appealing to me. I guess I’m more accustomed to my grandma’s Chinese pickled olives in brine, and not so much the western version of it. Oh and the mixed olives also comes with a glass of crostini sticks.
The mixed olives had citrus rind, olive oils and other ingredients which I’m not too sure of. I found that the olives had a bitter taste to it, and perhaps that’s the reason why I didn’t enjoy the olives.
However, Nick enjoyed it, and I’m not surprised as Nick is Greek, and we all know that Greek’s loves their olives :)
Fried Zucchini Flowers – Ahh, the Fried Zucchini Flowers were our favourites, and one of the highlights of our meal. The fried zucchini flowers were stuffed with ricotta, mint and peas.
Now, if you know me really well, you would know that I really don’t like mint, and would most likely avoid mint flavoured food, except for breath mints. However, for this dish, I actually enjoyed it. It could be the fact that the mint was not overpowering, and I couldn’t really taste the mint so it’s ok. I think the ricotta and peas together with the zucchini flowers is a great pairing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, the stalk end of the zucchini flowers had a very slight bite to it, and wasn’t overly soft, so I honestly think this is a perfect dish!
Jamon & manchego croquettes – Hmmmm… these croquettes were questionable. Whilst I generally love croquettes especially Japanese croquettes I found that these croquettes were quite underwhelming. I guess I was expecting more, but it really lacked the oomph. The manchego is quite nice, but I felt that the Jamon didn’t really shine through and I couldn’t really taste it :( But the croquettes were crunchy and wasn’t too oily. I guess this dish is simply ok. I think it needs something a bit more, like some sauce or something?
Mains
For mains, we ordered two dishes, and we were trying to decide between the mulloway and the pork belly.
Nick wanted to try the pork belly, whilst I was trying to stay away from it because I’m still horrified from the portion of the pork belly from The Sharing House. lol
Whilst we were looking at our menu we were also informed that there was a special for that day which was the rabbit and pork cassoluet, and we were told that it’s a pretty heavy dish, so we decided to choose something lighter. So we decided to go for the mulloway rather than the pork belly.
Mulloway, avocado, chickpea, chorizo, red pepper: If I had to choose only one type of meat to eat for the rest of my life, I would die happily eating fish! The mulloway, avocado, chickpea, chorizo and red pepper was our other favourite dish. The mulloway was very moist, and flesh quite literally melted in my mouth. Whilst I did find the avocado, chickpea, chorizo and red pepper combination to be weird choice to accompany the mulloway, it actually turned out quite nice. It provided the dish extra depth, colour and texture.
Special: Rabbit & Pork Cassoulet: Rabbit Confit, Slow Cooked pork, Pork Scratchings (Pig Ears), Black Pudding, Parsnip crisps, Brioch Crumbs. This dish was the special of the day, and whilst I initially thought that the dish would have been too heavy, it actually turned out to be ok. It was perfect for Melbourne’s cold weather, and it just warmed my heart. There was a lot of texture in this dish – the tender meat of the rabbit and pork and black pudding, and the rough texture of the pork scratchings, parsnip crisps and crunchy texture of the brioch crumbs.
Passionfruit cheesecake, passionfruit, mousse, jelly, granita, yoghurt sorbet: Passionfruit! is probably one of my favourite fruit, and knowing that there’s a passionfruit cheesecake, I made sure that Nick agreed to ordering the dessert before our meal even started :P Thankfully Nick agreed. This deconstructed passionfruit was great and I loved every bit of it. As cheesecake can be a bit heavy, the jelly, granita and yoghurt sorbet were light so it helped balance the dish.
Quince, pear, custard,coconut crumble, coconut ice-cream: Now, when Nick said he wanted to order the crumble I didn’t think much of it. In my mind I sort of conjured an image of it being a crumble that had a tart taste to it, but when the dish came, and I took my first spoonful I was SOLD! Now, we were told by our waitress that most people who have visited Henry and the Fox, their favourite dish would have been the passionfruit cheese cake and he was quite surprised when we told him that our favourite dish was the crumble.
I just felt that every element flowed with each other and it just felt like a dessert that I would go back just to have. The custard was perfect and not overly sweet. The coconut crumble had a great coconut texture and taste to it, and eating it together with the custard and ice cream it was just absolutely heaven. I guess i prefer those subtle tasting desserts because it makes me feel less guilty :P
Anyway, Henry and the Fox is now my 3rd Paul Mathis restaurant I’ve visited, and I’m glad that I’ve visited these three. I’ve had really good experience, and the waitresses and waiters there are attentive and good at asking how our meals are. I think sometimes the service at a restaurant like this is quite comparable to the higher fine dining restaurants actually. I think I get more attention.
This is definitely another restaurant that you should try! It’s such a cute restaurant, especially when their logo has an adorable fox on it!
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