Huxtable

Guess where Heston Blumenthal ate when he was in Melbourne last week? Huxtable, I wasn’t there then but the staff proudly tweeted a picture of themselves with the chef. Named in honour of the all time classic Cosby Show Huxtable’s menu has American influences alongside dashes of Korean, European and Australian.

My favourite dish at Huxtable – the lamb filo rolls

The philosophy with the menu is to “pick the bits that work” and they have adopted the same approach with the decor mixing a vibrant open kitchen with ringside bar seats along with dim lighting for the rest of the eatery and clubby 1970’s style leather chairs.

Piementos de padron

The food is all share plates and there are lots of things to jump start your appetite over a couple of drinks like piementos de padron ($10), the Russian Roulette of peppers where one in every ten is spicy. I thought the number of peppers was a little stingy compared with other restaurants but otherwise the roulette worked its magic as per usual. Mini burgers of xo bun ($6.50) were made with a sweet almost brioche like bun and filled with a creamy mix of crab, jalapeno and mayonnaise flecked with thai basil. Lamb puttanesca ($5.50) wrapped in crisp filo threads and teamed with lemon yoghurt was an absolute ripper of a dish. The lamb was soft and tender while the filo added textural contrast and the yoghurt some tang.

Mini burgers

From the more substantial part of the menu, which is divided into “sea”, “land” and “earth”, the roasted snapper ($27) of two pan fried fillets arrived perched on top of some crushed potatoes. The fish was perfectly cooked and spiced up with some roasted chorizo dotted on the plate and a pimiento dressing.

Roasted snapper

The dish that left me unconvinced was the Korean barbecue pork ribs ($22). The fatty sticky ribs were an absolute winner but we ended up leaving most of the spicy coleslaw and pickled gherkin behind as the coleslaw erred on the gloopy side and the gherkin was just too big.

The ice-cream sandwich

Our meal finished on a high note with Huxtable’s famous ice-cream sandwich ($12). Smooth pistachio ice-cream was sandwiched between sweet, flaky biscuits and oozed chocolate fudge. It was exactly the sort of dish which delighted you just as much as an adult as it would have as a child.

I enjoyed my meal at Huxtable but I wasn’t blown away by it. I sort of found myself wishing I had opted for the much cheaper Huxtaburger across the street. I wonder what Heston thought?

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Essentials
Details: Huxtable, 131 Smith street, Fitzroy 3065 (Ph 03 9419 5101)
Damage: Pricey
7/10

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