Mammoth

Thursday, October 22, 2015 Sharon Halim 0 Comments

Dear all of the brunchers out there, there is a new unique kid in town! The new venture by husband and wife team Loren (co owner of Barry) and Jamie McBride (prior owner of Touchwood), who are behind various successful brunch spot such as Pillar of salt had a wide variety, full of unusual flavours combinations, wild ingredients, unique and well presented food courtesy of Emma Jeffrey (ex Head Chef of Hammer & Tong). They are definitely breaking out from the classic brunch menu and doing something that is different than everybody else. They add more thoughts, techniques and creativity to a simple brunch dishes and it pays off.

Mammoth is located in a triangular building on the corner of Malvern Road and Beatty Avenue (prior Treat Catering and Cafe) somehow awkward, modern and definitely stand out. I personally love the California beach-like oasis interior design by Techne Architecture + Interior Design, they have created a spacious, super bright, airy with slightly different levels and corners dividing the cafe into smaller and intimate areas. It's decorated with blue steel, brown leather stools, American-oak surfaces, pastel blue terrazzo tiled floor matches both the bar tables and the building's exterior. The whole interior reminded me of Santa Monica Beach in California, the blue creates a calming atmosphere, the white brick brighten up the place and splashes of pink, yellow and orange creates extra attraction the place. This is a fresh brunch scene, retiring from the classic warehouse industrial scenes.

When we arrived on 1pm Saturday, the place was packed out as expected. If you've been to one of the McBride's other venues, you may notice familiar faces cause most of them have work with Jamie or Loren in the past. It's a smart strategy creating a strong team work. The wait was consider fast considering the wait list, I managed to get a table in 30 minutes which give me enough time to take a photo all around the venue.

Cherry Lamington Dutch Baby ($17) - coconut crunch, cherry, dark chocolate ice cream. Another beautifully decorated dish as well as have a complete crunchy and soft texture, sweet and sour taste, hard and soft element.

Coconut Yoghurt Custard ($14) - strawberry salad, raw buckwheat and wattle seed granola, rapeseed oil. This dish is very well presented, pretty, feminine and petit. It was fresh, light and tasty.

Grilled Lychee and Passionfruit Chia Pudding ($14) - macadamia, hemp seed crumble, blood orange. This is one of my favourite dish, it was sweet but overly sweet and have some bitterness from the blood orange and the grilled lychee and passionfruit jelly was delicious

The most popular menu is Lobster Donut Burger ($24.5) - green mango and papaya slaw, cucumber jam, siracha kimpi mayo, salt and pepper. When we are seated I know this is an absolute dish I should order but they ran out of it, fortunately for me they able to make some more towards the end of my brunch. My first bite was confusing, I'm not sure whether I like the unusual sweet and savoury taste but as I eat through it, it get's better and better. The dough was sprinkles with salt, pepper and sugar to match the freshness taste of the lobster. They does not add any garnish on the plate with this dish, just plain Lobster Donut Burger.

Char Spanner Crab Egg Crepe ($24) - bean shoot salad, water chestnut, lemon sorbet. It was light, fresh and creative. The spanner crab egg blackened with squid ink served with fresh, tangy lemon sorbet. This another dish you would not find else where.

Egg Brulee ($16) - bread and butter, pickled zucchini, artichoke, toast. The egg was beautifully made and had certain sweetness to it which I love, the bread was more of accumulations of grains rather than bread. It was heavy and sweet.

North Shore ($18.5) - smokey ham hock hash, flame grilled pineapple, tobasco, jalapeno popper, poached egg. This is a pretty standard dish with a twist. Love the sweet sour grilled pineapple and the smokey ham hock hash was creamy in the inside and crunchy on the outside.

The Benedict ($20) - duck sausage, orange and corn blini, pickled onion, fried egg, smoked maple hollandaise. Love a nice twist on the classic egg benedict and it was pretty successful. The combination duck and orange is usually seen in a high end fine dining restaurant menu and to partner it up with a brunch dish was excellent. My favourite thing on the plate was the smoked maple hollandaise, it gives a certain sweetness to it.

Sides: Egg & Bacon Popcorn ($5). This was salty and tasty, I could not stop eating this. I think they should start selling this in a well design take away package soon.

Desserts: Golden Gaytime Panna Cotta ($15) - honey comb, sable biscuit, chocolate coated popping candy.
I love panna cotta so I was really excited about this but it's a bit disappointing cause the panna cotta it self was too dense. It needed to be more smooth, creamy and create a melt in your mouth moment. The garnish was excellent, love the honey comb. Chocolate coated popping candy was fun and just transport you to your childhood moment.

They also have variety of salted caramel donut, raspberry donut, mars bars muffins and other sweet snacks to accompany your coffee or tea.

Overall, Mammoth meets all the requirements of good food, great coffee, numerous parking spots, access to public transport (3 mins walk from Toorak Station), child friendly and good for groups. The menu sounds all kinds of crazy but it works. Definitely recommended for adventurous brunchers cause you will not find classic taste in Mammoth.