The Fox Hotel
351 Wellington Street, Collingwood
This past Sunday I met up with my uni-friend-K for lunch. I met K at his house in Clifton Hill and we planned to walk down to Gasometer on Smith St for a cozy Sunday lunch. Unfortunately when we made it through the cold down to Smith St we found out that Gasometer isn’t open for lunch on Sundays, cry. Luckily K and his local knowledge suggested that we walk the extra block to the Fox instead.
The Fox Hotel looks like an old school corner pub, sticky floors, lots of wood, a pool table… it’s all there. Combine that with the grand total of 2 other customers and first impressions weren’t giving me the highest expectations. That impression only lasted the 30 seconds it took for me to see the menu and start to get excited. The Fox has a solid menu of pub food with a bit of an upmarket twist (think spaghetti with scallops and mussels, gnocchi in a wagyu ragu, morton bay bug pies, pork belly and so on as well as classics like fish & chips and parmas). Most of the dishes come with a gluten free option and there is a large vegetarian/vegan selection.
I liked the sound of a lot of things on the menu but my decision was made a lot easier by the specials board which was advertising the awesome Sunday roast special – 2 courses for $20 with a main (3 options) and either a soup or dessert (1 option for each).
K went for the corned beef served with carrots, peas, corn on the cob and mash ($18 as a stand alone). We both tried the corned beef and enjoyed it although we found that it was a little on the too salty side, which to be fair is hard to avoid with corned beef.
I had the roast pork served with crackling, roast chat potatoes, roast pumpkin, roast apple and non-roast peas and beans (also $18 as a stand alone). This was a man sized lunch if I ever saw one. I was definitely glad that I had a personal training session booked in for the afternoon because otherwise I might have been rolling out the door to work on Monday. The meat was tender and had absorbed a great combination of gravy and apple flavours. The vegetables were tasty and the crackling was satisfyingly fatty and crispy (I’d take it over the chicken crackling at Josie Bones any day).
K and I both went for the dessert, today a bread and butter pudding that made all my cozy winter lunch dreams come true ($8 on its own). It was so good that it had me floating out the door so happily after lunch that I didn’t notice it was pouring with rain until I was already getting wet. If I could marry this dish and have it’s delicious pudding babies I probably would.
All up the Fox has a traditional pub atmosphere with closer to gastropub quality food. Tasty, generous serves and a very reasonably price. I had a great lunch and will definitely be back for another Sunday special.
