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MELBOURNE | Shadowboxer is a contemporary wine bar and restaurant in South Yarra that focuses on showcasing high quality, locally sourced produce. It’s the brainchild of co-owners Michael, Shelly, Luke and Nick, all of whom have extensive experience working in the hospitality industry throughout Melbourne. The venue’s title stems from multiple stories related to the owners, the cutest of which was the story of Michael and Shelly’s daughter, who used to ‘shadowbox’ when they were refurbishing the venue before opening.
The venue is long and deep, portraying a sleek and contemporary look with simple furnishings and monochromatic furniture balanced out by straw-wooden chairs. Lighting is slightly dimmed, which suits the wine bar ambience for a date night, catch up with friends or laid-back work meeting.
Both the food and drinks menu showcase Australian producers where possible, with the theme of sustainable and ethical produce maintained throughout. Cocktails are a must-order at Shadowboxer, with their in-house mixologist and co-owner, Luke, whipping up well balanced alcoholic combinations whose names are as interesting as their flavours. The ‘Grounds For Divorce’, is a blend of white light vodka, blueberry conserve, lavender, lemon and prosecco that produces a sweet yet light cocktail, with the vodka slowly taking over your thought processes with each sip that you take. The ‘Mother’s Ruin’ is just as enjoyable, featuring Beefeater gin, watermelon, pink peppercorns, lemon and soda.
The food menu ranges from light bar snacks, to larger main meals, sides and desserts. All dishes are suitable for sharing or as individual meals, with the entire menu being gluten-free (except for the apple tart dessert). The dish you must order when here is the 250g duck ribs – when dipped in the house-made BBQ sauce and jalapeno aioli it’s the ultimate drinking food. Just give us two plates of this and we are satisfied!
Other commendable dishes include the zucchini fritters (served with Persian feta, lemon labne and ricotta salata), roasted cauliflower (mixed with quinoa, kale, pistachio and spiced hummus), sweet corn (shaved, topped with jalapeno aioli, toasted coconut shavings and ricotta salata) and rosemary salt chips (with thyme aioli). A newly added dish to the menu, the Cape Grim beef short rib is the perfect winter-warmer dish, showcasing fall-off-the-bone tender beef, complimented by the exceptionally smoky eggplant puree, creamy parsnip puree and pickled kohlrabi. You may want to come in just for this dish.
To finish on a sweet note, we loved the dark chocolate and peppermint slice served with mint crisp and pistachio ice cream. The domineering mint and chocolate flavours pair immensely well, and the execution of the peppermint tea-infused smooth chocolate slice and the mint-flavoured ice cream interspersed with pistachio crumbs is phenomenal. For a lighter option, chestnut pannacotta satisfies the ‘wobbly’ criteria, made more exciting with the addition of poached pear, salted caramel balls, chestnut puree and macadamia.
Based on our experience here, Shadowboxer has hit the ground running with creative cocktails and beverages to match their impressively curated and tasty food. No particular cuisine or label is applied to their menu, which gives them freedom to produce dishes that feature any combination of ingredients and flavours, based on what tastes good, what is on trend, and what is seasonally available. Open for lunch and dinner everyday, we recommend rounding up your friends and/or significant other here to experience what Shadowboxer has to offer.
Shadowboxer
302 Toorak Road
South Yarra
Victoria 3181
Australia
Telephone: (03) 9041 7707
E-mail: [email protected]
Website
Open
Mon – Sat: 11:30am to 12:00am
Sun: 12:00pm to 11:00pm