Header image and food shots @twinsocial; Fit out images: ben.m_m.
Brunch spot by day and Japanese bar by night, Lenox Avenue seeks to spice up Blackwood’s dining scene with their Asian fusion eats and music.
“We’re always playing hip hop––nothing aggressive, just something customers bob their heads to,” Izaac King, Lenox Avenue’s owner, says.
“It’s been good we’ve been able to bring something different to the area.”
For breakfast and lunch, Lenox Avenue serves up the likes of smashed avocado with poached eggs, Asian greens, haloumi, chilli, garlic, puffed rice, and golden sourdough; Korean fried chicken burger with bacon, wombok slaw, sweet pickled onion, gochuyung kewpie, cheese and fries; a Vietnamese roll with pickles vegetables and your choice of protein; and the ever-popular rice and greens bowl with shallots, rice, chilli, Asian greens, and an option of Asian fusion proteins. They also have sandwiches, a kids menu and, like any café, a stacked coffee, tea, and juice selection.
For dinner, which they hold only on Fridays at 6pm, they transform into a Japanese bar and restaurant called a Izakaya, serving up Japanese dishes and cocktails. The concept of the dinnertime meals is similar to that of tapas, where customers buy an array of items and share them amongst friends.
They have crispy lotus root with spicy aioli and cheeseburger spring rolls as bar snacks; nori-wrapped ox heart tomatoes with puffed rice and smoked dashi, karaage chicken with kewpie, Koji cauliflower with salsa verde and sweetcorn, and more for mains. The eatery also has a traditional Japanese yakitori charcoal grill, which they used to make pork belly and chicken served with Japanese pickled salad.
Lenox Avenue won’t let you go thirsty, either; The restaurant has mojitos, espresso martinis, caprioskas, and more.
The venue seats around 40 people inside and outside at full capacity, and the fit out emphasises the restaurant’s intimate size as well. With exposed red brick and hanging lights, the eatery manages to be both industrial and cosy.
“With a refined Japanese influence, cocktails, wine, and our fit out, we are trying to bring a Peel Street bar vibe to the Hills,” King says.
King has been a chef since he was a teenager, formerly working at Melt CBD, Ginger’s Coffee Studio, Bar Nine, and more. He decided to open an Asian-inspired restaurant after falling in love with meals his family members cooked.
“I gained my love for Asian food from my mum, who always cooked it for us kids and my dad growing up, and my partner is French Malaysian, and she makes amazing food as well, ” he says.
“Asian food is fun because there’s so much you can do with it; It’s so vibrant and colourful.”
For hip hop, and Asian-inspired eats for any meal, head to Blackwood’s Lenox Avenue.
Find Lenox Avenue at Shop 9, 10-12 Coromandel Parade, Blackwood.
Find Lenox Avenue online here.
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