The Henry Jones Art Hotel

Last weekend my wife and I wanted to head out for a meal, something nice, that wouldn't cost the Earth. The Henry Jones Art Hotel can be found on Hunter St, Hobart, down by the wharf here. It has a great vibe when you walk in, you can stay there for the night if you want to splash the cash, but from what i gather it isn't a cheap option. However, there is close parking, and for a free parking option, that we took, you can park over the road in the museum carpark after 6pm for no charge.

We walked in and the mood was sophisticated, with the dimly lit vibe. As the hotel is named, its full of art, most of it for sale and it ranges from photographic, to paint on canvass, to silks....its varied! It also included a load of old posters and signs that harped back to it's days gone by as a jam factory. We wanted to have a pre-dinner drink so headed right towards the IXL long bar. There was a live singer and a pianist (who also appears to be the accordion player at Daci & Daci bakery - another post). The mood was chilled out, but somewhat refined. Its getting a little wintery here at the time of writing this post and there was mulled wine wafting around but the bar tenders clearly knew their stuff as they were mixing a whole range of cocktails. Pouring, shaking, pinches of this, fire, the whole works. It was a really great start and we were really looking forward to our food - we weren't disappointed.

The menu includes two 'style' options, Classic or Evolution. If i'm honest, we didn't particularly spot the classic or radically contemporary aspects of our dishes, they were both fine dining, both included veg etc and were equally good in appearance. I'm sure there were nuances that we, mere mortals, wouldn't notice.

We started with oysters 3 ways, fresh, local, delicious. Complimentary hand made breads with an amazing salted caramel butter. That was such a surprise, delicious. I think if we see it anywhere, we'd have to but a pot. I chose braised pork with rhubarb compote and wafer veg and my wife had salted beef with all of the usual trimmings, 'done in an arty way' as we'd call it. Both fantastic, fall off the bone, excellent.

There was a palate cleanser included, which had a panna cotta and a tangy sorbet. Finally my wife had a malt souffle, which the maitre'd described as being like a Malteaser as it came with a side jug of hot chocolate sauce. It appears, that if my wife could only eat one thing ever again, it would be this and only this. The people on the next table even asked for a review as they were in awe of what she'd chosen. Warning, its a pretty big portion, so I shared it to go along with my coffee.

- I apologise for the quality of picture, I didn't major in food photography.

Overall, it was a great dining experience and whilst we'd had a drink or two in the bar, we'd brought them through to the dining area. If we had let ourselves go, I imagine we could easily have added another $50 on drinks to our bill and the rooms are reportedly $350 a night, so not a particularly cheap stay. Even though a meal here could be reasonably expensive, it was excellent value for money and we left with a bill of approx $90, not so bad after all.

If i'm honest, the Henry Jones Art Hotel  would normally not be a price option for us. It's not at all a criticism, it's a really nice place and one that we'd normally have to save for a special occasion, but the fact is, it's included in the 'Entertainment' discount book. When you'd normally spend $50 on the book for a years worth of discount options, you get close to that saving in one go here. I actually checked to see if the Henry Jones Art Hotel would be in the next, 2014-2015 edition, and it is! So if you have the Entertainment book, or are planning to get one, head here for sure. 

N.b. Pictures from Henry Jones Art Hotel website.