Lunch in Civic today was at Babars. I used to be a big fan of the place when it was the nearest bar to Electric Shadows back in the day.
At 12.15pm it certainly wasn’t over crowded and we were able to get a great shaded table on Bunda Street with wonderful views of the passing citizenry. They had hordes of staff on for the level of trade.
It was nice that we had menus within minutes of sitting down. Thirty seconds later being asked if we’d made a selection from the big menu was more problematic.
We thought ordering a a couple of beers while we decided would work but sadly the beers hadn’t arrived when the waiter came back for a second go.
Which is where we hit a snag, our waiter’s english really wasn’t up to the job. When you have to point to the club sandwich on the menu, to get across that’s what you want, there’s a problem.
The drinks did arrive eventually though and the food, in its turn, was pretty good.
Jazz was thrilled when the prawns in his linguini arrived without their tails, tailed prawns being something of a bugbear for him. He also said the chilli was making his head itch, apparently a good thing.
My club sandwich was pretty good, the turkey and bacon feeling like they came from an animal and not from a factory. It was tall, but not unmanageable and the cranberry sauce and aioli applied strongly, but not overwhelming.
All up not a bad lunch, in fact pretty good. But for the money (~$20ea with a beer) the service really needs to improve. Fluent English really is essential for front of house work at a cosmopolitan cafe/restaurant.
That sounds like a pretty good value lunch!
Jazz has a similar chilli barometer to me too – my head itches as well when it’s just spicy enough!!!! hehehe
I’m with Jazz.
My chili barameter is the top of my skull, and serving tailed prawns is nice if you only want food to look at, but I have this strange tendency to want to eat mine.
Skidbladnir said :
Barometer, before someone else does it.
I used to love the old Babar’s near Electric Shadows, and I had some of the most memorable meals there.
I haven’t had a meal from the Bunda St one as yet, but I’m always really disappointed in their cakes.
I usually avoid the place if I’m going for a coffee these days.
That sounds like a pretty good value lunch!
Pretty good value lunch…are you f**king kidding me?! Where do you usually eat VB?
Skidbladnir said :
I have to agree with you there, Skidbladnir (”barameter” slip notwithstanding. Perhaps it was just a Freudian slip – thinking about seafood, fish, barramundi…).
Anyway, prawns are far easier to stomach when they have their tails. Not nearly as crunchy though.
I agree on the prawns, that also irritates me. That sandwich looks quite good. I might give it a go.
As a family, we love to go to Babar’s on Bunda Street. The service is always friendly and quick.
The food is consistantly above average and drinks arrive promptly.
Only once, at Woden, did I have a few gritty bits in my Babar Salad, but a complaint to the Manageress resulted in a zero charge and apology.
We will continue to enjoy our outdoor dining at both these quality establishments.
Johnboy’s meal looked just wonderful and excellent value.
I dislike a tail-on prawn being served to me.
Except when I am eating prawns around christmas, then I shell my own.
Screw the food is art thing, I want food because I’m hungry.
I eat there for weekend brekky on occasion, and generally the food is good but overpriced for the size.
This past weekend however I had a “special” of pesto/feta mushrooms on toast served with a coffee for $9… and it was *delicious* not to mention enough to satisfy my inner meat-lover.
Skidbladnir said :
i chew my nails, so sometimes, i don’t worry about prawn tails, either.
Even if you’re not a vegetarian you have to try their vegetarian pizza.
I can’t find any local pizza store that can match their quality (or their expensive price!)
last time i went to babars bunda street (about 3 months ago) my pizza still hadn’t come out after i had waited over an hour (probably closer to 1.5 hours) – i was about to remind/ask a waiter about it for the 4-5th time when a person sitting at my table opposite me found a pubic hair in her risotto. i promptly cancelled my order. never going back.
“Fluent English really is essential for front of house work at a cosmopolitan cafe/restaurant.”
I’m reminded of Bill Bryson’s (highly embellished) tale of going into a bakery in France, asking for a loaf of bread and receiving a dead beaver on the counter.
“Non, madame, I want a loaf of bread.”
“Zees is what I ‘ave geeven you.”
“No, no, a LOAF of BREAD.”
“Renée, can you believe zis? ‘e comes in ‘ere askeeng for dead beaver, I give ‘im a perfecty good dead beaver, but now ‘e says ‘e wants somezing else and not a dead beaver. Can you believe zis?’
Or something like that.
Or maybe it was Dave Barry. I’m so good with details.
^^^ God love the interwebz. Right the first time.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920405&slug=1484837
I’m a fan of Babar as I find the food always seems to be copious for the price and I’ve not had a problem with the service – I normally feel I’m too slow for them and should stop yapping and look at the menu to get things going. Most recently I had the Caesar salad with Tandori chicken and it was great (albeit the serving was more than I needed) and prior to that I had the Calamari Salad (which was also a big serve but not much on the salad side – but heaps of calamari and chips).
Do they serve elephant?
Only when it’s in season – same goes for whale and seal.
Do they serve Whale??
OzPhoenix said :
sweet
Was there the other week. Service good, but food only average and overpriced. Max 3/10.
Actually, the place is yet another bloody restaurant in a block of shops. Is there actually a decent standalone restaurant anywhere in Canberra. (Pizza Arte at Kingston doesn’t count.)
seekay said :
pizza arte, best pizzas in canberra, might order a napolitana…..
seekay said :
The Ottoman? Boathouse? Does the Tower Restaurant count?
But why the need for a free standing restaurant?
Protip: The shell of the prawn is where all the yummy prawny flavour is. Next time you’re cooking a laksa, try leaving the heads and tails of the prawns in the soup as you cook it, and then fishing them out just before you serve it.
Don’t bits of eyes and feelers and stuff drop off into the soup?
Granny said :
One would hope so, makes it oh-so-fishy!!! Yummo!
!!
*gag*
*retch*
*splutter*
Granny is a notoriously conservative eater.
Wait ’til you hear hear what prawns EAT!
I like the way they fluffed the chips . . .
Good grief, people! I’m about to sit down to dinner ….
: D
Jivrashia said :
Here we go again…
Do they serve bush meat?
“Fluent English really is essential for front of house work at a cosmopolitan cafe/restaurant.” they should also be blond and blue eyed? english is not the official language of australia.
LlamaFrog said :
Wow, stupidest remark on RiotACT for 2009, you’ve set the bar high for the rest of the year too.
Waiting is about communication. In a, for example, Chinese restaurant aiming for a chinese speaking clientelle it wouldn’t worry me at all.
But in a restaurant aiming for english speaking custom it remains a pretty big miss no matter how right-on you want to be in defence of the incompetent.
Granny said :
Me too. I cannot fathom how people eat fish at all, and prawns especially so. Some one brought a bundle of them to Xmas lunch, complete with legs, eyes, antennae, you name it. And people ATE them. They smelled terrible. And of course the bits ended up everywhere.
I thought English was the official language of Australia?
Llamafrog, if you are unsure of our official language you can go to a government website such as this one where they will tell you that it is, in fact, English.
; )
I believe all the Acts of the Commonwealth Parliament have been written in English, which at least implies a defacto status.
I don’t care if a waiter doesn’t speak english from a “he should speak my language” perspective. If people want to talk in a language I don’t understand on the bus I couldn’t care less.
But if you want people to place and order and pay you money in a restaurant in Australia it’s a good idea for the front of house staff to speak the common tongue.
I’d also note that English is the lingua franca of RiotACT so a review for the edification of our readers would sensibly note restaurants where other languages may be required.
Another point is that if the restaurant chooses to print its menu in english alone the wait staff should be able to understand well spoken english orders for items on that menu.
Yah and we aren’t supposed to have a state religion either but they recite the Lord’s Prayer in the Parliament.
What a silly country we are!
poptop said :
If a majority of parliamentarians want to alter standing orders to pray to Mecca at appropriate intervals that’s their business.
Heading way offtopic here though. Let’s confine discussion to the restaurant and the review?
I went to the Babars at Woden once, about 18 months ago. It was shit.
I’ll never step into another Babars ever again. Plus, their logo is rubbish.
johnboy said :
HUMPH on taking last comments and redirecting! I disagree; they are supposed to be there representing their constituents not doing whatever strikes their fancy to do. Prayers of any sort have no place in our secular parliament.
I think Babar Cafe and Bar need to get larger plates for the sammich and chips – plating experts agree that white space is quite the thing nowadays. Kudos to them for not using those toothpicks with the cellophane frills on the club sammich though.
There used be two Babars in Woden. The extremely horrid one has now gone thank goodness, replaced I think by an ordinary sort of Vietnamese place.
It’s the perogative of having to mediate 10 childish spats a day.
Back OT I was a teensy bit disappointed by the absence of toothpicks.
Not a fan of the toothpick in the sammich.
Babars appear to have broken the rule that there must be either toothpicks through or parsley on top of club sammiches. They add colour and neither are eaten.
20 bucks with a beer, eh? I’d want a bigger plate, toothpicks and parsley.
Curly parsley.
2 Babars in Woden?!!!!
Is the original Babars still open?
There was and is a Babar down near the Cinemas on Bradley St.
There was and now isn’t a Babar amongst the pavement food strip along Corinna Street.
The Bradley street one I quite like. The one on Corinna street was truly dreadful the one time I ate there.
Never get the Pumpkin Risotto there. I think Babars in town is better at lunch than it is at dinner. It’s never really that good in Woden. That Club Sandwich looks delicious.
Went there last week for dinner and the service was AWFUL! It was a little bust but we got a seat no problems, but then it took so long to get menus that we just snatched a couple off the front bench. Then it took about another 20 minutes to get someone to take our order!! It was impossible to get a second drink with my dinner (let alone coffees after dinner), so we just paid and went somewhere else.
i can recommend the open spiced lamb “souvlaki”
service wasn’t the best last time i went there, but the price and the meal more than made up for it!
best lamb i’d had in a while that cost less than $20