Aubergine reigns supreme in the good food guide

Barcham said :

No Sage?

Looks like I’ve got to head out and try Waters Edge and Ottoman.

don’t bother

WatersEdge is good for Canberra but it’s overpriced for what it is and the little extras you’d expect from a place charging what they do are missing (like palate cleansers, petit fours, amuse bouche etc). my advice is to go to sydney if you want a really special night out and hit up somewhere like Aria or Quay for similar pricing but much better food and service

I also found Ottoman dreadfully disappointing. We spent a few hundred and were still hungry after our meal. The only decent meal was the zucchini puffs which were light and delish (but they’re zucchini puffs damn it). My lamb was overcooked and too small a portion…and my dessert (which was a Lindt cake and raspberry sorbet) was actually inedible and very poorly balanced in flavours/textures.

That’s my view on them…

Barcham said :

No Sage?

Looks like I’ve got to head out and try Waters Edge and Ottoman.

Waters Edge is very good. It can also be nice for a decadent weekend lunch when the weather is nice.

Ottoman is a bit of a Canberra institution so you should very much tick that one off your list.

c_c™ said :

This was the description of the 2013 guide: ‘For 28 years the most trusted, esteemed and independent restaurant guide in Australia.’

Fair enough, then, but it if the food is good, I don’t mind if it’s served at a cafe or a restaurant.

No Sage?

Looks like I’ve got to head out and try Waters Edge and Ottoman.

Glad Zanzibar got a mention, shame “Little Bar and Grill” at Bateman’s didn’t. Going for a second night at Water’s Edge on two weeks time, hope it is as good as the first we had there, brilliant food.

breda said :

What happened to Italian & Sons, previously gourmet darlings?

Perhaps the list’s aiming for some credibility. Damned if I know what Italian and Sons was doing there in the first place.

This was the description of the 2013 guide: ‘For 28 years the most trusted, esteemed and independent restaurant guide in Australia.’

They’re overhauling it now so it should improve. But in the past, it was always weird and unfair to see Silo (an informal, day-time cafe) listed along side top end restaurants, and scored quite highly compared to them. Also odd that some proper restaurants were ignored, like Urban Pantry, which remains MIA in the online Good Food guide.

SMH makes me SMH 🙁

c_c™ said :

I don’t know how much stock to put in the SMH GFG. Year after year they leave out one of the top places in Sydney. Meanwhile in Canberra, they’ve traditionally put some off places like Silo Bakery on the list (which isn’t a restaurant).

It’s a good food guide, why does “good food” have to come from a “restaurant”?

Aside from that, what a couple of boring and cliched comments that have been left so far.

breda said :

Odd sort of list.

What happened to Italian & Sons, previously gourmet darlings? And how about the Lanterne in Campbell?

I have been to a couple of the places on the list, and my verdict is that they were OK, but very overpriced. Very, very overpriced.

One suspects that the first barrier to entry for these awards is having tiny entrees that cost at least $25.

I don’t know how much stock to put in the SMH GFG. Year after year they leave out one of the top places in Sydney. Meanwhile in Canberra, they’ve traditionally put some off places like Silo Bakery on the list (which isn’t a restaurant).