10 June 2008

Venue for a fancy dinner

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I’m looking for a recommendation for a good venue for an anniversary. Preferably in the Civic/inner north/inner south area. We went to Courgette last year for a degustation, and it’s set the bar pretty high! We loved the food, wine and ambiance of the place. I was thinking Artespresso in Kingston, which has a degustation menu, but don’t know anyone who’s been there. I also know of Aubergine in Griffith, but am not sure it’s got the same ambiance as it’s sister-restaurant.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

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kean van choc6:13 pm 17 Jun 08

Some good recommendations above (Rubicon, Mezalira and Anise in particular are favs) but also worth a try is On Red at the top of Red Hill – sure, the bulding looks like a 1970’s UFO (I know, wtf?) but it has a great view and the food is spot on, fresh, interesting and well priced. A decent wine and beer list list, and they BYO wine for reasonable corkage – not sure about cakage… I beleive the chef is formally of grazing in Gundaroo. I rated it highly (had the duck, wifey had the fish). And no, I’m not affiliated with the place at all.

Holden Caulfield3:32 pm 17 Jun 08

I’ve been to Pulp Kitchen a few times, and it is very agreeable. But the setting is not up there as a “venue for a fancy dinner”, more akin to a pleasant evening with friends/family where you just want a good feed (very good, in fact) in a relaxed environment.

dorrie said :

I have heard from a friend that the food at Pulp Kitchen in Ainslie is fantastic.

I have from a friend that the food at Pulp Kitchen in Ainslie is fantastic.

Gungahlin Al12:33 pm 17 Jun 08

Thanks Jazz – just drop everything and sort it OK? What could possibly be more important?
🙂
Anyway can’t find it that way either so I’ll just rant here:

Q: How do you make a single coffee last an entire hour-long meeting and still be warm at the last sip?
A: Go to Cafe Momo – you’ll only get served just before leaving anyway… (real life experience yesterday)

Its not that i dont beleive you Skidbladnir, i just dont have the resources available to fix it at the moment. As much as i’d like to click my fingers and make Riot all things to all people its just not possible. I’m more than happy to hear from volunteers.

Gungahlin Al, if the article was on cafe momo you can browse to find it in the lifestyle category.

The difference is that searching Google for site:the-riotact.com will return all matches in thread comments as well as the original article, but this Search feature doesn’t.

@Gungahlin Al:
The new one only searches for exact words or strings in the article itself, not like the old one that used to do an entire oogle search on site:the-riotact.com

But Jazz didn’t believe me when I said it was a problem. 🙁

Gungahlin Al9:33 am 17 Jun 08

On use or otherwise of the Search function, would be fine if it actually worked…

For instance, I did a search on momo, knowing there was an article on it just recently, and wanting to add my own account of their crappy service. Got only one entry – not the one I was after, and I know that it has been mentioned numerous times. So why isn’t the search working properly?

I’ve got to second Flints. Had the degustation there last Wednesday. The food was great, the wines perfectly matched and the service spot on. Hope your wallet’s large though.

Clown Killer3:45 pm 15 Jun 08

I enjoyed a really nice dinner at Rubicon in Griffith last night – excellent food, excellent wine list, if anything let them down it was our waiters wine knowledge – particularly comparative knowledge of wines, regions and vintages – could have been better: he always seemed to have to refer questions to other staff, but that is an individual thing and not about the establishment as a whole, so it was nothing that put a dampner on the evening.

I know that the form of some of Camnberra’s eateries waxes and wanes, but right now, Rubicon have really got their sh-t together.

Ottoman.

Boat House

I’ve had a quite ordinary meal and poor service at Axis about a year ago – might try again if others have liked it so much though.

Going out for dinner on Valentine’s, New Year’s Eve and Mother’s Day is always dicey – places are all packed and not really coping.

Back of the Rubicon is a shed!!!!! They’ve enclosed the back courtyard in old corrugated fibro, far as I can tell. People keep raving about it. We had our xmas party there and I was very underwhelmed. Suspect you’ll never get a good feed at a bulk meal like that, but still. they could devise a meal that works when feeding a bunch of people.

I also second the Ginger Room or Rubicon.

The Rubicon is especially cosy and romantic during the cold months if you land a table towards the back under the “fairy light canopy”. The food is great and the service friendly and non-intrusive.

Yes, Charcoal on London Cct is teh rox0rs. Oh, and Mecca Bah in Manooka.

And hey, this thread is still better than the ‘List of Gay Beats in Canberra’ thread from a couple of years back. Don’t like it? Don’t read it FFS.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. This has… well to be honest, it’s made it a lot more difficult to pick just one, but I’ll have some ideas for next year too.

Apologies if the thread didn’t offer some of you a soapbox, but sometimes there are simple questions in life. What better way to pick Canberran brains than to… ask?

ant said :

Not sure if the WatersEdge menu is fancy enough, but the place itself, the view, and the service, is brilliant.[/quote

We went there one Valentines day, service was a joke, we walked out in discuss.

Holden Caulfield2:01 pm 11 Jun 08

Anise on West Row is a favourite. If you haven’t been there before I would highly recommend it.

And another vote for Aubergine as well.

Not so fancy, but always good, I still miss Caffe Della Piazza. 🙁

Mezzalira in the City has an excellent degustation, when i went they had balmain bugs, stuffed…ummm… some other fancy stuffed things. Sorry it was a little while ago but the service was great.

I went to a place in Bruce the other night called Ellacure. This is a new joint that opened recently near the AIS. Food and service was great and it was well priced compared to similar restaurants.

PS: People will read and respond to anything so long as they think they have a point.
As examples, Tap, Samuel Godon-Stewart, or Chester.

ant said :

A couple of posters carping on about how inappropriate these topics are and how no one wants to read them, and a whole lot of other people replying to the OP with suggestions and comments.

Compare the “Where do I find nitrous oxide bulbs”, “Where is Canberra’s best day trip\italian feed\indian waiter\seedy motel?”, and even “Crap Art IX: Revenge of the Son of Crap Art” threads to the “(c)Harming Vietnam Festival”, “Johnboy’s List of Nightspots” or even “The Causeway Blockage”…

Ingeegoodbee10:57 am 11 Jun 08

Ginger Room has a good wine list and (at least last time I visited) the sommelier was very good.

If you go to Axis at the museum, when you book insist on a table that’s not near the door to the outside deck – smokers coming and going can cause a chill.

D’Browes in Narrabundah has bloody good food in generous serves – it’s BYO which is either a pain or a blessing depending on your view point.

I’d suggest Teatro Vivaldi’s at the ANU Arts Centre. Great atmosphere….very good food and service. It is also has a very nice outlook.

Half the fun of going out for a feed for me is just trying a new joint irrespective of what people have said about it.

Pick up a ‘Crimes from a few weeks/ months ago, look at the restaurant review and have a crack. If you are that fussy about the food that you are about to eat, you might want to think about staying at home… or getting the Thumper and Maelinar gastrono wagon over for a BBQ.

This is funny. A couple of posters carping on about how inappropriate these topics are and how no one wants to read them, and a whole lot of other people replying to the OP with suggestions and comments.

Fine Dining at the Ginger Room in Old Parliament House. Deep inside the hallowed halls of Canberra’s Old Parliament House, what once was the private Members’ dining room has been transformed into a fine dining experience.

http://www.gingercatering.com.au/area.asp?aID=25

Grazing’s thread here is kind of entertaining for the blowback on the original poster, but this whole “where is the best” meme thats been going on since January has really grown stale.

Completely off this topic, but what kind of stories do people here want to see or are willing to contribute?

PS: Getting police to talk about anything local probably won’t happen.

err Grazing….

Rubicon, love that place.

Ah yes, I keep forgetting the Charcoal. Used to see the stuff delivered to their back door every day (we shared the back ally with them) and the fruit and veggies were of a quality to be entered in the Show. Meat came in a box from King Island (very small box, they got them daily).

I second Sage at Gorman House. Superb food. Pricey though.

If you’re into steak though, give the Charcoal Grill a run. Also expensive, but they serve the best steak in Canberra.

i’ll second axis (though sitting outside for the view is half the thrill and it’s winter now…), rubicon or chairman and yip – the latter can offer a private room.

all will do you a degustation if you ask, though you could prob’ly stick a pin in any of the menus at random and be delighted with the cuisine. all have great, calm, efficient staff.

happy no. whatever! 😉

Axis at the National Museum

I would have to say the Ottoman in Barton or Chairman & Yip in the city.

Rubicon in Griffith has lovely food!

Flint in the new Acton precinct is pretty good. Got a nice write up in the CT wine & Food today.

The Hermitage on London Circuit in the city.

Great food, great wine, great staff, great everything.

Try the pumpkin and crab ravioli. (DRIBBLE DRIBBLE)

A little pricey but for an anniversary, well worth the overtime.

Mælinar said :

http://the-riotact.com/?p=7624 for that special ‘getting lucky’ kind of anniversary night.

Any thoughts or recommendations? – the box with a big black button labelled search at the top right corner.

The current spate of best of’s is really starting to reek.

what, like a prawn in the sun??

try looking at some of the restaurants in civic – La Scala’s is pretty good for anniversary dinners, my wife and I go there every couple of years ( I usually forget the in-between years) and we always have a good food / service experience.

You should consider Ottoman – maybe a private room?

Not sure if the WatersEdge menu is fancy enough, but the place itself, the view, and the service, is brilliant.

Been to Artespresso twice; decent food, abysmal service.

I think both Aubergine and Sabayon have much better service and ambience than Courgette, which is easily my least favourite of the three. However Sabayon only offers degustation menus on special occasions (it’s also much more reasonably priced than its two siblings).

Had a wonderful degustation last year at Ellement at Griffith. So that or Aubergine would be my suggestion.

Or Rubicon. Does Rubicon do degustation? Not sure, but the dinner I had there a few months ago was seriously one of the best I’ve ever eaten.

http://the-riotact.com/?p=7624 for that special ‘getting lucky’ kind of anniversary night.

Any thoughts or recommendations? – the box with a big black button labelled search at the top right corner.

The current spate of best of’s is really starting to reek.

We went to the Axis restaurant at the National Museum of Australia a few weeks ago for our anniversary. The service and food was just brilliant, could not have asked for more. Had a great view over the lake. Some great choices on the wine list also.

I’ve been looking at the degustation at Sage (Gorman House) which looks lovely…

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