Boathouse by the Lake Redux

Since our extraordinary dinner at Boathouse by the Lake back in January, I’ve struggled to find something to match it. Until now.

What could possibly be better than that experience at Boathouse by the Lake? Another experience at Boathouse by the Lake!

When you think of fine dining, you don’t necessarily think of feeling ‘at home’. But a few hours in, with a lot of laughter and fun, and interesting dishes – not to mention a warm, crackling fire – it feels simply like very good friends of ours are treating us to an extraordinary dinner.

Away from us, there’s a couple who appear to be having an intimate dinner – and I’ve no doubt Boathouse has afforded this opportunity at the same time.

Anyway, let’s start at the beginning.

First tick: the five of us are placed around a circular table right near the fire. When you’re in a big group (not a huge group, but a big group), you want to be on a round table, so you can see and hear everyone no matter where you are.

Squid ink, fennel, wholemeal and seeded bread

Squid ink bread

The bread is warm and delicious, and I love the different flavours; I have to stop myself going back for a third (yes, third) roll because I know we’ve got a lot ahead of us in the six course degustation.

Cuttlefish with rockmelon, buche d’affinois (very, very creamy cheese) and almond

Surprisingly, I’m not the biggest fan of our first dish – but that’s largely because I’m not really familiar with cuttlefish as the star of a dish, and rockmelon – even beautifully shaved and presented rockmelon – isn’t my favourite food. I find the cuttlefish a little tough (though suspect it’s supposed to be), and the texture combination of it, the cheese, the rockmelon and the almonds a little confusing and mismatched – and it’s surprisingly salty.

Never fear! This is the only dish that gets a score of average from me. The rest (and there are a lot) range from great to awe-inspiring.

Octopus which has been sous-vide(d?) at 62 degrees and then grilled over charcoal is next, served on wild black rice with a slick sauce nero.

Octopus with wild rice, chilli schezwan jam, pig skin and avruga

The chilli jam brings the flavours together, and I’m a big fan of the pig skin garnish. I love the textures in the dish – the slightly chewy rice matches the texture and serves as a good backdrop for the flavour of the octopus.

Even though it’s only my second dinner at the Boathouse, I really should expect to be surprised but I’m still chuffed and humbled with the next dish. Earlier, the kitchen had been very accommodating and swapped out the cuttlefish in the degustation for one of our guests who doesn’t eat a lot of seafood for another dish of her choice. I’d recommended the smoked corn – having gushed about it at the previous dinner. While our guest hadn’t chosen it, our waiter took note – and it’s brought out as the next dish for all of us to enjoy.

Smoked corn, nitro blue cheese, sous vide pickled pear, sesame and lychee

The shock of the cool smoked corn ice cream and the crumbs of nitro Stilton blue cheese are just as good as I remember. This is a flavour sensation and the thin slices of lychee mean the palate is cleansed when it could be overwhelmed.

It’s already turning into a very special dinner, and I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the menu with a few more challenging flavour combinations.

Confit chicken leg and sous vide chicken breast

Chicken leg, chicken breast, slices of raw cauliflower and a cauliflower puree? You don’t need me to tell you that this works well. The black ash on the plate is pine needle charcoal which has been carefully blended into a white powder.

And then… yes, it’s another surprise dish. This is an onion and rosemary tart – something I’d likely not order if given the option (given my aversion to surprise onion) – but deconstructed style.

Deconstructed rosemary and onion tart

The pastry is rosemary shortcrust, met with thin slices of olive paper, a creamy onion custard and onion jus. There are big glaring pieces of onion, but I actually like (some of) the juicy pieces.

If you wonder if we’re getting full at this point, the answer is absolutely yes. Thankfully, the new flavours and textures of each dish means my stomach somehow keeps finding room.

Beef flank with raddichio, mayonnaise, horse radish and cucumber

This is a small, gorgeous dish; perfect in its simplicity. There’s little that works better than tender beef matched with mayonnaise and horse radish. It’s salty, creamy and spicy.

And now: desserts. This is the first night for the nitro walnut mousse and the waiter serves it with a good helping of superlatives.

Nitro walnut mousse, with honey parsnip, pomegranate and banana

This is a liquid nitrogen walnut mousse with caramelised honey parsnips and celeriac ice cream. There are a lot of flavours here and, despite the coldness of the dish, I think it works beautifully as a winter dish with cozy flavours. If I’m comparing it to the pumpkin dessert which made it into Gourmet Traveller last year, this is still a stunning dish, but the pumpkin holds a special place in my heart.

Finally (we think) the last (we think) dessert arrives – courtesy of the chefs who bring out the : pineapple carpaccio with mascarpone and fennel pollen parfait, pineapple and ginger sorbet and smoking liquid nitrogen meringue chalk.

Happy that I somehow managed to capture the smoke!

This is another special dish – the parfait in particular is special, but everything’s good: there’s the chalky, sweet meringue; the piquant pineapple carpaccio; the smooth but slightly bitter and zesty sorbet.

While we gush to the chef about our love for this dish, we get our final surprise: an offer of a final final dessert. Of course we say yes.

Mandarin textures

That squiggly bit at the bottom of the dish? Yep, that’s spaghetti. Yes, you read that right. This is reminiscent of the strawberry textures dish – the sweet tartness of five imaginings of mandarin are offset by black pepper custard, burnt white chocolate and thyme custard.

But what about the wine? We (wisely) agree not to match our wines with this degustation, knowing the food was going to fill us up without a glass of wine with each dish. Some of us have a little more, others a little less, some have some wines and some have others, and our waiter obliges – matching wines to the more than one dish (no mean feat), offering a bottle if we’d like to have a little more, but ensuring there’s no pressure on us to finish a bottle. The standout to me is the Les Capriades Blanc Piege a Filles (I think I’ve got that right!) – a mix of chenin blanc and menu pineau grapes. There’s no added sulphur or extra sugar – our waiter describes it as like fairy floss without the sugar.

In sum? Boathouse by the Lake is still the best restaurant in Canberra. It’s fun but intimate; personal and personable. The service is light-hearted but obliging and serious where it matters. The food speaks for itself but the best way I can describe it is compelling. It draws you in, and holds your attention from start to finish – in fact, it’s how I’d describe the entire experience.

Date: Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Where: Menindee Drive, Barton (not the Parliament House side of Barton)

Cost: $100 for six (plus three extra!) course degustation, and varied for the wines ($50 to match the wines)

Value for money: High

Worthwhile factor: Extremely high

Want more? Check out my review from the first time I went; or Rachi’s excellent review of this experience.