Grease Monkey opened a little while back and my interest was piqued when people started declaring them the best burgers ever. Better than Brodburger? Well, maybe not. But equally as good.
That still makes them more than worth the trip to Braddon to try them out!
This is not a paid post but this is a post with an inherent bias. It’s because I simply love Frugii. I’ve been a Frugii fanatic for a long while – enjoying a breakfast ice cream cone on Saturday mornings at the EPIC Farmers Markets or an afternoon ice cream cup at the Old Bus Depot Markets. There’s nothing that Mr Frugii aka John can do wrong. Tomato sorbet? You got it. Pavlova ice cream? Yep. Wheat beer ice cream? Easy done.
Gingerbread? Sour cream? Licorice? Musk? Christmas pudding? Gin and tonic? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and YES. (I’ve tried them all.) And John was doing all of these flavours well before he opened the Frugii Dessert Laboratory in the Ori building on Lonsdale Street earlier this year.
* I attended this experience at Marble & Grain as their guest.
Hopscotch. Black Fire. Marble & Grain. Braddon restaurants have a thing about clever names and I was particularly excited when Marble & Grain launched, expecting a high-end gastropub, with gorgeous, delicately-marbled steaks and sides and a range of excellent beers to match. After its soft opening late in 2014, I watched first with interest, then surprise, as respected reviewers and friends emerged from their experience and gave Marble & Grain a resounding thumbs down.
I’m late to the party with Eighty/Twenty – named so because of the (appealing) concept of being 80 per cent healthy and 20 per cent naughty. Or, as I like to interpret it: don’t deny yourself the very indulgent, but try to be good most of the time.
* I enjoyed this experience as a guest of Sage Dining Rooms.
We’re just back from what I termed EuroChristmas – in two weeks Boyfriend and I packed in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Monchengladbach, Trier, Luxembourg, Brussels and Amsterdam. On its own it was a magical trip simply due to the locations and time of year, but these places are also home to some of the best and most experimental food in the world – as soon as we’d booked plane tickets I was booking us into restaurants. Two of these were Copenhagen restaurants headed by former Noma staff: Bror and Relae. Relae in particular is consistently just outside the World’s 50 best restaurants list (53rd last year) last year.
These restaurants were great; delicious food, lovely atmosphere. But what struck me is I’d come half way around the world for experiences which were more than comparable to fantastic food I can access at home in Canberra: The Boathouse, the Artisan and Sage in particular. (And the service at all three is better than any of the service we had in Copenhagen!). I’ve always thought we do some truly innovative things in Canberra, and to have it confirmed through these experiences was heartening. To me, there’s nothing stopping numerous Canberra restaurants from making these sorts of lists.
And Sage might well be on its way to being of them. In November it was joined by Damien Brabender who comes with the professional experience of working at Lizard Island (before it got battered by Cyclone Ita) and the six-star Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort, as well as London restaurants. When offered to experience what zing he’s bringing to Sage (which as you know I already rate very highly!), I happily obliged.
It’s Monday night and there’s a rumbling – but it’s difficult to tell whether it’s from stomachs belonging to me and Capital Food Journal, or from the pending great storm. We’re at Black Fire in Braddon for the first time. The mediterranean restaurant with its charcoal grill (or black fire) has been getting plenty of good publicity, both formally and by word of mouth.
We’re seated in front of some neon lights in the restaurant, the space of which is smaller than I expect. The busy kitchen takes up one end of the restaurant, and it’s not short on wait staff – and is packed by 7.30pm.
After almost two years in business, people still rave about Eightysix and talk about it like it’s new – which is really saying something given how there’s something new (and good) opening up every week (or more) in Canberra, especially on Lonsdale Street near where Eightysix is housed. As part of October’s Good Food Month, Eightysix – usually only open for lunch and dinner (my first experience here) – launched a Sunday brunch menu which they’ve decided to keep up indefinitely.
In addition to the menu pasted on Facebook, fantastic local bloggers Megan and Natalie‘s reviews had me salivating. Thus, even with a relatively full tummy from dinner at Temporada last night (post forthcoming!), we were committed to having the experience today.
It’s the most anticipated opening in Canberra this year – and they sure knew how to draw it out. But Bent Spoke Brewing Company has been worth the wait.
I don’t expect to like Italian and Sons. I don’t really feel like Italian and just how many tables are crammed into the small space on Lonsdale Street raises my eyebrows – but I’m surprised with how much I like the food and experience.
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In The Taratory 