"The best food and service yet experienced in 2009."
After a long day, arriving in Canberra after 8pm, I wanted nothing more than a shower and a good meal. Out of pure laziness, I opted to dine at the restaurant on the top floor of Rydges Lakeside Hotel in Canberra where I was staying- and I must say that I was exceedingly impressed.
The lift doors opened to a gorgeous skyline and a friendly greeting from the restaurant manager. I was seated along side the window, and the services from the word go was friendly and attentive, without being overbearing. From the atmosphere already created in those first few minutes, I was inspired to order a $20 glass of Moet & Chandon, and it only got better from there.
For starters- flat bread, lightly dusted with sea salt, served with a saucer of extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic. The middle eastern style flat bread was a nice twist on the seemingly traditional bread & balsamic combination.
Main Meal- King Fish with piquillo peppers and olives in a salsa verde. This was simply amazing. The salsa verde was bursting with so many rich aromatic flavours, and was the perfect accompaniment for the King Fish, which was cooked to complete perfection, simply 'falling' apart the moment my knife made contact with the fish.
Dessert- Pine Nut and honey tart with cinnamon semifreddo. Now this was definitely an experience. I had never thought of pine nuts and their possible place in desserts before. The tart was simply remarkable and incredibly innovative. It wasn't too sweet, and allowed for the natural flavour of the pine nuts to shine through. Flavour wise, it wasn't the best dessert I've ever had, but I was simply in awe and appreciation of such a novel idea for a dessert. I didn't go much on the cinnamon semifreddo- having said that I'm not really much of a cinnamon or semifreddo fan however.
THE VERDICT
FOOD & FLAVOUR- thumbs up
EXECUTION & PRESENTATION- thumbs up
SERVICE & ATMOSPHERE- thumbs up
OVERALL: thumbs up
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