Banana Leaf Restaurant

As part of my birthday celebrations last month, Mum and Dad took us out to a surprise night on the Wednesday following my birthday. Apparently there was something on this night that was only on this night but we wouldn't be able to eat there so had to go to dinner somewhere before hand.

I had no idea what we were going to, but then a couple of weeks before the dinner an ad came on the TV for a show at the Canberra Theatre called Shen Yun which was only on this night and the night before this, so I pretty much guessed that this was where we were going, plus the restaurant that we were going to was right near the theatre.

When we got to the restaurant we told them we had to leave in an hour as the show started st 7:30 and they said that's fine and that most of the people in the restaurant were going to the show also. So it must be the place to go if you are going to the Canberra Theatre.

I had never been to Banana Leaf before, but had heard lots of good things about it, so I was keen to try it out.

When we got in there the restaurant seemed pretty ordinary, which I find the norm with most restaurants in Canberra. They don't really put any effort into the decor/ambiance of the restaurant. We were also seated at one of those small tables which usually seats only 2 people, so it was really squashy for the 4 of us, which contributed to me knocking my champagne glass over as I was half way through my entree and it spilling all over my food. Hey I love champagne, but not in my food thanks!

The menu is quite strange, it's meant to be a sri lankan restaurant, but there are a lot of dishes on there that aren't.

Chilli Prawns - $19.90

Frankie, Mum and Dad all went for the chilli prawns which they said were quite good. There were quite a few prawns on here too which is always good to see. You can also get all the entrees in a main size which I think is a good idea too.

Smoked Salmon and Quail Egg Salad - $17.90

I wasn't particularly hungry, so I didn't want to get anything too filling for my entree, so I decided on the smoked salmon salad. When I ordered they told me they didn't have quail eggs either, so they were just normal eggs. I thought there might be some sri lankan influence to this, but there wasn't, so I was quite disappointed. It was very nice, just nothing special.

For mains there were quite a few options to choose from and lots more sri lankan dishes which I was happy about.

Sri Lankan Style Rice and Curry (with Beef) - $26.90

Both Frankie and Dad opted for the traditional curry in beef and chicken. It was massive and came with a lentil curry, sambol and chutney.

View of the accompaniments


This one is the chicken curry

Chicken Pittu - $24.80

Mum went with the Chicken Pittu which was described as pebbles of different flour and coconut served with a curry of your choice and traditional accompaniments. I am not sure what else was served with this, as it looks different from the previous meals.

Lomprisht - $27.80

I decided to go with the Lomprisht which is Basmati rice with a fragrant combination of chicken, fish fricadel and vegetable curries wrapped in banana leaves and baked served with condiments, sambol and mild curry sauce.

Innards of the Lomprisht

This was really delicious. I couldn't really tell what was in the parcel as everything sort of blended together, but there tasted as though there was some sweet potato in there which really brought all of the flavours together.

I don't know if I would come back here again as I found it a bit hit and miss and when you paying high prices you just want hits! I think if they fixed the place up a bit I might be tempted. It was a lovely night though and thanks to Mum and Dad for taking us out xx

Banana Leaf Restaurant and Cafe
U2/ 240 -250 City Walk
Canberra City 2601
Ph: 6248 5522

Flint Dining Room

It was my birthday nearly a month ago now, how time flies! Whenever it is mine or Frankie's birthday we take each other out for a surprise meal somewhere.

We have been in Canberra nearly 2 years now and we are starting to run out of nice places where we haven't been before (there might be a new restaurant in Canberra once every 6 months...)

One place where we had never been to was Flint Dining Room at New Acton. There is a Flint in the Vines, which is at the Shaw Vineyard in Murrumbateman (near to where my parents live) so we have been there a couple of times and thought the food was quite good. So I was excited to try out the original location.

We started off at Parlour Wine Bar for a couple of drinks beforehand, which was lovely. If you have never been to this bar I can't recommend it highly enough. I love bars that do table service and have a great selection of wines. I decided on having a Pimms instead though, cause I hadn't had one for ages. It was so delicious and refreshing! Although I would suggest you book, especially in the colder months, as we had to sit outside and it was a really cold evening.

After our drinks we headed next door to the restaurant. When we first arrived and gave our booking name there seemed to be some confusion as to whether our table was ready or not. It was though, so I have no idea about what the drama was.

We then sat down and were given our menus. I noticed other tables being given bread as they sat down, so I was getting excited about that cause I was starving, plus after having a couple of drinks beforehand I needed something to soak up the alcohol. Time went past and no one seemed to be taking notice of us at all. It had been about 30 minutes and we still hadn't ordered any drinks, we were just about to leave when someone came to take our order. There was no apology for the amount of time we had to wait either..

We ordered our drink and food and I enquired about the bread which everyone else seemed to have gotten, except for us. Then the bread finally came out with our entrees.

Feuillete Escargot - $16

The table next to us was having the tasting menu, and the first dish that came out where the snails. They commented on how delicious it was, so Frankie decided to order this for his entree. The snails were in a garlic cream sauce in a basket of puff pastry. I tried some and it was absolutely luscious. I could have eaten a whole bowl full of these.

Tasmanian King Scallops in the Shell - $19

I decided on Scallops, which I usually order if they are on the menu... They were in a potato foam, with crispy jamon and basil oil. They were nice, but nothing great. I couldn't really taste the basil oil at all. Underneath each shell there was a pile of seaweed salad though, which I adore, so I was very happy about that.

Duo of Macleay Valley Rabbit - $34

For mains I went with the Rabbit. Something I don't normally see on menus. It came in a broth with heirloom carrots and rabbit liver parfait. Oh my this was a rich dish! The broth was incredibly salty, which would have been fine if there were some mash or potatoes at the bottom, but there were no carbs at all. Also the liver parfait was delicious, but very very rich and only came with a tiny piece of bread to eat it with. The rabbit leg was very tender and just fell apart and the roulade was very nice too.

Grilled Steak Frites - $28

Frankie went with the steak which was pretty good. A good price for a steak as well. It came with Parmesan and truffle fries. I couldn't really taste the truffle on the fries, but they were still very tasty and nicely cooked.

For dessert we shared a chocolate pave (which I didn't picture as we got talking to the table next to us, and I forgot to...). Apparently the recipe was a tetsuya's recipe. Oh it was so good! Normally I can't eat much dessert after a big meal, but I could have had one of these on my own.

Overall it was a good night. I don't think I will go back there as the service was pretty bad (yes they were busy, but that's what you hire staff for), and also the seating was very squashy. I don't like it when you feel like you are sharing a table, and conversation, with the two tables next to you. I liked to be relaxed in nice comfy chairs when I am eating at a fine dining restaurant.

Flint Dining Room and Bar
NewActon Pavilion
Unit 2, 15 Edinburgh Avenue
Canberra City

Ph: 6162 3350

The River, Moruya

Yes it was nearly Valentines about a month ago and I am only posting about it now...slack I know. We don't usually like to go out on the day of Valentine's cause I don't like paying higher prices for something just because of the day you are dining, plus sitting in a restaurant with only couples is pretty boring.



Any excuse to go out for a meal is good though, especially when someone else is paying! So Frankie planned a surprise outing on the Saturday before Valentine's. He said I needed to be ready to leave the house at 10am! I was like are we going to Sydney for lunch??

When we started heading along the road to Bateman's I was hoping that he had booked the River in Moruya, cause I had heard so many good things about it. So when we got to Bateman's and kept going I asked him if that's where we were heading and he said yes!

View from our table

When we got to the restaurant there was only two other tables that were occupied, so it was nice to practically have the restaurant to ourselves. Apparently though dinner is always booked out. I would much rather come for lunch though, so you can gaze at the lovely views.

We weren't sure of which wine to start with as they had quite a few french wines on the menu, so our lovely waitress asked if we would like to try a couple of different ones. I thought this was excellent, as when you haven't tasted a wine before, you don't know quite what to expect (unless you are getting a sav blanc from the marlborough region).

We decided to go with entrees and mains. I was tossing up between the oysters and the scallops, so Frankie got the oysters and I got the scallops!

Pan fried scallops with Oyster Beignet - $16

Sorry about the description, but I thought this would be on the website menu, which it is not.. The scallops were on a bed of shaved cucumber and had like a pickled chilli relish on top? It was so long ago now. I do remember it was very delicious though and perfectly cooked. How good is awesome seafood and wine while sitting by the water!

Close up of Scallop

1/2 Dozen Turross Oysters - $14

The oysters came a la natural with some lemon, which is exactly the way I like them. OMG these were probably some of the best oysters I have ever eaten. Such a great price as well. Next time we come here I am definitely getting a dozen of these, cause it's only $22!

Frankie took about 10 pictures of the oysters. I love the natural moss on the shell.



Steak with Anchovy Butter, Roasted Beetroot and Parsnips - $32

I got one of the specials of the day which was the Steak. I really wanted a seafood dish, but there was only fish on the menu and all the other choices were a bit heavy for what I felt like. I hadn't ordered steak at a restaurant for ages, so I thought I would try it. I loved the butter sauce and the jus was delicious. The vegetables were cooked to perfection. It was a massive steak though and I couldn't eat it all.

Fish of the Day - $30

Frankie went with the fish of the day (which I can't remember what sort of fish it was, I should really start taking notes). This came on top a mixture of mussels and gnocchi. I had major food envy at this. The fish was cooked so perfectly and was nice and crispy. I am normally not a fan of fish, but I loved this thinner style fish. The mussels and gnocchi was awesome as well.

Cheese Platter - $17

We were going to get a cheese platter and then a dessert after that, but as it wasn't very busy the kitchen was closing, so we just got the cheese platter.

I am not sure what sort of cheese they were, cause they were just placed on the table without explanation. They were beautiful though. The blue cheese was definitely my favourite, as I love pungent blue cheeses. I loved the slices of apple with the cheese too, very refreshing and the texture was great.

I loved this place and would love to come back again and again. It was such a relaxing atmosphere and the food was wonderful and not too expensive either. If you are in the area around lunch time I really urge you to come and eat at this place.

The River Moruya
16b Church Street
Moruya NSW

Open Lunch and Dinner from Wednesday - Saturday
Open for Lunch on Sunday

Morks

My Mum, Sister and I caught up for dinner the other week at this lovely Thai restaurant in Florey. This isn't your traditional Thai restaurant where you order a few dishes and share them amongst your group. Each dish is served for one.

I prefer sharing meals though, as then you get to taste lots of different dishes! Although if you are dining with people that normally don't like to share, then this is the place for them. I think with the entrees it would be easy to share these as the couple of items that we got came with multiple items of the same thing.

This is the second time I have come here and I must say the food is delicious. It seems to be a family run business with parents in the kitchen and kids on the floor. They are not the most professional of waitstaff, but they are really lovely and make you feel very welcome.

The prices are quite on the exxy side for Thai cuisine, but the servings are massive and very nicely presented, so I don't feel like I am getting ripped off at all.

Crab Balls - $15

I was tossing up between the scallops and the crab and in the end went for the crab balls. They seemed like they would be interesting and they were awesome. It was a fried ball of blue swimmer crab and chicken mince sitting atop a mound of egg noodles flavoured with kecap manis and chilli with pickled ginger on the top.

It seemed like a strange combination with a few different cuisines going on there, but all the elements worked wonderfully together and I could have definitely eaten a big bowl of those noodles.

Angel Prawns - $22

Mum and Laura both went for the Angel Prawns. Mum gets this every time and I had this last time I came, so I know how good it is. The 7 prawns all come in this dish which is something I have never seen before, in a restaurant or anywhere else. The prawns are coated in a red curry type sauce and are very tasty indeed. It's funny when you get down to the last couple of prawns and are not sure which spots have the prawns in them and which don't...

Angel Prawn close up

Mussamun Curry - $25

When I go to thai restaurants we always get one type of curry. I love all of them, but never order green curries, as I cook these quite often. I have a great recipe for mussuman curry, but it does take a long time, so I order this when I know I am going to get a good curry.

This curry is one of the best mussumans I have had. There was so much meat in there! Usually you get a lot of sauce in curries and not too much else, but this was packed with meat and potatoes. It came with about 4 roti's as well, of which I managed about 1 1/2. A very delicious rich meal. There is also a pork dish on the menu which sounds delightful. Next time it will be scallops and pork I think!

Huge chunks of meat and potato...


Lamb Cutlets - $25

Mum went with the lamb cutlets. I got this last time and it was nice, but it wasn't the flavour I was expecting, so I didn't enjoy it that much. There were 3 huge chops on there though with some traditional sticky rice.

Lamb Chops

Traditional container of sticky rice

Duck - $25

Laura went with the Red curry duck which looked juicy! It came on a bed of crispy rice cakes and red curry sauce with Lychees and tomatoes. I didn't try any of this, but apparently it was very good and it's a dish that dad orders every time he comes as well.

I really wanted to try their desserts, but I was so full I couldn't even think about it. We were brought out a nice coconut sorbet though on the house which was lovely and refreshing.

The restaurant is quite small and the acoustics are not the best either. There was a really loud table right next to us, luckily we left soon after they arrived. I will definitely be back here though as the food is really really good!

Morks Restaurant
Florey Shops
ACT
Open for dinner Mon - Sat from 6pm

Arirang Korean

The other month I was walking around Gungahlin and noticed that there was no Chiang Rai Piri Piri anymore (a Thai/Portuguese fusion restaurant) and it had changed to a Korean restaurant. I was very excited about this. A few months ago we got a small but good Korean grocery store which I can now shop at to satisfy my kim chi and bulgolgi cravings and now a restaurant!

We tried going there a couple of weeks before this night, but it was packed and the service staff didn't even notice us standing there for about 5 minutes. So we headed off to somewhere else and vowed to come back after they had been open for a bit longer and had sorted themselves out a bit. I made a booking this time too as eating anywhere in Canberra on a Friday night without a booking is extremely hard.

The man that runs the place is so lovely and was fascinated by the wine cooler I had brought with me, which was one of those ones that you stick in the freezer and then snugly fit it to the wine bottle (as I expected they wouldn't have any, and I was right, and there is nothing worse than a barely cold white wine!). He even brought the chef out to have a look!

Banchan! Potato and Carrot

I was hoping they were going to have banchan (as I love free food), and they did! We first got a potato and carrot dish which was lovely.

And then they brought out the shredded fish cake, which was definitely my favourite. They replaced it too when we had finished it and also brought out a few other dishes which I forgot to take a picture of. One of them was the always present kim chi and the other I think was a kim chi radish.

We decided to go with one entree and two mains, as it's our usual way of ordering. There were only 3 choices of entrees and one of these was gyoza, so we had to go with that. These are Korean gyoza though, different from the Japanese ones. I prefer the Japanese type, but these were some of the best korean ones that I have had.

Gyoza -$9

They were perfectly crispy, but not dry and the filling was very flavoursome. I could have eaten many more of these.

Katsudon - $13.50

The first main to arrive was our pork katsu. I love katsu and will choose it over schnitzel any day. The piece was massive, which was good as we were sharing. Also good as our next dish wasn't.... It was crispy and delicious and plenty of sauce was provided. We were also brought out all these different condiments to use which we weren't too sure of what to do with it and then these 2 green chillies were brought out. I think we were meant to eat these whole, but we ended taking them home instead!

Then our next dish came out...

Pork Soup - $13.50

On the menu this was written as pork sausage soup, or something similar to this. Well there was definitely no sausage in this and the broth was reminiscent of dishwater. I tried to like it, but I really didn't. It was full of things that I had no idea of what they were, and usually I am all for trying out new things, but I will definitely never order this again.

They had lots of other things on the menu that I would love to try, like Bibimbap and Jap Chae. They also have specialities like Bo ssam which was $40, so I am guessing that this will feed a few people. The people that run it are lovely, and even though I didn't like the soup at all (I am putting it down to this isn't something that I would normally eat and everything else was uber delicious) I am looking forward to going back to try their other meals.

There is also a Zambreros opening up soon and next to that a Sushi place has opened. I am not too sure what food they sell, as I haven't gone in, but I did see some korean writing. So it's definitely not a Japanese run sushi place.

Loving all the new restaurants that are opening here. Now if only someone could open an asian grocery store to replace the much loved Hub!

Vicini

We were in Sydney again (I feel like I eat out more in Sydney than I do in Canberra!) in mid December for a friend's birthday. We were staying around the Camperdown area, so I wanted to book somewhere for lunch that was close to there. I knew Camperdown didn't have too much to offer, but Newtown was close by, but we always go there, so decided to check out Annandale instead.

There seemed to be a couple of nice restaurants in the area including Vicini. It looked nice and simple and relaxing, just what we needed for a lunch meal. It's on the corner of the main drag of shops and we got a lovely seat looking out onto the street. The downstairs area is quite small with only a few tables. Not sure if they open the upstairs dining to the public for lunch, or if it's just reserved for functions

We drove from Canberra straight to the restaurant and got there about 1:30. They were having a christmas function upstairs so they mentioned there might be a long wait for food. That was ok as we weren't in any rush.

We decided to get some Bruschetta to share as a starter, as we thought there would be a long wait for mains.

Bruschetta - $7

The bruschetta was delicious! Perfectly seasoned. There is nothing worse that getting under seasoned bruschetta. It's such a simple dish that I always vow to make at home after having it at a restaurant, but never seem to do.

Frankie sitting on the bench of pillows.

The lunch menu is not very big. I was feeling like a pasta, but they only had a choice of either spaghetti, gnocchi or risotto. I would have liked a choice of a fettuccine or penne or something. So I chose Lasagna instead.

Lasagna - $20 (I think)

I love a good lasagna and this one was very good. It was piping hot though so I had to wait a bit for it to cool down. I definitely couldn't finish all of it either and gave a third to Frankie, who thought it was delicious as well.

Fish of the day - $27

I can't remember what type of fish this was as it was so long ago, plus I am not really a fish expert. I can tell you if it's Salmon or Tuna, but that's about it. I did have a taste and remember it being very nicely cooked. The asparagus was cooked perfectly too. A nice light lunch, as apposed to my heavy pasta!

I was pretty full from my main meal, but the functions upstairs were all having dessert as we were having our mains, so we could see all the desserts going up there which tempted us to share something.

The waiter came over and told us they had sold out of a few things which I was disappointed in, as there were only a couple of options. Although once he went through everything it seemed they had only sold out of the pannacotta. We were tossing up between that or the Tiramisu, so we went for the latter.

Tiramisu - not sure of price

Well this is one of the best tiramisu's I have had. It was sitting on top a berry coulis, which really counteracted the richness of the dessert. The macerated strawberries on top were so sweet and delicious as well. I was definitely able to eat my half of this dessert with ease!

I would like to come back here for dinner as there seems to be a larger menu and you can get pizza as well. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the area looking for a great place for a meal.

Vicini
37 Booth Street
Annandale

Ph: 9660 6600