Veggie Bites

We have been here once before in the past, and although they don’t have a huge range of veggie dishes, they are happy to modify dishes containing meat and the food is really good. We started with the dip platter and Turkish bread. There were four different types of dip including the fish roe one, so if you are going here and don’t eat that sort of thing, then ask them to leave it off – we let our friends eat that one! There was also hummus and carrot dip and another one that was buttery and creamy and had corn in it – really nice! For mains, Martin had the stuffed field mushrooms and I requested the potato rosti without the smoked salmon – both were delicious! I am a sucker for potatoes and this dish was great! We all also decided to have desert – two chocolate rum and raisin cheesecakes, a chocolate mud cake and a white chocolate praline something… all were delicious, incredibly rich and insanely huge! But we managed to get through most of it! We also managed to get through some margarita’s and a bottle of wine… I recommend the strawberry margarita but drink it before anything else, otherwise it is a little on the sickly sweet side!

I have reviewed Bernadette’s a couple of times since they changed hands and while we haven’t been overly inspired, we also haven’t had completely horrible experiences! This time I had lunch there with a friend, since it is close to home and we didn’t have a huge amount of time. Considering it was a Friday lunch, I was a little surprised at how empty they were… I guess others have been more uninspired than us! This time I was impressed by the menu – they have a stack of new choices on it and seem to be trying to make it their own, and I was equally impressed by the food… I tried a “new” tandoori pizza and I hope they decide to add it to their standard pizza menu because it was great! Small chucks of Tandoori tofu with cucumber, topped with yoghurt, a pappaddum and fruit chutney. Really, really tasty!

I have only eaten here once before, a few years ago and at the time I thought the food was nice enough but it was a bit on the expensive side. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover this time that the food is great and it is actually reasonably priced! There were four of us, so we had a variety of mains as well as sharing a mixed bread to start with. The mixed bread had garlic, parmesan and sundried tomato breads, and I have to say – that parmesan bread – yummo! The only thing I dislike about this sort of thing (and this is not specific to this place) is that four of us had to share six pieces of bread. This means you either spend half your time cutting various bits of bread in half or some people miss out on trying a particular flavour… I wish that the wait staff would ask if we would like them to adjust the serving (with an adjustment in price as appropriate) to the number of people on the table… Anyway, the mains were amazing, I had the pasta Verona with sun dried tomatoes, slivers of garlic, a dollop of pesto and goats cheese, Martin had the vegetarian risotto (can’t remember it’s actual name) but it was also divine. I am a bit wary of ordering risotto in restaurants as they can vary so much, but I would definitely order this one next time I eat here. Our friends had a gnocchi dish and octopus salad and both commented on how good they were. All in all a great meal – and there is a good selection of clearly marked vegetarian dishes… I will definitely go back and would definitely recommend it!

I have reviewed this place before, commenting on the food if you eat there – which is pretty good. This time we had takeaway pizza (which we have had before). A few things bugged me – firstly it turns out we had an old menu – not usually a problem, except that when we tried to order the standard vegetarian pizza we were told they didn’t have that on the menu, so we ended up with half potato and half gourmet veggie (I have no idea what it was actually called because they didn’t have a new takeaway menu!) – I really didn’t want a ‘gourmet’ veggie pizza. The second thing that bugged me was that it took a long time – although, it was a Saturday night and they were probably busy, we just wanted food quickly. And thirdly the price freaked me out! Over $30 for one large pizza and a garlic bread (which wasn’t really a garlic bread, more of a very small garlic pizza – again not what I wanted). So, those things, combined with the fact that the pizza was fairly average made this a very average experience. I seriously doubt that I would bother with pizza from here again…

This was a takeaway experience with some friends, and I am glad that we decided to try this place from the large number of takeaway menus we had to choose from. I have heard that it is supposed to be good, and this takeaway confirmed those rumours! We started with veggie samosa’s (yes, with peas – I picked them out, much to my friends amusement!), followed by a Palak Paneer and a dahl and for my carnivore friends, Tandori chicken, with garlic naans, raita and mango chutney. The Palak Paneer was spicy and creamy and tasted great. The dahl was one of two on the menu – I think we ended up ordering the one with 5 different varieties of lentils in it, and I couldn’t be bothered trying to see if there actually was five different types of lentils in it, but it tasted really good. I would really like to go back and try a few of the other veggie dishes – it is on the list for a return visit!

This is the second time that we have had home delivery from here – I think this place only does takeaway and home delivery, they are a tiny little ’shop’ in Ainslie shops and there is no room for tables! There are not many really good, traditional Vietnamese restaurants in Canberra, not that I have seen anyway! I wouldn’t call this one traditional, but the food isn’t bad. In fact, while eating I called it average, but Martin informed me that it was a bit better than average! The spring rolls are weird, most of the filling is mushed up, but then they also contain whole peas – explain that to me!! I don’t think we would bother with spring rolls again in the future. The veggies with bean curd and lemon grass was the highlight of the meal – when I opened the container, it looked like sweet chilli sauce had been poured on the top at the last minute, but the flavour of lemon grass was strong and sweet – just the way I like it. The sate veggies were ok, I think I prefer Thai style satay to the Vietnamese style. And finally the rice noodles were a bit bland, but certainly edible. I would like to re-try a few more of the other Vietnamese restaurants around Canberra to see if there is much difference.

We have eaten from here a few times, this time it was takeaway to remind ourselves of what they are like. Martin ordered and picked it up, so what we were actually eating was a bit of a surprise, but it was nothing too out of the ordinary! We had a green curry, a stir fry and a pad thai. The green curry was great, nice and spicy but not too hot, the stir fry was good, but not incredibly memorable. The pad thai was good, but it had a lot of extra veggies in it, I prefer pad thai’s to be simple and full of lots of noodles and flavour. All in all, pretty good food, but I am not sure this is the new favourite Thai restaurant… the search continues!

We normally only get food from here when we simply cannot be bothered to go out and pick something up. However, we discovered last night that they no longer home deliver. We ordered from them anyway because going out to get it was less work than deciding where else to order from. In the past their food has been extremely inconsistent – one of their curries was once so hot that Martin simply couldn’t eat it, other times they have been particularly mild. Last night was no exception. The red curry was quite spicy and hot and also quite oily, the Pad Thai was average, when in the past it has been quite good. The tofu and veggies with cashew nuts were pretty good as were the spring rolls (although Martin thought they had a funny flavour). Since they no longer home deliver, I doubt that we will be ordering from them in the future… However, this food did help me to decide that we now must go on a quest to find the best and reasonably priced Thai food in Canberra… Watch this space for the results!

I have said in a previous breakfast review of Gus’s that I love eating here, and I do, even though I don’t actually come here very often… This time I had the lentil burger, something I rarely order from any restaurant, but would definitely order from here again in the future… it was great, but my only complaint was that it was hard to eat! I expect to be able to pick up a burger and eat it with my hands, however this burger came stacked on one large bit of bread/bun on the bottom and 2 odd shaped bits artistically placed on top… however, I managed to cut it and pick it up to eat it! The other thing that I love that is on Gus’s menu is the roasted potato and pumpkin salad which is listed as coming with bacon (obviously I order it without the bacon!). This is something that I now often cook at home!