Posted in Turkish on 2010-02-03 12:47 by mel
Date: 2 February 2010
We discovered this place when having to spend a lot of time at John James Hospital. They do really good pides, amazing felafel rolls and the best baklava I have ever had (and I don’t really like baklava!). They also do really good borek, zucchini balls, mixed veggies and dips. We have eaten here and had take away a number of times and eaten a variety of things and the only thing I can complain about is the fact that they accidentally gave us a meat pide instead of the veggie one we ordered one time that we got take away. However, they sorted that out for us no problems! I think this is definitely some of the best Turkish food in Canberra at the moment!
Posted in Korean on 2009-12-27 09:08 by mel
Date: 26 December 2009
We decided to go out for lunch for our anniversary instead of dinner, and there wasn’t a whole lot of choice – especially since we decided not to do battle with the crowds in Civic!
We decided that we would try this Korean place in Dickson. We have had Korean food once before and it was very good, so we had reasonably high expectations. They were very helpful in getting a high chair for us, but quite slow on getting our water, however the food arrived reasonably quickly. We ordered steamed dumplings for our entree, and Dolsot-bibimbab and a vegetable pancake for our mains. A number of side dishes and sauces were also placed on our table, although no-one explained what they actually were… we were just told that they were side dishes… The dumplings were ok – Martin liked them more than I did! The dolsot-bibimbab is an interesting dish – it is rice, vegetables etc with an egg on top and comes in a hot stone pot – you stir it up and add hot chilli sauce and eat away. Everything continues to cook and the rice gets that lovely crunchy crust to it. However, I have to say they highlight of the meal was the vegetable pancake – it looked like a small pizza and it was utterly delicious!
Overall, not bad, but I think the place in Dunedin was better!
Posted in Indian on 2009-11-16 20:23 by mel
Date: 16 November 2009
I think this is a relatively new Indian restaurant in Manuka – certainly one that we haven’t discovered before! I was a bit nervous when we walked in as there was no-one else eating there – but it was lunchtime on a Monday… The menu is pretty varied and has a good vegetarian selection, as you would expect from an Indian restaurant. We decided to have the Kushi veg platter for two which had samosa, tandoori mushrooms and paneer tikka. It was all very yummy and came with a corriander chutney type sauce as well as a very nice spicy tomato-ey type chutney. Instead of getting the usual mains, we opted for dosai – rice and lentil crepes stuffed with different fillings. I had the masala dosai (spicy potato) and Martin had the onion masala dosai (spicy potato and onion). They were great – the dosai were light and crispy and the stuffing was spicy and delicious. They were just what we felt like! I think we might head back just for the dosai! The only thing that annoyed me a bit about this place was the overwhelming incense and the fact that the owner (?) spent a lot of time making phone calls using the speaker phone which echoed the dial tone and keypad noises around the restaurant! But the food was good!
Posted in Italian on 2009-11-12 11:33 by mel
Date: 8 November 2009
We haven’t eaten here in ages, and it is one of the few places open in Kingston on a Sunday, so we kind of ended up here by accident. That being said, the food was pretty good. We shared a large pizza with half mushroom and half vegetarian topping and a salad with olives, avocado and bocconcini cheese (can’t remember what it is called). I was a bit disappointed with the salad – only 2 pieces of tomato!! But their pizza is pretty good. The base is one of the nicest I have eaten, but the pizzas always seem to end up a little sloppy! Would definitely go back for pizza!
Posted in Café on 2009-10-28 05:43 by mel
Date: 24 October 2009
This is the cafe at the National Library. I have been here a few times for afternoon tea, but never had a meal here. So, when we were going to be here for another reason, around lunch time, we decided to try it out. They don’t have a hiuge variety of meals, but there was a decent choice. I had the spinach and feta fritata which came with salad. Martin opted for lemon souffle pancakes. The fritata was delicious and Martin said his pancakes were very good as well. We didn’t get the chance for dessert – a shame since everything I have had on previous visits for afternoon tea has been great! The only annoying thing is if it is full, it is very noisy and you can wait a while to order, however, the food arrived very quickly, so I guess that kind of cancels out the wait to order!
Posted in Indian on 2009-10-11 11:07 by mel
Date: 9 October 2009
We have eaten at Flavours of India in Civic a lot and also have had take away from here quite a bit since the first time we ate here – four years ago! This is really good Indian food and they have a pretty good variety of vegetarian dishes… of course we now have our favourites…
Aloo papdi chaat is now my all time favourite Indian starter! It is described as “spiced potatoes & spinach fritters tossed together with sweetened yoghurt, tamarind chutney & spiked with chaat masala” – YUM!
For our mains we had kadhai paneer (cheese, capsicum and onion in a sort-of-creamy tomato sauce) and aloo palak (potato and spinach), along with rice, raita and naans. Yum, yum and yum! As I have said before, not the cheapest Indian food around, but definitely delicious!
Posted in Café on 10:57 by mel
Date: 4 October 2009
Well, having said we don’t get to eat out much any more, it is kind of ironic that the first two reviews are from consecutive days!
Cream is a relatively new place in the centre of Canberra and we have checked out their menu a couple of times and decided not to go in as, at the time, the menu had a ‘v’ (which they said meant vegetarian) next to a number of meat dishes! Their menu seems to have been edited and it seems that ‘v’ now means able to be adapted to vegetarian rather than actually vegetarian! We have eaten here twice now – both times for brunch/lunch which basically means we ate breakfast! I have had the blini (done vegetarian of course!) with a chai latte, and the eggs benedict with spinach and a side of kipfler potatoes and mushrooms with a hot chocolate. Both meals were delicious. The blini wasn’t huge, but was fine for me. The eggs benedict was some of the better ones I have had – the eggs were poached beautifully, which for me means the white was not very runny at all! The hot chocolate was divine! It was made with actual melted chocolate in the bottom of lovely hot frothy milk – oh, heaven!! The downside to this place is that it is very, very noisy… Oh well, maybe in summer we can sit outside – but summer might mean it is too warm for a hot chocolate!
Posted in Vegetarian on 10:45 by mel
Date: 3 October 2009
I have been meaning to review this great little place for some time now. We have eaten here a few times and tried to eat here a few more times. It is a funky little veggie place with a great open kitchen and a very happy following of food loving regulars! It is often hard to get a table as it is pretty much packed at meal times and they are only a small place. We tend to end up here just after the main meal times, so occasionally miss out on the dishes we want – but it is not usually a problem – everything is yummy! This time, late as usual, I had the pizza with pumpkin, pesto and cherry tomatoes, and while Martin initially wanted the fajta, he ended up with the tofu burger as they were out of the fajita. The pizzas are delicious and very generous – they are made on square lebenese type bread, and the pesto on this one was amazing! Martin was very pleased with his tofu burger, although I thought it would have been nice if it came with some salad on the side…
Definitely good food and we’ll definitely go back – might even try and get there in time for breakfast one time!
Posted in Administrivia on 10:33 by mel
Way too much has been going on and I just haven’t had time to write any reviews – anyway, the blog has been updated and it is now easier to add new reviews, so I’m back!
The reviews certainly won’t be as frequent – we don’t eat out as much any more, thanks to Sebastian – but I’ll do my best! 
Posted in Administrivia on 2007-10-02 00:00 by mel
Well, I have been incredibly slack with regard to keeping this up to date. No reviews doesn’t mean that we haven’t been eating out, it just means I have been too busy to get around to writing anything useful!! We have tried a few new places – Satis, Thai Spice, 2602, Pulp Kitchen – among others, some I will return to and write about, some I won’t bother with! Anyway, I have found the time to write a few reviews of new places, and I am hoping to keep it all a little more up to date from now on!