The Smokehouse Cafe at Poacher's Pantry

Despite the fact that Canberra has been feeling like winter for the past few days, today was a beautiful day! The weather was warm (but not hot) and the sky was beautiful; a perfect day to go somewhere as nice and as relaxing like The Smokehouse Cafe @ Poacher's Pantry for lunch. Poacher's Pantry is only 25 minutes drive from Canberra's CBD and is a very enjoyable place to savour a range of delicious gourmet smoked meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables. If you desire, you can order wines from Wily Trout Vineyard to accompany your meals. The surrounds of the cafe are very lovely, especially now as we are approaching autumn - small pond with carps, yellow-orangy trees and lavender with white butterflies.

It is recommended to make a booking to avoid any disappointment as they have been increasing popular for brunch or lunch on the weekends - i was so fortunate to have someone cancelling their booking today!
The Smokehouse Cafe boasts a simple and rustic decor with a few fireplaces. I love the fact that they have a small corner selling their own smoked goodies and another one selling gourmet vinegars, oils, jams, chocolate and mayonnaise! An interesting thing that i found out today was that Poacher's Pantry products have been used by chefs such as Stephanie Alexander, Andrew Blake and Tetsuya. Cool huh?

If you do have the opportunity to go to The Smokehouse Cafe, DO NOT leave without trying one (or all, if possible) of their platters - you have a choice of Meat, Seafood or Vegetable Platter. On this instance, we ordered the Seafood Platter (for two) which consisted of Smoked salmon, smoked cooked ocean trout, smoked prawns, some marinated vegetables, smoked garlic, dolmades, smoked tomatoes, (awesome) capers and four different dips served with bread & crackers.

We also ordered the Brandy cured smoked duck breast salad with oranges, honey macadamias, roasted red onion and a palm sugar vinaigrette. I really liked the combination of flavours in this dish and the smoked duck was very succulent and tender. *It was about time to have a nice duck dish! Finally!* The only tiny criticism, the vinaigrette was a bit oily for my liking. Apart from that...awesome!

I think it's my forth time there, and i have have to say that i've always enjoyed the good atmosphere and the food. Definately worth a visit and don't forget to buy some smoked goodies =)