Kudos Taste

Looking for some Japanese comfort food? 

Canberra will be pleased to know about a Japanese restaurant that has been recently added to the Canberra House, Kudos Taste (around the same time as Two Before Ten Cafe, which is located in the same complex). The little restaurant is actually a kiosk located in the centre of the complex and a nice and inexpensive place to go for lunch. 

 I like the little owls imprinted on the blue banner!

Pelagic Bar & Dining - Dinner

As i mentioned previously, i would be back again to try their a la carte menu. So here i am again, but this time for dinner. For some reason, the decor seems a lot more dramatic at night than during the day.I especially liked the brightly-lit shelves full of upside down wine glasses and the colourful school of fish painted on the walls. We got some Lemon, Lime and Bitters to satisfy our thrist while we chose the entrees and the mains.

For entrees, we've ordered the Conchinglie pasta with king prawn, spanish onions & soft herbs and the Seared scallops with crispy pigs ear & shaved radish salad. Conchinglie pasta resemble little seashells and for some bizarre reason i find them quite fun to eat. For this dish, i was perhaps a bit disappointed with the presentation as i was expecting to find some visible king prawns instead of tiny diced pieces of such. Taste wise it was alright (quite light) but having whole pieces of prawn would have probably made it tastier and better. The scallop entree was lovely; generous sized succulent scallops were nicely seared and paired with crispy pigs' ear to add the much needed saltiness and the crunchy texture to the dish.

Conchinglie pasta with king prawn, spanish onions & soft herbs

 Seared scallops with crispy pigs ear & shaved radish salad

Next up were the mains, which we ordered the Eye fillet with yorkshire pudding, horseradish cream & red wine jus and the Grilled yellowfin tuna with warm spanish onion, cherry tomato & balsamic salsa. The eye fillet was cooked to medium rare and it was gorgeously tender. There wasn't really a need for the yorkshire pudding to be there but it was nice nonetheless. 

The grilled tuna was lovely too. The tuna was cooked perfectly and all the components tasted good as well. However, i felt like there was something missing, something (sweet?) that would bring all the components together to make it a beautiful dish. Nicely executed but fell short taste wise.

Here is the bowl of fries that we ordered to accompany our mains. It came out pipping hot! *nom

Last to come up was, of course, the dessert. We decided to share one as we were already too full to get a dessert each. Sadly they didn't have the Strawberry Festival (the dessert which i ordered on my previous visit) on this occasion, thus we decided to go for the Classic Creme Brulee. 'Crack' is the sound i heard when i gently hit it with my spoon and i was happy to find a luscious custard underneath eagerly waiting to be devoured. The custard itself tasted nice but it was a tad too rich for my taste. I am glad that we shared as i am almost certain that i wouldn't be able to finish one by myself =P

Even though the night was gloomy and rainy, the overall dinner experience was good and it lifted our moods up. The ambience was good and the waitress was very knowledgeable and attentive. The food was nice with just a few misses here and there. Coming back? Certainly, but not sure when...unless you tell me that the Strawberry Festival is back!

Two Before Ten - Cafe & Coffee Roasters

Just before we headed to Londsdale Street Roasters (again) for afternoon tea, we decided to try a relatively new addition to the Canberra House, the Two Before Ten Cafe & Coffee Roasters. It has a simple and cozy atmosphere and the staff was quite attentive and friendly. What struck me most was the feature wall behind the coffee counter which had designs of strange (but cute?) creatures as well as the funky yellow urchin lights *check them out!

Lonsdale Street Roasters

For quite a while, Milk & Honey (M&H) had been my favorite place to go after lunches or dinners to just chillax and catch up with friends. I have to say that it didn't take long before Lonsdale Street Roasters (LSR) attained an equal standing in my heart. But since LSR doesn't open at night, M&H is still the place to go after dinners =)

There isn't much of a wow factor when you look from the outside of LSR (although i found the coffee-sack-cushions-on-empty-milk-crate seats quite cute) but when you step into that place, you feel like you are in a funky art gallery. Bright colours, striking patterned wallpapers, bicycles hanging off the walls and random 'hazard signs' stuck to the ceiling all come together surprisingly harmonious with the plain solid wooden tables in the cafe. I also quite liked the fact that they took the time to pick out interesting cushions to adorn the wall seatings, check them out!