Zambrero

It’s all about the lime at Zambrero. Fast Mexican is the name of the game here, though I could have sworn reading from right to left was an Arabic thing. Anyways, it’s simple once you read the sequence correctly, choose your shell be it taco or burrito, a meat or not, add a salsa, guac costs extra, then a sauce, a squeeze of lime (though it would be nice if a fresh one could be cut each time) and hey presto. Chicken zacatecas burrito with tomato salsa and gauc is a decent combo, though I’d say that Guzman has the edge.


2 / 5 yums!
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Where? Alinga St, City Civic, Canberra, ACT
What? Under $10

Debacle

It certainly was. A debacle. The tapas anyway. Having arrived just after lunch service, tapas filled the void for those with the mid afternoon munchies. Unfortunate for us as the mains looked appetising and good value.

There’s a comic touch to the signage, but I wasn’t laughing when the chorizo came out with extreme moisture problems. Extremely salty, the harissa flavour overkill and better served with something else. Balance came in the overcooked rubbery octopus as if just boiled in hot water with herbs with no real flavour. Returning to the salt overkill, the fresh rocket does nothing to neutralise the pan fried haloumi cheese that could have been salted again. Lamb skewers the only thing to stand tall.

Restaurant names are sometimes used tongue-in-cheek. Not here.


1 / 5 yums!
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Where? 30 Lonsdale St, Braddon, ACT
What? Tapas dishes under $10

Taj Agra

Few Indian restaurants I’ve been to that have attempted to go Establishment or Boutique upmarket have impressed. Overpriced and undervalued for listless, tasteless curries which can be found at your local food court. Give me the cheap and nasty any hour, any day of the week. Sit me on a freakin milk crate and make me eat off my lap, will come with own stainless steel if the food is awesome.

Hungry, tired and sick of Oriental food, Taj Agra was one of the few things in Dickson my party were willing to try. What’s wrong with Ethiopian I ask?

Upon entering through the purple framed glass doors, things didn’t feel quite right. Things were too comfortable, the neutral tan tones splashed on the walls, off white suede upholstered chairs, sharp and clean wooden table tops, wine glasses ready and waiting. It was too much, and too late, we had already been shown our seats.

The usuals appear, from your vindaloos to rogan joshs, butter chickens to kormas and briyani. If the mainstream Indian doesn’t appeal, there’s the Pakistani section to tickle the fancy, though the ordered Pakistani lamb dish used meat that was gristly and seemed about as old as your grandfolks. The rest is pleasant enough though the garlic naan almost charred to the point that could have set off smoke alarms. The price certainly did the customer no favours either; paying a price that did not represent value for the portions presented.

A massive generalisation: places like this share the Establishment flaws, pretending to be something it ain’t with an exterior that hides a distinct lack of substance. Pass me that milk crate from Hyde Park anyday.

1.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 35 Woolley St, Dickson, ACT
What? Mains Under $16

Milk and Honey

Life’s pleasures. A child’s first steps. Their first words. The first time they go pee pee on their own. Take the nectar from a female bovine’s teat, pasteurised or un (your choice), heat and add nature’s natural sweetener and you have a liquid treat. Simple.

Just like the menu at Milk and Honey that reeks of Kevin Rudd’s Facebook page… tries very hard to please everyone. Certainly not palate shattering meals, the way smashing Spencer’s Cajun Creole onto the tongue with a sledgehammer would. Just food that befits the relaxed, casual, modern environment, inspired by touches of the Middle East and Europe.

$30 each, for a large group, gets you a savoury experience. Share the starters, consisting of hommus, baba and spicy capsium with flat bread. Follow this up with something substantially more substantial in the mezze plate of kofta balls, falafel and lamb skewered kebabs. Individually choose your main to top up the stomach, from a gentle garlic, chilli infused olive tossed in linguini, spring onion, prawns and scant button mushrooms, skin on chicken breast, pan fried and drizzled with a lemon juice squatting on a saffron risotto cake, a heart foundation tick of approval tender pork cutlet roasted with thyme, caramelised onion and apple, or a slickly greased parsley crumbed veal on a rack of asparagus.

While capilano or manuka might not remedy some of the kinks with the food, but with a bit of warmness and calcium, Milk and Honey could grow up be bigger and stronger to be the nation’s capital’s favourite teenager.

2.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 29 Garema Pl, Canberra City, ACT
What? 2 course banquet $30







Left to Right : Dip plate, Mezze, Linguini, Chicken Breat, Pork Cutlet, Crumbed Veal

Dickson Asian Noodle House

Jason Akamanis, not what it used to be. There was a time when Dickson Chinese Noodle House was Brownlow quality. The Hainan chicken rice was worth the stopover if driving through Canberra. It could have been used as a major attraction a la the mouth from Brisvegas. Chicken rice glistens under the spotlight, made with a true, homemade chicken stock. The generous chicken remains but is now a tad Simpson Desert, a bit dry. The rice replaced with an artificial yellow tinge not too far off Aka’s hair colour that is far inferior to its predecessor. You’ll need the garlic oyster sauce combo to save a parched eating hole. Failing to live up to the lofty high standards of the past, reeking of Aka since moving to the Bulldogs.

Char Kway Teow is an improvement, the flat noodles nicely smoked by a subtle charred flavour and a reasonable spicy kick. The laksa, which comes in diminutive half size right up to jumbo, is rich in flavour, hearty for a cold winter’s day, without destroying throat by chilli. Have it with chook, cow or things from the water.

Does bring a tear to the eye to see a former superstar in decline, you’d only hope that they can lift themselves off the turf and reclaim past glories.
2 / 5 yums!
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Where? Shop 4, 29 Woolley Street, Dickson, ACT
What? Most mains under $12





Left to Right : Char Kway Teow, Laksa, Hainan Chicken Rice

Chicken Gourmet

Gut, queasy. Heart, beating a Brazilian samba. Body temperature, hot… then cold… then really hot… then you get the picture. Coordination, lacking. Yup, you’re drunk as a skunk and you’re in Canberra. Munchies? Heck yes. Where else for a late night feed but the nation capital’s finest.

Comparable to KFC? Not quite but damn it’s good. Managing through blurred vision and astounded that the cashier can comprehend the slurred “schlickin fluggar n ships”, out comes every intoxicated person’s saviour chicken burger and chips. Quick as a 9.74 second world record 100m sprint, a deep fried, battered chicken patty that’s lightly spiced with a bit of shredded lettuce (because it’s really important to get your vitamins at this time of night) is presented in-between two sesame sprinkled burger buns. Crinkle cut chips that are a little powdery is irrelevant as the gravy that saturates them makes one forget temporarily.

Wallet, empty. Food…worth it. Home… by foot.

3 / 5 yums!
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Where? 131 City Walk, City, ACT
What? I wish i remembered...