Courgette, Canberra City – very fine dining

Chef James Massillon continues to creates magic with food and service at Courgette on Marcus Clarke Street in Canberra City.

Indeed Courgette’s wait staff are the finest in Canberra – familiar faces who develop an instant rapport while behind the scenes, seamlessly choreographing the meal to ensure a perfect evening.

Each of the three ($66) or four ($88) courses offers a choice of beautifully presented dishes carefully matched to the serving ware.

The flavours and textures of each dish are clearly carefully chosen.

Courgette also very helpfully takes bookings and offers BYO wine at $18 corkage per bottle.

The current choice of dishes differs a little to the Four Course Dinner menu on-line.

First course is not as strong as the other courses and offers a choice of…

Meredith goats cheese cloud, heirloom tomato, basil pesto, green olive, toasted seeds, sundried tomato crisp which is beautifully presented on a very appealing natural piece of wood, but it misses out on creating a memorable flavour….

…whereas the Prawn cannelloni, sweet bell pepper, baby cos, smoked paprika, radish, tarragon oil is very flavoursome and nicely textured (particularly the cannelloni) making this the better choice of these two dishes on offer.

Second course offers a choice of four dishes.

The rare roasted Mandatory creek venison, baby capers, carrot gel, pickled cucumber, reggiano, bush pepper has great flavours and is a good choice.

The seared scallops, smoked cauliflower purée, fennel crunch, fermented black garlic come on the most the amazing background dish but again, lacks a wow flavour.

The chicken liver parfait, brioche, quince onion jam, sultanas, spring flowers and herbs gets much praise from Memoirs of a Foodie and would be well worth a try.

Third course

The Cowra lamb cutlets, lamb shank, tomato chilli jam, baby fennel, celeriac, fresh mulberries are truly delicious and an excellent choice. The pulled lamb shank meat is mixed with the other flavours and is wonderful.

The black kingfish fillet with smoked salmon, avruga caviar, courgette blossom, charred leek and pea puree is very good as well.

Fourth course

The Japanese citrus pannacotta, cinnamon crumb, mandarin gel, lemon and ginger consommé….

…..and Baked chocolate mousse, banana fritter, honeycomb, salted nutty ice cream are both good choices and have a better flavour than the…

Seasonal berries, shortbread, toasted Italian meringue, mango sorbet, coconut curd and slivered pistachio nuts.

Overall, it’s a lovely experience and every care is taken to make you feel special. Dishes appear just when you’d like them, as if Courgette was already expecting you. Even your own BYO wine is decantered and served with care.