Papparazzi, Garren

Paparazzi is a cozy, friendly suburban café offering great tasting food at good value prices. A range of indoor and outdoor seating options are available and the decor is welcoming.

It’s within quick driving distance for lunch from Woden and well worth supporting.
Offering two mains for the price of one to holders of the Canberra Entertainment Book it also serves breakfast options all day.
The coffee is good and comes with a slice of crisp almond bread.

Other good options are the Eggs Benedict $18 with salmon…

….and the CBLAT $16 (very good).

Trying some entrees at Taste of Bangladesh, Manuka

Still a favourite, Taste of Bangladesh can’t be beaten for value and hospitality.

Shafique and Fahana always make sure you enjoy their food and prepare dishes freshly and with passion. Serves are generous and corkage and pappdoms are complimentary.

The Fish Bengali is still a top pick and Dum Murgh. Palak Paneer and Goat Curry are excellent too.

But the Fish Korma $16.50 is very delicious and I suspect the chicken, beef or lamb korma would also be very good. It’s also a milder dish for those who prefer less spicy dishes. Worthy to be added to the favourites list.

The Beef Vindaloo $15 is very tender and flavoursome, but quite spicy.

The cheese and spinach naan $3.50 is exceptional.

But don’t miss the wonderful Onion Bhaji (4 for $7) served with tamarind and mint chutney and mint yogurt. These are crisp and morish, a truly delightful surprise.

The Samosas are also good at $7 for two, but it’s hard to beat the Onion Bahji.

Perhaps the best shared menu for four includes:

Papadoms to start

Entree:

1x Onion Bhaji with tamarind and mint chutney and mint yogurt $7

Mains:

1x Fish Bengali $16.50

1x Dum Murgh $15.50

1x Palak Paneer $14 or Beef Korma $15

2x Cheese and spinach naan (2x $3.50) (quartered)

2 serves rice (2x $3)

Dessert:

1x Gulab Jaman $4.50 (halved)

1x Mango Kulfi $4.50

Total including free corkage: $76 ($19 per person)

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Chong Co, Southern Cross Club, Woden – lunch special

Chong Co at the Southern Cross Club, is a firm top choice for lunch in Woden.

Not only for members (although members get a 10% discount) Chong Co diners can go straight up the stairs to the restaurant. There is also free parking under the club if you validate your ticket at reception as you leave.

At lunch time it is possible to order from the lunch special menu that ranges from $13 for a vegetarian stirfry with rice, to $16 and includes noodle dishes, soups, curries and stir fries.

These come with rice and can be good options if dining alone or there is an odd number sharing in a group, but otherwise, the best option is to order dishes from the main dinner menu ($19-21) (larger and tastier than the lunch specials) and to plan for one dish and one serve of rice per two people.

(For example up to six people can share a dish, but six people with need three different dishes and three rice serves).

It’s good to order a mix of curries (the beef massaman $21 is excellent as is the chicken green curry) and stir fries (chicken and cashew nut with chilli jam is hard to beat, but the lamb prik khing dishes is also good).

Four Musketeers entrée $12 includes a prawn roll, money bag, fish cake and satay chicken

Vegetarian stir fry with tofu $13 (lunch special)

Chicken Basil stirfry and fried egg $15 (lunch special)

Prawn tom yum noodle soup $16 (lunch special)

Prawn Singapore Noodle $16 (lunch special) stir fried vermicelli noodles with prawns, egg, mild yellow curry powder and vegetables

Chicken cashew nut stir fry $14 (lunch special) stir fried chicken with mild chilli jam, onion, shallot, vegetables and cashew nuts

Beef massaman curry with roti (main menu) $21 (excellent)

Stir fried Chicken with basil and chilli (main menu) $19

Box Diner, Fyshwick

The Box Diner may seem out of the way in Tennant Street Fyshwick, but it’s rural outlook and open spaces feel is very appealing.

Serves breakfast and lunch weekdays, it looks very popular and busy.

Eclectic indoor and warmed outdoor seating is fun and works well.

Staff are friendly and welcoming. keen to please.
The menu is varied and offers a good range of burgers, salads, pastas and specials as well.

The Blue lamb burger with blue cheese, grilled vegetables, a lamb patty, fried egg, beetroot and aioli is delicious $18.

The Chicken Schnitzel Burger and wedges special $15, also very good.

Canberra Entertainment Book holders are offered two meals for the price of one.

Plenty of ready to go options and it’s easy to take with you what you will enjoy more later.

Definitely worth stopping by if you are heading to Fyshwick.

Local Press, Kingston Foreshore

Local Press along the Kingston Foreshore, must be one of Canberra’s nicest spots for brunch with it’s sunny views of the waterfront and promenade and it’s interesting menu, accessories and decor.

The coffee is good and the dishes are beautiful and well sized for sharing, especially the fruit toast with ricotta.

The Pancake of wholemeal oats, banana and coconut with fresh seasonal fruit, mint and whipped mascarpone $18 is a good pick.

But The Green Pea Pancake with poached egg, macerated avocado, corn salsa, feta. chilli jam and mint garnish $20 is would also be a wonderful and unique choice.

Open daily for breakfast and lunch. Sadly, doesn’t take bookings so avoid the very busiest times or be ready for a short wait for a table.

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Malaysian Chapter, Belconnen

Malaysian Chapter recently reviewed very well in the Canberra Times Food and Wine.

And justly so. This family based restaurant has great food and very friendly, welcoming service.

It is also very good value offering $3 per person corkage and a 25% discount for holders of the Canberra Entertainment Book.
Serve sizes are good for sharing in a group to taste a number of dishes.
Particularly excellent is the Nyonya Prawn & Pineapple Curry ($21.50) (includes a generous serve of 9 prawns, great for sharing).

…And the Roti Canai ($4.50) with Dahl (consider asking for the dahl to be warmed)

…also very good is the Nasi lemak with Lamb Rendang ($22.50) with beef rendang, half boiled egg, roasted peanuts, anchovy sambal. However, this can’t be shared between more than three people as serves sizes of the dish components are relatively small.

…and the coconut rice( $3.50 per serve)

(Two serves coconut rice)

The Assam Curry Fresh Ling Fillet/ Prawns or Soy Fish in a spicy tamarind sauce with tomatoes, pineapple and okra.
Fish, Prawn or Soy Fish ($20.50) is also good, but may be too spicy for some.

Chicken 65 (15 bite sized pieces of nicely spiced chicken) ($13.50) needs to be pre-ordered.

Also worth considering trying green bean and vegetable “belachan fry” ($14.50) but this needs to be pre-ordered as it’s not currently on the menu.

A great sharing menu for 6 is:
3 serves Roti Canai with Dahl (halve the roti)
2 Nyonya Prawn & Pineapple Curry (2x $21.50)
2 Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang (2 x $19.50)
2 Coconut Rice (2 x $3.50)

OR
6 serves Roti Canai with Dahl (halve the roti)
1 Nyonya Prawn & Pineapple Curry (1x $21.50)
2 Nasi Lemak with Chicken Rendang (2 x $19.50)
1 Coconut Rice (1x $3.50)

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Me and Mrs Jones, Kingston, another look at lunch

Me and Mrs Jones, in Kingston is still immensely popular and bookings are recommended.

Helpfully open both Saturday and Sunday, it serves both
breakfast and light lunch from 8:00am until 2:30pm.

It is also one of the few restaurants of it’s type that allows BYO with a reasonable corkage ($5.50 per person) and it also offers cakeage for $2.50 per person. Also offering one complimentary main meal (when two are ordered) for Canberra Entertainment Book holders, it is excellent value for couples or small groups on a budget.

On weekdays breakfast is offered from 7:00am until 11:30 then lunch runs from 11:30 until 2:30pm.

It’s also open for dinner from 6pm until late everyday except Sunday when it closes at 4pm. Sundays there is also a 10% surcharge (and 15% on public holidays).

From 2:30-6pm coffee, cakes and lights snacks are available.

There’s also the option of take away.

Takeaway all burgers $15
Egg and bacon roll $7.50

Specials such as Pork and pistachio terrine with toasted brioche and balsamic reduction & onion jam $17, are listed on the blackboard.

Delicious terrine (and better without the onion jam) but best shared between two perhaps along with another small option. Also a good idea to ask for extra plates as it’s tricky to eat from the serving board.

Open steak sandwich $22 – Grilled garlic sourdough, beef eye fillet, smoked onion and chilli marmalade, gorgonzola and wild roquette (great for plainer eaters).

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Smoque, Woden – specials

Smoque at Woden has an ideal veranda’d location in the Abode building, that’s very close for workers in the adjacent offices.

It’s standard menu offers a range of gourmet burgers ( the veggie burgers and pulled pork burgers are excellent) on brioche buns and interesting salads ( especially the thanksgiving salad).

Pulled pork burger $12 – tasty pulled pork with BBQ sauce and coleslaw

Swiss burger (a special) $16 with two meat patties and plenty of cheese

However, for a couple more dollars, Smoque also offers a lunchtime special of any burger with a small garden salad or a small side ($15).

Serves are generous, so two or three smaller appetites may want to share. Smoque is also happy to provide a container to take with you what you would enjoy more later.

Lunch special with a Swiss burger with buffalo hot wings with blue cheese aioli $15

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily

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Tasty soup spread at Tosung Firewood BBQ Manuka

Will need to add this spot to my wishlist. Thanks Elias!

CBRfoodie

Three #Canberra Beanies

I’ve been using a busy job and lots of noisy kids to rationalise my lack of blogging recently. I know what the uber bloggers are thinking, pretty lame right?

Well today was one of those days that all bloggers will understand, when I stumbled upon a find that was so far up my alley that I immediately made plans to share it (and did on twitter and facebook) and spent a few minutes in the afternoon wondering if I would have time to add it to the blog later tonight. Well I am now doing exactly that (ie the kids are finally in bed!)

Today felt like a particularly cold day (even by Canberra standards) and I had a craving for soup!

I had noticed a few times in Manuka the Tosung Firewood BBQ Restaurant on the corner diagonally opposite Coles.

It’s a bit hard to miss the bright…

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Pork Barrel Cafe, Old Parliament House, Friday after work specials

At the end of the week, it’s great to enjoy drinks and some tasty nibbles after work on a Friday.

Set in the gardens in front of Old Parliament House, the Pork Barrel Cafe is a good place to try for it’s Happy Hour drinks (daily 5-6pm) and two for one pizzas on Fridays (also on Mondays and Tuesdays).