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The Drawing Room

Natasha Rudra

Hitting the sweet spot: Toblerone cheesecake.
Hitting the sweet spot: Toblerone cheesecake.Rohan Thomson

12.5/20

Modern Australian

The Drawing Room in Crace looks like the kind of restaurant you want to see in your neighbourhood - prettily lit, warm, welcoming. There's a bar in the front with high tables and plenty of blonde wood and cork-shaded lamps, where tonight a group of women are settled in with wine and menus. A service bench, filled with wine bottles and glasses, separates the bar area from the restaurant space.

This is nicely cosy, with big tables and window seats, and leads out through glass doors to an outdoor courtyard wreathed in glowing fairy lights. And that's before you notice the separate play room for kids tucked away in a corner. This is fully equipped with all mod cons - video games, toys, couches, a TV. It's certainly going the extra mile.

Despite the Victorian-era name, this drawing room is bright, modern and good looking. The menu appears to nod towards modernity too, though it's a bit of a mash up - Italian pastas and risottos, a couple of Asian dishes (pad thai and laksa), fish and chips or a big steak, vegetarian options that feature kale and some American-inspired salads. Wines are mostly Australian with a couple of internationals.  

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The Drawing Room's fresh fitout.
The Drawing Room's fresh fitout.Rohan Thomson

There's a short list of entrees but the idea of the "trio of jacket potatoes" ($9) is tempting. These turn out to be bite-size spuds split open with dabs of somewhat dry sour cream paired variously with bacon, bits of tomato and caramelised onion.

Tandoori chicken and bacon quesadillas ($12) are a generous serve - four crisp quesadillas stuffed with melted cheese, chicken and barbeque sauce with a side of salad. They're a little heavy on the thick, sweet barbecue sauce for my liking but are otherwise fine.

Prawn and chorizo risotto ($24) is pretty good - a lovely bright tomato red with plenty of sausage slices and a couple of fat prawns. It's cooked well, the rice properly soft and tender. The flavours hold together nicely too.

Drawing Room's chicken risotto.
Drawing Room's chicken risotto.Rohan Thomson
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The barbeque beef brisket salad ($20) has slices of roasted apple and a buttery dressing but the pulled brisket itself is unfortunately overcooked and dry.

A pad thai is served in a big bowl with a side dish containing roasted peanuts flavoured with kaffir lime, a wedge of lemon and a heap of fried onion shreds. A nice touch. It's okay, with plenty of noodles and fish sauce.

Desserts draw interest too - who can turn down treacle pudding ($12), a dish straight out of the Enid Blyton books of childhood? These are two very firm little puddings under a scoop of vanilla ice cream - they're suitably sweet, though a little hard to get into. They're in a pool of sticky salted caramel which unfortunately turns to overly chewy shards as it cools.

Fresh produce on display.
Fresh produce on display.Rohan Thomson

Toblerone cheesecake ($11) is a better choice on the night - there's lots of nougatty and chocolatey flavour swirled together in the cream cheese, which sits on a big pile of biscuit crumbs.

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Banana doughnuts are more like fritters, tumbled in a little deep fry basket, plenty of them. Nicely crisp outside and with a good peanut butter and chocolate dip in a little dish on the side. It's a fun little dessert.

Service has been uniformly cheerful and with plenty of very good  moments - we're offered a taste of the wine before it's poured fully, and there are discreet inquiries about how things are going, not hovering but gently watchful. 

There's a happy neighbourliness about the place and you can see it being a good spot for sunny weekend brunches, casual post-work drinks and family get togethers. Crace is a new suburb and The Drawing Room reflects it. There are many, many things to like but the food needs to grow to match those family friendly amenities, the high level of service and the fresh and lovely fitout.

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