Vincent, Barton

The moment you walk in to Vincent you are taken with the look, which is not like anything Canberra has seen to date and sets you up for an evening that works – and works on many levels.

It's a small room in an uninteresting building in Barton, just around the corner from Ottoman Cuisine. It's dimly lit, pretty minimalist and the predominant colour is black. It's pared back, designy and spare. Which sounds considerably less appealing than it is. The seating is all around a long black bar which rings the room – staff in the middle, customers on the outside. There are little peninsulas which serve as tables, so you can sit with your dining companions, rather than in a row, on your high chairs.

Staff, all youngish, casually outfitted men tonight, take your order, hand over your plates and serve you across the bar, essentially casual in style, despite the decided sophistication of the set-up. The wine list and menu are displayed in something resembling Scrabble letters along the wall, rather awkward to read, forcing some diners to hop out of the chairs and move closer to make their choices, but it's not a complicated task as the menus are very short.

Five smaller dishes, five larger dishes, one dessert. On the wine list, eight whites, eight reds and a (very good) sweetie. The wine list, and the wine advice, is a real strength at Vincent. There are no Australians among the red wines on our visit, with the list focused on Spain, Italy and France, with a Bordeaux blend from the celebrated New Zealand maker Te Mata.

Among the whites it's a similar story, with just one Australian wine - the highly regarded Howard Park chardonnay from Western Australia, the rest, like the reds, from France, Italy and Spain. The staff are good at talking about the wines, and the pours are the right size for us – small, I think probably one standard drink but possibly less, and the size that allows you to taste a few glasses and means they can keep the prices for many of the wines below $10. Unlimited sparkling water comes at $2.50 a person.

But wine is not the only strength. The music is cruisy and excellently in keeping, the service is good, the feel is good. The food is well pitched and enjoyable.

The pork croquettes with gribiche ($14) come as three croquettes, really good shredded pork meat, the egg mayonnaise fresh and substantial enough to take on the gutsy croquettes. The mini lobster burgers ($6 each) come in sweet, soft and buttery buns, with lobster meat, mayonnaise and some salad – they're kept minimalist and simple and again are quite good.

Pork belly with cauliflower, fennel and currant ($19) is the standout dish, mainly because of the excellent pork belly. The emphasis here is on meat, rather than fat, and it's beautifully fall-apart, salty in a good way and luscious.

The gnocchi with goat's cheese, pumpkin and pear ($19) is a sticky version of gnocchi, which is the way we like it. The fried gnocchi pillows themselves are a bit gluggy in texture, but this is definitely its own freshly made version of this dish, nothing bland or generic in the offer, with good chunks of pear, rocket, pumpkin and dollops of goat's cheese, and again we quite enjoy it.

Lamb rump with date chutney and eggplant puree and fetta ($26) probably needs a rethink in our view. The meat is well handled, no problems there at all, and again it's a dish that reflects originality and evident preparation from scratch in the kitchen. But the eggplant is way smoky and the date chutney is overly strong unless you really have a thing for dates.

There's just one dessert, a white chocolate mousse ($8), which comes as a small serve of almost bitter-tasting mousse which I don't much like, with a good biscuit, pistachios and a raspberry coulis. The coulis is highly delicious and highlights again what is best about the food at Vincent – the care and the freshness and the thought and the individuality that has gone into its preparation.

Aspects of some dishes haven't felt entirely right - but these are not fundamental issues, merely ones of refinement.

You get the sense that this is a kitchen and a team who are working hard to get things right. Someone has much put much care into Vincent and it pays off in a fun, nicely pitched, very good place for a meal out.