Temporada: Best Canberra restaurants 2015
Ben Willis and Chris Darragh picked the mood of Canberra's diners just right last year. Temporada encapsulated everything we had been wanting in the restaurant scene - high level food executed beautifully but casually, the work of someone with a chef's hat wearing it slightly askew. It was that spirit - and the wonderfully rendered food - that made it last year's Restaurant of the Year.
The Civic location on Moore Street might be a tad isolated but it's still worth the walk around the corner from Northbourne Avenue. And we're enjoying it. The rolls stuffed with tender pig and laced with kewpie mayo, fillets of fish cheek grilled over wood smoke, beautifully crisp and charred, excellent slices of kingfish freshened and uplifted with yuzu and avocado. And that wine list - short, and sweet, and always interesting, allowing you to roam some of the world's most interesting wineries and explore some truly quirky vintages by the glassful.
The city location, with its plethora of office workers, has led to the addition of breakfast on weekdays - you can grab a coffee and a raisin toast jaffle with creamy ricotta. But it's still worth coming in for dinner and taking on a collection of Chris Darragh's most interesting dishes.
Temporada is in keeping with the high-casual trend that's swept Australia's dining scene - a place that works just as well if you're on a date night or if you're dropping by with friends. This is still one of our favourite restaurants in Canberra by a mile.
15 Moore Street, Civic, 6249 6683, temporada.com.au
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