Canberra's top 20 restaurants: Morks

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 14.

On the surface Morks looks like any other trendy restaurant on the Kingston foreshore - filled with trendy young things, the folding doors pushed right back to open the dining room to the summer air, the young hip waiters darting about in black. But it's a modern, young Asian restaurant and owner and chef Mork Ratanakosol is cooking with intent.

The menu is filled with plenty of small bites and entrees to pick at while the mains are much more substantial. Individual barbecued pork buns are soft, fluffy and properly satisfying. A plate of scallops are topped with a pig's ear terrine and have a good balance of salty, sweet and tender while the "yum of wagyu" is eminently moreish - slices of pink, juicy meat with a treatment of chopped tomatoes, chillies, coriander and soy. There's a real freshness to this dish, an almost-chimichurri like blend of flavours. A duck red curry has creamy rich flavour but no heat which would have complemented the sweet lychees nestled next to the tender meat. It's served with a slab of crispy rice which makes a nice textural touch.

Desserts have a millennial sensibility with quirky names such as "strawberry gigolo" and Sirius Black. The latter turns out to be a perfect slice of dark chocolate mousse, beautifully rich but given a little Asian twist with a dusting of peanut soil to give it a hint of savoury. The "egg in hay" is a signature dessert but is really only for those with a serious sweet tooth, the combination of two scoops of coconut ice cream hidden under a heap of fluffy pashmak with a pair of puffy fried roti morsels on the side. It's redolent with condensed milk and coconut flakes.

The wine list, which has plenty of by the glass options, appears designed around the food and the waitstaff are happy to talk about what might suit which dish. Morks might have started out in the suburban shopping centre at Florey but the restaurant appears to have found its niche on the Kingston foreshore where a more upmarket feel and prices to match are commonplace. This is the work of a good team with food focused squarely on confidently executed modern Thai dishes.

Morks
18-19 Eastlake Parade, Kingston Foreshore. 6295 0112. morks.com.au
Owners Mork and Benn Ratanakosol; chef Mork Ratanakosol
Lunch noon-2pm Tuesday to Sunday; dinner from 6pm Tuesday to Saturday