Canberra's best restaurants: Eightysix

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 5.

Eightysix made a white-hot entrance on to the Canberra food scene a little less than two years ago, and the hype continues almost unabated.

Chef's hat, glossy magazines, cool young owners, Eightysix has had the lot. But, unlike many that shine so bright so early, there is no sign of fading. In fact, Eightysix seems to have settled into its firmly hip vibe, with a calmer confidence imbuing the place, and food that just keeps getting better.

A narrow box of a restaurant, it is lined by the open kitchen, with stools looking straight in. If you score one of these seats, you'll get your dinner straight from the chef who made it. If you can't decide what to eat, spend five minutes "watching" and you'll see just about everything on the menu prepared.

The menu is on the wall, all designed to share you'll be told (and the bigger dishes require it). You could make a clean and sparkling start with the now famous bream service (fish "cooked" in lime juice).

This is a simple dish, utterly reliant on freshness and balance, and this one satisfies all the senses. Jewel-like colours, the spritz of the lime and herbs, the clean bite of fresh fish, tender with this style of cooking, a hint of chilli heat and batons of crisp bread for scooping, make a beautiful meal.

A luscious duck bun is an evil cross between a pork bun and Peking duck - the rich flesh and crispy skin stuffed inside rice-bun pockets along with dark sauce and cucumber. The challenge at this point is not to ask for more of the same, and cancel the rest. But ghetto beef is a great dish, simple and lovely, wedges of perfectly rare beef, crusted on the outside, with thick blobs of salsa verde and a scattering of rocket and Parmesan.

A text book Saint Agur (creamy blue cheese) salad, chicory "boats" with tiny batons of apple and exactly the right amount of dressing, rounds out the meal, except that everyone has dessert.

Popcorn and salted caramel sundae, or banoffee (banana and toffee pie) seal the deal. Eightysix is bursting with energy and fun, and it just happens to have sensational food as well.

Eightysix
18 Lonsdale Street, Braddon. 6161 8686. eightysix.com.au
Owners Gus Armstrong and Sean Royle; chef Malcolm Hanslow
Lunch noon-2.30pm Tuesday to Sunday; dinner 6pm-late seven days; brunch 9am-3pm Sunday.