Canberra's best restaurants: Courgette

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 7.

As a counterpoint to the current trend that is casual dining, it has to be said that going out to a restaurant can be that special occasion rather than something you might decide at the last moment. You may want to be able book rather than wait in a line and see if a table frees up. Also you want it to look like a restaurant rather than a shipping container or industrial laundry. A formal entrance, that big welcoming door, carpets - remember them? - so the sound is softened rather than that of a basketball stadium during the play-offs.

Do get me wrong, I love the direction dining has taken, you can rock up in thongs and an ironic singlet but it's just one side of it. Places like Courgette, Ottoman, The Artisan and Aubergine offer that warm cuddly feeling of being embraced with hospitality. James Mussillon has been plugging away at the site on Marcus Clarke Street for seemingly an eternity, no doubt watching where modern dining has drifted to but this place, Courgette, has been his beacon to the art of fine dining.

And it's never been better. The rooms have that moody, quiet yet industrious feel, elegant, a place that has been the focal point of good food for decades. The menu is a set spend of $80, as the host, who is this likeable combination of John Cleese and Riff Raff, notes you don't have to have the four courses but that's the spend. This is all well and good, if the menu is designed well and varied you should come away with that complete feeling of being satiated with balanced and interesting food.

And this is the case, the dishes within each course are varied and sound exactly like stuff you want to hook into. Sauteed prawns with seared, rare swordfish and Marie rose sauce. This thousand-islands-like sauce binds together the huge plump prawns and pillars of swordfish. Mussillon uses garnishes such as ruby grapefruit, lemony sumac and the texture of avocado deftly to pull off a stunning prawn cocktail of sorts.

This sets the pace for the meal to come. The wine list has changed a lot, there is a wealth of international choice here, and dashing new Italian sommelier Marco Lami has put together a cracking list. Perfect with the next dish - scallops, smoky cauliflower, fennel and black garlic - is the 2012 Antonio Caggiano Falanghina. But let the sommelier pronounce this for you, it sounds way better and strangely romantic with his native tongue.

Courgette isn't your everyday, pop in and have a craft brew and slider place. This unapologetic fine dining, a special occasion or you just want to eat well, be looked after, have Marco recite the wine list to you on a gondola.