Canberra's best restaurants: Mocan and Green Grout

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 9.

OK, so a bowl of semi-crunchy flagrant-green brussels sprouts left largely to their own devices other than bonito flakes might not be everyone's idea of a dinner, but for us it captures the beauty of Mocan – the simplicity, focus on seasonal ingredients and ultra-simple dealing in the kitchen.

Kitchen overstates what's there, actually, since what you have is a couple of bench tops with no back-room space and all the cooking done right there in front of you.

You couldn't get closer to the experience of eating in someone's kitchen if you tried – so long as your friend was a chef, that is, since the style here, while simple, is firmly cheffy, highly up-to-date, even eye-rollingly referential and reverential in the way dishes are described.

"Chorizito, guindillas pintxos" is a snack that by the sounds of it, is probably bits of sausage and peppers on toothpicks. Sure, you can recite "farro, sea urchin, samphire, tomato powder" and check how many boxes it ticks, but put down the cynicism and enjoy the ride because it is all so good. Really good, with great ingredients that are left to shine.

Soft-shell crab, nori and pork salt, miso mayonnaise is a brilliant snack, chippy and salty, served on brown paper. The Crookwell steak tartare is a favourite and a stayer on what is generally a small and fast-changing menu. The raw steak, sprinkled with fine-cut raw onion, radish, horseradish and parsley, with a raw egg – a brave and strident dish done well, so much bursting flavour.

Such is the casualness here that if you sit at the central bench, the chefs will just hand the dishes over as they prepare them, and if you're at one of the tables, you might be perched on stool, bench, plank of wood.

The food comes as it's ready, sometimes a dish at a time, designed for snacking and sharing; all very laid back. Pick up something to drink from the grocery store a few doors up since Mocan is not licensed.

Mocan and Green Grout
mocanandgreengrout.com
Owners Myles Chandler, David Alcorn and Nectar and Johnathan Efkarpidis. Chef Diego Arata.
Monday to Saturday from 7am. Sunday 8am-4pm.