Canberra's best restaurants: Silo

Top 20 restaurants, Food and Wine Annual 2014: number 12.

Still the "bakery" that Sydney foodies drive inland for, Silo has racked up yet another year of the best tarts in Canberra, along with the best bread and the like.

With a lunch and breakfast menu that puts many much fancier establishments to shame, Silo is always a great place to eat.

Of course, you can just grab a perfect baguette stuffed with ham off the bone and Emmentaler cheese, or salmon and cream cheese on walnut sourdough, at the bargain price of $7.50 and $8.50, but it is hard to not to sit and order once you have smelt the place.

In winter, it might the braised ox tail, dark and deep with complex flavours, or a creamy salt cod soup and a classic toffee topped brulee tart, or the candied orange, or... In summer half a dozen oysters Rockefeller are hard to go past, followed closely by a pizza for kings, blistered and singular, with blue cheese and mushrooms, or potato, anchovy and chilli jam.

At the beating heart of Silo are the couple who run it, Graham Hudson and Leanne Gray, and their profound, obsessive interest in food. The combinations of real skill in the kitchen, and a constant flow of ideas, inspired by the grand culinary traditions of Europe, are a potent mix.

Whether you settle over a buttery croissant dipped in your coffee, or take a loaf and tart home, dig in for a long lunch; Silo is always an exciting place to eat.

Silo
36 Giles Street, Kingston. 6260 6060. silobakery.com.au
Owners Leanne Gray and Graham Hudson; chefs Leanne Gray and Malcolm Klose
Tuesday to Saturday 7am-4pm