Canberra

Hot Plates: holiday eats

Whether you're heading home for Christmas, staying put or going somewhere new to flee the family, our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats around the country this Christmas have your festive eating and drinking sorted. Happy days.

Sage Dining Rooms

REVIEW Sage has seen about as many head chefs as Canberra has sworn in prime ministers in recent years. Fortunately, the cosy fine-diner has found consistency with Thomas Heinrich at the helm. He’s pared back the menu and the reliance on foams and soils. And floor staff have dialled down the formality, if anything this […]

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Pulp Kitchen

REVIEW Residents of the what’s known locally as the People’s Republic of Ainslie don’t take kindly to regime change. Fortunately Pulp Kitchen’s new owner Gus Armstrong maintains bistro doctrine, keeping classic steak frites with bearnaise and a lemon tart with perfectly pitched acidity and exceptional pastry on the menu. Chef Josh Lundy pushes Pulp beyond […]

Courgette

REVIEW Courgette is a nice break from the noisy, bustling style of many restaurants. The clientele is mainly business guests, there’s plush coffee-toned carpet instead of typically unforgiving industrial concrete surfaces and there’s barely any Instagramming going on despite James Mussillon’s classic French technique creating plenty of clickbait. Bug tails are added to seared scallops […]