Archive for the ‘Manuka’ Category
V Rating: VVV Verve enjoys a prime corner position in Canberra’s Manuka precinct. It is one of those trendy and sophisticated eateries where the prices are given to only one decimal place (eg. a long black is “3.5″, a Tiro is “4.0″). The atmosphere is very open and airy, and especially pleasant on a warm spring day when the accordion-style windows are open. Vegetarian options for entree include a winter Tuscan vegetable soup ($9.90 - I mean “9.9″), dips and bread (9.9), a warm vegetable salad or poached pear salad (14.9). The menu indicates that you can also request a vegetarian option of the antipasto plate for two (19.9), or the caesar salad (13.9). At lunch, there is also a vegetarian foccacia option (11.9). My choice was the warm vegetable salad. A selection of roast vegetables (sweet potato, baby eggplant and beetroot) was served on a bed of baby spinach leaves with a light but flavoursome dressing. It was delightful, and could easily be served as a main. My friend chose the Tuscan soup (in spite of the warm weather), which he described as “hearty”. For mains, the options are gnocchi in a creamy sauce involving muchrooms, semi-dried tomatoes, basil, ricotta and chilli (16.9), a stir-fry of hokkien noodles, cashew nuts and Asian greens (15.9). At dinner there is also an option of vegetable parcels (vegies wrapped in Kataiki pastry served on a sweet potato dhal) (21.9). On one of my visits, there was also a penne prima vera available as a special (16.9). I chose the gnocchi, as did one of my dining companions. It turned out to be home-made, which is just as well, given the price of the dish, and the size of the serving. My serve was quite small, especially compared to my companion’s. (I resisted the urge to suggest that, in the interests of fairness, he should donate to me four or so of his gnocchi dumplings…) The sauce was satisfying, if a bit lacking in depth - I couldn’t detect any chilli. Verve gets a VVV. It has a good selection of vegetarian entrees. The selection for mains is more limited (especially at lunch), but the entree salads are main-meal-sized. It also has a number of vegetarian side options (chat potatoes with rosemary, steamed vegetables, side salads) for between $6 and $11. Prices can be on the expensive side for what you get, in my view, but then you’re also paying for the location, and for a chance to watch the beautiful people strut past the window. - AC
V Rating: VV Don’t make the mistake of taking a bottle of wine to Mecca Bah, the Moroccan and middle eastern restaurant that has added a new Canberra outlet to its Melbourne and Brisbane branches – it is fully licensed but not BYO. After overcoming that minor embarrassment, I join my friends in the large, covered outdoor area which is on the deck of Manuka Terrace. The outdoor seating area is expansive and has a nice vibe. It is a warm enough evening, and the accordion-style glass windows are open, so it all feels pleasingly summery. After the incident with the wine bottle, we examine the wine menu and discover that the house white and red are $24 each – surely a bit steep for a house wine? One of my friends informs me that the waitress had said she would come and “explain” the menu to us once we had all arrived. I am inherently suspicious of any place that has a menu that needs to be “explained”. I am also inherently suspicious of any place that refuses to take bookings. What is with that? The waitress kindly informs us that the first page of the menu was mezze – “that’s kind of like tapas”, she says, in case we didn’t know. (Perhaps I am just being facetious, but if someone doesn’t know the meaning of mezze, are they likely to be aware of what tapas is?) The waitress encourages us to order several and share them. The vegetarian options on the mezze menu sound tasty: fattoush (a salad of Lebanese bread in wine), vegetarian chick pea and lentil soup, beetroot and yoghurt salad, Tunisian carrot salad, tabouleh, sweet potato felafels, olives, and bread with dips. My friend chooses the vegetarian soup ($8.50), and the rest of us decide to share the Turkish bread with dips ($11) and the carrot salad ($7.50). For mains ($16-$17), the vegetarian options are a roast vegetable tagine (“that’s like a stew served on cous cous”, explains the waitress again), and two types of Turkish pizza (“these are on a thin bread shaped like a boat and with the edges curled up”) – zucchini with cheeses, mint and lemon, and roast pumpkin, chilli, pomegranate jam and feta. On the waitress’s advice I order the zucchini pizza. When the Turkish bread and dips arrives, it involves sizable dollops of labna, hommous and baba ghanoush, and three rather large pieces of Turkish bread. The soup comes in a very large bowl and is a generous serve. The carrot salad likewise comes in a very large bowl, but it could not be called a generous serve. In fact, the serving is hardly even the size of a side dish for one person, let alone an amount to share. It looks even more minuscule given the massive plate it comes on. $7.50 for this? The three of us who are sharing it each allocate ourselves four small pieces of carrot from the twelve on the plate. They are delectable, and so it is even more disappointing that the serve was so small. So we order ourselves another plate of bread ($4) to go with the dips, which are very flavoursome, and stuff ourselves with this. Alas, by the time the mains come I think we have all eaten too much bread. My zucchini pizza is pleasing enough, and the lemon juice provides a nice zest to the taste of the zucchini, but I am unable to finish it. My friend who chose the vegetarian tagine says it is good, and spicy. Mecca Bah has an interesting array of other vegetarian selections on the mezze menu, but if these were all of the same small portion as the carrot salad, then I frankly don’t think they’re worth it. The vegetarian selection in mains is OK – three dishes – but not great. I’m giving this place a VV. The food was tasty, but unduly expensive. Add to that the pricey wine and no BYO, and it made for an expensive night. Vegetarians would get more choice and better value elsewhere. AC |
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