365 Places: Ardeche Restaurant, Canberra
Day 10: Ardeche Restaurant, Civic, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Today the remarkable place I wish to share is not a town or a country – it is a restaurant: one of my favourites in Canberra. Ardeche for us is a place we hold dear, not a place we go to every week or month but to mark special occasions. For example, we had our son’s 18th birthday there and it was top-notch. We were so impressed with the level of service and attention to detail, which helped to make this event so memorable for all of us and especially our son.
Although the restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside, don’t let that fool you. The service is always impeccable, though thankfully not pretentious or arrogant – unlike so many other Canberra restaurants and cafes. The food is simply divine, we always think that we will have room for dessert, but there is always a wee little corner left for soufflé.
Tonight was a special dinner for the family to acknowledge our son moving out of home. This is his favourite restaurant and the home made omelette option just could not compete with dinner at Ardeche.
Here is what we ate tonight:
~Entrée~
Soupe à l’oignon $13: Traditional french onion soup served with a parmesan Croûton.
Escargots à la Bourgogne $20: Pan fried snails, garlic, butter & white wine, served in a puffed Mille Feuille, finished with a sweet pepper coulis.
~Main course~
Poulet flambé au Pernod et sauce au safran $26.50: Breast of chicken- char-grilled and oven baked, flamed in Pernod, white wine, saffron, mushrooms, cream and served on bed of saffron risotto.
Poulet Tagine $25.50: North African Style Chicken with dates, lemon, chick peas, served with spiced Couscous & minted yoghurt.
Boeuf Bourguignon $26.50: Traditional French beef casserole with mushrooms, onions, carrots, bacon & red wine, served with a side of pomme purée.
~Dessert~
We had the blackboard special – Chocolate soufflé with Grand Marnier ice cream
Crème Caramel: Crème Caramel, grand Marnier passion fruit coulis and served with Vanilla ice Cream.
Desserts $14.50
Considering the quality of the food and the service, we consider the price to be reasonable by Canberra standards. I will have to think about another special occasion we can mark by going back to this little gem.