temporada

great! have been a few times, verynicehope they do well. yep, solid effort, in my humble opinion. fresh delicious selection of eadibles, pricey but reasonable on canberra scale. lovely drink selection, some sherry on the go, which you don't often see so much in canberra. overall a treat.

went here for anicetapas meal with a friend and all dishes were great and the quality of meat was amazing. will definitely go when we are in canberra again!

celebrated my bff's birthday and had a verynicedinner here. all food was pretty yummy. love it very much. i will visit again and recommend to my friends.

great meal. cosy little restaurant with good, friendly service. solid beer list with somenicelocal breweries in the bottle and on tap. i tried a red ipa from goulburn, not my cup of tea, but a brave beer to serve. the wine list is solid, matches the food well, and is not outrageously priced.

the food is great, we had beautiful fresh oysters, spicy lamb cigars, and for main the steak and lamb. we even had a side of brussels sprouts, with garlic and bacon. yum!

i can’t believe this was my first visit to temporada! i caught up with bec for breakfast, and we both admired the sleek, elegant decor. i ordered the baked eggs with pork sausage and pistachio dukkah ($15) – when it came out with two thick slices of toast with real butter on them (swoon) and topped with parsley and dill, i was very pleased with my choice! the ramekin didn’t look very full, but the dish was deceptively filling. the eggs were just a tad past runny, and were nicely seasoned – this was the bulk of the dish. the pork sausages had fabulous flavour, and there was a good serving of them in the ramekin – it wasniceto have a variant on the traditional chorizo option. but what really lifted this dish was the pistachio dukkah. dukkah is one of my favourite things, and this one was superb, with plenty of huge pistachio chunks and a great blend of spices that complemented the rest of the dish perfectly. temporada has excellent service and faced with a slight mix up at the till, the staff dealt with it quickly and professionally. on a cold canberra morning, there’s really nothing more you could want.

interesting venue - is it tapas, is it a bar, is it a restaurant???
sat at the windows (the bar stools need to be higher or bring the shelf lower) which i quite enjoy sitting at as i can watch the world go by.
the olive entree was too salty (way too salty) needed more lemon or onion to balance the salt, or maybe wash/rinse the olives to reduce the brine.
we were not asked how we wanted the steaks we ordered. luckily mine was rare but my partner would have preferred med-rare.
the potatoes werenicebut overwhelmed in a lime flavoured oil. it killed all other flavours of the rest of the food after the first few pieces of potato - it was over bearing.
the cabbage with the steaks was a great touch.
the pinot is from a favourite winery and started great but the wine turned when we were about 2/3 of the way through the bottle and became unpleasant - not sure why but it was 2012 vintage so not sure if it was past its peak or stored badly.
i thought the drink list was very eclectic/all over the place.... a bit like the menu (which did not do justice to the food - did not make the food sound enticing or appealing - menus need to sell the food not just do a perfunctory description.
eating with a spaniard certainly gives a different perspective on anything in australia claiming to be anything remotely based on a tapas venue.

sleek, glamorous and darkly lit, temporada in canberra hits all the right style notes on first impressions. the menu here isn’t overly complicated, but there’s a decent selection in each category (oysters have their own section) to keep things interesting. we kick off our dinner with a mix of natural wapengo organic rock oysters from the nsw south coast and woodgrilled moonlight flat, rusty wire rock oysters from batemans bay. while the natural wapengo oysters wereniceand fresh (albeit small), the woodgrilled oysters were so wonderful, with a hint of charcoal infusing in the juicy oysters that they were winners of the mix without a doubt.

temporada, aubergine's "casual friday". when first walking in, although initially meeting a sea of suits sitting around the bar at the centre of the restaurant, the barman noticed us at the door and eagerly jumped out and took us to a seatniceand far away from the door (and cold outside) despite no reservations.

we ordered a glass of sparkling and half a dozen oysters to start. they have a variety of different oysters (literally a variety! not just various ways of presenting them). we went for the plain old tuross rock ($3.5 each). our waiter asked if that was all we were ordering or whether he should leave the menus on the table. this very much feels like a place where you could just have a drink, a bite to eat, or a full multi-course meal. no pressure either way!

we both moved on to a pork roll each as a starter, which were literally melt in your mouth! at $10 each they were half way between a slider and a burger, and a good starter for a casual but still interesting meal.

on the menu there aren't any mains, instead there are "plates". now, this isn't tapas, and they may not necessarily be designed to be shared, but our lamb with pearl barley and broad beans was pretty easy to divvy up. i get the impression that you could cobble together your own selection of what a meal is and it would be acceptable.

the lamb ($32) was lovely by the way. not the most tender i've ever had, but still flavoursome, medium, and the perfect size.

despite the collection of suits, and the aubergine ties, our waiter was incredibly friendly (without actually trying to be our friend), and above all genuine! although not providing tasting notes on the wines (not that it would be expected) he offered his opinions and background on the wine (including telling us that the relatively cheap pinot noir we chose was just one of his favourites, even compared to the pricier one, and made other recommendations too).

when we couldn't eat any more, and asked for the bill, he came back and poured us the end of a bottle of dry riesling they were discontinuing, just because he loved it and wanted to share the experience.

when we were about to leave, my girlfriend remarked on how even though we had a three course meal here, she would be just as comfortable coming here for a drink, a cocktail, or some oysters or starters. when i asked her what her favourite part of the night was, she said "the oysters. and the service".

as we left i noticed that despite the collared shirt and crisp black apron on our waiter, hidden behind the bar he was wearing black skinnies and some sneakers. which, to be honest, perfectly sums up the place. will definitely return.

next time i would order woodfired oysters (4pp may be enough), try the soft shell crab roll, and a main of either lamb ribs or beef ribs. the seafood plate lookednicebut pretty standard of prawns/mussels/oysters (although if it's all woodfired, this could be unexpectedly unique like the oysters) and i'm always a bit hesitant to order fish mains at restaurants. there's enough variety to keep everyone interested though.

what's hot and new in cbr. went there tonight and was pleasantly surprised. i usually prefer cheaper eats, but venue looks really good -niceand relaxed, not too hoity toity. the wagyu beef mini burgers were really tasty, i had to have two.

desserts were a bit weird, definitely a flavour adventure. not sure if all the elements on the plate went well together, but it tasted good individually. not too sweet, maybe the chef has taken a page out of pete evan's book. it certainly looks pretty!!! yay for desserts!

i only had one cocktail (moore st vespa - it was a bit bleh). again, it wasn't too sweet.

highly recommended! exciting menu,nicestaff,niceambience,nicefood,nicewine list, go check it out!

also someone else commented the portion sizes are small - they may look small but it was surprisingly filling.

great food,nicebut rookie staff. have to agree with kadots.
the food was excellent. loved the wood fired oysters!
unfortunately, something was awry.
the music was eclectic and ill-suited, the staff were a tad under-trained(but helpfull!), the place just felt a little flat.
i understand this is a relatively new restaurant but they should have someone running the show, who knows what they are doing helping the young staff deliver a service that matches the price.