temporada

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 rockoystersfrom the nsw south coast and woodgrilled moonlight flat, rusty wire rockoystersfrom batemans bay. while the natural wapengooysterswere nice and fresh (albeit small), the woodgrilledoysterswere so wonderful, with a hint of charcoal infusing in the juicyoystersthat they were winners of the mix without a doubt.

a brilliant 1 hatted restaurant in the middle of canberra. incredible food with an ever changing menu. the plates are made for sharing, so bring some friends along! a great wine list to compliment the food offerings. the scotch egg was incredible and the wood smokedoysterswere an interesting and tasty addition.

excellent food and a great atmosphere. we dined at temporada on a saturday night after 8pm and found the service to be fantastic. we were greeted upon entry and quickly seated having made on online booking earlier in the day when searching for a tapas style restaurant. the staff were friendly and attentive but not intrusive. the centre bar area is very entertaining to watch but it is not disruptive to quiet conversation as the layout of the tables along the walls preserves each table’s privacy.

drinks were the charlie chaplin cobbler and cold brew coffee on ice both of which were delicious. we ordered coffin bayoystersand split the quantity 50/50 natural and wood fired, suffice to say that a previous reviewer was quite correct that wood fired are delicious almost more so than natural. accompany this with the sour dough bread and homemade butter and you are experiencing something that is simple but delightful.

we then tried the pigs head roll and the beef short rib roll. these are pint sized burgers filled with succulent meat and perfectly mated salad and dressings.

we then decided to try the raw kingfish and the goat’s cheese and roasted vegetable terrine. the kingfish was beautifully fresh and delicate with a buttery taste in the mouth, perfectly complimented by the sharpness of the radish and the avocado. the goat’s cheese and roasted vegetable terrine is very morish with the goat’s cheese being surrounded by layers of roasted vegetables. the more robust flavours of the vegetables were nicely complimented by the goat’s cheese, which in our case played well against the king fish.

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 seat nice and far away from the door (and cold outside) despite no reservations.

we ordered a glass of sparkling and half a dozenoystersto start. they have a variety of differentoysters(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 someoystersor 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 woodfiredoysters(4pp may be enough), try the soft shell crab roll, and a main of either lamb ribs or beef ribs. the seafood plate looked nice but 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.