Dining Out: Temporada, Civic, Canberra.

A week ago today, on their opening night no less, I was lucky enough to have dinner at Temporada with my best friend. We had no meal plans for the evening and were seeing Wolf Creek 2 at 9:20 at Palace Electric, so on a whim after reading HerCanberra’s tweets and sneak peek at the new restaurant; we decided to try our luck and see if we could be seated for a meal.

Marinated sardines on toast
Pigs head roll, Romesco, Avruga caviar

As luck would have it, the hype surrounding Temporada’s opening had not yet really kicked into full swing, and we were able to be seated straight away. We chose to sit at the bar, looking down the centre of the restaurant, and it gave us a fantastic vantage point to people watch and easy access to the staff.

Peach, fennel and goats cheese salad

As is important with any new eatery, but especially I feel here in Canberra, the staff on-hand were friendly, plentiful and knowledgeable. The staff answered any questions that we had about the meals or ordering efficiently, and were attentive without being overbearing. It was also fantastic to see that Temporada’s manager Ben Donnelly on the floor with the rest of his staff, and to have the chance to meet Ben and to discuss the idea behind the exciting new venue.

Zucchini flowers, ricotta gnudi, salsa verde

Now, onto the most important thing, the food. The dishes that we selected were:

In house sourdough and cultured butter
Marinated sardines on toast
Pigs head roll, Romesco, Avruga caviar
Peach, fennel and goats cheese salad
Zucchini flowers, ricotta gnudi, salsa verde
Spatchcock chicken, roasted corn, kimchi cabbage, lime yoghurt
Coconut sponge, passionfruit curd and jelly, star anise sorbet
Salted caramel donuts, banana ice cream, marshmallow

Spatchcock chicken, roasted corn, kimchi cabbage, lime yoghurt

I was really impressed with 95% of our dining experience. The sardines on toast were delicious and the pigs head roll was, quite frankly, out of this world. I want to go back and order 40 of them and just gorge. The salad was light and lovely but the goats cheese packed a delicious flavour punch, and the zucchini flowers and ricotta gnudi were divine. I loved that the flowers were not stuffed and became insanely crispy as a result. The spatchcock was unfortunately not a dish that we enjoyed, and we both felt that is was a little confused in its flavours, with too much going on on the plate. The coconut sponge was tasty, if a little bland, and in all honestly I was kicking myself for not sucking it up and ordering the lime parfait to get to the delicious sounding liquorice custard. Dessert, however, was saved by the salted caramel donuts which were sublime. My best friend did feel that, again, there was a bit too much going on with the donuts, but I disagreed and loved them.

Coconut sponge, passionfruit curd and jelly, star anise sorbet

I had a great time at Temporada, and greatly enjoyed the food, the fit-out and the atmosphere. The staff were fantastic, the serving sizes were decent, and everything was served on lovely plates or in glasses: there wasn’t a bloody plank or a tile or a jar to be seen! Brilliant!

Salted caramel donuts, banana ice cream, marshmallow

I’m already planning on a follow up trip with the Boyfriend, to get another (larger) serve of the pigs head rolls, to check out some of the dishes I didn’t get to try last time, and to try the cocktails I didn’t get to taste at all on account of being the designated driver.

If you’re a Canberra native, or just visiting, you should get yourself to Temporada!

Xx