Playground Martini and Tapas Bar - Garema Place, Civic

I had a good first impression of this place - there was a definite cute, playful vibe and I really liked the canopy of ropes across the ceiling. The AV projector created the effect of flying birds fluttering about the tree on the wall, which was unexpectedly quirky. The use of the black walls as a blackboard was effective, especially with the coloured chalk.

Chong Co Thai Bar and Restaurant - Belconnen

And so begins the battle of the north-side Thai restaurants. In my last post, I reviewed Morks restaurant (located in Florey), which has been my all-time favourite restaurant in Canberra. There's a contender on the scene, and that's the relatively new Chong Co Thai Bar and Restaurant located on the outskirts of Westfield Belconnen. As soon as I walked in to the restaurant, I noticed the classy interior. It was a great balance between traditional Thai features and modern elegance. The open kitchen connected to a bar that serves a range of cocktails. I thought the centrepiece of the restaurant - the water fountains - was a lovely touch.

Morks

I think it's time I reveal the restaurant that has been my favourite restaurant in Canberra for the past four years. I was going to say it is the hidden secret of Canberra, but then discovered it was the number 1 rated restaurant in Canberra on Trip Advisor.com.au. So I guess it's not as unknown as I first thought!

Morks is a family-run Thai restaurant located in Florey and the hospitality is always warm and welcoming. It's the restaurant I always think of when there's a special occasion to celebrate or interstate visitors to entertain. I recommended Morks to my family when they visited me for a weekend. We went there on the first night and they loved it so much, they immediately booked again to come back the following night!

The menu selection is quite limited, but the trade off is you get high quality inventive dishes, which you know have been given that extra amount of care and precision.

Saigon rolls (Bánh mì) @ Saigon Fresh

Saigon rolls are back in town!!

My love of Saigon rolls (bánh mì) began when Hub Asian supermarket opened right next to my apartment complex in Belconnen. It was my weekend ritual to pop downstairs and grab a fresh, made-to-order Saigon roll for lunch. So when Hub grocers closed a couple of years ago, I was devastated. I searched everywhere in Canberra for bánh mì but couldn't find it anywhere! :(

When I heard that a Vietnamese place in Gungahlin was selling them, I immediately made plans with a friend to check it out!!

Any Saigon roll (pork, chicken, meatball, vegetarian) costs $5.50. A combo deal costs $8, which includes a soft drink from the fridge. For an extra $1, you can upgrade to the drinks on the menu - juice, smoothie or Vietnamese ice coffee.

Arirang Korean Restaurant - Civic

When I arrived at 6:30pm, the restaurant was already lively and customers inside were chatting away animatedly. In fact, it was so lively that my companions had managed to nab the last table. Unfortunately, it was also the worst table as it was the one closest to the door and we felt every icy gust of wind as more customers continued to come into the restaurant. The clientele appeared to be made up mostly of other Asians. I could hear various Asian languages being spoken from the nearby tables. I had a good feeling about this place.

I didn't think Arirang had been open in Civic for very long. Sure enough, when I had a look at the menu, it looked like it had been taken straight from the Gungahlin shop as there was no mention of the Civic address. We decided to order the Special Beef Soup ($40) and the Pork Bulgogi ($17) to share between the three of us.

The accompaniments arrived first. I was impressed by the kimchi. To be honest, I have no idea what authentic kimchi is meant to taste like, but I thought this had just the right amount of chilli, no odd smell from the fermentation process and the vegetables tasted extremely fresh and crisp. It had the perfect balance of flavours between sourness, saltiness and sweetness. The pickled radish was delightfully moreish and I could have easily eaten a whole jar of it. From what I could tell, the third accompaniment was dried tofu that had been lightly pickled.

Taiwanese braised pork belly

I was feeling a little cheffy the other day, and thought I'd record my first attempt at cooking my mum's braised pork belly dish. This is a very traditional Taiwanese dish - and a simple recipe, but the results were mouthwatering (as a few friends and colleagues can now attest!)

IPho

My best food scout was doing his usual patrols and noticed that a Vietnamese restaurant had opened in Garema Place so we had to check it out.

Pork and prawn rice paper rolls: $5

The dish photographed way better than it tasted. Each roll was fairly large but consisted mostly of chopped lettuce and I could not taste any fragrant Vietnamese herbs. About halfway into the roll, I noticed a discoloured piece of lettuce...oh wait, nope. It was a sliver of sliced pork that was stuck onto the lettuce. The pork was sliced so thinly (and only one slice in the roll) that I couldn't even taste the pork. It would have been preferable to have a much smaller roll with better pork/prawn to lettuce ratio.