It’s a Friday night and Bron and I are on Lonsdale Street in Braddon. Lonsdale Street is Canberra’s hot strip of modern and hip restaurants and eateries. If you’re looking for a good dining experience and you know nothing else about Canberra, Lonsdale Street is the place to go.
It’s a busy week in Canberra with parliament sitting and the universities conducting orientation activities. We had a booking at the Elk and Pea at 6.30 pm. On our arrival the outside tables are all occupied while there is plenty of space inside. Mind you 6.30 is a bit early for most people. Inside is a bit warm and stuffy but the best part about being inside is the art that is screwed to the ceiling beams.
Bron and I have been to the Elk and Pea before for breakfast but as far as we can remember not for dinner.
The menu is about sharing with some elements being a single serving. Bron suggests that I choose so I ask for quinoa fritters and pork ribs. Both are for sharing between two people.
The quinoa fritters are delicious. The outside of each fritter is crispy and the sauce had a lovely tang.
The fritters came out pretty quickly and we were told it would take about 30 minutes for the ribs to be ready.
When the ribs arrived we were ready for them. We had a nice little mountain of ribs to share.
The ribs came with a board of charred corn and tortillas.
It took a while to get through all the ribs and even though large red chilies are not super hot these ones still had enough of a kick to them.
The meat was succulent and just came away from the bones. Bron and I both enjoyed them and we’d recommend them to anyone who likes slowly cooked tasty meat.
So after Elk and Pea we ventured up the road to Mr Frugii’s ice cream laboratory.
This place has only recently opened and it’s been all over social media in Canberra, some of my favourite Canberra food bloggers seem to go there repeatedly.
On entry there are two main areas, the cakes and the ice cream. On Friday night they had three choux pastry cakes. Bron chose a rose water pastry with a red love heart on it and I chose a chocolate custard pastry with injectable raspberry sauce.
The choux pastry was delicious. The pastry itself was perfect in its consistency and the custard was buttery smooth. The raspberry sauce really complemented the chocolate nicely. The salted caramel ice cream was OMG good. Bron and I both had it and we both enjoyed how strong the caramel flavour was. That said I reckon Bron’s salted caramel is the best I’ve ever tasted.
The set up in Mr Frugii’s makes for rapid turnover of customers. It seems to be an efficient process with customers coming to ask about the cakes and ice cream every few minutes. I hope the staff behind the counters get some free cake and ice cream at the end of their shifts.
We’d both highly recommend Elk and Pea for dinner and then Mr Frugii for dessert. If you live here in Canberra or if you’re just visiting both places are must do.
