Housed in the quaint Greenwood neighborhood, its white and airy interior completes a laidback, casual vibe that typifies the essence of an Aussie bistro. To kick things off, we tucked into house made duck rillettes ($18) and baby spinach salad ($18). While we commend the effort in making their own, the end result was a somewhat tough hunk of meat that was hard to spread and lacked the fat and fullness of taste we were craving; although the slightly sweet beetroot jam was an especially nice touch. The salad was a better choice; the combination of earthy portobello mushrooms, savory and tart goat’s cheese, raisins and pine nuts played nicely off each other’s textures and flavors. Our main of crystal bay prawns spaghettini ($24) with large curls of parmesan looked impressive, but the buttery garlic-chili-white wine-spiked sauce surprisingly lacked oomph. Add to that shrimp that wasn’t as fresh as we’d like and slightly overcooked pasta (despite our specifications for al dente), and we were left underwhelmed. The oven-baked spatchcock with potato gratin ($28) didn’t do much better. The skin of our chicken was too aggressively salted (perhaps some for the pasta sauce wouldn’t have hurt), the chicken jus overly-reduced and while we usually enjoy our meat pink, that preference doesn’t apply to chicken. Fortunately, we enjoyed more success with desserts. Both our bread and butter pudding ($8) and chocolate tart ($12) were respectable renditions. In particular, the chilled chocolate tart, with its dollop of double cream, proved to be a delightful slice of indulgence. Service was attentive and helpful, yet neither that nor dessert were quite enough to shake our mostly average meal.
