While it is very easy to travel from Canberra, it is apparently very difficult to travel to Canberra. This becomes apparent when you want your interstate friends to visit.
I'd think nothing of a weekend drive as far as Melbourne - a rather crazy endeavour; it was a party not to be missed - but good luck encouraging anyone to do it in the other direction.
So, on those rare occasions when friends make it here, I'm overly eager to ensure the city leaves a good impression. Behold our high standards of living and wonderful amenity and scant traffic and excellent coffee and fine lake and, at the moment, delightful flower festival! Observe the fortress on the hill where we contain those politicians you insist on sending us! Submit to the good sense that Canberra is a brilliant and definitely not-boring place to live!
I can bellow on like this all I like but the real way to an interstate visitor's heart is through their stomach.
For this purpose, we have invariably turned to Rebel Rebel, a sleek New Acton favourite that is sophisticated without being pretentious.
After an arduous day looking at paintings, Griffin-designed vistas and hearing me go on about how the ACT really is a well-appointed place to ride out the coming climate meltdown, Rebel Rebel has never let me down on a mission to convince someone what they remember of Canberra from a year 6 school trip is not the whole picture.
Our standard operating procedure is the all-in, $95-a-head menu. It's flexible and the staff talk through the choices without making it seem like deciphering the menu will require knowledge of higher culinary worlds. This is sleek but not pretentious in action. Or pick your shared places from the menu if you wish.
On a recent Friday night, our all-in adventure starts with plump, silky and wondrous oysters. You would be hard pressed to find a better oyster this far from the sea. A tangy dressing is on offer but taken naturally, these are the kind of oysters I daydream about.
Onwards to the beef tartare, which is served with a scrape of hot - and they mean damned hot - English mustard. This is a bright and zippy dish that plays to textural strengths and brings in an element of excitement and danger thanks to the mustard.
In the elongated run of entrees, next to arrive are the gruyere and black truffle "eclairs", a savoury spin that loses none of the soft bouncines of the sweet original. Technical proficiency has not overtaken the need to deliver on taste and consumable enjoyment.
The grilled prawns in bay leaf butter are hearty and have me carefully scraping all I can from the shell at the top and tail. The delicate prawn flesh is pushed to its limits to deliver an earthy delight.
The sugarloaf cabbage is an unexpected favourite. I'm guilty of having poor associations with cabbage. In a word-association game, give me cabbage and I'm coming back with boiled. I have it in mind as a non-event vegetable at best and a horror disappointment at worst. None of this is particularly fair.
The cabbage here is served with tahini and harissa oil and transformed into a tender, peel-apart section that brings to each mouthful sweetness and light. Never had I imagined I would find myself angling to get more from the shared plate so fast, eager to beat the rush.
Given the choice between the beef and the confit duck, we went with the duck, a cold-weather specialty at Rebel Rebel we might have just caught the end of. The dish is a moody, brown and hearty bowl of duck and fregola, a type of Sardinian pasta made from semolina, and slices of chestnut that give way like fresh, green wood.
This isn't a showstopper dish, but one that instead arrives confident in the knowledge of what has come before. It doesn't need to save the day. The duck is very nicely done, tender and consistent.
Dessert is the flan. It is generous and smooth and breaks away in crisp-edged, soft chunks. For health reasons, it is the type of dessert one comes to be thankful that it is finite. It has a laid-back, deceptive simplicity to it, too, which about encapsulates the ethos of Rebel Rebel. Everything is done very well but it doesn't feel the need to make a song and dance about it.
The serve is impeccable. The staff are accommodating, quick on their feet and never snobby. The bottles of wine on offer have something for all occasions, and the pinot noir available by the glass hit all the right notes. The mocktails, of which there are two, are excellent in a noteworthy way, bold and fruity.
I have sat many times at Rebel Rebel and heard the confession: Canberra is better than we thought it would be. A bit of starman restaurant magic really softens them up. For panache done with consistency, I find it hard to get past Rebel Rebel. I've never had a dud meal there and the latest outing showed, again, why it is a go-to.
Just keep telling your Sydney mates there is light at the end of the Federal Highway.
Address: 21-23 Marcus Clarke Street, Acton ACT 2601
Phone: (02) 6248 8548
Website: rebelrebeldining.com.au
Hours: Monday to Wednesday, 5 to 10pm; Thursday to Sunday, 12 to 10pm
Access: Flat from the street
Noise: Vibrant
Dietary: A range of options
How we score: Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor. 12 Reasonable - 13 Solid and satisfactory - 14 Good - 15 Very good - 16 Seriously good - 17 Great - 18 Excellent - 19 Outstanding - 20 The best of the best
