Pollen Restaurant – Australian National Botanic Gardens – Canberra – ACT – Australia – August 2017

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ACT, Austr, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canb, Lunch with friends, Pollen Restaurant, zucchini fritters

A lunch in August with friends

You know when you have heard and read about a particular place and you feel you really need to visit there??  Well the place I had heard about and wanted to visit was the restaurant at Canberra’s Botanic Gardens.

It’s called Pollen (good name really) and five friends and I met there one Sunday for a lunch for my birthday.  I decided to walk to the restaurant which is about an hour and half from my home and about thirty-minutes into my walk my new (yes silly me wore new shoes) started to hurt so I rang my friends Ray and Nat and they kindly came and picked me up as they were coming along for lunch too.

From the car park, we walked through the Rainforest Gully Walk into the restaurant.  I have been to the Botanic Gardens a couple of times before and it really is a lovely place to visit and take a gentle stroll around the plants for an hour or so.The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch and I recall thinking the breakfast menu looked a little better than the luncheon menu; more choice!  But funnily enough I just took a look on-line to see the menu [to remind myself what we ate] and the luncheon menu looks better than when we visited.  So perhaps another visit after a stroll around the gardens.We sat inside but had lovely views of the rainforest area outside.  Inside is really quite lovely too; rather old fashioned which is very sweet.I think I would probably call this more a cafe than a restaurant as you receive your menu but have to order at the counter.  Meals and drinks are brought over to you though by the waitress which is so much better than those cafes where they call out your number and you have to return to the counter to pick up your meal.

I ordered the zucchini puffs with salad and a tangy mayonnaise; rather big meal which was very tasty.  My friend Mandy ordered the same but with an additional side of bacon.My friend Jane’s husband Paul ordered a burger from memory which I forgot to photograph and Jane had the salmon nicoise salad which was a huge plate of salmon with sugar snap peas, sweet potato, olives, a poached egg with cherry tomatoes and Spanish onion then with a drizzle of green goddess dressing!  As you can see pretty big meals for a Sunday lunch…It’s a lovely little cafe and nice for a casual breakfast or lunch and must say the flower display near the front door was stunning!!Today I also thought I would also introduce my beautiful little rescue dogs Axel and Bindi, who have lived together since they were born.  I bought them from a rescue organisation about six weeks ago and we have fallen in love with each other.  They are so [so] sweet and really quick learners.Axel has a very funny little smile with crooked teeth, which he likes to display and sit up when he is allowed on the lounge (after the blanket is put down of course)…And Bindi has had a nice hair cut for twice daily summer walks.