Chifley Bar & Grill – Kurrajong Hotel – Canberra – ACT – Australia – September 2017

Tags

ACT, Australia, canberra, Chifley Bar & Grill, dinner with colleagues and friends, Kurrajong Hotel

Taking a visiting Canadian colleague out to dinner

Across the road from where I work is the Kurrajong Hotel.  Its restaurant Chifley’s Bar & Grill is named after its long-time hotel resident, former Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley.  I have been to this restaurant several times for lunch so I decided this was a good option for dinner as our international visitor was actually staying there.The guest rooms have been refurbished and am told are quite lovely; overlooking the garden terrace and some with balconies.

We sat in the foyer area and enjoyed a glass of wine before my boss arrived and we went into the restaurant for an early dinner.I ordered the wild mushroom risotto with roasted hazlenuts but unfortunately I did not enjoy as it had a funny taste so I only ate a couple of mouthfuls – thinking back I think it might have had chicken or beef stock and I forgot to ask prior to ordering. My fault!!My friend Jane came along as she wanted to speak to our international visitor about a project she is working on and ordered the confit duck maryland which came with braised apple red cabbage and a madeira glaze…she told us that this was the best duck dish she has EVER eaten….my photo doesn’t look that great though!My boss ordered the twice cooked pork belly with cider apple compote and a side dish of herb roasted pumpkin and sweet potato.

Our visitor asked for some recommendations and wanted to eat something ‘Australian’ so Jane and my boss chose the lamb dish for her which she thoroughly enjoyed.  The dish came as a Guinness braised lamb shoulder with faro and a mint salad.  A Google search allowed us to find out that farro is comprised of grains and wheat and dried – looked very much like couscous.

We had a really nice evening even though I didn’t love my meal…I must say I have had the same dish before for lunch and it was delicious so not sure what happened on this occasion but it won’t stop me returning.