Azima Restaurant — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Although the food was reasonable, there was no accommodation to serve an "odd number" of people. We had 5 in our party and ordered a variety of mezze starters. Several had only four pieces and there was no mention of that until the food arrived. The person taking the order could have offered to make it a serve of 5 (for an extra charge, which would have been OK) or told us to order two of some of the starters to make up for the "extra" quantity. Mains arrived and were generous serves but our friend who ordered the prawns found them a bit over cooked. We did get served an extra starter and, when the waiter told the kitchen about the prawns, they cooked another serve (for free) to see if they were improved, which they were. The only other issue we ran into is that this is yet another restaurant that refuses to split payments when it came time to pay. We chose to round the bill to a number that divided by 5 and wanted to pay with three cards (dropped to two plus some cash) but the excuse was their EFTPOS system wouldn't allow them to take more than one card on a bill. We did work it out amongst us where one person paid the bill and was reimbursed but, surely in this day and age, splitting the payment should be easy. What happened to the ad where the eftpos machine handled the split payment for us? (I say split payment as opposed to split bill as I consider the former just taking the bill and making payments against it as opposed to the latter where everyone argues as to who ate what and splits the bill by item. I can understand the latter being a nuisance but when you have, say a cheque that the diners choose to round up to, say, $350 and we want to pay 2 x $140 plus 1 x $70, why isn't that acceptable?) Needless to say, although the food was OK, we won't go back because of their...

We're vegetarian and we've eaten twice at this new restaurant called Azima (formerly Brunello's), and loved it both times. Neither time did we have a booking, so we sat at the bar to eat (which is something we like doing in restaurants anyway).

THE FOOD The food is terrific, full of flavour and colour. The bread basket that comes out is generous and consists of soft flat bread and fried flat bread (which is delicious). The vegetarian options are mostly found in the smaller, lower priced items in the menu, but that's the best way to eat anyway - lots of variety. Their falafel is perfect - crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. They have cheese pastries, lemon and tomato potatoes, dips, and a few unusual dishes that I've had nowhere else. Even their potato chips are good! There is also a wide selection of wines, beers, and cocktails.

THE SERVICE The service is fast and friendly, with the staff able to make informed recommendations about each menu item. Due to being very busy on one occasion, our meal was slightly delayed and (without us complaining) they brought us a complimentary dip - nice!

PRICES For a restaurant in the middle of Canberra city, the prices are quite good. I can only comment on their vegetarian food, but (without drinks) a very decent meal can be had for around $40 a head.

THE LOCATION Azima is located in the heart of the city, near the Canberra Centre Fountain. The interior is warm and welcoming in winter, with a central bar surrounded by tables. There is also outdoor seating, which should be great in summer.

Highly...

For a restaurant that attempts to be somewhat premium, the quality of food and service fails to meet expectations. We had pre-booked for a birthday dinner a couple days in advance with a total of 9 people. Upon entering we were abruptly made aware that we needed to be finished before 7:00pm. Throughout the dinner we were rushed and reminded many times of the time and the need to leave. Perhaps I am not familiar with the 'time limits', but I would have thought that we would be able to enjoy a meal without the constant rushing to leave the premises. And perhaps better management practices when making bookings/managing expectations if there was another group after ours? We had not finished eating our cake before we were interrupted and informed to leave, it was a rather uncomfortable and awkward exchange.

I had ordered the garlic prawns ($38.00) which unfortunately did not meet expectations. They resembled the 'raw prawn cutlets' that you would buy pre packaged in the frozen aisle of Woolworths or coles and did not appear to be fresh produce with the shells being very soft, as if they had been frozen and thawed out. The prawns did not appear to be deveined as well which worsened the eating experience. For the price of $38.00 you really would expect a more premium product.

At the end, we were asked how our dining experience was, my colleagues and I all just exchanged glances - what were we meant to say?

Considering this was supposed to be a birthday event, it was...