Pilot Restaurant and That Other Place (Bar) — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Quality of the food and service exceptional, however, this experience is truly for the adventurous. The dishes are unique, so not all will be crowd pleasers. Pilot's style is to take well known classics and put their own spin on it. A very wonderful experience overall, but more meat dishes and comfier chairs would be better.

We decided to skip the matched wines in favour of Edgar's Inn next door for pre drinks - jug of Sangria for $30.

The waitress did try to explain the dishes, but unfortunately I was busy taking food pics. Here's what I remember:

Tea and soup served together:

1. Herbal tea served cold in sake cup. Mild flavour See pic for ingredient list.

2. Broad bean minestrone with sliced asparagus, nasturtium leaves and ?basil oil dots. A refreshing consommé with a balsamic tang.

Snacks served together. Encouraged to go ham & dig in. Towels provided to clean your hands afterwards. 3) Crispy smoked potato chips ( Tasted like bacon and vinegar.) French onion dip - super yum! 4) Mussel escabeche. Full of briny/ umami goodness. Sauce described as a tomato reduction. 5) Quail scotch egg. Egg perfectly cooked. The most memorable was the grated potato coating which was perfectly crispy on the outside. Topped with thick mayonnaise and caviar. 6) Flatbread: More like a bun which was slightly oily on the outside. Inside were butter, allium, sorrel and dill. Very filling and yummy. Think garlic bread or Chinese scallion pancakes.

Then 2 entrées, one after the other. 7) Spatzle. I had always imagined it would be like gnocchi. This version was crispy, kinda like cheddar Goldfish bikkies. Mixed with normal corn kernels and popped corn. There was some sort of white sauce ( foam/ emulsion) to go with it and a fine red powder which I couldn't taste. Strangely more-ish. Good but not wow. 8) Custard, celtuce and pork: Layered dish of silky smooth egg custard base. Middle layer of chili oil with Szechuan pepper. ( You know the Lao Gan Ma chilli oil jar with peanuts). Slivers of caramelised shallots added a chewy sweetness. Topped with roast pork, fresh cucumber slices, geometric leek shapes, and rounds of celtuce! Celtuce is not a cross between celery and lettuce. Those rounds I thought were picked cucumber was actually celtuce! A dish inspired by mapo tofu, definitely makes you go "Huh?". +++ Points for creativity.

Main + sides served next: 9) Quail breast: Very succulent! Tasted like dark meat of chicken. Served with cranberries and capers in a cranberry sauce, and a side of buttery and smooth celeriac purée. My favourite dish, because I was craving meat by this time. 10) Small golden potatoes covered with saffron oil, broccolini flowers. Neutral taste but pleasant. A filler for those who are hungry, I was pretty stuffed by this stage. 11) Zippy salad: Mostly cos lettuce in a light oil dressing. Bits of seaweed, dill, parsley etc. Caramelized sunflower seeds for crunch.

Small break coz we were stuffed

12. Dessert 1: Pine Lime. A mound covered with torched meringue and sprinkled with lime leaf powder. Underneath was fermented pineapple called tepache, as well as pineapple sorbet. Refreshing, cooling, sour. A large serve for "pre dessert."

Grand finale

13. Bananarama: Banana ice cream, topped with macadamia shavings. Submerged in the ice cream was a very delicious banana cake/short bread with crispyish elements.A very strong banana flavour came through, (possibly banana essence). Could also taste a light lacing of liquor ( macadamia and wattleseed). Macadamia nuts were also buried in there.

The bill came out with a sample of the herbal tea we had earlier. Complimentary Stroopwafel. ( Ice cream wafer cookies sandwiched with thin French buttercream...

Really disappointed! Staff ignored taking our order for 30 mins, it wasn't even busy. Claimed it was a mix up and apologised. Lucky it was a nice day outside.

Food was mostly good, but not amazing. Portions were small and both the pasta and the fish were a bit cold. Staff clearly don't know the produce they are serving either.

The oysters (not pictured) looked terrible on the plate. Two oysters served on top of other oyster shells upside down on the plate. And the two other amuse bouches served on the same plate, kind of off to the side, should have been on a separate plate.

The fish (the staff that served it to us didn't really know what type it was and suggested it was "basa grapa") was cold in the middle (but warm on the outside). It clearly hadn't been cooked through and you could see the fish wasn't cooked fully through when pulling it apart. Another staff member took it away a little apologetically. Then yet another staff brought back a new serve (cooked through a bit more this time) but explained that's how they serve it. I have a few issues with this: It's not pleasant to eat; the undercooked portion of the bass doesn't pull away nicely in the mouth, it needs cutting. And the temperature difference isn't pleasant when the fish initially looks like it's been cooked through and is served in a warm curry. Clearly not all the staff know how it's meant to be served or what the fish even is (I think it was likely sea bass, not basa). It could potentially contain harmful bacteria.

A tried the spiced beetroot non alcoholic drink. After trying it, I asked one of the staff what was in it and they had to go check. They came back and explained that it was "beetroot juice and spices. It was meant to resemble a red wine and they use spices like when you make red wine." I was a bit confused as making wine doesn't involve spice. Mulled wine, I could understand. And I think that is what it is meant to be, but the staff person didn't realise that, or explain it.

The roast chicken was the best dish, the chicken, white bread, mayo and green salad make a delicious chicken sandwich, which is what Pilot suggest.

The dessert was... Devisive. Mostly I really enjoyed it. It is apparently Pilot's dessert play on a Caprese Panzanella, a traditional peasant salad of old bread, tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil. This dessert though is made with sponge cake (on the bottom), tomato granita, strawberries, Jersey milk ice cream, and basil oil. My partner didn't like it at all and was very turned off by the overpowering flavour of the tomato and the very strong basil oil. For the most part, I quite liked it. Every so often though I'd get a big smack of really savoury tomato flavour in the granita and that was quite unpleasant... Otherwise it was interesting.

Overall, the experience was very...

December 2024 we have been here twice before and really liked the impromptu style of menu and tasting. there were many memorable dishes and wines as well as non-alcoholic drinks. that appears to have all come to a grinding halt. we had chosen to sit outside as the weather was forecast to be pleasant but the outside chairs were cheap and uncomfortable. the opening dishes were almost unpleasant, the one with full unshelled prawns hadn't been prepared correctly so the prawns were chewy. another dish promised poached Balmain bugs but they were translucent and raw. had they been finely sliced it may have worked but as it was chunky it was chewy and too much effort to grind your way through. i overheard other tables discussing raw nature of the dish with consternation. generally the dishes appeared, on paper, to be interesting but the execution was not there. had they been prepared and cooked properly the night might have been enjoyable. the other problem is the wine paring and non-alcoholic drink paring. with each wine you get a history of the winemaker with excruciating detail which go to the point where i asked the waiter to stop talking. most of the wines were made by ex-public servants, which should be a red flag, and most of the wines were unpleasant. usually you find something new and different instead of a range of wines confirming why they are not popular. the non-alcoholic drinks were all rather sweet and simple without the interesting concoctions of previous visits. considering the high cost, terrible food and wine, and uncomfortable seats i never want to eat...