NB: Since this review was written late last year, the ownership of Pulp Kitchen has changed. The restaurant is now owned by Daniel Giordani. Christian Hauberg remains as part-time chef.
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Rating: 16/20
- 1 Wakefield Gardens, Ainslie shops, 6257 4334
- www.pulp-kitchen.com.au
- Owner, Daniel Giordani
- Open weekend breakfast from 8.30am, lunch Tuesday to Friday, dinner Monday to Saturday
- Licensed and BYO, corkage $5 a person
- Wheelchair access to outside seats and inside, with a step, no access to toilets
Think bare tabletops with tealight candles, dim lights, a small and fairly squashed space, a dark alley for the loos. In the food, big Brit-themed flavours, with beautifully handled offal running like a seam of gold through the menu.
Pulp Kitchen is probably Canberra's most adventurous restaurant and feels like the one that most clearly reflects the heart of its former owner, Christian Hauberg.
Hauberg is a keen hunter and believes restaurants should be able to serve wild-caught meat. They can't.
So he contents himself with bold bistro fare, like calf's liver on a caramelised onion tart ($19/$31), or crubeens (croquettes of pork knuckle) with black pudding ($19/$32), and a gusty Provencal fish soup with a deepfried soft-shelled crab ($17/$24).
It's not all about meat, though. A favourite dish is mushrooms atop polenta ($16/$23) - a dish so simple but transformed with Hauberg's touch, and loads of butter or other fat no doubt, into a luscious, rich and addictive rustic dinner.
Actually, fat carries the flavours in lots of the menu at Pulp, and it's heartily welcome. If you've got someone visiting from interstate and you're looking for a blow-me-down impressive place to eat dinner without the ceremony and formality of fine dining, this is the place.
The staff is small and regular. Hauberg cooks in the small, open-to-the-restaurant kitchen behind a high serving counter, and emerges later to greet his customers and get a feel for how things have gone.
This is his place, and he's out to make it yours as well.
The wine list reasonably brief and well-priced, with enough interest, including European imports chosen to match the ballsy food, to carry the evening (and if you're us, you'll start with French cider and end with aged grappa).
In summer, you can eat outside on the Ainslie pavement.In desserts ($15-$16), you'll find a chocolate tart, a rhubarb and apple crumble, chocolate terrine with vodka foam, bread and butter pudding - more joyous, shoes-off indulgence from an absolute neighbourhood favourite.
