It's not often people move to Canberra for no other reason than to open a restaurant, but that's what Melbourne couple Bryan Milligan and Leanora Romensky did earlier this year. Armed with a concept for a restaurant focussed on local produce, they searched the whole east coast of the country before settling on the Kingston Foreshore.
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They made the move north, and Circula opened its doors in August as a cafe by day, restaurant by night, taking over the space of former seafood restaurant C Dine.
It's our first visit, and we're not entirely sure what to expect. Like its predecessor, the venue had a modern and refined feel to it, although the decor has been stripped back somewhat. Tables are left bare, and fresh flowers in vases and succulents in little pots are scattered across tables. Outside in the large outdoor area, planter boxes of herbs separate bench seats, and add plenty of greenery to the space, as do hanging plants inside.
One end of the restaurant is more casual, with low hanging lights, soft couches and a bar on one side, while the front end is more formal dining. The open kitchen then runs down almost an entire side of the restaurant, with a meat hanging fridge on display, although it's empty tonight. Tones are dark but furnishings are soft and comfortable.
We're seated at a table looking directly out the corner towards the lake. Music is loud enough to create a good energy for a weeknight and to keep your conversation private, but low enough so that you can comfortably hear one another speak.
It takes a fair bit of looking around and suggestive glances over to the staff to place our order initially, but there are no other problems all night - staff are welcoming, friendly, and just the right amount of chatty. Someone from inside the kitchen even leans over to ask how our meal was as we go to pay.
But first, the food. The menu ranges from starters, salads and more casual burgers through to some more grown-up meat dishes and a selection of steaks. The wine list is quite extensive, with options from all over the world, quite a few locals, and enough available by the glass to keep most people happy.
Not that we'd generally want to eat anything caught in Lake Burley Griffin, but the water-side location puts us in the mood for seafood, so we start with the salt and pepper squid ($18).
This is a very, very good dish, and one of the best salt and pepper squids we remember eating in a while. It's a generous serving - around 15 tender rings of squid, which are coated and fried gently in an unimposing but more-ish batter and served on a bed of rocket, with thin slices of pear artfully arranged around the plate, and the real star of the dish, a squid ink aioli.
Thin slivers of meat in the peppered beef carpaccio ($18) are tender and flavoursome. The meat comes topped with fetta, a bit of citrus, and slivers of radish, and overall to me it feels it needs a little extra oomph, but it's enjoyable none the less.
The main menu is quite meat-heavy, although a few of the dishes are also available as vegetarian options, like the spaghetti amatriana ($26), which is a very satisfying take on a classic. Very fresh noodles of spaghetti are cooked just a touch off al dente, with a flavoursome sauce that's just hot enough on the lips and decent chunks of chorizo, plump olives and a smattering of parmesan shavings.
There are three steaks on the menu, and the 400g rib eye ($42) is a serious hunk of meat, and you can choose one of five sauces (it's hard to pass up the whipped, smoked truffle butter). Presented on a wooden board, it's served on the bone and cooked medium rare as ordered, with fried chunks of potatoes on the board, and green beans with a miso butter come in a little jug on the side. Like all of the dishes tonight, it's very filling, and value for money.
The crowd is quite mixed during our dinner - a couple with a young baby catching up with friends, a young professional meeting their parents for a weeknight dinner, two friends out for a bite to eat, and a few couples, and it seems to work quite well for all.
Our first visit is enough to whet the appetite and leave us intrigued to come back, perhaps for a brunch next time in the outdoor garden space when the weather warms up. Circula feels cosy, casual, and almost like a local, even for those of us who have come from all the way across the other side of the lake.
