Ostani has a dinner option for everyone

I mean in the sense of writing about the food. Because while it has a busy and focused kitchen and a lot of people are eating, eating is not really the point. It's more a gathering place. It's huge, but not cavern-huge, since the spaces are separated by dividers and doors and spread along a patio, in a bar area and in another area which is ostensibly the actual restaurant. The menu is the same throughout, however. With people spread from here to kingdom come, it would be next to impossible, you'd imagine, for staff to deliver food without mix-up or inefficiency. But problem solved by virtue of the buzzer. So you order at the food counter, take your buzzer, and find a place to settle in with a drink, by any number of heaters and cosy-looking fires, at low tables, high tables, more loungy chairs. You can watch tele if you like, with a huge screen in the bar tuned to the footy. At least, that was the system when we visited. We're told that's all changing, and instead it will be order at your table via QR codes, with the food brought to you.

I'm a big pub fan, as my local knows well. I eat there weekly with obsessive regularity. It's a comfort blanket. When the world seems really just so much baloney and so many tears, best to concentrate on routine, routine, routine. Ostani seems in a slightly different category, being in Barton, which isn't precisely a local community. Possibly, it is a place to meet after work, and a place for visitors to find a bit of company and dinner. We're in the Realm Hotel complex, and I think the door in the corner leads through to the hotel, judging by the family that trails through the bar in that direction with their bags. Beside us is Buvette, Realm's upmarket restaurant for the corporate credit card. Across the laneway are Chairman and Yip and Lilotang. Quite the concentration of night life.

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So, we're here for the food. And interestingly, the menu traverses the typical offerings of the pub, but goes further. Where you might normally avoid the "further" in kitchens that hardly ever get orders from that part of the menu, it's probably a good bet at Ostani. I say that because the chimichurri beef cheeks with black beans and grilled corn polenta ($29) is the best dish tonight. The big hunk of dark and tender meat is heavily spiced and cooked with black beans. Real comfort food. Alongside is a square of polenta, cooked, shaped, sliced and then fried. And filling up the plate is a pile of rocket salad, with corn and other salsa-like contributions. It's a plate of comfort food, but well cooked and conceived. And it makes me wish we had also taken the plunge and ordered the rogan josh we were eyeing on the specials board.

Instead, we have ordered the more pub-like options, which I have come to think of as safe choices in low-capacity kitchens. This, though, isn't a low-capacity kitchen. There are loads of staff and the place seems to be run with hotel-like professionalism. This is epitomised in the wine list, which, presumably thanks to the backing of a large hotel, offers really good options by the glass. To whit, a decent Italian prosecco and a Ravensworth Grainery blend for us tonight.

We order pizza from a menu of pretty standard options. We're wishing we had the option of, say, leek and blue cheese, but diavola ($24) it is. It's hot with tomato and salami, nicely simple but not thrilling, and more soft than crisp. Szechuan pepper calamari, with harissa mayonnaise, peanuts and lime ($16) is also hot, but like the pizza it's more soft than crisp. We're firmly in the bar snacks territory, where heat is countered by the drinks. The burgers are huge, big, simple and seemingly popular. Likewise, the steak sandwich on Three Mills sourdough ($22) is a substantial meal, with a thin steak, and simple accompaniments of caramelised onions, cos lettuce and mustard. Apparently the menu is also in for a complete revamp, so the options you find might well be quite different.

The desserts have the feel of a large hotel, and you get sense that they might be offered on menus from room service to restaurant to day-time café, looking pretty and waiting to be claimed and consumed. The "pavlova" ($13) hasn't been cut from an actual pav, but is its own little nest of meringue, crisp and sticky all at once, filled with a lemon curd and topped with strawberries and happily also with passionfruit. We like it. The gianduja chocolate gateau and caramelised popcorn and chocolate gelato ($13) is not so much a cake as a log of soft chocolate with a fruit centre and strawberry garnish. This is ok but pretty unexciting.

So there it is, a dinner option for everyone, from bar snack, to pub feed, to comfort dinner. It adds up to a perfectly fine place to be, and since it is packed tonight, I'm guessing plenty of people know this already.

Address: Hotel Realm, 18 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600

Phone: 6163 1808

Website: ostani.com.au

Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7am to 10.30am and 12pm to 11pm.

Vegetarian: Yes, plenty of options

Noise: Quite noisy, at least inside

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