I know Poacher's Pantry is technically in NSW but it's so close to Canberra it's basically considered a Canberra place. The place comes highly recommended by many Canberrans and upon a glowing recommendation by a friend of M's, we booked a table for my birthday lunch.
PP is family owned and run. The estate not only has the restaurant, but sells wines and smoked goods too. Because the place is effectively situated on a farm, it can be a bit fiddly to get there. We had a little bit of trouble finding the place and the driveway wasn't exactly easy on the Michelins. After I have a slightly wobbly trot in my blue pumps through the dusty track, we finally arrived at the restaurant. I suppose the decor (the space looked like it had been converted from a house) would hold some charm for some but I personally found it quite plain and decidedly 'Canberra'.
M and I were really looking forward to trying their charcuterie plate, given that this place specialises in, and makes its own, smallgoods. For the $33 price tag, the serving was pretty disappointing. While the smoked goods on the platter were very tasty, including some really good smoked ham, there was a very small serving of it. The rest of the platter was filled with mostly pretty standard antipasto assortments (e.g. olives) which I could definitely take or leave.
For mains, I chose a smoked chicken pie which was decently tasty flavour wise (smoked chicken was very good) but I found it rather dry, partly because there there was too much pastry to the amount of (scarce) filling. It was also pretty damn small for the price; I can't remember exactly how much it was but I remember it beinf definitely expensive for what it was. The worst part of it though was probably the pear salad that accompanied it. It was legit a few lettuce leaves stacked on top of each other plus some super ripe pear. I'm not a fan of ripe pear at the best of times but in a salad it's particularly bad. I love some crispy and refreshing pear in a salad but when that pear is ripe it just completely spoils it in my opinion.
Poor M's main wasn't much better at all. He had the pork belly which was served atop some flavourless quinoa and a smear of sweet potato. The pork belly was was disappointing, not only was it not particularly well flavoured, it was very fatty; it definitely needed some more rendering to make it unctuous but not oily. Worst of all, the crackling was non existent—the skin was soggy— and the splash of jus (why even bother with jus/sauce if you're gonna have that tiny an amount?) right on top of the skin certainly didn't help things.
Overall we both disappointed and thought it was definitely overpriced for the food and experience you got. However, the one really good thing to come out of our meal here was that we discovered Knead, whose bread is served at Poacher's Pantry.
Knead Patisserie
Yes the discovery of Knead at PP was very serendipitous indeed. We've since been back a number of times, and it's become a favourite haunt of ours in Canberra. It's a little boulangerie/patisserie in the Belconnen markets, certainly not the chicest location in the world but Knead is definitely a diamond in the rough. M loves the croissants and pains au chocolat here (I've yet to try them) and says the coffee is great too. We both love their tarts (fantastic thin short pastry and really nice curd) too. The last time I came here, I also tried one their pies (it was chicken and tarragon at the time but the filling changes often) which was delicious and a bargain at under $5. However, perhaps the best reason to come here is to pick up a loaf of their amazing sourdough. Chewy but not hard, deliciously sour and a fantastically moist crumb; it's pretty damn perfect. No joke, Knead is probably my favourite place in Canberra, insofar as they do what they do fantastically well.
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