When in Canberra, it appears Monster is a place to befriend. Housed inside Hotel Hotel which is located on the corner of a what feels like a dual carriageway, it oozes cool architecture and design. 

We enter the hotel and greeted by reception staff who advise us to head towards the iPad in the far corner of the room. It's a little strange that as soon as we enter the hotel, it opens out into a dining / bar area and there is Monster in all her glory. I keep looking for an iPad but struggle to find it. Turns out, I'm taking things too literally and it's not an iPad but a laptop. I guess literal and creativity aren't necessarily seamless in this place!

We're early for our table so take a seat on a fancy green sofa and wait a while before someone takes our drinks order. And it takes a while again for the drinks to arrive but we're advise it's because they're searching the store room for a mysterious ingredient that is crucial to my cocktails...

We drink our drinks, once they finally arrive and we're not asked if we want another nor is our table followed up...and it ticks past 8pm and when it looks like no one is going to help us or keep us hydrated, I ask and one of the wait staff tries to help us out but we're advised to keep on waiting as the previous occupants finish up.

Finally we are seated but that whole waiting theme continues...we wait a while for menus, for round 2 of drinks...and during our meal for our wine glasses to be topped up. Yes, it's busy and the size of the dining room means the wait staff have a lot of ground to cover and I suspect they are under staffed this evening which means service is thin on the ground.

We start off with:

• 38 hour pork neck bao, cucumber, kim chi
• Crispy fried quail, house made togarashi, kewpie, sriracha

The pork neck is a little cylindrical croquette and combined with the fermented and tangy flavour of the kim chi is pretty tastebud pleasing. The quail is also lipsmackingly good with an exciting tongue tingling heat from the spices and sriracha. So far so good.

And in spite of the service blips, we enjoy our corner seat in the banquette where we can people watch and although the wait staff are stretched, the atmosphere still manages to be relaxed and comfortable.

• Asparagus, baby leek, soft egg, burnt butter, nori and capers

This is a far more generous dish than the asparagus offering we had at Eightysix the night before although, granted it is $5 more expensive but I'd rather pay the excess and enjoy the "generous hospitality." The salty buttery liquid drips and flavours the chargrilled vegetables and balances that greeny yumminess of asparagus.

In terms of "main" or shared dishes as they're called at Monster, we go with three:

• Blood pudding, apple, radish. anchovy
• Pulled lamb shoulder, pistachio, yoghurt, vine leaf, pomegranate, brik
• Black Angus, flat iron, chimichurri, fried okra (unpictured)

The blood pudding is a generous slab and served on grilled bread. I enjoy the flavours but find the anchovy a little overpowering. I love anchovies and I love black pudding but I'm not convinced I love them altogether although the toast and the zippiness of the apple and radish salad help lift the heavy flavours.

The pulled lamb shoulder is a true crowd pleaser. The meat is tender and delicious large chunks flaboured with nutty pistachios and sweet and sour pomegranate seeds, softened by the labne.

The Black Angus also goes down well. It's a good steak already carved into misshapes and the fried okra has a delicious salt and vinegar seasoning to it.

I ordered one of their non alcoholic drinks, orange, passionfruit, elderflower & soda but request a spike of vodka and the barman enthusiastically responds but when my drink arrives it doesn't taste very much of vodka and later on the bill, we see we are not charged for the shot so it was probably forgotten. 

Onto food...we order to share between us:

• Duck bun with hoisin
• D'Affinois wafer
• Smoked chicken wing, maple glaze
• Cured kangaroo, horseradish, beetroot
• Asparagus, fines herbs & aioli
• Ghetto beef w salsa verde, rocket & parmesan
• ​Potato and gravy

Our comments are that the duck bun was tasty enough. Nothing particularly stand out but well received by our tummies and tastebuds.I think it would have been better if there was more filling. The D'Affinois wafer is effectively a piece of that creamy, lovely cheese sandwiched between two crumbly wafers and seasoned with some spices and a fruit chutney. Again a tasty morsel but not ground breaking.

Ground breaking though were the chicken wings. Giant wings that must have come from a chicken dinosaur, the glaze came separate so it didn't make the skin soggy. I've had plenty of wings in my life and these come up tops.

The kangaroo dish was as it sounds and again we had no problems consuming it. The asparagus was disappointing in that it was 4 slender pieces of asparagus and fines herbs to me means finely chopped herbs but this was a mound of herbs whole and chunky and certainly not "fines". So I guess it was more a herb salad with a smattering of asparagus. The lemon aioli was tasty but too much for the little asparagus we were served.

Ghetto beef was 4 slices of rare beef, thicker than carpaccio but far from steak...maybe sandwich steak thickness. I quite liked the beef with the rocket and parmesan but my tastebuds weren't quite so enamoured with the salsa verde. I found the texture a but gluey and the flavours not my thing.

Where the beef dish was light and summery, the mashed potatoes and gravy was much richer and definitely comfort food category. The potato was rich and creamy and the gravy salty and intense. It probably didn't quite go with the beef but we still consumed it all!

We were pretty tired by the end of this food and although the desserts sounded yummy and looked great coming out of the kitchen we decided to call it a night. Steve found the ambience too frantic and couldn't relax which probably didn't help to make us feel like staying for the sweet stuff.

For us, Eightysix was average. It's certainly popular and boy, I'd return just for a whole plateful of chicken wings but everything else just hit the average scores.

We started off with some snack like proceedings:

• Pork crackling, toasted fennel
• Wok tossed garlic shoots, spice salt

The crackling crackled and then melted in the mouth and was light and tasty with the spices sprinkled on it. The garlic shoots had a tasty char to them and were liberally doused with something tongue tinglingly warm. Both dishes were great to share with a glass of wine and a street view.

Steve and I chose to move away from sharing for the next course and ordered a little amuse bouche style canape each:

• Spanner crab, bun rieu mayo, brioche toast, finger lime
• Vietnamese blood pudding, ginger, cosberg

I had the crab which had the texture of scrambled egg and then little pearls of sharp finger lime burst on the tongue. The crab and brioche was sweet with the brioche adding a layer of toastiness. This was delicious.

The blood pudding was like a lettuce wrap and again very flavoursome.

We went back to sharing and indulged in:

• Smoked beef rump carpaccio, green chilli, soybean sprouts
• Drop noodles, duck, celtuce, curry vinaigrette

I really enjoyed the sesame oil notes in the rump carpacio and the pickled almst fermented like soybean sprouts that were covered by the blanket of beef slices. The green chilli dressing certainly packed a punch of heat. Another tasty and successful dish.

The drop noodles were the follow up punch. The curry vinaigrette is more like a curry paste that the noodles soaked up and the duck meat was tender and tasty. To me it was more Malaysian than Vietnamese which tends to have more delicate flavours but this was still a very welcome course which was well received.

The chicken had great char flavour but wasn't dried out. The dipping sauce added that moreish acidic hit. The flathead was generous in size; we had to watch out for bones given it was effectively a whole fish just with the head cut off. Steve had been unsure about creme fraiche and fish sauce - he's not too keen on creamy sauces but I felt this worked a treat. It wasn't so much creamy but more buttery and the sauce went with the sweet fish flesh so well especially with the tang of the juice from the lemon cheek.

We loved the strong flavours of all the savoury dishes we had and we felt that every course was of a consistently good standard. We had to wait a little while for our mains because we were behind a couple of larger tables. We were also offered to move to two high stools at the bar if we wished as a party hadn't showed up at the time but we didn't think it would be any more comfortable there. The wooden stools are a little hard after a while if I am to be critical. 

My other comment would be that with all the great flavours, sauces and glazes with the dishes we had as our main course, I'd have loved a little steamed rice just to soak everything up.

And pretty much just as our dessert was cleared away, we caught sight of a couple walking past the weekend who are our friends so a tap on the window and they came in. The front staff team welcomed us and let us move to the high bar which by now was pretty empty and we were able to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine as a foursome as we enjoyed the impromptu catch up so we're thankful for the flexibility and hospitality the team offered.

Great evening, great and interesting food that is really very tasty. I'd definitely come back.

Friday night feels in a BBQ joint...The run up was a little fraught; long day at work, no parking to be found but we made it and it was worth it.

The hospitality is warm, and so is the temperature in the room so be prepared especially when gorging on trays of meat. The whole eating business can get a bit hot but that's what the drinks are for right?

I dined with my friend Viv and boy did we go for it:

• Chopped brisket, chilli cheese fries with jalapenos and sour cream
• Rangers Valley Black Onyx brisket
• Oak smoked chook
• Hot smoked Berkshire Pork belly
• Apple, kohlrabi and coriander slaw with sherry mustard vinaigrette
• Jalapeno cornbread with maple butter

The food comes out presented on large trays feasting style and it's all about digging in. The chilli cheese fries are delicious and unmissable. The maple butter on the cornbread really makes it elavating it from boring cornbread to lipsmacking deliciousness. The slaw was fresh and light which we welcomed but we found the dressing a little sweet and could do with a squeeze of lemon or something with a bit of an acidic tang.

In terms of meat; we really enjoyed the brisket which was tender with slivers of tasty fat running through it keeping it juicy. The roast chook was bigger than I thought comprising of thigh and drumstick and I liked the crispy skin and succulent meat. The pork belly had nice flavour and it was denser than I was expecting but the thick layer of fat that hadn't rendered down wasn't too appetising.

And with all that we were stuffed and needed a walk round the block before dissolving into the sofa in a food coma! The desserts sounded amazing but we just couldn't do it.

Out of the BBQ joints I've been to I have to say Bluebonnet takes the blue ribbon. The meat was so much tastier and better executed and the sides were delicious. I loved seeing what came out to the larger tables; platters and trays heavily laden. The sausage looked particularly good. Such a great place for large groups who want a good feed. But even as a small group of two we enjoyed some variety and certainly some great flavours. I'm looking forward to round 2!

Four of us ended up in Monterey's late on a Saturday night. I was surprised it was so quiet but that's good news for us as it meant we scored a great corner table for our second dinner. Yes, you read that correctly. Whilst the food we had immediately before was pretty tasty at another restaurant close by there just wasn't enough so we felt the need to call in for a lobster roll.

Shared dishes of ceviche, mac and cheese and then either a lobster roll or po boy went down a storm as did the accompanying two bottles of wine. Service was friendly even though we got the wrong wine first time round and when the right one it wasn't quite cold enough but it was all managed and we got our cold wine.

I had the Maine lobster roll which is with butter and chives. I think it could have done with being a bit more buttery and the bread roll was a touch dry but not terribly so. The lobster was deliciously sweet though. Thoroughly enjoyed the ceviche and the mac and cheese too.

Intrigued by the concept of a 22 year old at the helm and a quarterly rotating menu inspired by global travel, I visited Atlas with 3 girlfriends. The fit out and decor is impressive with lots of white and light wood. Our individual leather roll wrap of cutlery is a novelty...evoking nuances of airplane travel and camping weirdly.

The welcome is warm as is the temperature. We're seated in front of the kitchen pass and the heat comes through whereas the front dining area manages to stay slightly cooler.

We toast our arrival and the imminent coming of Christmas with smoked straweberry bellinis and a mojito. They are delicious and go down a treat. Before long, we're on the 6 course journey with matching wines and that's all the decision making we need to do. The rest is all chatter and giggles.

Refreshing and clean flavours come through and the different types of tomato provide varying flavours that layer upon themselves giving the simply named dish some complexity. There's a sweet almost dried tomato at the bottom that is also slightly chewy and then there are fresh, tangy tomato flavours from the cut tomatoes and the Vietnamese herbs take us to Asia.

Service was proficient and capable but not personal. The wine matches were read out to us like a script as was the description of the food; we couldn't grasp any personality, passion or energy.