Benchmark Wine Bar

7.3 Recommended

Drinks  8      Ambience  6      Service  8      Value  7     

A very good tapas menu and excellent wine list provided by friendly and attentive staff in a cosy environment.

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Mar 24, 2012 

5.8 Average

Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  5      Food  6     

I had a pleasant experience about a year ago, so I decided to come back. Was a mistake. Ordered a few wine flights. Wine glasses were noisily dropped on the table, wine poured (with the wine bottle held close to the neck) and promptly left without any explanation of which flight was which or what wine was what, just a mad jumble of glasses.

Water was poured in tumblers but spilt all around, without any effort to wipe it up. Cupboards were constantly being slammed shut and a mop and bucket dragged, clatteringly, across the floor. This was at 8 pm. A wine bar is not only about the wine but the experience as well. It's a shame that this bar seems to have gone downhill since my last experience.

Oct 06, 2010 

7.8 Recommended

Drinks  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  7     

I'm surprised at the comments written to date as I had a lovely experience when I had dinner 2 weeks ago. It might have been the fact it was a Wednesday night and there wasn't many people but I had a great waitress who recommended a few tapas after I had told her I needed to make a movie in about 1 hour's time. The prawns, meatballs and chocolate mousse and sangoviese (upon recommendation) were great. Whilst a little pricey, the food was worth it.

May 20, 2010 

3 Below Average

Drinks  3      Ambience  6      Service  1      Value  2     

On a recent long wknd to Canberra, my boyfriend (BF) and I decided to sample the restaurant's A la carte menu on the Sat night as we'd enjoyed our degustation dinner there about a year ago.

This time around, we had a disappointing experience and shall not be returning. We'd expected a fine dining restaurant with quality food and a service to match for the $275 we paid for but were left feeling cheated. First, there were dramas of not having the bottle of wine we'd ordered to go with the food and our 2nd and 3rd choices weren't available either.

The waitress at our table appeared to be clueless and kept running off to consult her boss. We were getting frustrated and I managed to stop the man in charge when he was walking past. After a long discussion about the wines we were happy with his offer of a NZ wine at the same price as the original out of stock local Mt Majura Pinot Noir @around $65. He explained that they were in the process of changing the winelist.

By this time, our entree tasting plate had arrived and gotten cold. My main dish of duck was terrible. It was overcooked and tasted bland. I'll get my fix of duck @Ardeche next time. My BF had more success with his rack of lamb. It was very good. The chocolate dessert we then shared was another disappointment and I made up for it by going to Koko Black afterwards.

To top off our experience @the Benchmark, we had to wait for nearly 30 minutes when we were ready for our bill, as our waitress had disappeared. Perhaps, she decided to have a nap out at the back? No one else came to our table to check either. Is wasn't as if the whole place had been packed!

When the bill finally came, I noticed that we were charged the full price for our bottle of the NZ wine. This was the last straw as we'd just had a terrible evening and they couldn't even give us the courtesy of a $20 discount for their poor service.

Can you understand now why I was compelled to write a review and why we won't be returning nor recommending Benchmark to anyone else? This place definitely does not set the Benchmark of food and wine in Canberra. There are plenty of restaurants and bars that are better quality, value for money, and more happening in Canberra City.

Mar 16, 2010 

3.5 Below Average

Drinks  5      Ambience  6      Service  2      Value  1     

30 minutes to get even a glass of water to the table. Had oysters (nice) tapas (very ordinary and very over priced), a rather warm bottle of ordinary white wine at a very high price, a nice local red at a very high price. When complained, about service and value, told 2 staff called in sick. Requested to speak to manager, who could not be summoned to table. Well sorry at those prices, you should be able to cope with that sort of situation with less customer impact, and if not, tell the customer service will be a bit slow due to factors x y z. Our waiter did his best, but not a good deal.

Feb 20, 2010