Courgette

10 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  10     

Ate there last night and have to say, great value for $. Food and service were spot on! Have been to some great places before but really impressed with this one! Highly recommended.

May 13, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  7     

Expensive, but in my opinion, worth it. Excellent menu, excellent degustation, and a very nice atmosphere. If you don't mind the prices, it's great.

Mar 22, 2012 

5.3 Average

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  2      Value  2     

I dined at Courgette with a colleague in early September when we were in Canberra for a conference. Not having heard of Courgette before, we checked reviews online and thought they were consistently very good, with only one or two exceptions. So you could say we had pretty high expectations, and you could say they were met overall in terms of food, but I think the owner has a lot to learn about customer service.

We ordered an older pinot noir (2004 I think) from the Yarra Valley - after my first and second choices were unavailable - and it was really unpleasant. Being from the hospitality industry myself, and having a real interest in wine, I would describe it as having excessive volatile acidity. It wasn't characteristic of a pinot noir in either aroma or flavour; it was quite hot in terms of the alcohol seeming out of balance with fruit and body.

Anyhow, I couldn't honestly insist it was faulty as the volatile acidity can sometimes be a stylistic element or, more likely in my opinion, it was either an average wine to begin with and/or hadn't cellared well. Rarely has a wine ever been so unpleasant that myself and companion couldn't drink it, but this was the case. The maitre d' / restaurant manager I have to say was excellent in his customer approach and consideration of the situation, but it was evident that he wasn't given the authority he needed to carry out his role well. He said he needed to check with the owner about what he could do for us. I said that as we couldn't hand on heart say it was faulty, we would offer to pay cost price so that they weren't out of pocket (if they couldn't return it to the distributor), and we would order something else.

Given that the wine list price was around AUD $70-80 for this wine (can't recall exactly), it was no light decision to ask if we could return it. The maitre d' came back and was clearly somewhat embarrassed to tell us that the owner's response was basically "Tough". He said, quote, "You don't get to try before you buy" - and that was it. We were stuck with a wine we literally couldn't drink and which we had to pay for. We were very disappointed in the owner's attitude.

In my experience as a fine dining waiter and maitre d', there is always a way to satisfy the customer and not lose out - and we had already offered to cover the cost of the bottle. As an owner, do you really want your customers to a) drink their way through a wine they really aren't enjoying and b) feel ripped off? We said we would not buy any more wine and to his credit, the maitre d' managed to furnish a couple of nice glasses of pinot noir on the house for us, but had to do it under the radar of the owner.

Regarding the food, my scallop entree was excellent while my colleague was quite unimpressed with her vegetarian entree, a kind of tomato tart which seemed to have a myriad of clashing flavours going on including sweet and savoury mixed up. We both had suckling pig which was delicious as were our desserts. However, the night was spoiled by an owner who clearly didn't care about the end to end dining experience of his guests - just his food.

He needs to realise that the days when all customers cared about was the quality of food and had no expectations around service are long gone. As long as he maintains that attitude, and doesn't trust his very competent maitre d' to do his job, he will be passed over in favour of restaurants with a better customer ethic. I will not be dining at any restaurant with his name on it again.

Oct 05, 2011 

8.3 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

Started on Monday night at 6:30pm and service was excellent at the start. We were greeted politely and were asked if we needed our jackets stored away.

Food was to my surprise quite exceptional. The scallop and chicken wing entree was quite nice, and my snapper main was well cooked and moist.

The vanilla creme brulee was the biggest surprise because I'm not much of a desert person and I actually quite liked this. They have definitely made this with the right level of sweetness which is something I have rarely found with a desert.

As the night went on the place became busier and the quality of service dropped a bit. The waiters and waitress seemed a little bit edgier possibly due to the increased workload.

Overall it was still a great experience and I would definitely visit again.

Aug 08, 2011 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  7      Value  9     

Went here after going to it's sisters, Sabayon and Waters Edge. I was expecting big things from James Mousillon and his gang, and he did not disappoint.

We went for a la carte as we did not have time for the degustation. Other diners were all vegetarian, except for me. Only one vege entree and one vege main, but they were so good it did not matter!

Amuse bouche: Seafood broth - really good, but they served it to the vegetarians too which was an honest mistake I think.

Entrees: Field mushroom 'forest' with beetroot spring rolls - amazing, one of the most visually appealing vege dishes i have ever seen, beautiful flavours.

Seasoned quail with broad beans. Wow, 9/10. Superb. Perfectly seasoned. Delightful.

Mains: Zucchini flowers done three ways (I think). Beautfiul, textural, flavoursome. Aesthetically pleasing dish too.

Roast suckling pig done 5 ways - boudin noir blood sausage, crackling, caramelized pork belly, pork neck and pork sausage. Superb dish, 9.5/10.

Dessert: Kahlua and malt souffle with violet ice cream and bitter caramel sauce. Sauce was amazing, but the souffle itself was terrible. All it tasted of was egg (like an omelette), there was no kahlua flavour at all. The violet ice cream tasted of vanilla only (but very good nonetheless). A real disappointment. 4/10

Petit fours. Great selection and variety.

Total cost: $240 for three people with one bottle of wine (great and extensive wine list).

Ambience: fantastic ambience, the main room much like that in Tetsuya's, Sydney. Good staff, very attentive, but a few slip ups.

Value: surprisingly good for such good food. I will be back for the degustation.

Overall: Despite the terrible souffle and a few staff mistakes, I still think that this is the best fine dining experience in Canberra.

Jul 28, 2011 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

A warm restaurant in Canberra during the cold months gets points for starters. The service was attentive, the meals superb (the steak was fantastic) although the pork belly was served with so many "sides" that the flavours tended to blend in to each other.

May 19, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  6      Service  8      Value  8     

Ate here for Valentines day and the food was great, delicate flavours and a really interesting mix of ingredients. Only down side to the service that night was the 'couples' had to share the main dining room with some families with young-ish children. I'm completely fine with eating with children around, but given that there are other rooms available in the restaurant, these may have been put to use accomodating those who wanted an intimate dining experience.

Feb 28, 2011 

8 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  6     

Just lovely.

Oct 10, 2010 

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  6     

Courgette is what it is, a high priced fine dining restaurant. The food is cooked and prepared to perfection but found it a little stuffy. Service is very good. Personally not my cup of tea but the food and service is very good, needs an injection of life.

Aug 01, 2010 

6 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  5      Value  6     

I had a very pleasant business dinner at Courgette on a Tuesday night. Wine list kept us entertained as our clients were late. We certainly got some attention but when it got busy later on it was surprising how the service dropped off. The entree (tuna carpaccio + wasabi omelete) was awesome. The beef main was ordinary, it always surprises me when they cut your meat for you and deliver it in 4 slices, makes me suspicious. Pleasant but nothing special and coming from Sydney it is a step down from the one hat places I have eaten at when at home.

Jul 29, 2010