A Bite to Eat

For as long we we've lived in Canberra, Silo in Kingston has been viewed among most of our friends (and this being a view which we've shared), of being the best cafe in Canberra. After having visited A Bite to Eat in the Woden suburb of Chifley the other day though, we think it may have a peer. We'd heard good things about Bite, and it turns out those things were all true.

Despite their mutual food excellence (and reasonable pricing) the two cafes have a number of notable differences. Silo is minimalist and monotone in its decor, whereas Bite is bohemian bright and multicoloured - each table and chair set is different to the next. Silo is favoured by the elected representatives, bureaucrats, and lobbyists of the political elite, the main demographic at Bite on our visit on a midweek lunchtime were middle-class women dressed for comfort. Silo makes Canberra's best fresh bread and has a cheese room, Bite has Zierholz beer on tap - and so on.

We ate duck and potato pancakes, and felafels with chili-tomatoes on sourdough - both of which were delicious, and the latter costing less than $10. And importantly, whereas Silo is often too popular and crowded to be easily enjoyed, while Bite was busy, it was in no sense the upper middle class feeding frenzy that Silo can be on many mornings.

Overall, while Bite doesn't surpass its Kingston competitor, it does seem to suggest that the latter does have a rival - and that quality food in Canberra can be found beyond the fashionable suburbs.

Gus's

Gus's is something of a celebrity among cafes in the Canberra hospitality cosmos. It's reputation as fashionable and superior is often quickly communicated to newcomers and visitors to the city. It even has its own Wikipedia page, repeating the locally well-known battles of the original Gus-from-Vienna in establishing outdoor eating at his venue (the page also suggests that the original Gus has long moved on (presumably) to al fresco dining in the sky). However, it is the contention of the Always Hungrys that like most celebrities, it is usually a disappointing experience when they are encountered in person.

Whatever the merits of Gus's in the past, it is clearly now no longer a leader among Canberra's cafes. This decline is both relative - i.e. in part due to the existance of many superior alternatives - as well when simply compared to the Gus's of a couple years ago.

An analogy with major fast food chains might be fruitfully made. The menu is predictable - in this case, stock-in-trade Australasian cafe food (mushrooms on toast, wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce, generic pasta dishes, and so on). Often, it would appear that they are prepared without a noticebly high level of care. Further, to stretch Haywood's observation below that the only acceptable substitute for good beer is very cheap beer, the food is not particuarly cheap - being priced at standard Canberra cafe levels (i.e. you could eat at the apex of local daytime eating, Silo, in Kingston, for around the same money). In sum, as with major fast food chains, one is probably going to be served food that only the young and callow are likely to be uncritically satisfied with.

To be clear, this is not to suggest the current Gus's is any worse than an all-too-large number of Canberra cafes, rather, that you can probably do better.