We recently decided to have a last minute dinner at one of our favourite fine dining restaurants in Canberra: Rubicon.

Rubicon is a restaurant tucked away at the Griffith shops, near another favourite restaurant of mine, Aubergine. Like Aubergine, we like to go to Rubicon for special occasions, and have only been there a handful of times.

Click here for a review on Aubergine Restuarant

This time it was a double date night and the spot chosen was Rubicon. This wouldn’t be my usual spot for just any night out for dinner, because it is not a budget friendly dining experience, especially if you add a couple of bottles of wine onto the bill!

But it had been a while since we had gone out to a fancy dinner, so I was happy to go to this somewhat random double date dinner at Rubicon.

The Atmosphere

Rubicon is a small restaurant with intimate, dim lighting and pretty fairy lights in the back to give it a relaxed “starry night” feel. The tables a covered with white table clothes and many of the group tables (4 or more people) are placed closer to the back of the restaurant. This actually makes sense – the more talkative groups can be placed away from the intimate dining for couples.

There are no windows to look out of, and therefore no view to muse over when you run out of conversation with your date. But the relaxed feeling of the lighting makes it a beautiful place for an intimate or romantic dinner.

This was the first time that we went to Rubicon with more than just myself and my partner, so

The Service

The service is always fantastic at Rubicon. It’s not quite fine dining but fairly close to it. The service is a little more on the casual side, but they really know how to multi task being attentive to all tables, even when the restuarant is full.

I’ve never noticed any staff member looking stressed or like they didn’t want to be there. They also have exceptional knowledge of the wines on their menu – which is one of the reasons we like to go there.

The Food

We were given complimentary appetisers which unfortunately were not gluten free. The were some kind of pork bite on a mini toast crust. Everyone on the table enjoyed their little appetiser. When the waiter realised that I needed a gluten free option, he kindly brought me out some delicious marinated olives for an appetiser.

My man chose the cheese souffle for his entree and I chose the pork belly. The souffle was the size of a muffin and came with a small salad of baked sliced tomatoes, warm tomato wedges, and a quinnel of herbed sour cream. Tristan liked the taste of the souffle, but decided to let me eat the tomato salad. The sour cream seemed to be a bit much but the tomatoes were nicely seasoned and have a good combination of herbs and spices. I think that the combination would have would have gone nicely with the souffle.

The pork belly had a few small cubes of prom belly with a delicious combination of sweet sauce, shaved apple and sautéed onions. The pork belly was cooked to perfection as it melted in the mouth with each bite. However there were no crunchy crackling parts of the pork belly. I always expect a bit of crunch when it comes to pork belly, so I was slightly disappointed with this one. Other than that, the dish was perfect.

My main was a gnocchi style dish. This was quite exciting for me as I more often than people realise, I can’t eat gnocchi, especially if the potato is incased in pasta. This kind of gnocchi was so delicious and creamy, and it was complimented perfectly with the zucchini. There was also a creamy sauce. The zucchini balanced out the creaminess of the sauce and the heaviness of the gnocchi. It was very filling though and I only managed to get through about half of the dish.

My partners dish was a beef dish (no surprise, he always gets steak or beef of some kind). This dish had sautéed onions and a rich jus on the side. I had a small bite and the beef so very tender and juicy. It’s a fairly predictable combination to have sautéed onions, but if it works you may as well stick with it. And they were cooked perfectly.

Most of the meals seemed like very “safe” kind of dishes, with not too many surprises in the flavours or combinations of flavours. However they were done very well and we were all satisfied at the end of our meals.

My rating of Rubicon

Total: 27/30

Overall thoughts: Rubicon is a great fine dining restaurant with excellent attentive customer service. I will definitely be back to experience the delicious food and wine.

For more info on Rubicon Restaurant click here

Have you been to Rubicon Restaurant? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments section!

Bye for now,

All opinions in this post are my own. Unless otherwise stated, this post has not been sponsored and I have not been paid for this post

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