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Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Dining / Do yourself a favour

NEXT time you flit to Flinders Street in Manuka, do yourself a favor. Find a spot and stop for breakfast or lunch at the café that once focused on kebabs but now focuses on pizzas and other Mediterranean-inspired food.

On Flinders Manuka used to be Kismet, a super popular shop, but not all is lost. Owner Oktay Irmak is still there, with new partner Dennis Toulis, who has been in hospitality for yonks.

The remodelled café is open all day. We eventually scored a possie outside on what was a glorious, sunny day – not a cloud in the sky. Then it was time to take a sticky beak at the new menu.

On Flinders says it serves the best pizzas this side of Italy. It’s a pretty big claim, but we weren’t in the mood for pizza. Or so we thought.

After placing orders for other dishes and then watching staff serving bellissimo pizzas to fellow diners we thought perhaps we’d made a big mistake. Perhaps next time we’ll order a thin crust, stone-baked pizza – with 11 options to choose from it won’t be a struggle ($17 to $22).

We were impressed with the rest of the lunch menu. The pastas, like all other dishes, are very reasonably priced, starting at $17 and topping off at $20. Diners will recognise some dishes from Kismet, such as the marinated, char-grilled lamb cutlets and zucchini balls (no harm in carrying them over, given the former establishment’s success and strong fan base).

My sea salt and crisp cider-battered fish dish was absolutely great – a perfect size for lunch ($17). The fish was lightly battered and not too salty, but certainly salty enough. It came with a Greek salad, generous with feta and olives, and thin fries.

The apple cider-battered tiger prawns were just as yum (only $19) and were served with sweet chilli, honey, coriander and black sesame dressing and a salad.

Other options for lunch include chargrilled salmon steak ($24), chicken skewers (marinated and no doubt full of flavour, $20), Angus char-grilled beef burger ($16) and a prosciutto bruschetta that is a meal in and of itself ($14). Salads are available from noon to 9pm.

The outdoor area has communal and individual tables. We scored one of the latter and I was glad. My bet is that it would be challenging to manipulate the very wide bench seating at the communal tables, especially for those who do not have long legs (that’s me) or anyone wearing a dress or skirt (potentially me on weekdays).

On Flinders Manuka, Shop 5, Flinders Way. All-day service, seven days, starting early. Lonsdale Street Roasters’ coffee. Open 7am-9pm. BYO with a reasonable corkage fee. Call 6239 5185.

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Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson

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