My friends and I caught up for lunch at Lamshed’s in Yarralumla late last year. It’s a restaurant that I’ve heard good things about with a focus on fresh ingredients. The entrance is through a long corridor next to Farmer’s Daughter. There’s lots of natural light coming through in the spacious dining area during the day with bar stools up at the counter overlooking the open kitchen. I like that there’s hooks underneath the counter to hang a bag, and the underside of the tables are padded so you don’t bump and scrape a knee.
Our waiter recommends 5-6 dishes to share between our group of 4. Some slightly charred bread and butter arrives at the table after ordering. We start off with the gnocco fritto with mortadella mousse ($16) which has a beautiful balance of sour, salty and savoury. There’s a generous amount of a light mortadella mousse piped on top of each fried piece and I savour every bite.
The asparagus with whipped ricotta and zucchini ribbons ($19) impresses with various textures – sweet currants, crunchy pepitas and pinenuts, all tied in nicely with the creamy smooth ricotta. There is some kind of other sweet syrup too but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Such a refreshing dish.
The roast carrot with native labne and pistachio pesto ($16) is simple and I enjoy the pistachio pesto, but it’s not as exciting as the other dishes.
The snapper with pea and spring vegetables ($29) is a small piece of fish but cooked to perfection with crispy skin and succulent flesh underneath. The simple pea puree is amazing adding extra freshness to the dish.
One of my friends who had dined at Lamshed’s previously recommended the grilled rib eye steak with mulled wine butter and silverbeet ($36). The beef is sliced into thin pieces and served medium rare. It’s tender and I loved the char grilled edges. Some bits are a bit sinewy but I cut around it.
We also order the potato and chorizo salad (unsure of price) which is more potato than salad. However, it’s served warm with lots of flavour and saltiness from the chorizo, all mixed with onion and micro herbs.
There are only three desserts on the menu so we order one of each to share. The chocolate tart with milk sorbet ($17) has a nice bittersweet balance of dark chocolate. It’s still quite rich making it perfect to share between us.
The dulce de leche, banana, macadamia and brick pastry ($17) reminds me of a much flatter millefeuille with super thin layers of pastry in between. I like that the dulce de leche isn’t overly sweet and more like a thick cream, which mixed well with the banana and reminds me of banoffee pie. I would have preferred more pastry to cream ratio as I left a lot of the cream on my plate. The almond sponge ($17) with passion fruit mascarpone, mandarin and meringue is a deconstructed cake and is surprisingly one of my favourites due to it being a nice light dessert and not overly sour from the passion fruit. In fact it’s not that sour at all.
Lamshed’s offers a laid back contemporary share plate dining option in the middle of the burbs. Good service, balanced flavours and good quality food. Service is attentive yet unobtrusive.
Lamshed’s
Unit 2/27 Bentham St, Yarralumla ACT
Opening hours:
Monday – Tuesday: 5.00pm – 9.30pm
Wednesday – Saturday: 12.00pm – 9.30pm
Sunday: 12.00pm – 5.00pm
Foodgasm 8/10
Value for money 6.5/10
Service 8/10
FPJ score 22.5/30
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