Having heard that the Two Before Ten team were developing another dining concept, I had to try it out! The 10 Yards concept is based on using the top 10 regional produce ‘yards’ in all the dishes. Fresh regional food for all Canberran’s to taste. Lots of pop-up shops and bars are popping up around Canberra. 10 Yards is a pop-up restaurant and due to shut down end of August.
Read more of their story at Hercanberra
The slim panels hanging down from the ceiling gives it an edgy look and offers a little bit of privacy between tables.
The waitstaff recommended we share the food amongst us. As there were 4 of us, we decided to start with 4 mains to share and go from there.
Dish #1 – the ‘Yass’ mushrooms. We were told to break the 63 degree egg and mix it all together. This had amazing flavours and the crushed up hazelnuts gave the creamy textured dish a bit of crunch. Yum! Cons: this was a tiny serving for a ‘main’ dish. One mouthful each between the 4 of us.
 Yass mushrooms, buckwheat polenta, hazelnuts, 63 degree egg and parmesan |
Dish #2 – grilled albacore and cuttlefish. The fish was fresh and I loved the slivers cuttlefish. A really good dish.
 Grilled ‘Ulladulla’ albacore, ‘Clarence River’ cuttlefish, burrida and fregola |
Dish #3 – Cod with confit tomato. Again, fresh fish with a basic confit tomato. I had to google what brandade was (it looked like mash) – an emulsion of salt cod and olive oil often cooked with potato puree. Very tasty brandade.
 Murray cod, confit tomato, brandade, olive dust and parsley |
Dish #4 – braised mutton. The best dish of the night, this was a beautifully braised lamb and went well with the smoked ricotta.
 Braised ‘Moorlands’ mutton, baby carrot, smoked ricotta, chestnut cavatelli |
All the mains were fresh and tasted great. The only complaint is that for $28 per main, the portions are TINY. I had to double check what other tables were being served to make sure they weren’t entrees. Between the 4 of us, we’re talking about 1.5mouthfuls per dish per person. I was still very much hungry. So on to dessert!
I’m not a big fan of pannacotta, but this one sounded nice – coconut pannacotta with brioche, walnuts and honeycomb. And it was just lovely with a really light flavour of coconut. The brioche was salted to counterbalance the sweetness of the pannacotta and, well, everything else on the plate. Small bits of honeycomb worked perfectly well with the dish. I’m glad I chose this for dessert.
 Coconut pannacotta, brioche, walnuts, poached pear and honeycomb |
One of the other options was the dark chocolate semifreddo. The other three all ordered it and were happy with their choice. Looked pretty good too! One even said it was the best dish of the night.
 Dark chocolate semifreddo, sour cherries, chocolate soil, truffle mousse |
It was good to experience one of Canberra’s pop-up restaurants. Love the pop-up concept. It would really save on costs and is something that can be trialed for a short period of time to test the waters. Great idea for any start up company.
Not sure if I’d go back to 10 Yards. For the price, i could go to Sage Dining Rooms (one of my favourite restaurants!) for their 4-course dining menu. I’m glad I got to try it out and try some food from Canberra’s regional produce farms before it shuts down.
Foodgasm 7/10
