Kingston & Co, Belconnen by Bureaucrat

I lie here on my couch typing up my visit to a Kingston & Co. I'm tired (in a good way) from eating a very delicious dinner with Big Fil and Snooze. But in writing up this visit to K&C, I am eating my own words. As foreshadowed in my post on Belluci's (refer Aug 2012), Canberra is growing up. It's finding its foodie groove and starting to establish its credentials.

When colleagues at work said that they were taking us to Belco shopping centre for lunch I was alarmed - I thought it'd mean that we'd have lunch in a food court. But thankfully, Kingston & Co was not located in the food court - it's cafe that's located in the new part of Belco shopping centre.


My first impression was wow. I could hardly believe that a contemporary modern cafe could exist in Canberra. Our waiter was a very friendly and cheeky bloke who volunteered to be photographed for the blog. It's a pity I didn't get his name - or that K&C doesn't seem to have a website - as I would email them to let them see this pic of him.

Despite being located in a shopping centre, the cafe manages to hold its own vibe and ambiance - you could almost pretend that you were dining outside. The sun streamed through the glass ceiling, the nice rustic but polished furniture and the schmick white, glossy tiles.


For drinks, I got a juice. But I was actually impressed that a cafe in Canberra uses these funky ceramic cups, which is why I took a photo of them. I mean, this is Canberra - a city that's full of social clubs that require membership to eat at their "restaurants", where the food that's served is just blah (think really average parmas, steaks, pasta bolognese, fish and chips, etc). I still can't believe that Canberra is growing up.


Anyhoo, on to the food. Chicken, mushroom and spinach risotto. Ms K and Mr M ordered this. It looked pretty damn good, which was confirmed as pretty damn tasty.


I went for the mesclun salad w smoked salmon, avo, dill and cucumber. I had asked for it to be served with a poached egg, but no egg appeared. The waiter apologised for the error and offered to get the kitchen to redo the salad for me (and also offered me a complimentary cake, which I declined - but points for the service!). The salad was pretty good - fresh leaves and generous serve of salmon, and it wasn't stingy with the avo (which is always a good sign of a good cafe, in my opinion). Despite being ravenous, I couldn't finish the salad - so more points from me!


Ms C opted for the bacon, avo and aioli sandwich melt. The sanga looked a tad smaller than I had expected, but it looked good.

Overall
Friendly service, decent cafe fare and a nice cafe vibe despite being in a shopping centre - I give K&C a thumb's up.

The only negative was that the food took about 30 minutes to come out. I was so incredibly hungry that day - having woken up at 5.30am to catch and early morning flight to Canberra, I had only managed to eat a small breakfast and had nothing until this late lunch at 2pm. I'm not sure why it took that long. It could be that they cooked the risotto from scratch, but I don't recall seeing a full kitchen set up.

Verdict
Food – 7.5
Ambience – 8
Service – 7.5
Price – 7.5

Address
Kingston & Co
Level 3, Belconnen Westfields
Belconnen ACT 2617
Telephone: 02 6251 9644