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What the Dickie? Yup, it’s an Australasian restaurant in Fitzrovia. That’s Austral-asian, as in, Aussie-meets-Asian-fusion, so don’t come expecting kangaroo steak or aboriginal prints. Instead, the decor is contemporary (perhaps too contemporary – I’m not sure there’s ever a time for banana-yellow seating) and there’s a menu much like that of a fashionable Sydney restaurant. But the cooking? A mixed bag.
The best dishes came from the Asian (specifically, Japanese) side – plump lobster and prawn gyoza; the terrific tuna tataki. From the more ‘Aussie’ camp, top marks only went to one item: the brilliant – and brilliant-value – lamington, which comes sold as an oversized petit-four for a mere pound (a pound!). But elsewhere, there were lacklustre chicken ‘poppers’, too-hard fries and a too-oily piece of halibut with a flabby skin, teamed inexplicably with an also-oily ‘yuzu’ hollandaise.
I adored the Aussie-slang-themed names of cocktails (U Beaut, She’ll be Apples), but my Choice Bro lacked depth. Still, the room was buzzy and service well-meaning. So maybe, if the restaurant’s kitchen can just up her game a bit, ‘she’ll be apples’ after all.