Temporada Canberra: Unpretentious top-rung dining

At times, she said, "the opulence was overwhelming. I felt like a character in a sci-fi movie who had sneaked onto a spaceship for the one per cent, now orbiting a burning planet."

Happily, we don't have that rung of restaurants, the three-star Michelin kind, anywhere in the vicinity. For all their excellence and sheer art, Michelin can be a trap that can cement stultifying ways of doing things and astronomical pricing. But Rao's description is perfect for a certain kind of dining and it's a feeling I relate to when it comes to what we describe in Australia as "fine dining". For the most part, this kind of eating out is gone from Canberra, and our top rung is instead quite deliberately casual in feel.

And so we come to Temporada. Certainly, it's the fine end, with studious and careful food and plenty of technique on show. And at the moment, it's reasonably pricey, with no a la carte - a $90 set menu only for weekend bookings. But it's also stylish and buzzy, with seating all the way around the high bar that dominates the room, as well as a ring of banquette-style seating. Simple tables, lovely lights, Spanish-style tiles, subtle colours, and plenty going on. With all-day opening and coffee to go, plus tables on the footpath, there's an effort to keep things accessible.

It's been a few years since my last visit to Temporada, and it is good to see this place is still on its game, and essentially, it's as good a restaurant as you'll find anywhere in Canberra at the moment. We're sitting at the bar and while this is generally something that suits us fine, tonight I'm feeling awkwardly situated, the stools excessively low. I mean, yes, my parents taught me not to lean my elbows on the table, but in this configuration, it might be easier to rest my forehead. For the record, I exaggerate.

Since it's a set menu, there's not a great deal required of us other than to watch what unfolds. Simple bread, chewy and fresh, lovely cultured butter at an ideal degree of softness starts the meal, along with some great olives, served warm, and oysters! Oysters grilled and natural, with a vinegar and onion sauce and lemon. This is sharp, fresh, briny and luxurious. Oysters add a not-easy-to-explain sense of celebration to an evening, don't you think?

Next, citrus-marinated chicken skewers with burned blood orange. It feels odd to describe chicken skewers as exceptional, but exceptional they are, with a clear citrus flavour and the clear influence of the charcoal grill, but neither strident, and an equally good wedge of charred blood orange. Genuinely, so good.

The stracciatella dish is unexpected and super exciting. Stracciatella (the cheese) is all about freshness and texture, and here it's brought to life with fermented strawberry purée, where the sweetness of strawberry is given a worldy, gently salty edge from the fermentation. But there's more! Smoked vanilla is also with this dish, making it feel like dessert, and the whole is covered in beautiful sliced rounds of blood orange. It really is like dessert before we've got to the mains. Refreshing, exciting, plus gorgeous to look at.

Chargrilled octopus is served with aioli, black vinegar and chilli oil, super dark, gently hot, and with thin slices of what might be daikon for freshness.

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Potato tortellini are near-perfect little dumplings, served with smoked ham hock and a few grains of freekeh adding substance to the thin ham broth, with a few sliced broad beans. It's a study in restraint, and a great balanced, brilliant dish, with such unpretentious ingredients combined in a transformative way.

Lamb loin serves as a kind of main dish in this array of food. It's rugged and tender, substantial, proper meat. Alongside is a fennel caponata, which makes sense with its texture of celery and it's sweetness. Chargrilled broccoli is a great way to eat this uneasy vegetable, although the sauce here feels a little sharp with vinegar.

Dessert promises mango cake, which sounds like an afterthought but turns out not so. The cake is heavy with coconut, served with mango pieces and mango sorbet and a vanilla cream adding luxury.

Somehow we got through this without feeling stuffed, so they've balanced it right. Service is attentive and knowledgeable, if a little perfunctory tonight. The wine list is a strength and the pours are generous. It's sophisticated, trendy, broadly European, wines with a story and wines with skin contact. This is largely the point of wine at dinner, and it's obvious you will agree since you're eating at Temporada after all. Lucky you.

Address: 15 Moore St, City

Phone: 62496683

Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 11.30am until late; Saturday, 5.30pm until late

Owner: Dave Young

Chef: Dave Young

Vegetarian: Fixed menu, but they cater for what you need

Noise: No problem