Restaurant review: Muse a very pleasant spot for a lunch

It's such a shame the venue doesn't do dinners anymore, the last night service was back in September 2019. At night it was a little moody, you could pay proper attention to the wine list, which in 2019 won a Gourmet Traveller Wine readers' choice award for its dedication to interesting wines, the food menu a little broader.

But luckily for everyone, I'm on a run of lunch reviews. Canberra's evenings are still a little miserable and cold, I'd rather be tucked up on the couch once the sun goes down with my belly and heart full from a nice lunch with a good friend.

Muse sparkles in the middle of the day. There's plenty of big glass windows, light streaming in. A gorgeous portrait of Canberra author Marion Halligan, by local artist Lee Crisp, welcomes you in the lower bookshop part of the venue. Shelves are brimming with best-sellers and more diverse reads.

A quick mention here too of all the literary events and lunches held at Muse, from regular Sunday Salons, to book launches and book clubs to Long Table lunches. I remember a great lunch with the legendary Thomas Keneally and his daughter Meg where Keneally entertained the crowd for what seemed like hours while we enjoyed a two-course meal.

Which I guess brings us to the food. Once, the menu was split into prologue (starters), chapter one (entrees), chapter two (mains) and epilogue (desserts). Now it's more of a short story.

Muse is open from 7am til noon, from Sunday to Tuesday, til 2pm on the other days of week. The menu reflects the focus on breakfast, brunch and lunch. Early on you could go as simple as some Vegemite on Sonoma sourdough if you wanted ($9). There's eggs, bacon and avocado a few different ways, some more substantial fare if you're here closer to lunch.

Which we are, and there are a few choices which grab our attention. The gigantes plaki, slow-braised butter beans with fresh herbs, tomato and crumbled feta ($20) might just be a fancy baked beans on toast but they sound good. But we go with the baked cheddar and smoked ham souffle ($25) and the steak sandwich ($26), perhaps for two different reasons.

First up, the souffle. Not something my friend nor I have attempted to cook at home. (Isn't that half the point of eating out?). And who doesn't love ham and cheese? It doesn't quite look as we expected, we both joke about how we thought it would be served in a tall-sided white ramekin. This one is served in a bowl, the souffle in the middle, surrounded by a cheese sauce. The souffle is rustic, without that being an insult to the way it looks. Its rough edges are golden brown. It's denser than we thought it might be, studded with small chunks of ham with a depth of flavour about them. There are a couple of stray pieces swimming in the cheese sauce too. It's rich, but not too much so, well seasoned. A couple of pieces of that Sonoma sourdough on the side to scrape it all up with. It's an excellent choice on a chilly day.

And who doesn't like a steak sandwich? I love it when proper restaurants do things like burgers and sandwiches and elevate them. The steak is tender, cooked medium rare, and is the hero. But it's the supporting characters: the caramelised onion, a tomato relish and some mayonnaise that take this one to the next level. All have been homemade with care. Moist is a word that should be rarely used, let alone in a food review, but a good sandwich hinges on how ... not dry ... it is. I want to pick it up in my hands, I feel as though it would hold its shape, but would that be a little uncivilised? I think so, so I cut it with a knife and fork and all is good.

We can sneak a little dessert, a marmalade bread and butter pudding with candied clementines and a white chocolate and brandy custard ($12). It's a neat little dish to share, perhaps we should have asked for an extra pot of the custard delicious as it was. The pudding was sweet and tart at the same time.

While the wine list is not as substantial as it once was, narrowing it has allowed Eldon and Sanderson to play a little more. There's a great selection of international wines, a couple of local choices. It's interesting but we settle on a rosé and a prosecco. Just perfect for lunch.

And we've had a very pleasant one. There are a few tables down in the bookshop section and upstairs in the restaurant and everyone seems relaxed.

Just the way a lunch should be.

Address: Ground floor, East Hotel, 69 Canberra Ave, Griffith

Phone: 6178004

Website: musecanberra.com.au

Hours: Sunday-Tuesday, 7am til noon; Wednesday to Saturday, 7am til 2pm. Public holidays, 7am til noon. Open every day of the year.

Owners: Paul Eldon and Daniel Sanderson

Chef: Stefan Geou

Noise: Not a problem

Dietary: Plenty of options