Life with Bees

Sometimes, a restaurant just doesn't get you - and you don't get it. The dishes sound good on the menu, they're attractive on the plate, and passably well-executed when you start tasting. But there is no spark of delight, no chemistry between your palate and the flavours. And then there are the other factors - service that looks good but is horribly inefficient, and prices that compound the pain. That was our night at Flint earlier in the week.



The restaurant is in the New Acton precinct, a former government block turned into a fashionable collection of swank hotels, bars, beauty salons, and restaurants. Flint was full when we rang up but we got a table out in the corridor, with a little sofa banquette in a corner. All pleasant enough, but very dimly lit, causing TK to mutter darkly about "Flint, not squint".

We had been told by TK's friend Carly that Flint boasted the best pizzas in town. She was distinctly wrong. The pulled chicken pizza ($24) looked promising but failed to deliver. The basil was overly sweet, the cheese a little offputting and TK deeply underwhelmed. "First she gives me a cold, and now she recommends a bum steer pizza.''

The twice-baked goat's cheese souffle ($17), an entree ordered as a main, was delicious and piping hot. Just creamy enough, though not particularly goat-like, and surrounded by a little puddle of butternut squash. Si's steak frites ($28) was a good serve of tender meat, the frites curly and crispy-deep brown. But "medium please" hadn't got through to the kitchen and the bavette was wine-dark red in the middle, visible even in the semi-darkness of the corridor.

Desserts were an improvement - albeit an extortionately priced improvement. TK had a chocolate platter ($15) which came with a shot of mousse, a chocolate log and two curious home-made "Twix'' sticks. The first two went down more than acceptably but the Twix stuck in the throat - a dry piece of shortbread with a coat of chocolate and missing the caramel sandwich layer of a normal Twix. "It's like one of those dodgy sports ovals where everything's just sand and grass,'' Si choked out. I had a slice of nougat ($15) with strips of apple and grape on the side. It was honey sweet and rippled through with fruit and nuts, nicely balanced against the slightly tart fruit. Si's parfait glass of coconut-milk tapioca pudding ($15) was possibly the best of the trio, a layer of passionfruit, lemon sorbet and pearls of tapioca topped with cloudy cream. The only problem here was a technical one - the dessert spoon didn't fit the parfait glass, leaving a tantalising goo of passionfruit on the bottom. A small detail, but an important one.

Bryan Martin in the Canberra Times suggests the floor service is Flint's weakness. It doesn't appear to have improved since his 2008 review in the Times food and wine section. We had three different waiters and waitresses, all pleasant enough and cheerful, but the wait times between menu delivery and ordering left much to be desired. TK, somewhat rudely, resorted to waving the menu in mock frustration and pointing at his desired dessert on the page. Perhaps it was harder to keep track of us sitting out in the corridor but at times it felt as though the restaurant was full of waitstaff busily ignoring the customers.

The cooking at Flint is not too bad and the chefs are looking to expand their menus but the value for money and service lets it down. The food, like a nice girl on a first date, just didn't click. "It was like playing battleships with a five-year-old,'' TK pronounced, glaring through the warmly lit windows at the kitchen staff and portraits of Barack Obama on the wall. "Lots of misses and not many hits.''

Flint Dining Room and Bar, New Acton, Civic.
Food: 3/5
Service: 1/5
Value for Money: 2/5