a tropical garden and amazing salmon at the Atrium restaurant

Atrium: In modern architecture, an atrium (plural: atria) is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building… Atria are a popular design feature because they give their buildings "a feeling of space and light." (Thanks Wikipedia)

My old flatmate and I are on a quest to experience (aka eat our way through) Canberra. We do this by making the most out of every decent voucher/special deal in the Entertainment book or online voucher websites (i.e. Living Social). This time, I was thoroughly impressed by what we got.

We went to the Atrium Restaurant in the Pavilion Hotel. The restaurant was situated ever so accurately in an atrium – but the bizarre thing was the tropical gardenry which was a centerpiece of the restaurant and integrated in the vertical architecture of the hotel. My old flatmate noticed that the leaves weren’t maintained very well as some were dropping, brown and dry.

Anyway, we both got the salt and pepper Tasmanian salmon fillet with dill potato mash, beetroot pesto with some sort of basil oil/basil pesto. It was delicious and definitely the best seafood I’ve had so far in a Canberra eatery. The salmon was fresh, tasty and not overcooked. The crispy skin of the salmon was done well – had a strong enough crunch to distinguish it from the soft fish but not to the point that you’d think it was deep-fried. The dill mashed potato was smooth, creamy and would be perfect for people in dire need of savoury comfort food. And the beetroot pesto was amazing as it had the traditional pesto texture but had the wow-factor of tasting like beetroot. The basil oil added an extra freshness to the dish.

Each component of the dish was great by itself. But when we combined all of them in one mouthful, we felt weak at the knees.

We used the Entertainment Book and received two for two salmon fillets for 28.50. Can’t complain at all.

Atrium Restaurant in the Pavilion Hotel

Dickson, Canberra

242 Northbourne Avenue

www.pavilioncanberra.com/facilities.html