Canberra has a reputation as being a bit vanilla. We all know that there’s a lot of soul under our rather conservative skin, but for the most part – at least when it comes to our eateries – we play it safe. This is not a bad thing by any means…we know that when we go to any restaurant worth its salt we’ll receive respectful service, good food usually served in the traditional entrée, main, dessert format, in a nice, usually quiet, ambience. It’s a successful formula.

But then along comes a new kid on the block who throws out the rulebook. Stamps on it. And probably curses at it for good measure. And he’s loud. Really loud. Rarely has a Canberra restaurant been as polarising as Braddon l’enfant terrible, eightysix. It appears you either love it, or hate it…

Haters will cite the rudeness of the ‘eccentric owner’, the noise, the occasional frequent swearing, the ‘prematurely familiar’ service, and the fact that they can’t order individual dishes. Lovers will rave about the amazing, honest food; the stunning fitout and open kitchen; and the fact that it is an experience, rather than somewhere to merely eat. This isn’t a place you go for a meal and then move on to the entertainment – this place is a night out in itself.

Trish Smith first reviewed eightysix in its opening week back in April. She wrote: “I’m not going to tell you that this was one of the best meals I have ever had in Canberra because then you will all want to go and I’ll never be able to get another booking.” Her words were eerily prescient. Eightysix’s two nightly sittings are almost fully booked every night of the week.

The restaurant’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. In just six months (its half-birthday is today), it has scored 14.5 in the SMH 2014 Good Food Guide – just half a point off a chef’s hat; found its Popcorn Sundae (above left with ginger brulee) gracing the cover of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine, also taking out Canberra’s number two spot in their Best Restaurant Awards; and left a fiery trail on its lightning-quick path to inclusion in the Weekend Australian’s list of Australia’s 50 Hottest Restaurants (as well as being named hottest in the ACT). It’s a list of accomplishments that most restaurants work years to achieve…so what is it about eightysix that has everybody talking?

Well first, it’s the food.

If you’re not familiar with the way eightysix works, it’s not your usual structured way of dining. The menu is written on a blackboard along one wall, and as the kitchen runs out of a certain item, it is ‘eightysixed’. Each dish is meant to be shared and the idea is to select a few things that you fancy – or leave your selections in the hands of the knowledgeable wait staff – and wait for them to come out of the kitchen one after the other and in no particular order.

Owner and chef, Gus Armstrong’s, food is nothing short of spectacular. The menu changes daily, but some favourites will probably never be struck off –  like the Black Chicken with Buttermilk Slaw. It may look like half a chook and some coleslaw, but take a mouthful and absorb its big flavours and the contrast of the silky meat with crunchy slaw and you realise the care that’s gone into the dish. It’s food that deserves to be on show…as do the craftsmen responsible, says owner, Sean Royle.

“I wanted the chefs to be the stars. It’s their food, why should they be tucked away in the back room? I wanted people to be able to see them work and watch the food be prepared. “

Eightysix’s open kitchen isn’t style over substance. It’s a serious working kitchen, and the bench seats along the bar that peer into the space are perhaps the most prized in the restaurant. It’s a stimulating, almost theatrical experience watching the chefs in their ‘natural environment’ as they create some of the best food in the city.

It’s fresh, big on flavours, and eightysix’s everchanging menu undoubtedly excites the kitchen’s creativity. Imagine having the flexibility to cook whatever takes your fancy that day, rather than being slavishly wed to a limited selection of dishes. When I popped in to grab the photos for this story, two of the team were preparing a fennel and vanilla sugar syrup for cocktails – something they’d dreamed up that morning.

“Fennel and vanilla…” mused Royle. “We’ll just make a litre and then we can play with it,” they responded. Experimentation is clearly something everyone is very comfortable with.

But perhaps the most-talked about element of the restaurant is Royle himself. Urbanspoon is filled with stories from diners who claim to have been sworn at; or who objected to having Sean perch next to them while they perused the menu. ‘Pretentious’ is another adjective commonly bandied around. But is it pretence? Or is this, as he claims, just him?

“Eightysix is Gus and me in human form. We’re loud and we’re f*&ing crazy,” he says.

I tell him it was interesting watching him in full flight on a recent visit, where he (unintentionally) insulted one of our dining companions, twigged that he’d gone too far, and then proceeded to ply him – and the rest of the table – with some pretty freaking amazing Tuscan Martinis. We had one very sore collective head the next day.

“The thing is, I treat people coming to eightysix like I treat my friends. And I’m a bit like a puppy…I get excited, run around, do something outrageous, and then Gus tells me to go and have a sleep in the corner.”

And I believe him. Maybe there’s a little ‘drama’ added, but a visit to eightysix during lunch prep reveals that the team are just as politically incorrect without an audience. But roll with it, give them cheek back, and it’s a heap of fun.

“The thing about this place is that, come 10 o’clock, and I look around and everyone’s drunk…and I think ‘how’d that happen?’”

Take one recent comment from an Urbanspoon diner, for example “I could have done with a dance floor at the end of the night (not sure how many others could have coped with my 70s style interpretive dance mode though!!!)”  It’s that kind of place.

For my money, eightysix is the most fun dining experience in Canberra. My tip? Go with a group for maximum enjoyment, leave any expectations of what constitutes a night out at a restaurant at home, and just go with it.  Who said Canberra was boring?

Photos of Sean and Gus by Amanda Whitley. Sundae and brulee image by Michelle Brotohusodo. All other images by Trish Smith Photography.