As a single girl, I spend a fair bit of time hanging out with my friends, so am always on the lookout for potential places to go for a girls’ night out.

Last Saturday night, my friend and I discovered that Poacher’s Pantry is an ideal place to while away an evening with good company and good food.

The first thing that struck us upon arriving was a delicious aroma in the air, which we soon discovered was mulled wine—the perfect drink for a winter’s evening. Made with Poacher’s own Wily Trout Merlot, it also turned out to be the perfect accompaniment for the food we were about to enjoy (they also had warm cider, which we plan to try next time).

I don’t know about you, but for me winter is an excuse to enjoy hearty, flavoursome food (and I know you all know how much I love to eat). The people at Poacher’s Pantry clearly think the same way, as they’ve developed a special slow food dinner just for winter, which is what my friend and I had ventured out for.

However, presented with the menu we faced a number of conundrums: firstly, how to ensure that whatever we ordered we’d have room for dessert and secondly, what to order! While we had headed out for the slow food dinner, the usual winter menu looked equally appetising. After some debate, i.e. whether to eschew entrées so we could eat mains and fit in dessert without being too full, whether we would order our own meals or share so we could try more food, and whether to go with the slow food or winter menu (you know, the important issues), we finally came to a decision.

We figured since we were there we might as well go all out (i.e. entrée, main and dessert—plus, we’d worked hard that week, so totally deserved it, right?), and that we’d share, so we could try more food. We ended up going for a combination of the winter menu (entrée and dessert) and the slow food menu (main). Nothing like a happy compromise, non?

Our choices turned out to be very happy indeed. For the entrée, we started with honey peppered figs with Poacher’s proscuitto, red whitlof and Hunter Valley Binnorie quark (admittedly, we had to google what quark was—my friend thought it was cheese (she was right) but all I could think about was the scientific term (definitely not right in this instance!)

While we enjoyed this (and now I know what quark is I know that I like it), we were blown away by the second entrée, a spinach and ricotta gnocchi with smoked chicken, local mushrooms and herbs (which turned out to include some deliciously sweet tomatoes). My friend had the first taste and described it as a ‘flavour explosion’, and after I tried it, I had to agree. It was a real effort to savour rather than scoff our servings, it tasted so good (I liked it so much that next time I go back I might even attempt to see if I can get it in a main size serving).

When our waitress came to clear our plates she asked if we wanted our mains soon or if we wanted to sit for a bit. After a brief hesitation, we decided a rest would be useful (this turned out to be a good idea—I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pacing during meals is important!). The break also proved to be a nice opportunity to sip our mulled wine, enjoy the ambience and have a good chat. There’s something to be said about being inside a nice, warm, candlelit restaurant on a cold winter’s night, with good music playing at a reasonable volume (loud enough to add atmosphere but not so loud that you can’t hear each other and have to shout across the table).

After this pleasant little interlude, our mains arrived: a pork belly hot pot with scallops, baby turnips and soba noodles and braised pheasant with chestnuts, quince jus and winter vegetables. We enjoyed both of them, but for different reasons. While I love pork belly, on this occasion I think I liked the pheasant more, but I preferred the sauce and soba noodles that came with the pork. My friend kept dithering between the two, I think she finally settled on the pheasant as her favourite, but only just. At any rate, both dishes were delicious—good, hearty winter food that left us feeling very satisfied.

However, there is always room for dessert (remember my theory about the separate dessert stomach?), and after another ‘intermission’ we were presented with our choices: a dark chocolate and hazelnut feuilletine mousse cake with raspberry and an apple and blackberry tart on sour cream pastry with house made vanilla ice cream (side note: I’ve realised that in recent years I’ve become a bit of a vanilla snob, so when faced with housemade vanilla desserts at restaurants I always check for the black dots that indicate that they’ve been made with vanilla bean—I’m pleased to report they were there and the ice cream was lovely). If I had to use one word to describe each of these, I would use decadent for the mousse cake and delightful for the tart.

We made short work of the desserts as they were, like the rest of the meal, delicious. Feeling rather full by this point (ok, really, really full), we decided to wander around the gourmet store to see what was on offer. While there was lots to choose from, including mulled wine packs so you could make your own at home, we settled on purchasing some smoked goods from the freezer room (yes, we went from the warm restaurant into the freezing cold freezer room, but it was so worth it).

All in all, it was a lovely night, and I highly recommend Poacher’s Pantry for a relaxing winter evening catch up with friends. I should also make mention of the staff, who were polite, friendly and got the balance just right between being attentive but not intrusive.

Finally, as someone who gets lost ridiculously easily (we were actually late for dinner because I got lost on my way to my friend’s house in Ngunnawal due to roadworks on Gungahlin Drive and appalling signage (i.e. none) at the end of the detour I had to take), I also need to give a big thumbs up to Poacher’s Pantry for their clear signage on the Barton Highway and Nanima Road, which made it impossible for even someone as directionally challenged as me to get lost, even at night.

Poacher’s Pantry is running slow food dinners on Saturdays in June from 6pm. If you can’t make it in June, they’re also offering a seasonal dinner menu throughout the rest of winter as well as Centenary Dinners in July and degustation dinners in August as part of the Fireside Festival. Bookings are essential.

The essentials

The place: Poacher’s Pantry Smokehouse Café

Where: 431 Nanima Road, Hall, ACT

When: Brunch Saturdays & Sundays from 10am – 11:30am, lunch Friday to Sunday from 12pm – 3pm, dinner Saturdays from 6pm

Food: Smoked meats and breakfast, lunch and dinner menus using fresh regional produce (they also cater for special dietary requirements including gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian options)

Drinks: Wily Trout and Fingerlings wines (and mulled wine and warm cider during winter!)

Contact: Call 02 6230 2487, visit the website at www.poacherspantry.com.au or check out their Facebook page.

The author and her friend dined courtesy of Poacher’s Pantry.