We are the first table through the door, a little after 6pm on a late-winter Wednesday. It is still properly cold outside, but chef-owner Para asks us to leave the front door open.
He has just toasted fenugreek, and the room is thick with it, earthy and nutty, with a deep caramel edge that has apparently defeated the ventilation. Para welcomes us warmly, beanie still planted firmly on his head. The toasted fenugreek is just one of 180 spices, filed neatly in the kitchen at Tusa, which occupies the space that formerly housed Vincent and Muk Bar.
Tusa means "sprout", which is a neat way of describing what chef Para is doing here. This is Nepalese food at the beginning of something rather than the end. Para's road back to Nepal has been a long one, from the Hyatt Regency in Kathmandu and InterContinental in Dubai, to cooking with Dominique Crenn in San Francisco, before leaving an executive chef role to intern at Noma in Copenhagen. That pedigree plays a big part in what he's doing here.
Nepalese people have been cooking your lunches and dinners in this town for a large part of this century. Anyone who has worked in a kitchen in Canberra over the past decade will be aware of the presence of the Nepalese culture on the pans and in the ovens. What is new is a Nepalese kitchen cooking for itself.
The restaurant draws on the remarkable biodiversity of Nepal, a country spanning everything from subtropical lowlands to the Himalayas and applies the technique and curiosity of those kitchens to its ingredients, flavours and memories. The result is food that is both unmistakably grounded in Nepal but also leaning progressive. The menu comes simply printed on Nepalese paper - five-courses for $75 - which seems like exceptional value for the times that we live in.
Where the Scrabble-tiled wall of Vincent once spelled out a sprawling list of wines, it now proudly just announces that you are in Tusa, Canberra, Australia. It turns out that this statement is not quite as obvious as it sounds, as this is the second Tusa restaurant, with the original opening in Kathmandu around two years ago.
The room still carries the minimalistic movie set undertones that I have always liked about the space, with its hard surfaces but strangely comforting black-and-white/sepia feel to the decor. It feels as if the interior is just the right infrastructure to the main feature, which is the food. And the main feature is certainly impressive.
The first course is goat thenduk, a delicate but hearty traditional soup which showcases a complex mix of spices, highlighted by succulent chunks of goat meat and a hand rolled sort of dumpling/pasta which adds a soft texture to the earthy flavours of the broth. Batuk Chukauni comes next. It is a lightly fried ball of black lentils which swims gently on the surface of an electric yellow-gold, turmeric coloured yoghurt sauce studded with mustardy potato and peas. It has a light peppery finish which I am not familiar with, as it's unlike black, white or anything in between that's used in Western cooking.
A short interlude features a nod to the northern states of Australia with a single, small and perfectly glossy scoop of rosella ice cream. It carries just a hint of sweetness from the hibiscus flower. It's beautifully balanced and a brave addition to the menu that works a treat.
The feature dish tonight is chicken chyakhla, tender chicken breast, cooked perfectly and served on top of a nest of warm corn. It's spiked with a pickled daikon that inverts the creaminess of the corn with an acidic zing. We wash this down with a glass of Little Yering rose ($15) and an Eden Road pinot gris ($15), both pleasant and commercially available wines chosen from the short list. If there was a quick upgrade to be made at Tusa, an expanded and more interesting list would be a strong move, as there is an opportunity to create some great wine experiences to match this inventive food style.
Sisnu cake is the first of two desserts, which translates as stinging nettle cake. Tusa uses the powdered version of the herb to great effect, and the result is an earthy, matcha-like soft, dense sponge. The barberry jam adds the sweetness and a thick dollop of mascarpone rounds out the balance. It's delicious enough that my wife exclaims that "this is not pretend Nepalese food". The second dessert is equally intense, a buckwheat lemon tart that sits within the top few that I have tasted. It comes in a heavy brass bowl and Para explains that the weight of one's bowl in Nepal carries great respect. His own father would eat off his two-kilogram brass bowl at the family dinner table.
At a time when Canberra dining has felt in danger of taking a few steps backwards, Tusa is emphatically heading the other way. It is a terrific addition to the city, food with a clear sense of where it comes from, served with a warmth that feels just as genuine.
Leave the front door open. The rest of the city should smell what is happening in here.
Address: 48 Macquarie St, Barton ACT 2600
Phone: (02) 6260 7263
Website: https://tusanepal.com/tusa-canberra-2/
Hours: Monday to Saturday: lunch from 11am to 3pm, dinner from 5pm to 9pm.
Access: via ramp
Noise: No problem
Dietary: Advise when booking
How we score: Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor. 12 Reasonable - 13 Solid and satisfactory - 14 Good - 15 Very good - 16 Seriously good - 17 Great - 18 Excellent - 19 Outstanding - 20 The best of the best
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