Just under three years ago, I sat in this same room and wrote that Otis personified the style and charm of old Kingston. Dining here felt a little like dining in an old bank with Sean Connery and Colin Farrell. Dark timber walls, bevelled mirrors, ambient lighting, Sinatra late in the evening. Pepper steak, crème caramel, and a quiet confidence that you knew exactly what you were going to get.
Tonight, much of that is still true. The room is still beautiful. The pepper steak is still on the menu. The crème caramel is still on the menu. But the ownership has changed.
After Damian Brabender shattered his hip in a car crash last year, he sold Otis to Home All Day, the local collective behind Highroad in Dickson, On Lonsdale in Braddon, and the new Kingston venue Lounge Room. Otis is their first crack at fine dining for owners Lachlan Exton and Maheer Prasad. To their credit, they have largely stuck to the script. The menu structure looks much as it did under Brabender, heritage dishes preserved, the room mostly unchanged.
There are only eight tables tonight, six of them occupied. They appear to have a clever trick of adjusting the size of the room depending on bookings, contracting the space to keep the energy up rather than rattle around half empty. A smart move on a quiet Thursday, one more Canberra operators could borrow.
What is harder to defend is the wine list. Most bottles sit above $200, and a fair number soar past $300. There is precious little under $100. The 2019 Collector Reserve Shiraz that we drank for $118 last time we were here? Older vintages of that same wine now sit at $440 and $480. This is fine in a Manhattan two-star dining room with a sommelier on the floor, and clientele who don't blink at three figures of cork. But we are in Kingston on a Thursday night, there is no sommelier here, and I can't see a single bottle on a table. Just wine by the glass.
A list this serious needs an audience that can afford it, and someone on the floor who can talk about it. Neither is here. We settle on glasses of Collector 2021 Night Watch Grenache ($19), a versatile drop with red licorice on the nose, and a mouth-watering finish that holds up across the meal.
The food is a more confident story. Three courses are $100, sides extra. Bread arrives with a lemongrass tinted butter, a nice update on the pumpkin and honey butter of three years ago.
The raviolo di gamberi with chives, peas, broad beans, and bisque foam is a pretty plate, the foam fragrant and the prawn filling generous. The pasta is on the firm side, which raises a question I keep returning to. Why do chefs push pasta toward their own version of al dente, rather than the slightly softer point at which it actually tastes best?
The pressed pork belly with celeriac remoulade, pomegranate, and cherry jus is the better entrée. The pork is well flavoured and juicy, and the celeriac cuts cleverly through the fat.
The Otis pepper steak with brandy jus and silkwood pepper crust remains a serviceable piece of meat. It has always been one of the better steaks in town, however the question is how it holds up as Canberra's steakhouse market matures around it.
The Hawkesbury duck breast with eggplant caviar, blackberry jus, sorrel, and charred mandarin is beautifully presented, and the blackberry is a sharp, tart match. The duck itself is over salted to the point of being distracting. A small fix, but one worth making.
The desserts are where the kitchen lifts. The Otis crème caramel with vanilla bean, smoked sea salt, and Japanese whiskey is silky and soft, the whiskey lifting the back palate without taking over. Just as good as it was three years ago.
The raspberry millefeuille with blood orange gel, raspberry crémeux, and raspberry sorbet is something else. It is close to the best dessert I have eaten in recent years, sitting just behind the Raku lemon that looks plucked from a tree, and the Lunetta lemon tart. It's very comfortably the best raspberry dessert I have seen.
Service is polite, friendly, and willing. It just lacks depth. Questions about the wine, the sourcing, or the cooking are met with goodwill rather than knowledge. At this price point, that gap matters. The lighting could also drop a touch through the night. It starts at the right level and stays there, when it should ease down to match the mood.
Otis under the new owners is still a good restaurant. The bones are intact, the signature dishes still land, and dessert can be thrilling.
The wine list is the priority. Trim the bottom, add honest mid-range options, and put a properly trained floor lead in the room. Fix the salt on the duck. Soften the pasta. Dim the lights a touch. All of these things can be fixed.
Damian Brabender built something rare here. The new team have inherited a real platform. The job is to lift the wine list and the room to match what's already on the plate.
Address: 29 Jardine Street, Kingston, 2604
Phone: 02 6260 6066
Website: www.thisisotis.com.au
Hours: Tues - Sat, 12pm - 3pm and 5.30pm to 10pm
Access: Fine
Noise: Very well controlled, with 2 to 3 metres between tables.
Dietary: Vegetarian options available.
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
