I really like going out for lunch during the work week. I know it’s cheaper to bring lunch from home and probably healthier a lot of the time, but every now and then it’s nice to get out of the office, catch up with friends, people-watch, and have someone else make your meal. That said, if you go to the wrong place, it can really put a dampener on things. Thankfully, TwentyOne is not one of those places.

There are a few things I think a place needs to get right if it wants to attract the lunchtime work crowd. The food has to be good and reasonably priced (for me that’s around $8-$20 per person (not including drinks), depending on what and where it is). I usually don’t want to take more than an hour or an hour and a half for lunch, so would prefer if I don’t have to wait too long to get a table, for my order to be taken or for the food to come out. One of my friends also suggested that it’s better if the food’s not too heavy (so you don’t end up sleepy and in a food coma at your desk).

TwentyOne (where New Acton’s popular Urban Food used to be until it went into liquidation) hit all of these marks. My friend and I wandered over there on Wednesday, after finding out the place we’d originally planned to go had had people waiting for more than 40 minutes for their food that day. It ended up working out pretty well for us. Eating at TwentyOne is pretty straightforward: you pick up a menu near the door or check out the ready-made food, find a table, order at the counter, then wait for your meal. There’s self-serve water (including plastic cups for the kiddies) or if you prefer, a choice of hot or cold drinks to buy.

Perusing the menu, my friend and I discovered we were evidently in the mood for lamb, as we were both drawn to the two lamb options: a burger ($18) and pizza ($19). She chose the burger, so I went for the pizza. We chatted as we waited, but it didn’t take too long for the food to come out. We didn’t really have any expectations, so we were pleasantly surprised.

My pizza came out first, and it was huge, covered with lamb, pumpkin and roquette aioli. The base was standard fare—for those who are picky about their bases, it was a soft, moderately thin dough base—but the topping was delicious! The lamb was tender and juicy, the pumpkin just the right balance between firm and soft (for what you’d want on a pizza) and the aioli went really well with both. I should point out here that I did not eat the whole pizza, it ended up being enough to feed me for dinner that night as well as dinner on Thursday night (my brother also had a piece and approved). I did like it enough that I would happily have eaten it for a third day in a row if there was any left.

My friend’s pulled lamb burger was served on brioche bread with rocket, red pepper relish and homemade garlic mayo, with beer battered fries on the side. It looked really good and she confirmed that it was, the lamb again being tender and juicy and the sauces really nice. I tried some of her fries and they looked as good as they tasted, great flavour and that ‘perfect fry’ texture – crispy on the outside, firm but not too firm in the middle.

One of my other friends saw the photo of my pizza on the HerCanberra Facebook page, so I ended up going back again with her for lunch on Thursday so she could try the pizza for herself (her verdict was delicious but would be even better with haloumi). While I was very tempted to get the lamb burger since I’d wanted it the day before, I thought in the interests of research for the HerCanberra readers I should try something else (I know, such a sacrifice), so I ended up ordering the grilled chicken burger with lettuce, homemade tomato relish and garlic aioli, served with beer battered fries ($18).

I’m not normally a big fan of chicken burgers, but I really liked this one. The chicken was tender and moist and it had that nice grilled taste on the outside (I realise this probably sounds bizarre but just go and have one and you’ll see what I mean). The sauces were delicious and plentiful—I get annoyed with inadequate amounts of sauce—and the chips were just as good as the ones I’d tried the day before.

Since I still haven’t tried the lamb burger, and given the two out of two good experiences I’ve had at TwentyOne, I will happily go back again to tick it off my list (as well as the steak sandwich, fish and chips, and crispy calamari, amongst other things!) And just for the record, on Wednesday we were back at work within an hour and a half of leaving the building—which included time spent walking in the opposite direction to our original destination then all the way back past work to TwentyOne—and on Thursday we were back at work within an hour (TwentyOne is about a five minute walk away).

The essentials
The place: TwentyOne Café and Groceries
Where: 21 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra (New Acton)
When: Monday – Friday, 7.30am-7.30pm; Saturday–Sunday 8.30am-5.30pm
Food: Burgers, pizza, salad, pies, rolls, paninis, baguettes, cakes, etc.
Drinks: Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juice, water
Contact: Call 02 6162 0550 or visit their Facebook page.