d’browes on leafy Boolimba Crescent in Narrabundah. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
My absolute favourite dish of 2025 hails from a 21-year-old Canberra restaurant: d’browes.
Situated on leafy Boolimba Crescent in Narrabundah, d’browes transports you to another era, one where the tables are set with crisp white linen tablecloths, lunches can stretch on well after the kitchen has closed, and the chef may just join you to have a yarn. The specials are written on the wall above the arch that bisects the eatery.
“We are a real regulars’ restaurant,” head chef and owner Damien D’Browes says.
“We are an old school sort of restaurant; an older clientele comes here.”
With this fourth-generation chef’s culinary roots in Normandy, the menu wears its strong European influence with pride. Some items are family recipes, passed down through the years.
The specials at d’browes are written on the wall above the arch that separates the eatery into two rooms. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
A signature focus at d’browes is offal: think kidneys, livers, brains, tripe, and sweetbreads, all treated with finesse and paired with sublime French sauces. Stay with me – trust!
Another menu staple is fresh seafood – oysters, sardines, calamari, and seafood pie (classic white sauce, peas, mixed seafood). Damien knows his oysters; the restaurant goes through 40 dozen a week. He is particular about which ones he sources.
“My favourite oysters come from Coffin Bay in South Australia. They’re a deep oyster; two tides flush them. They’re a little bigger than other oysters, but they’re salty and taste just like the water they come out of,” he says.
Lamb shanks are not just a winter comfort dish at d’browes; they remain on the menu year-round.
Damien also makes traditional fish and chips using fresh fish.
And, of course, there is escargot!
Sardines, grilled Portuguese-style. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
We start with sardines – Western Australian pilchards, snap-frozen for freshness. These are grilled Portuguese-style with virgin olive oil, lemon, pepper and salt. I enjoy the salty ocean flavour, dragging forkfuls through the plate. We decide to try eating the sardines whole, as Damien suggests.
A tentative bite into the first sardine head produces a crunchy, textured, and moreish mouthful. I eat all three heads!
The dish is simple, honest food. I imagine I’m on the deck of a beach shack in Normandy, eating freshly caught fish grilled over charcoal.
Fresh bread, served warm, arrives to sop up all the juices.
Next comes my absolute dish of the year.
It takes me by surprise, like the best blind date ever!
A simple dish. A bowl of rognons (the French word sounds better than plain old ‘kidneys’) bathing in a three-mustard sauce. It’s the balance of the three mustards, and the addition of butter, white wine and cream to the sauce that has absorbed all the rich, meaty rognon juices, that make it unforgettable.
The umami hit from the rognons in that mustard sauce is intoxicating. If there was ever a dish to convert you to kidneys, this is it.
They are only gently flame-kissed, rendering them delicately tender. How much do I adore this dish? I literally wept into my pillow a few days later when I was sick, and all I wanted was a bowl of Damien’s rognons – but it was too far away to order! That’s how much.
Pears and zabaglione. Photo: Kazuri Photography.
We finish on pears and zabaglione: a red wine-poached pear smothered under the freshest, warm, whisked cinnamony custard, topped with roasted almonds and ice cream. I don’t even like pears, but I adore this dessert. That boozy pear is gorgeous and tender. All desserts at d’browes’ use fresh eggs from Damien’s 18 beloved free-range chickens.
d’browes is an old-school restaurant with a loyal regular clientele. Damien comes out at each sitting to personally impart the day’s specials to every immaculately linened table. It doesn’t do much marketing, but it’s time a new generation experiences and falls in love with the absolute delight that is this first-class European fare.
d’browes at 59 Boolimba Cres in Narrabundah is open from 12 noon to 11 pm, Wednesday through Saturday.
