As far as I know Satis is one of the three Vegetarian restaurants in Canberra and the only Western one (the other two are all Chinese). We went there for a couple of time during Christmas break but it wasn't open. Today we finally had a chance to check it out.
Small is the first impression. There are only three or four tables in the restaurants and each can fit at most two people. Whoever sits on the pathway side of the table could easily reach things on the counter, where you order your food and pay your bill before settling in. No wonder they also put tables at the front of the restaurants (3~4 more small tables) and the courtyard at the back also holds 6 more tables (some bigger ones). At first we sat at one the table inside but soon we realized it was a bit too close to our next table neighbor or even to all the kitchen action 5 meters away. So we moved to the courtyard.
Their small collection of food certainly matches the size of the place well. There are probably 8 choices for breakfast and 4~6 for "light lunch". That's it and I was also told they don't serve anything from the lunch menu during weekends (they don't open for dinner either, weekdays or weekends). By the way, they don't have a table menu either. Two copies (a third of the size of a A4 paper, very small fonts) are attached to the counter and that's all they have as far as I can tell.
Salis also operates on a small number of staff. I remember three but there could be four. It wasn't enough as far as I can tell, or they were all tired when we came in. They constantly mixed things up and didn't remember who ordered what. So a common scene was a waitress holding a plate of food walked around tables with a question mark on her face, until somebody claimed his/her food. I wonder who claimed our salt then--a waitress said she would bring us some when we could not find the floating salt bottle anywhere ourselves. We also learned in a harsh way that it took them 15 minutes to make pan-fried potato because the same waitress came over with a big smile, asking us whether we wanted to wait for that long or have our food without the potato. A question you normally don't get anywhere else.
Now you understand why I haven't mentioned any food yet--it was a long wait. Does it worth the wait? Not quite. MM gave the food a 5.5 and my score is a slightly generous 6.5. It will probably get a higher number if we only consider flavor though. I ordered scrambled eggs on toast with harsh brown, aka, pan-fried potato. The eggs were tender and tasty, and toast and potato were nothing special (other than the long-cooking time for potato). But the presentation has a lot of room for improvement--it looks rather umm, homey, even I can present something prettier than that. The only special thing about the order, though, it is the olive oil-feta-basil-hot pepper sauce. Taste a bit like pesto but with chunks of feta in it, quite interesting.
So to sum up:
Name: Satis
Location: Watson shops
Trade hours: doesn't open for dinner
Price: OK, breakfast plate around $10, light lunch plate around $15.
Pros: Vegetarian with organic ingredients, a relaxing environment if you don't bump into anybody
Cons: Service could be a bit sketchy (prepare to get your own bottle of water, claim your own food, and hunt for salt and pepper), you might have to wait long at least for a potato dish
Peculiarity: don't have a phone number to call
Whether go back soon? Not for a while
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