Review Rocksalt - Canberra

Consistently good meals and service. A regular favourite ‘go to’ cafe for catch up with family and friends. Both indoor and outdoor seating and pet friendly for outdoor dining.

Great local venue and a nice place for breakfast or lunch. Recommend the fritters or hot cakes. Can get busy at times so allow for that.

We just had lunch at Rocksalt. I had the Steak Sandwich and my husband had the pulled pork enchilada. The steak Sandwich was great. The steak was thick, well cooked and easy to eat. My husband said his Enchilada was lovely as well. Wait staff were lovely. Food and drinks are reasonably priced. Will go there again

Really nice coffee and delicious food. The takeaway menu is fantastic value (thank you for that it's a blessing) and the dine in menu is excellent too. I've lived in Hawker for a few years now and a number of the front of house staff have been there all this time which has to mean it's a great place to work. If you're in the area and this isn't your local - it should be!

Had a beaut breakfast here today. Field mushrooms, had a side of bacon. Coffee was great and really good service.

A professional young waitress with excellent people skills took our order (6 people) and wrote it down. When after some time and after everyone else at our table had received their order and mine hadn’t arrived I enquired about it with another waitress. She went to check. After a while my coffee still did not arrive and I noticed that the second waitress was taking orders and clearing tables. I went inside and and enquired about my coffee. A large man, who I must assume to be the manager/ boss immediately intervened and told me that I had not ordered a coffee. He knew what I was about. I assured him that I had. The manager now directed me in front of staff and customers to point out the waitress who had taken my order. She was a young girl and it was obvious to me that this would be party to bullying so I chose not to. Unfortunately my decision not to participate with bullying appeared to satisfy the manager that I didn’t have a case. I still wanted a coffee so I placed a take away order, the rest of our group were finishing up. I then paid for this coffee. Only as we were leaving did a member of our party say that he had paid for all our coffee’s. Other than for the manager who gets consistently bad reviews for bullying behaviour (check manager reviews) the waitresses were first class and the coffee was good.

This Amazing Cafe have the nicest staff and the food is divine I will definitely be back. Thank you for an Amazing experience I'll be sure to let everyone know where to eat whilst in Canberra.

The cups for to-go coffee has burnt me and they regularly forget food orders to go with the coffee. Last time I'm going back and unless they hire more staff/ invest in training their staff - then I hope other people follow suite.

The coffee is great- it's so convenient to get them from the window. I also like to dine in because the layout of the restaurant allows tables to relax and talk. Every meal I've eaten has been delicious. And I love that it's opposite a playground so the kids can play within sight.

Wonderful layout, cheerful front staff, reasonable prices and great choices. Brilliant, differently coming again. Thank you for starting my day off with smiles and joy �

I am a regular customer at Rocksalt Restaurant with my gorgeous guide dog Franklin. We either pop in after a walk to the shops or meet friends for a coffee. The staff are friendly and helpful. My favourites are the fruit salad and the citrus tart scrumptious . Chris was open to me launching my second children’s book The Broken Shell at Rocksalt where 50 people including 10 children enjoyed what was a very successful event. �����������

Best coffee in Canberra. And they open at 7am for takeaways. Such a hidden gem here in Belconnen. Great food too. Thanks guys, you do a great job!!

The number one place to eat out or get a coffee in Canberra. Lovely, friendly staff, happy to communicate and chat but also efficient and smooth service. Their chefs are top notch and their waiters show brilliant enthusiasm about the food, which is just fantastic to see. Can't wait to go back again!

I was there with Sonia Garland Jai Garland and Rhiannon and family for Sunday breakfast. The food orange juice and coffee was fantastic.

To be honest, we were in a big group and the food was lovely but cold.

Wonderful food and great service by Ellis (Elonwy). My family enjoyed their meals immensely and where grateful for the adaptation of meals due to food allergies and restrictions. Would recommend it to any coeliac/gluten free person.

It's the mark of the quality of an employer and a member of the community that he refuses to add a surcharge to his menu prices! And the food is still excellent. How does the chef make muesli so tasty??Thank you Chris and staff. Have a restful Easter. You guys deserve it.

Excellent saff and lovely food service was wonderful �

Simply great food and great service. Can't ask more.

At $4.5 for a takeaway coffee, a $20 Eftpos minimum seems ridiculous. Especially when ordering more than 1 coffee... Please negotiate a better merchant fee with your provider instead of pushing the cost to would be customers.

I have been going to Rocksalt for year and have always enjoyed myself and keep heading back ;) The combination of the food, the very friendly service and the setting make it a very special place in Canberra for me.

Rocksalt is our favourite breakfast place in Canberra. Great coffee, good food, kid friendly and there is a playground outside too! Staff are always very attentive and friendly.

Lunch today was awesome! Confit of Duck, seared scallops, carrots with walnut and blue cheese, kids fish and chips, beautiful coffee, plenty of GF options. A wonderful unexpected pleasure!

My mother in law and sister in law were after a fancier, child friendly restaurant. Those things don't tend to come hand in hand, but after looking at some online reviews, Rocksalt was recommended several times. The food was delicious and looked fantastic, the drinks were perfect, and the staff were wonderful with our 1 and 5 year old. To top it off, there is a playground next to the restaurant, where my five year old could play happily in full view. Really good, and will definitely be eating there, and taking visiting family there again, Thank you! :)

I had a great dinner excellent meal

Wonderful food. Wonderful people. I go there 4 to 5 times a week. Nice place to go to relieve the boredom .

Excellent food. Great gluten free options!

Have had coffee here loads of times and have never been disappointed so we decided to give it a shot for Sunday Brunch. We had no difficulty getting a table. In fact, the place wasn’t even half full. It took over an hour for our meals to arrive. Lots of ‘explanations’ about how busy they were and how we would have to wait till the tables who arrived before us were served (duh!). No apologies until our grizzles and complaints got quite loud (I did at one stage ask if I should change my order and get something from the lunch menu). Since we had two hungry toddlers in tow, some warning of the lengthy wait ahead of us would have been appreciated. <br/>The meal, when it finally arrived was adequate and coffee quite good. In the end the management comped our coffees by way of apology but the apology was left to the poor waitress while the owner stayed behind the bar barking orders to the staff. <br/>I won’t be returning. A shame, since Cafes are thin on the ground in the area.

Quite overpriced for what you get, possibly because they have a strong hold on the location. Looks like a couple of other new places are opening in Hawker shortly though, so perhaps that will drive prices down.<br/>The food is reasonable, service ok. Go if you're in the area but I wouldn't recommend it as a destination.

An OK breakfast. Slightly pricier than the norm for what it was. We had to wait over an hour for our food. I accept that because it was Saturday morning it was busy but still... Probably a first and last time for us.

Over the two decades or so that Rocksalt has been at Hawker it has transformed from a fine dining evening restaurant to an all day modern Australian cafe/restaurant. It has a nice outdoor area under a pergola in the Hawker "village square" which works well for much of the year. The indoor seating provides a cosy alternative in winter but is a bit dark and lacks any distinct character. Like many places the breakfast menu is the best offering but is not available at lunch time except on Sundays. Fortunately my most recent visit was on a Sunday. The quality of the food has varied over the years as owners and chefs changed. It did go down a couple of years ago but the current team seems to be trying hard and it is much improved. The Adore coffee is well made and consistently good, but not quite in the really top bracket.

Coffee is great and possibly the best Eggs Benedict in Canberra!

Food good but unpleasant experience. Don't rule it out, but don't go in with high expectations.. The food was good but the service questionable. The younger staff were lovely but the older gentleman was very surly and ruined our experience. He was over the top nice as we were ordering, but as soon as the food arrived he couldn't wait to kick us out of the seats, we felt so uncomfortable and when we came up to pay he tossed the bill on the bench, made a rude quip and then turned his back and ignored us - the young staff member had to take over. She was left giving us an apologetic look, trying to smooth over his rudeness. I hate to think that that gentleman is the boss. If so maybe he could take some lessons on customer service from his staff.<br/>PS We were only there for an hour, but the way he reacted it was as if we had stayed for 5 and ordered nothing. And in terms of our own behaviour... we're the meek "don't cause a fuss or make them have to do anything extra" type people, so it's very rare we ever make anyone angry. We'd practically eat dirt and still say "thank you" (we should really work on that).<br/><br/>I really wanted this place to be fantastic - it's local to me and used to have such a good reputation. I was willing to overlook the overpricing, but I don't particularly want to go somewhere I'm made to feel uncomfortable.<br/>I've gotten coffee at the take out window a couple of times - that has always been a good experience, very friendly younger staff. The coffee is not the best (I order soy so perhaps it is limited to that) but it gets the job done. Not sure it's worth $4.80 though.<br/><br/>FYI when we dined in we went for breakfast, and were seated outside. It was reasonably busy, but every set of new customers that arrived was able to get a table (so it wasn't as if we were holding up a table from other people who were waiting). When I have ordered coffee it has been at non peak times and they have been very quick and super friendly.<br/>Maybe others will have a different experience at different times of day.<br/><br/>Don't rule it out, but perhaps go in with lower expectations.... eat fast?? <br/>As mentioned though, my meal was good.

Rock bottom. My partner and I dine out every saturday night with a nice bottle of wine (or two) and most often in the Belconnen area where we live. We can walk from our central location to about 25 different restaurants and on occasion, we may take a bus to Civic or Dickson for something different. My partner had exclaimed, "i'm sick of Asian" which we do eat alot so she booked us a table at Rocksalt in Hawker. We had eaten there three years prior with some regulars who were also wine biffins, and a great night was had by all. So we turned up again, way overdue, expecting a similar experience. Something had changed internally, small petitions separated patrons in the main dining area, good idea. We however, were ushered off to a side room and stared back into the 'ambience' thru an industrial-style wine rack. We then turned our attention back to our table!? Were we in the 'best restaurant in Belconnen' as Rocksalt advertises, or at a truckies cafe on the Newel Hwy? It seemed the latter. 1980 veneer tables, without any tablecloth, salt and pepper shakers (truckie style) and a crass glass stuffed with cafe sugars, etc. Odd. The food came next...surely one can rely on decent Garlic bread....nope, and it was bland turkishbread, underdone with garlic, and i wouldnt mind betting marg was used instead of butter. I ordered the Minestrone as a starter, one of their specials for the night. A big serve, looked appealing though a lack or aroma led me to discover a very one-dimensional affair. Like a can of Heinz tomato soup i had as a kid with just-thawed veges thrown haphazardly in. No seasoning whatsoever. I ate about 20% of it. Poor. Our mains were a slow-cooked beef cheeks plus mine a roo with brussel sprouts and wine jus. The roo came out looking yummy, was medium rare to the eye. After 8-10 saws with my cafe knife, i still wasnt through the morsel. Each piece tough as old boots. Sprouts underdone, jus had no body at all...very disappointing. My partner's beef cheeks, well, the knife simply fell through this meat, probably the only positive point of the meal , though on ingesting, not one ounce of flavor or seasoning. Chuck steak maybe? Her beans were barely cooked and yes, we dont mind crispy beans, but these were barely out of the freezer! The obligant waitress DID ask how our meals were and i asked her "do you really want to know?" she said "yes" and was told, in as pleasant a manner as i could fathom. She returned soon after with dessert menus, "on the house as sir and maam did not enjoy their meals"...she was thanked for this gesture though i only opted for a latte, a safe bet, and was ok, despite being in a truckies cafe glass. We finsihed our glasses of Grove Estate 2006 Nebbiolo (yum) and rather than deciding what we should do the following Sunday, for the first time in hundreds of times we have dined in Canberra, we discussed how we should get the word out there that this place is one to avoid. To add insult, their credit card machine malfunctioned for a good 10 minutes. Probably the most disappointing value we have had for $100, ever! Totally ironic that a place called 'Rocksalt' has dishes devoid of any seasoning. A while back i served ten years in the aussie military, and lived on base most of time. Rocksalt delivers 'mess food' and not even at its just tolerable best. As a proud Canberran, even more specifically, a proud Belconnen boy, i was embarrassed by this restaurant and its ridiculous claim of being 'best in Belconnen'. BTW, the wine list does not have 1 !!! yes, not one local offering, another insult to diners, esp those who are proud of how far canberra has come as a centre for culinary and wine excellence.

Great atmosphere, food, coffee and service. Great restaurant!

Never again. I was given a $60 gift voucher for Rocksalt ,Hawker by a good friend. I decided to dine out on it for breakfast. I used only $32 of the voucher. Apron leaving I expected the remainder of the voucher to be recorded to be redeemed later but was told the voucher had to be redeemed in one visit and the remaining amount, even though paid for by the purchaser would remain unredeemed. By the way the meal and the coffee were lousy and the voucher was not worth the crummy paper it was printed on. Will not go there on principle ever again!!!!

Wishful thinking. I have always been drawn to Rocksalt in Hawker but as a student never could afford to try it out. One day however my partner and I thought we would give a milkshake from there a go - after seeing a sign that said "all take away drinks order at window" we lined up and waited, only to be ignored by the two waiters despite there being no customers waiting inside or outside. After calling out, one of the men told us to order a drink we needed to come inside, after lining up at the counter inside the man who had told us to come in ignored us some more and disappeared out the back. When another waiter approached,we tried to order our milkshakes and he told us we would have to line up outside for take away drinks - I explained that we had already been there and told to come inside, he refused to take our order unless we lined up outside. When waiting what felt like for ever (despite there still being no customers inside or outside), after ordering our shakes outside, we finally received our chocolate and strawberry shakes which tasted like bland milk. I have never been drawn to Rocksalt since.

A good come back. Rocksalt at Hawker was one of the top restaurants in Canberra almost 10 years ago and since the change in ownership and head chef, it has gone down hill. It has again changed ownership and head chef probably last 1-2 years and customers seem to have returned.<br/><br/>It was 80% full on a Saturday night in a very quiet suburb which wasn't a bad effort. What really surprised us is the generosity of the serving without compromise in quality. I was almost full after a big garlic bread and a big serve of beautifully deep fried zucchini flowers. Luckily I ordered a light nicely cooked fish of the day for main.<br/><br/>The decoration was modern and service was fine.<br/><br/>Although the food still wasn't as delicate as what it was 10 years ago, it still has potential to become one of the top restaurants.

Best coffee in Belconnen. I get coffee from Black Pepper 2 or 3 times a week and every time is better than the last. The milk is perfect, never burnt, and the coffee is never bitter. The staff are always attentive and happy to help you, and the baristas have your coffee ready within 2 minutes of ordering. I would recommend Black Pepper to anyone who knows the meaning of good coffee.<br/><br/><br/>-----19 Sep, 2013-----<br/><br/>Delicious Coffee. Every time i get a coffee from Rocksalt it never fails to impress!! The milk is creamy and always at a perfect temperature. They also have fresh orange juice which is HUGE and quite cheap. Will keep coming back!

Never to Return. After having an excellent dinner at Rocksalt several years ago I was looking forward to returning. For starters the menu and decor were much more basic than my last visit, although the prices had not been dropped by very much.<br/> Although the restaurant was only 1/3 full there was a one hour break between entree (garlic bread only) and the main course. When questioned about the delay staff were not helpful or apologetic. 2 for the 4 mains were very dry, like they had been sitting under a heat lamp for 20 mins waiting for the other mains to be completed. Staff did not ask how our meals were at any time.<br/>One of the desserts was wrong when it was bought out and when my wife told the waiter what she had ordered his response was "are you sure?"<br/>All in all the service was substandard and so was the quality of food. For 4 people (2 pregnant and not drinking) we had garlic bread, 4 mains, 2 desserts and 5 other drinks we paid over $230 for food and service of a quality to be found in any local cafe. I will not return while the restaurant has the same owners.

Awesome!. I went to rock salt for breakfast! They were clearly very busy but the staff were excellent!<br/>When my breakfast arrived I managed to spill my coffee all over my food! I was so embarrassed and my food was now uneatable. The staff were so kind, even tho they were incredibly busy they cleaned my table got me a new meal and coffee. As a student when I went to pay I was a bit worried as I knew I should pay for two meals and two coffees due to my accident. The manager was so lovely and said accidents happen and only made me pay for one meal. It made my day! <br/>Rock salt has a customer for life! The food was delicious, the coffee some of the best I have had and the staff were excellent.<br/>THEY WERE EXCELLENT!!!!

Great place for breakfast. Had the flamencos (baked eggs+Chirizo) it was fantastic. Definetly try this hidden gem.

Birthday Dinner. I had my birthday dinner here based on a lunch I had at Rock Salt three years ago. I think this restaurant must have changed hands since then. Originally I had rabbit with a local Pinot Grigio as suggested by the menu.<br/>Now the menu is fairly standard modern cuisine and the wine list is not too bad. <br/>I chose the rack of lamb. It was over cooked, I mean really dry.The host asked how our meals were and I let him know. They knew it was my birthday and they did nothing. I didn't eat my meal. I have worked in hospitality and I am not a sour grapes person. This meal was really under par. Do not dine here for a special occasion. I won't at all. There is a Henschke Hill of Grace for $550. Why would you bother to drink this with such sub standard food? I mean seriously what are they trying to be? Trying too hard while not trying at all.

Went there for dinner (finally!) Kangaroo with beet root relish is a win!

I have never had a bad breakfast or coffee from rocksalt. I have a fair few allergies and they are always more than happy to accommodate. Double thumbs up!

Rocksalt once was a great restaurant, ...now ... All the food is average and bland and very overpriced for what they offer.

Bland , so disappointed !!!

I have always had a good meal here. Now offers takeaway coffee on weekends.

Lambs brains. The lambs brains at Rocksalt are lovely. Not too fatty and not too try. The crumbed outside is just right. <br/>It would be nice with a white sauce, but the crispy bacon and nuts is just fine.

Fabulous breakfast at Rocksalt. I had the chance to experience breakfast at Rocksalt last month and I have to say it was fabulous. Great selection to choose from for breakfast with all the usual favourites plus a few extra special dishes - I chose the pesto, mushroom and bocconcini melt which was to die for (see picture). The coffee was great, and the service fantastic.

This place amazes me everytime I visit. Service and food is fantastic, with great variety and don't forget to try the desserts cause they don't fail to please. I'm still chasing a pistachio creme brûlée that tastes as good. Will definitely be back.

Our mains were ENORMOUS, and were both cooked very well. The chicken was just right in Boyfriend’s dish, and the asparagus was crunchy in mine. But, it’s fair to say that we both agreed our entrees were much better than our mains. What had sounded good on paper just did not translate into a tasty experience. The chicken breast with ccoconut crust was served on udon noodles with kaffir lime sauce. I had a bit of the dish and thought that the crust was, frankly, a little strange. My potato gnocchi with asparagus in a vermouth and cream sauce topped with hazelnuts and blue cheese was bemusing. I couldn’t get a forkful to contain all the elements of the dish, and found the crunchy asparagus a distraction in my dish which already had the crunch of a few hazelnuts. The blue cheese was delicious, but I had to work hard to ensure it was distributed right throughout the dish. There was seemed to be an overpower of onion throughout the dish, of which I am still having phantom tastes this mornin

We'd been to Rocksalt in Hawker a few times for dinner in the past, but only recently heard that they'd started serving breakfast. Sooooo ... today we jumped on the treadlies, rode the 9.7km each way to Hawker, and sampled Rocksalt's new brekkie menu!<br/>

Omlette with crisp spec, oven dried tomato, Persian fetta and Spanish onion ($14.00) Delicious with a nice combination of flavours that really compliment each other and I really like how the bread was thick and fluffy. Corn and shallot pancake with bacon, avocado and dill aoili ($15.00) with an extra side of hash browns (additional cost) All my favourite foods combined together to create a wonderful unique brunch

I would go there again, though perhaps I would choose somewhere else first, seeing that it's on the other side of town from where we live :) Rocksalt opens for breakfast, lunch AND dinner.