Every week south-side families make their way to their favourite local club to dine on a feast of schnitzels, steaks and chips, however, BaaMoo Bistro and Grill at the Vikings Club in Tuggeranong’s Town Centre has turned this traditional weekly pilgrimage on its head, with a dining experience full of flavour and finesse.

Unlike your average club, the staff at Vikings Town Centre greet and seat you with a smile, offering you table service and a bevvy of 50 standard dishes with the added bonus of 12 new blackboard speciality items every day of the week – truly spoilt for choice!

Surrounded by the picturesque Brindabella Mountains, the venue offers a scenic outlook that you can only experience in the south of the city.

As we soaked up the atmosphere the first course was served – Japanese-style and natural oysters. This dish is a favourite among regular diners, and after prying the first morsel from its shell, it was easy to see why. With a dash of Japanese mushroom soy, topped with blanched shoots to compliment the delicate oyster, this is an inspired contrast to the natural crustacean served with a squeeze of lemon which adds a pleasant citrus twist tying it all together on the palate.

This seafood flair has been added to the bill by BaaMoo Bistro and Grill head chef Josh McCulloch. After training as an apprentice in Sydney and taking his skills to Hamilton Island, seafood is a key favourite at the Vikings Town Centre, heightened by the fresh, local ingredients incorporated into every dish.

“For us local is king, we gain inspiration for our dishes from the fresh, local produce available throughout the year,” Josh says.

Continuing with the seafood theme, we were served a modern reinvention of a lobster classic. The ½ lobster mornay was cooked to perfection in a creamy white, cheese sauce, lifted by the addition of fresh herbs on a bed of steam rice, and accompanied by a crisp garden salad of spinach, tomato, onion and cucumber. The rich white sauce was the perfect match to the sweet delicate flesh of the lobster.

What menu would be complete without a great pasta dish? Enter the spaghetti with prawn, garlic and chilli. Suffering from a little chilli-anxiety, I was a little unsure diving into the mound of spaghetti. However, the heat did not warrant fear, it enhanced the flavour of the prawns and created a welcomed warm-hum off the back of the garlic, coriander and tomato sauce.

The most important dish at any local club is, of course, the steak – and BaaMoo Bistro and Grill serves up some of the best in town.

“Steak is our number one seller, it comes in farm fresh and cooked to order by our head chef [and her son] Josh. It’s a family affair that our customers have come to love,” Bistro Manager Katie explains.

Served on a rustic-style board with a side of chips and house-made pepper sauce, the rib eye cut was perfectly cooked to medium-rare. At first bite, it was easy to tell why this was one of the best-sellers!

To finish the meal we endeavoured further into BaaMoo’s beef selection with a serving of the braised beef cheek. A self-confessed favourite of Katie’s, the beef effortlessly pulled apart and melted in the mouth. Accompanied by a garlic pomme-paste, spinach and citrus gremolata, this dish is a sure guaranteed satisfying feed for you meat-lovers out there.

Open seven days a week, drop into BaaMoo Bistro and Grill at the Vikings Club Town Centre to sample the family-friendly flair and flavour-filled menu of this community favourite.