Adelaide's best new restaurants reviewed

Looking to go out for a bite to eat as the weather warms up? Take a look at this list of Adelaide's best new restaurants for inspiration, provided by The Advertiser's food critic Simon Wilkinson. The restaurants included in this list have either opened over the past year or so, or made significant changes over that time.

Crowne Plaza Hotel, 27 Frome Street, Adelaide | 7077 2233 | koomo.com.au

Owner: Crowne Plaza

Chef: Patrick Chung

Food: Japanese/Asian

Price: Small: $15-$25, Main $22-$58, Dessert $16-$18

Drinks: User-friendly selection of familiar and not-so-familiar wines at fair prices. Head to the back page for the sake.

Open: Breakfast daily; Lunch Thu-Fri; Dinner daily

Stories from ancient mythology to Dr Seuss are filled with creatures made up of different animal parts, both beautiful and bizarre. Like the hippocampus that has the head and forelegs of a horse with a dolphin’s tail. Or the horned rabbit known as a jackelope.

Koomo, a modern Japanese-ish restaurant midway up the new Crowne Plaza hotel, plays a similar trick with dessert.

Its bitzer dish starts with fried wonton wraps curled to form two cylinders that are filled with a whipped white chocolate mousse. A brown slurry of roasted pineapple flesh is pressed into the plate’s rim, rubbery jubes of long pepper jelly are scattered around and an apricot dipping sauce the colour of pumpkin soup comes in a separate ramekin. As compilations go, this one is right out there.

The Koomo experience is something of a bitzer itself, on one side refined in packaging and message, priced accordingly (a scotch fillet is $50), but big and boisterous and surprisingly laid back on the other.

Shop 1, 22-30 Field Street, city | 8117 4627 | facebook.com/dumplingcityfieldstreet

Owner: Lili Sun, Yong Gao

Chef: Yong Gao

Food: Chinese

Price: Small: $5.80-$17.80, Main: $13.80-$26.80, Dessert: $5.80-$6.80

Drinks: Basic wine list with half a dozen whites and reds, a couple of each by the glass.

Open: Lunch and dinner Wed-Mon

Dumpling City. Now there’s a tagline our tourism bosses should run with. Forget Churches and Festivals and even Wine. Let’s offer visitors to the state something they crave and kick off a dumpling-led recovery.

This marketing brainwave was inspired by a visit to an impressive new two-level eatery with precisely that name tucked away off Gouger Street.

Since moving to Adelaide from China 12 years ago, owners Lili Sun and Yong Gao have spent a large part of their time searching for the perfect, freshly wrapped parcels they remembered from home.

At this stage, Lili and Yong have limited the dumpling choices, opting to do the basics well. There is no xiaolongbao, with its wondrous soup filling, or more glutinous har gow. But the fried dumplings, particularly, are very, very good.

Ordering is done yum cha style, by writing the number of serves required in the teeny boxes on a printed sheet, before a staff member checks each selection to make sure it is what we want.

287 Rundle St, city | 8223 7575 | ongvietnamesekitchen.com.au

Owner: Nguyen family

Chef: Quang Nguyen

Food: Vietnamese

Price: Small: $12-$26, Main: $28-$30, Dessert: $12

Drinks: A small but carefully chosen wine list, mostly from South Australia, with good selection by glass in two pour sizes.

Open: Dinner Mon-Sun

“I’ve seen worse,” says the waiter, as he surveys the splatters and ­assorted scraps spread across our table.

This can mean a few things. The plates are all being shared. They are piled with shredded veg, chopped herbs and other itty bits. The serving utensils aren’t really up to it. Or everyone is enjoying themselves too much to care. It’s all of the above in the case of Ong Vietnamese Kitchen, a recent addition to Rundle St.

A compact, rowdier relative to Noi in the eastern suburbs, Ong shares more than a name that keeps the sign-writing costs down. Both are owned and operated by Quang Nguyen, his wife, Thy, and their ­extended families.

Both have menus, including some shared dishes, developed by Quang, who came to prominence as the creator of wild and wonderful desserts at Devour and more recently Shibui in the CBD. And both are in premises that were previously Chopstix restaurants run by Thy’s parents, who have opted to take a step back and leave the next generation in control.

23-29 Market Street, city | 8472 2400 | adelaide.hotelindigo.com

Owner: Hotel Indigo

Chef: Gabriele Pezzimenti

Food: Mediterranean

Price: Small: $8-$22, Main $28-$88 (whole chicken to share), Dessert $12-$14

Drinks: Local-only list of gin and wines sorted by region

Open: Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily

What do Don Dunstan’s pink shorts, copper mining and the Central Market have in common?

The answer is that they have all in some way inspired the design for an idiosyncratic city hotel that is so proud and playful with its local connections it’s a surprise they don’t serve frog cakes for afternoon tea.

The Hotel Indigo makes a statement the moment its glass front door slips open and you walk into, not the conventional bland lobby and reception, but a space with so many theatrical curves, splashes of colour and quirky touches it feels like being in a movie scene.

This is the setting for restaurant/bar/café Market & Meander, a convoluted way to convey the proximity of Adelaide’s much-loved food emporium half a block to the north.

What are they missing? For a start, there is the ingredient-led, locally focused, seasonally aware, Mediterranean-leaning style of cooking you won’t find much around the corner. Chef Gabriele Pezzimenti was raised in the Michelin-starred establishment run by his parents in Italy but this is far more grounded. That said, his first menu is a real mixed bag with a structure that seems like it might have been put together by a committee or popular vote.

27 Currie Street, Adelaide | 8127 0888 | themeatandwineco.com

Owner: Bradley Michael (Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group)

Chef: Ahamad Al Hossain

Food: Steakhouse

Price: Small: $10-$19, Main $28-$86, Dessert $13-$17

Drinks: Reasonably priced entry level wines up to a $2000 bottle of Grange.

Open: Lunch and dinner daily

We live in a world obsessed with superlatives and rankings. Who is number one? The prettiest? The rudest? The most likely to succeed? The greatest President in the history of America? You get the drift.

Such proclamations, however dubious, can be guaranteed to ignite a barrage of argument and counter-argument in which any context is lost as rapidly as the audience swells.

On that basis, today’s review should be a chart-topper as it contains my vote for SA’s Best Chips and Worst Squid in the one hit. It also has a fine piece of aged rib steak that might, unfortunately, be forgotten in the rush to commend and complain.

290 Rundle Street, city | 7228 6182 | daughterinlaw.com.au

Owner: Jessi Singh and partners

Chef: Jessi Singh

Food: Indian

Price: Small: $3.50-$25, Main $22-$35, Dessert: $10

Drinks: Help yourself from beer and wine fridges, or consult a list of impressive depth, though some choices might not be available.

Open: Dinner Mon-Sun (subject to Covid restrictions)

Daughter in Law calls itself a modern Indian restaurant but seems to put just as much effort into the party as it does the paneer. A mid-80s playlist is cranked out at full volume. A hyperactive manager leads choruses of Happy Birthday that go from table to table.

The menu’s first dish is dubbed “Balls of Happiness”, an obvious invitation for a round of double entendres.

The former Taj Tandoor site in Rundle St has been transformed from drab browns and beiges to displaying all the colours of an intricate sari.

Daughter in Law follows a formula that owner Jessi Singh has developed in similar ventures in Melbourne, Sydney and New York, mixing more widely seen curries such as butter chicken and rogan josh with street foods and his own creations.

He argues, correctly, that even traditional recipes are constantly evolving and is upfront in calling dishes such as his fried squid and lamb kebab “unauthentic”.

The snackier street foods are the most convincing, though, at around $20, are priced at similar levels to some of the larger serves.

Adelaide Oval Hotel, King William Rd, North Adelaide | 8368 9900 | ovalhotel.com.au

Owners: Adelaide Oval

Chef: Daniel Simpson

Food: Contemporary

Price: Set menu $140 (Paired wines $85)

Drinks: Wine match recommended but other choices are available.

Open: Dinner Tue-Sat

How do you get your name inscribed on one of the honour boards hanging around Adelaide Oval? Win a medal? Score the most runs? Kick the most goals? If you are passionate about cricket or footy – and why would you be here otherwise – its best players are worthy of permanent recognition.

The board hanging inside the door at Five Regions, part of the Oval Hotel development, has nothing to do with sport. Instead, it records for posterity the partners in a project that, on face value, challenges some basic assumptions about what a restaurant should do.

It works like this. Every two months Five Regions teams with a winery, selects five or six of its best bottles and creates a matching bespoke menu that also celebrates the food and landscape of the surrounding area. When the time is up, they start again.

Eos by SkyCity, Entry via Station Rd, city | 7077 3948 | skycityadelaide.com.au

Owner: SkyCity

Chef: Luca Guiotto

Food: Italian

Price: Small: $7-$24, Main: $22-$42, Dessert: $12-$16

Drinks: Settle in with a signature negroni, then choose from a short list of local and imported Italian-accented wines.

Open: Breakfast, lunch, dinner daily

When you run casinos for a living, knowing a sure thing when you see one is surely in the job description.

No surprise then that, when looking at the food options for their glittering new Eos hotel, those in charge of SkyCity’s Adelaide operations chose to go with Italian.

They would have seen that our love for this style of comfort food goes beyond fashion, demographics and even pandemics, that we cling to pizza and pasta like tomato sauce on a strand of spaghetti.

iTL Italian Kitchen is positioned as the everyday alternative to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant Sol and, judging by how tough it can be to get a booking at peak times, has quickly found its market.

38 Currie St, city | 8371 4378 | extrachickensalt.com.au

Owners: Phillip Tropeano, Peter de Marco, Shane Piercy, Jack Aldridge, Juno Cheng

Chefs: Shane Piercy, Jack Aldridge, Juno Cheng

Food: Chicken shop meets French bistro

Price: Small: $16-$20 Main: $25-$29 Dessert: $13-15

Drinks: Wine choices by glass would put many high-brow restaurants to shame. Cocktails a specialty.

Open: Lunch: Mon-Sat Dinner: Daily

Living in the 70s? I remember random fragments that form an incomplete picture. Happy Days and the original Hawaii Five-0. Sundays nights in front of Countdown. Burnt orange tiles, shaggy rugs and beanbags. Long drives to campsites or a shack by the sea. Falcons and Toranas.

New CBD diner and bar Extra Chicken Salt channels all that nostalgic power in a package that, being realistic, will attract mostly those who are far too young to remember any of it first-hand.

Brought to life by the inventive minds behind Chicco Palms and Borsa, among others, ECS has a similar capacity to transport you to a different time and place.

On one level, it is an up-market barbecue chicken shop.

The takeaway counter, all that is visible from the footpath in Currie Street, offers Hero Rolls, pineapple fritters and chicken packs with chips, peas and gravy ready to go.

94 Frome St, city | 8225 6125 | facebook.com/LaLocanda.Adl/

Owner/Chefs: Giuseppe Marra and Laura Middei

Food: Italian

Price: Small $6-$28, main $26-$36, dessert $13-$16

Drinks: A short list of mostly local or imported Italian wines at reasonable prices.

Open: Lunch Tue-Fri, Dinner Tue-Sat

I have a borderline obsession with panna cotta. If it’s on the menu, as it so often is, I’m going to order it, even though the chances of it being made properly are disappointingly low.

Serving it in a bowl or other form of mould is an automatic fail. It needs to stand up on its own. So is making it with so much gelatine that it bounces back from the prod of a spoon like the rubber man in Fantastic Four.

The panna cotta at La Locanda, a surprising new Italian in the CBD, is the complete opposite. Give the plate a little jiggle, and it doesn’t just get a bad case of the shakes, it begins to quiver uncontrollably. One harsh word or sideways glance and it could completely fall apart.

The fragility of this dessert, the exquisite judgment of its surface tension, is the whole point. As well as being sublime when it slips across the tongue, it is a true test of the skill and bravado of its creator. Otherwise you are just making jelly.

La Locanda gets this, and most other things, absolutely right.

Ground level, 2 King William St, Adelaide | 8310 0120 | fishbankadl.com.au

Owners: The Palmer Group

Chef: Tony Carroll

Food: Seafood

Price: Small $5-$28, Main $18-$48

Open: Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon-Fri, lunch and dinner on weekends

One day you return to shore empty-handed. The next you bag out. That’s the fickle nature of fishing. It is also a fair analogy for the welcome rush of eateries specialising in quality seafood that have arrived like a school of salmon chasing a feed.

SeaSalt, Pearl and Kuti Shack have staked their claims by the beach. Angler is turning out exceptional fried and grilled fish for takeaway in the Hills.

But Fishbank, opened last month in the city corner location that was previously Jamie’s Italian, could be, should be, the jewel in the crown.

The biggest investment has gone into the kitchen, both in updating equipment and introducing a new team, led by long-time Jolleys Boathouse co-owner and chef, Tony Carroll.

His first menu for Fishbank casts a wide net. You will be welcome to grab a fish burger before the footy, or slip in for a plate of sashimi between drinks. On the other hand, you might want to splash out on Beluga caviar, grilled lobster and Grand Cru Chablis, or have your first encounter with periwinkles that have been wok-fried with XO sauce.

With so many choices, it pays to order carefully and also to be explicit about how the meal should progress.

Light, 63 Light Square, city | 7089 9600 | auroraadl.com.au

Owner: Nick and Sophie Dunstone / Light Social Enterprises

Chef: Brendan Wessels

Food: Contemporary

Price: Small $12-$29, main $28-$42, dessert $14.50-$16.50

Drinks: Substantial list of Australian producers with shared values. Reasonable mark ups.

Open: Lunch Thu-Fri, Sun Dinner Wed-Sat

COVID-induced changes in mindset don’t come much bigger than that of Brendan Wessels. Little more than a year ago, he was pushing meringue mix into a 3D printer and serving sherbet to suck through a fake hundred-dollar bill at the attention-seeking d’Arenberg Cube.

Now he is head chef and chief mentor of Aurora, a restaurant based on an altruistic vision of being nothing less than a circuit-breaker for the industry, a place where ego, prestige and unrealistic expectation are set aside and that the work/life balance can be fair and sustainable. He couldn’t be happier and, my goodness, doesn’t it show.

Wessels is originally from South Africa and one section of his menu is devoted to meats and fish from the “braii” or barbecue. Other plates show a mix of influences – South African, Thai, French and particularly Japanese – all elevated above what is normal by small but significant touches of technical virtuosity. Nothing too flashy – just bloody delicious.

Eos by SkyCity, Entry via Station Rd, city | 7077 3960 | skycityadelaide.com.au

Owner: SkyCity

Chef: Kane Pollard

Food: Contemporary

Price: Five courses, $110; seven courses $145

Open: Lunch and dinner daily

In the year since the first review was published, chef Kane Pollard has made significant changes to his approach at Sol.

This can partly be viewed as a chef gaining the confidence to back his own instincts in an environment that could scarcely be more different than Topiary, the garden centre eatery where he first made his name. On the flip side, it would seem he is now being given commendable support in following this path.

The results are spectacular, with Pollard’s innate connection to the season and his surroundings as strong as ever.

Take a spoonful from the spring bowl of asparagus, peas and beans finely diced in a freekeh porridge and it is like delving into a bag of mixed lollies from the vegie patch.

The “Be the Bee” dessert looks like a just-opened sunflower, with petals of dried pumpkin dusted in calendula (marigold) powder. At the centre are shiny beads of mead gel, finger lime and a pumpkin custard, all layered into a treacle snap shell. It’s a truly beautiful plate that tastes just as good.

27 Leigh St, Adelaide | 7089 0350 | fugazzi.com.au

Owners: Simon Kardachi, Max and Laura Sharrad, and partners

Chef: Max Sharrad

Food: Italian

Price: Small $5-$24, main $23-$199 (feeds four), dessert $15-$16

Drinks: A Martini or Manhattan will set the scene before exploring a wine list in which the Italian locals and imports are only part of the fun.

Open: Lunch Tue-Sun, Dinner Tue-Sun

Cancel all meetings. Turn Out of Office on and the mobile off. Pop the cork on something special. The long lunch is back.

It’s Friday mid-afternoon, well past the time for city workers to return to their posts, and the buoyant groups filling the tables around us don’t look like moving anytime soon. There is no checking of watches, no taking urgent calls. Dessert and another bottle? Why not.

This realigning of priorities might be one of the silver linings to the disruption of the past year. Then again, it could just be that, in Fugazzi, the CBD has a restaurant with the pizzazz and sense of occasion to encourage wanton misbehaviour.

Chef Max Sharrad, who along with wife Laura is a partner in the business, take this American/Italian theme as a starting point and brings it up to contemporary speed. That means a menu where snacks outnumber larger courses, a wood grill and vegetables figure prominently, and wakame oil doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

11 Waymouth St, city (enter via Post Office Pl) | 7008 0222 | elevenadl.com.au

Owners: Callum Hann, Themis Chryssidis

Chef: Dan Murphy

Food: Modern French

Price: Small: $6-$35, main: $34-$80, dessert: $14-$16

Drinks: Anyone questioning the value of a sommelier needs to sample Geoffrey Hunt’s exceptional selection, particularly by glass. One of the best around.

Open: Lunch Wed-Fri, Sun. Dinner Wed-Sat

The conversation at the next table goes something like this.

Diner 1: “Where’s Callum? I thought he would be here.”

Diner 2: “Well, I’m sure Callum is very busy. He would have been here constantly at the start, helping to develop the menu, finding the right people, making sure everything ran how he wanted. Now he can step back a little.”

Which is right, to a point. The restaurant part of eleven, the bold city venture from local food personality/entrepreneur Callum Hann (who has surely outgrown the MasterChef tag) and his business partner Themis Chryssidis, can function effectively without them. The cooking is memorable. The drinks list superb.

Adelaide Botanic Garden, off Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide | 8223 3526 | restaurantbotanic.com.au

Owner: Blanco Horner

Chef: Justin James

Food: Contemporary

Price: Set menus – The Short Path, $150; The Long Trail, $195. Vegetarian, vegan and other menus available.

Drinks: Top-shelf wine selection with most bottles at $80-plus. Good options by glass or half-bottle.

Open: Lunch Fri-Sun, Dinner: Thurs-Sat

The starting point is a bowl of lemon aspen jelly with finely diced kohlrabi and halves of twice-shelled green peas that look like minuscule lily pads on the surface of a pond.

The finish is a toffee-topped semi-frozen cream and matching syrup, flavoured with the spiky fallen branches of a bunya bunya tree. Think of old wooden boxes filled with toasted marshmallows and nuts.

Both are stunning but the remarkable part about lunch at the re-imagined Restaurant Botanic is that every one of the nine courses between are their equal. The standard never drops. The thrills don’t let up. As a collection, it is the culinary equivalent (and apologies to youngsters here) of listening to a Beatles album.

This article has been republished from The Advertiser - Licensed by Copyright Agency.