These newish Adelaide restaurants make you want to jump on a plane and head to the South Australian capital.
With super fresh produce flowing in from the rich food-growing areas around South Australia and the ability to obtain a decent feed for under $100, dining out in Adelaide is a real treat.
Here’s my top Adelaide restaurant picks that’ll blow your stockings off:
1. Orana
Credited with putting South Australia back on the food map, this five-year old restaurant continues to draw national acclaim. Orana – which means ‘welcome’ in some Aboriginal languages – uses local and Indigenous ingredients to craft out an inventive menu that’s dead set defining Australian cuisine.
Be prepared to throw down some coin, as a meal here doesn’t come cheap – the degustation-only dinner menu is $240pp, with wine matching an extra $170pp. But, if you’re after a food experience that has some serious wow factor, it’s money well spent.
Over a hectic 18-odd courses, you get to flex your tastebuds with things like potato damper served with roast lamb butter; a kangaroo tail, pepper and potato pie; and marron with green ants and Geraldton wax.
Orana | 1/285 Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia
restaurantorana.com
Image credit: Matthew Turner
Image credit: Restaurant Orana and Bistro Blackwood
2. Osteria Oggi
Wow, what a package this modern Italian restaurant is. I came here on my last trip to Adelaide and was suitably impressed. Osteria Oggi is slick – there’s a reason why it regularly pulls a crowd. The space is beautiful and has deservedly won all kinds of interior design awards – it’s like a bright indoor courtyard filled with cosy booths and communal tables.
Speaking of communal, the menu is best shared. We did the shared three-course lunch for $45pp and the value just blew my mind. Sicilian green olives, house smoked kingfish, a parmesan polenta cake-thing, grain salad and two pastas, and we were consequently very happy with life. The pasta is made fresh daily and you can 100% tell – the blue swimmer crab pasta, just wow!
Osteria Oggi’s wine list is also carefully-curated and deserves a mention. It reminded me how much I miss having easy access to South Australian wine.
Osteria Oggi | 76 Pirie Street, Adelaide, South Australia
osteriaoggi.com.au
Image credit: Food & Wine Collective
3. Africola
To be fair, I’ve actually never been to Africola, but a lot of fuss has been made over this East End restaurant that combines the flavours and cooking styles of Africa, with the hot diggity damn good produce that comes out of South Australia. Africola is the creation of South African-born chef Duncan Welgemoed, who worked his way through London’s Michelin-starred kitchens, before deciding Adelaide was an a’ight place to settle.
This dinner-only restaurant beats to the rhythm of its own drum and is unlike anything else you’ll experience in Adelaide, maybe Australia. It’s all-round loud, playful and yum (or so I’ve been told).
On the menu you have things like fried cauliflower with tahini cream and peri peri chicken with boom!chakalaka – that’s Africola’s version of the South African vegetable relish chakalaka. Oh and you can BYO booze ($20 a bottle), or just opt in for Africola’s own natural wine-heavy drinks list.
Siri, remind me to prioritise Africola next time I visit Adelaide.
Africola | 4 East Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia
africola.com.au
Image credit: South Australian Tourism Commission
Image credit: South Australian Tourism Commission
4. Gondola Gondola
All my friends have not shut up about this Peel Street spot since the beginning of time (or since it opened in 2015). You can only book a table for large groups, which means if you’re a couple you’re likely left in the draughty third-class front section, perched at a tiny table that could have come from the local kindy. As consolation, you get a front row seat to the comings and goings of Hindley Street and on a Saturday night, boy, what a show!
But, the South East Asian street food makes everything right in the world again. It’s absolutely divine. The chicken and corn dumplings are from another planet. Sit back and enjoy.
Gondola Gondola | 1 Peel Street, Adelaide, South Australia
facebook.com/gondolagondolakitchenbar
Image credit: South Australian Tourism Commission
More Adelaide restaurants…
That’s a solid starting point, but Adelaide’s restaurant game has a lot more to offer beyond those four. You also can’t go wrong with Andre’s Cucina & Polenta Bar, Peel St, Shobosho, Sean’s Kitchen, Sunny’s Pizza, Golden Boy, Lantern by Nu and my ol’ favourite Press* Food & Wine (full review here).
Because I’m a helpful bee, if you’re thinking a trip to Adelaide, here’s a couple of posts you might like to have a gander at: Everything you need to know about holidaying in Adelaide. Or this one: 13 reasons why you would enjoy an Adelaide holiday.
