Going out in winter is never difficult if you know where to go and what to order. Use our Winter Eating Guide to find new and old favourites to fill up on at breakfast, lunch or dinner during SA Food Month.
June 29, 2019
Habits
Adelaide winter eating guide
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This July CityMag is embarking on a small mission to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and try something new on the menus of our favourite inner city eateries, restaurants, cafés and lunch spots.
In anointing July, SA Food Month, we hope to give focus to our food and drink coverage of the city and introduce you to either places you’ve never been to or dishes you’ve never sampled in a restaurant you frequent often.
Adelaide is fortunate to be situated in the heart of a food bowl with food growing regions north, east and south of the city. Each venue in our winter eating guide is the very best example of local produce being re-interpreted through myriad cultural lenses to produce some of the finest dining experiences imaginable.
Winter can also be a tough time for our city’s restaurants as we recoil from the cold and seek the quickest route between home and work and – necessarily – bed. We promise you though, that these venues are worth staying in town for, worth recommending to friends and worth your support.
Let’s eat!
Image: Andrè Castellucci
Ban Ban
145 Franklin Street, Adelaide 5000
Level 1, Rundle Mall Plaza, Adelaide 5000
Franklin Street’s dedicated beer and Korean fried chicken joint is encouraging good times at their place with their crispy wings + beer for just $14.90. Ban Ban do fried chicken differently to how you may have had it before – we recommend going in for the hot and crunchy style and chewy rice cake skewers!
Image: Jack Fenby
Comida at Roxie’s
188 Grenfell Street, Adelaide 5000
Comida Kitchen is Adelaide’s most under-rated eatery. After establishing themselves in Adelaide Central Market the Spanish specialists have moved their catering operation to the larger kitchen on-site at Roxie’s on Grenfell Street. Small plates, large plates and wood oven pizzas Wed-Sun. 6pm-Late.
First Order Coffee
82 Ifould Street, Adelaide 5000
Coffee by day – Na Zdorovie by night. The café tucked away on Ifould Street (opposite CBC high School) has the ability to transform on Friday nights into one of the most authentic Russian pelmeni (dumpling) bars in Adelaide. Finish your week with zakuski and cured vegetables paired with vodka and minimal intervention wines on a Friday night. Bookings are essential – hello@firstordercoffee.com.au.
Image supplied
Golden Boy
309 North Terrace, Adelaide 5000
On the north eastern tip of our city sits our most popular restaurant. You can either book for Golden Boy and avoid the wait, or you can lean into the wait time with some drinks downstairs in their brand new Cellar Bar. Golden Boy’s buzz makes everything taste better, but we highly recommend the ‘tuk tuk’ menu either at the bar or IN THE KITCHEN. You’ll get best looked after in either of these positions.
The Golden Wattle
110 Pirie Street, Adelaide 5000
A chef from Magill Estate and some of Adelaide’s most experienced pub people means you’re in for one helluva parmigiana here. Open from breakfast until late six days a week, we can also take joy in highly endorsing their $10 bacon & egg roll + coffee deal as well as their $4 bottomless black coffee schtick in the AM.
Henry’s Table at Ayers House
288 North Terrace, Adelaide 5000
The house specialty, Bebek Betutu, a 24hr-in-advance-type Balinese duck dish that serves 2 for main or 4 for entrée is a reason to visit Henry’s Table alone. This winter, the price has been reduced to $68 so you can enjoy a bit of opulence in one of Adelaide’s most important colonial-era houses. Henry’s Table is celebratory and at the same time a little edgy with a great value ‘no rules’ menu. The interior of this restaurant was designed by an Adelaide man who’s designed creche’s for future kings in Saudi Arabia as well as rooms for the British Royal Family. True story!
Hey Jupiter
11 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide 5000
The cutest French diner in the country, open early until late every single day of the week, Hey Jupiter is a great spot for an intimate date or the city’s best breakfast. Since opening for dinners we’ve been getting familiar with Brasserie faire, which is – without doubt – best enjoyed on a cold winter eve.
Image: Johnny von Einem
Honki Tonki
38 Hindley Street, Adelaide 5000
BH Building, UniSA City West Campus, 68-70 North Terrace, Adelaide 5000
The one thing you just have to try here are the chicken & mushroom dumplings, which are best accompanied by BBQ pork & noodles. Honki Tonki do lunch worth travelling across town for and the bustling stores on our university campuses prove that the price is right!
La Buvette Drinkery
27 Gresham Street, Adelaide 5000
Adelaide’s home of natural wine, the kitchen here is often left unreported on. What started out life as a space to prepare some of Adelaide’s most filling and delicious charcuterie boards, now regularly pumps out the best bourguignon in the city. Eating here is like dating a Frenchman who cooks as good as he kisses.
Levant Eatery
252 Hindley Street, Adelaide 5000
70 Pirie Street, Adelaide 5000
Thank goodness for the Al-Sweedy family bringing proper falafel to town. Long have we dined at the family homes of our friends with heritage hailing from the Levant and never have we found that same light and fresh and zingy flavourful and healthy food in a restaurant before now. This special of scorched cauliflower on a bed of freekah is a superb example of the plant-based approach but we can also fully endorse their fries and special sauce for something more, ahem, comforting.
Image supplied
Level One at Electra House Hotel
Level One, 131 King William Street, Adelaide 5000
Level One’s chef Josh Kim’s dumpling class at Tasting Australia sold out in a week this year. It then went on to sell out a second session and added a third. Book a table at his place now, because the new menu is out now and it’s going to be well worth sitting down for.
Little Khmer Kitchen
Shop 56 Central Market Arcade, Adelaide 5000
When Sreymom Lund took over the ‘sausage king’s’ shop in Central Market Arcade it was based on a hunch that Adelaide was ready for authentic Cambodian street food. Not only was she right, but she was surprised to discover that 25-35 per cent of her customers are Cambodian and Thai. This is the real deal and lunch is always fresh-made before your eyes and delivered promptly. Sreymom has hospitality in her bones and can’t help but seek to make her customers happy. “We’re fully customisable, and many people ask if we can make a dish they had in Thailand or Cambodia that’s not on our menu and – because of our location in the Market – we can usually run around and find what we need and make it for them,” says Sreymom.
Image: Jack Fenby
Midnight Spaghetti
196 Grenfell Street, Adelaide 5000
Great dining with a big group or at the bar alone, this quiet achiever established itself upstairs at the Crown and Anchor Hotel without any fuss but eating here during winter is an absolute must! Also a must is the Midnight Spaghetti and anything with Campari in it, though the wine list is great too. Cheap, cheerful and the place in Adelaide with the most potential to turn a quiet night into a much larger and raucous experience.
My Kingdom for a Horse
191-195 Wright Street, Adelaide 5000
Packed on weekends, My Kingdom for a Horse lifted the level of brunchery in Adelaide by 10. Always open – famously on public holidays – we find it’s the weekday lunch burger (beef or haloumi) & beer (or vino) for $25.90 that really sets the standard. Excellent coffee and great staff with a pretty regular roster of city-famous dogs out the front.
NANO
23 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide 5000
Maximum flavour with minimum fuss, breakfast and lunch at NANO on Ebenezer Place is such good value you’ll feel like you’re stealing. Order the special, our favourite is the green peas pasta or the ragu pie! Coffee for $3.40 means you’ll have two and we’ve already crowned Nano in the top five for good value breakfasts in the city so you know how they do that. NANO is timeless.
Nathan Bakes
2/39 Grenfell Street, Adelaide 5000
The 100% Vegan & gluten-free patisserie on Grenfell Street is great for a pick-me-up in the cold and wintry weather. Try their ‘decadent hug in a mug’ but also definitely give their ‘wheel of fortune‘ a spin and let fate decide.
Image: Josh Geelen
NOLA
28 Vardon Avenue, Adelaide 5000
It’s easy to forget Adelaide’s premiere whiskey and beer joint does kick-arse chicken and creole-inspired cooking each night until late. The bar that began it all for the Big Easy Group (The Stag, Yiasou George and Anchovy Bandit) is the ideal date spot on a Thursday when you’re looking for something cool and cultural to do with all the perks of a great bar plus live music of the jazz / soul / r’n’b / blues persuasion upstairs from 8pm.
Peter Rabbit
234-244 Hindley Street, Adelaide 5000
One of the most agile and interesting plant-based menus in the city, this patch of grass on Hindley Street is an absolute must try and is expanding with a second site soon. From warm honey-drizzled oats in the morning through a hearty lunch, this little café turned bar continues to shine as example of what imagination can do to transform our city.
Image: Johnny von Einem
Press*
40 Waymouth Street, Adelaide 5000
The fire starter of Adelaide’s restaurant renaissance Press* cooks over a wood grill and can even make a pie floater look fancy. While it’s easy enough to walk in and plonk yourself down on one of the long tables down stairs – we highly recommend the booth experience upstairs. Why not start with a wine at Proof beforehand and then soak that up with the stalwart crab pappardelle at Press to finish.
Image supplied
Red October
22 Gilbert Place, Adelaide 5000
Dumplings and vodka are low-key trending in the city. Take 2 (or 10) friends to Red October for knock-offs and get stuck right into both things here. Red October demonstrates just how far the small venue licence has brought our city, where you can eat your fill of farmhouse Russian cuisine upstairs before pushing on a nondescript wall and finding your way down underground to one of Adelaide’s most impressive whisky bars.
Shibui Dessert Bar
2/160 Grote Street, Adelaide 5000
If you haven’t been taken / taken someone to Shibui Dessert Bar, you must be seriously deep on Father Christmas’ naughty list. Be kind. Eat dessert. Shibui’s redskin softserve at Adelaide Fringe in Gluttony this year almost stole the show and helped the gourmands behind the concept get a critical mass behind their world-class product. Don’t skimp out here and take some friends to help you tackle the long list of things you’re going to want to try from their menu. You know a city’s grown up when it’s got a dessert bar of this calibre.
Image: Johnny von Einem
Sit Lo
30 Bank Street, Adelaide 5000
A pho is about the only thing that can make a Friday taste better than it does already. We hear whispers Sit Lo is about to expand its footprint across Adelaide but their birthplace on Bank Street is where you need to go for the true experience. Take a friend for a slurp on the beef noodle soup, share a crispy chicken bao and be happy.
Sparkke at the Whitmore
317 Morphett Street, Adelaide 5000
Emma McCaskill has built a fresh, seasonally evolving menu of mains-made-to-share since taking up the helm at Sparkke at the Whitmore. We loved the taste of this sultry looking drunken chicken and with new beers now flowing from the brewpub’s nano brewery, there’s never been a better time to head in for a Sunday, Monday, whatever-day session.
Image: Johnny von Einem
Sunny’s Pizza
17 Solomon Street, Adelaide 5000
When big acts play at Rocket Bar – people like Theo Parrish or Mndsgn– you’ll inevitably run into them beforehand at Sunny’s Pizza. After John Lethlean’s rave review (you’ll have to pay to read) and a consistent roster of interesting kitchen takeovers, Adelaide’s first and only clubstaurant has maintained its pull to a seedy back lane off Hindley Street by pumping out consistently delicious pizza and Brussel sprouts (yes, Brussel sprouts). Always order the No. 1 + pepperoni. Choose freely from the ‘Not Pizza’ menu and buy whatever booze they tell you to.
Café Troppo
42 Ivarityi Whitmore Square, Adelaide 5000
Sitting on the sunny side of Whitmore Square this absolute health bomb of a café has everything good going for it including wine and beer. We come here on Friday night for the most laid back and enjoyable live music you could imagine starting your weekend with and then either Saturday or Sunday for their seasonal specials and fresh-tapped Kombucha and always delcious DeGroot Coffee.
Udaberri Pintxos y Vino
11-13 Leigh Street, Adelaide 5000
New booths upstairs are a good time, order from the new menu too, but patatas bravas are a forever thing at Udaberri. Creators of the first ‘fancy gin’ – large wine glasses full with ice, tonic and botanicals plucked from whatever gin you choose, this Basque-inspired little bar is an absolute belter for a Thursday evening when the DJ is doing what they want downstairs and the staff have more than a millisecond to chat about what’s good to try.
Where We Met
113 South Terrace, Adelaide 5000
A light-filled cafe overlooking Veale Gardens on South Terrace that celebrates delicious, flavour- filled, and simple food. Ben Allen has opened Where We Met – a community-driven café based on Ben’s extensive 14-year history in the industry – to connect locals and travellers alike with a refined coffee experience thanks to the got-to-see-it-to-believe-it Modbar coffee machine by La Marzocco.
Image: Lewis Potter
Yiasou George
26 East Terrace, Adelaide 5000
Wood-fired and stone-cooked, fresh made pita pillows scoop up the most velvety-soft and house-made dips at the recently launched Yiasou George. Jutting out of the southern side of the new Stag Public House at the corner of Rundle Street and East Terrace, this modern and southern European-inspired taverna has the relaxed, but upmarket dining vibe down to a T. Order dishes cooked in the fire oven and stick around to a bit later because the waiters are known to offer complimentary shots of ouzo for those who are game. Opa!
Image supplied
2KW
Level 8, 2 King William Street, Adelaide 5000
Pro-tip for 2KW: Avoid a heaving crowd, book on a weeknight (make sure the somm. Liinaa Berry is working) and take your time choosing your wine while you enjoy the view. CityMag has written about 2KW extensively as we’ve been consistently impressed by the new additions to their menu and innovations in the kitchen. This is a serious operation, not just a pretty glass box with a million-dollar view. Fly in (or climb the stairs and use the elevator like the rest of us)!
Image supplied
8020BK
36 Blyth Street, Adelaide 5000
All of the things at this modern Thai eatery are good & that’s why they’re all in this pic. LOOK AT IT ALL. We’re happy to offer CityMag readers 20% off their bill if you book on a Monday night in July. Mention CityMag when making your booking and be sure to try the steam curry seafood and spicy eggplant house favourites!
CityMag is celebrating the best food and drink businesses in Adelaide throughout July. If you’re a food business who wants to get involved, contact us here.
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