Category Archive: Restaurants
Magill Estate
17 January 2018 Magill Estate is The Varnished Culture’s favourite eating joint in Adelaide. It is not cheap; it is not overly casual (although dress code is fairly relaxed these days). Hence we tend to get there on special occasions. But if you can afford it, or have the wherewithal to save up a few hundred bucks, do yourself a favour and go – any day or night there will be a special occasion. The day had been warm and the sunset was red, giving us a lovely view over the historic Penfolds vines, down the hill towards the city…
Continue Reading →Spaghetti Western
111 King William Street, May 2017 Another Italian restaurant in Adelaide? Give us a break! But Spaghetti Western is an attempt at something different, positioning itself neatly between the haute Mediterranean cuisine of, say, an Il Bacaro in Melbourne, and the ho-hum, red-and-white-checked pasta houses that line the streets like weeds. It is also cleverly situated, being near the various laneway bars and watering-holes popping-up on Waymouth Street, just around the corner. Modelled on a fusion of the mock 19thC horse operas such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (where, incidentally, the best grub the gunslingers usually get is a smear of stinking beans)…
Continue Reading →Sean’s Kitchen
(Adelaide, May 2017) This sliver of a dining room just adjacent the Adelaide Casino (and in fact, part of the Skycity complex – on the way to the loo you can peer through a window at the poor wretches playing the pokies) is trendy, at least on current trends. Whilst L thought the refectory-type furniture a tad less than comfortable, there was compensation provided by the confident menu and spot-on service. Our table started with a Waldorf salad ‘Moderne’ à la Sean and the King Crab Cocktail – these saucy homages to the 1970s were adequate, but seasoned by nostalgia rather than hitting us…
Continue Reading →Namaste
Namaste Nepalese Restaurant, 41 George Street, Parkside SA (8272 2288) This lovely little joint tucked away in the south side of Adelaide used to be a chi-chi coffee shop which passed (disastrously) through various hands till its current emanation. Now its a great place for a small party or a quiet dinner. Beware of imitations: this is the best joint of its kind in town (to find anything properly comparable, you’d have to travel down to the Bay). We started with a combination of entrees – Momos, chicken or vegetable dumplings with ginger, garlic, spring onion & coriander. Steamed and served with tomato achar,…
Continue Reading →Lenzerheide
Since Alphutte closed in Adelaide, the only decent Swiss Restaurant in town is this sumptuous, stylish, slurpy Swiss (even the alliteration is properly period) sanctuary from the seventies, a haven of style! Carpet! Heavy curtains! Bad art! Lovely! Service has the deference shown by shop assistants in Jermyn Street, London (that is, über polite) but more friendly, and less formal. And of a high competence. Back in May this year, we feasted on a fine shellfish ragout (lobster, spencer gulf prawns, scallops, with roma tomatoes and lotsa cream, white wine and puff pastry); a potato, garlic and herb tortellini, coriander and walnut salsa verde,…
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