The best venues for sealing the deal. Adelaide’s top restaurants for a business lunch

The perfect lunch venue can give you the edge you need to land that big deal. We’ve compiled a list of Adelaide’s top five venues to help you get the job done.

Adelaide’s top food spots to seal the deal. Artwork Steve Grice / The Advertiser.

The art of the business lunch takes years to perfect. You can’t just launch into your pitch from the get go, you need to ease into it, letting your guests take the edge off their hunger and perhaps allow the wine to do its work.

And the importance of choosing the right venue can’t be underestimated.

You need a spot where you’ll be greeted by name, establishing that you are indeed someone worth lunching with - where the menu is just right, and where the staff know the perfect balance between being attentive to your every need, and knowing when to give you space to clinch the deal.

Adelaide’s top-shelf restaurateurs have established themselves as the place to be seen doing business, or to serendipitously bump into those who are.

As business leaders return to offices, and dining tables, around the nation, we’ve selected what we believe to be Adelaide’s top business restaurants for your dining and dealing pleasure.

Georges on Waymouth

• Address: 20 Waymouth St
• Cuisine: Modern Mediterranean
• Signature dish: Lamb press

George's on Waymouth Street, Adelaide.

When the restaurant’s “house red” is a Torbreck GSM labelled specifically for the venue you know you’re dining somewhere special. While the turbulent pandemic year has meant that Georges didn’t have its bespoke red this year, or its house white from The Lane, the quality of hospitality served up by long time proprietor George Kasimatis certainly has not changed. The restaurant, which opened 19 years ago, is perfectly positioned for coffee catch-ups directly opposite to offices of Deloitte, ANZ and News Corp Australia, and a stone’s throw from BHP’s still new-ish Franklin St digs.

Georges on Waymouth owner and proprietor George Kasimatis.

Finlaysons partner Will Taylor is a regular in the mornings, perhaps working on his next wine roadshow, and former ABC board member and supreme networker Donny Walford is also often in attendance, occasionally running her Behind Closed Doors events at the restaurant.

While it’s definitely among the top two or three venues in town to “accidentally” bump into the city’s executive class, if you’ve got something delicate to discuss keep an eye out for journos from The Advertiser who are often floating about. Members of the former government’s Economic Development Board once got up and moved seats when they found themselves a bit too close for comfort with one business scribe.

Behind Closed Doors managing director and founder Donnie Walford is a regular.

The stunning photography on the walls is by local artist Luiza Michalewicz whose husband, Matthew Michalewicz, managing director of Complexica is often running potential customers through the magic of AI at a table. Kasimatis says the key for him and his staff is knowing when to be attentive, and when to back away and give customer a bit of room to talk, or wheel and deal.

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Pranzo

• Address: 46 Exchange Place
• Cuisine: Contemporary Italian
• Signature dish: Taglierini bue swimmer crab with chilli, brandy cream, napolitana

Anna Camerlengo, co-owner of Pranzo restaurant.

In practical terms, does former Crows chairman and BankSA boss Rob Chapman even need an office? Given that you’re a good bet to find him perched just inside the door to Pranzo with long time collaborator Jim Hazel, if he’s not at George’s that is, it’s probably arguable.

You can often find Rob Chapman just inside the front door at Pranzo.

Executive recruiter Phil Morton is pretty much part of the furniture as well, with co-owner Anna Camerlengo well past the point where she needs to ask his order, and why not? The place is packed with executives each morning, with Santos and Beach Energy types milling about, the occasional lobbyist and the Property Council’s Daniel Gannon often in attendance.

Pranzo has everything you need for the perfect business catch-up: large, street-facing windows so everyone can see who you’re meeting with, superb staff whose familiarity grants you extra kudos, and for the regulars, the ability to run a tab. There are also two entrances so if you need to make a quick getaway, you’re sweet.

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Chianti

• Address: 160 Hutt St
• Cuisine: Italian
• Signature dish: The best carpaccio in Adelaide

Chianti, 160 Hutt Street, Adelaide, SA. Picture: Emma Brasier

If you want to be greeted like a long lost relative, venture no further than Chianti, a thoroughly family affair which has been at the top of the tree for long lunches since it started out as Chianti Classico in Light Square in the 1980s.

Maria Favaro has been running Chianti, one of Adelaide’s top Italian restaurants and business meeting places, with her family for more than 30 years. Photo: Russell Millard

Frank and Maria Favaro’s unremitting hospitality and the superb seasonal menu has the place packed with lawyers, accountants and most definitely the state’s political elites from breakfast to the late hours, and the associated Bar Torino, launched by their children a few years ago, means the venues are a double threat these days.

Bar Torino owners Nick and Jess Favaro-Richards - their bar has been the place to be on a Friday night since it launched.

While the upstairs dining room is a favourite for private business soirees, it’s also possible to hazard a guess as to why it’s so well sought out for political intrigue. Perhaps being about as far away from Parliament House while still being able to dine with style in the CBD is the attraction, although it hasn’t worked in terms of keeping a low profile.

Former Labor premier Jay Weatherill and current opposition leader, then union boss Peter Malinauskas famously met here to build a relationship which would see Weatherill later ascend to the top job, and a 2015 catch-up between then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, his chief-of-staff Peta Credlin and then-Education Minister Christopher Pyne took place here just six weeks before the PM was rolled by Malcolm Turnbull.

Former premier Jay Weatherill meeting with then Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) secretary, now opposition leader Peter Malinauskas over breakfast at Chianti restaurant on Hutt Street in 2010.

Big Liberal Party donor and mining company boss Sally Zou has also been known to frequent Chianti, most notably when former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who she’s a big fan of, was in attendance.

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Eros Kafe

• Address: 275 Rundle St
• Cuisine: Greek
• Signature dish: Char-grilled octopus

Eros Kafe, 275 Rundle Street, Adelaide, SA. Picture: Emma Brasier

With its windows which open to the street, Eros is the perfect place to sit and catch every passers-by who wanders down Rundle St in the city’s East End. It’s a favourite for property magnate Theo Maras who regularly holds court, treating guests to ample helpings of octopus, calamari and chicken dishes, while greeting his many associates, customers and tenants who wander past.

Steve and Theo Maras have an office just around the corner, so what better place to get a taste of the homeland than Eros Kafe?

Owners Joyce and Jim Dimitropoulos have been in business 26 years, with Jim’s heritage in the area going back to the East End’s time as a fruit and veg market.

The perfect Greek salad at Eros Kafe..

Given the demographic of the East End there’s more than your usual share of advertising and marketing types in attendance, with KWP chief executive David O’Loughlin spotted there recently catching up withy another Business SA board member. Property Council members and construction industry bosses are also regulars.

What’s your favourite SA spot for a business meeting or long lunch? Comment below.

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White Picket Coffee House

• Address: 10 Stuart Rd, Dulwich
• Signature dish: Coconut chicken salad, or the hashbrown burger.

Quaint yet influential. White Picket Coffee House in Dulwich.

Being walking distance from the homes of many of the state’s political, property and legal powerbrokers means you’ll be bumping elbows with a top tier crowd should you venture into White Picket on a Saturday morning. Nestled in the centre of two of Adelaide’s premium high end suburbs in Dulwich and Toorak Gardens, and with a view of the terrifically impressive Dulwich House (depending on where you sit) it’s a delightfully quaint setting, as the name suggests.

Smashed avocado on rye, served with feta, lime, beetroot, spiced pepitas and herbs.

That said, with many a business meeting taking place outside the CBD these days, it’s not unusual to see the head of a CRC or a property investment scion holding court in the outside seating area. Indeed the associated local businesses Gigi’s cafe and Dulwich Bakery tend to be packed on weekdays at the moment, and it’s not all moneyed retirees, although given the local demographics there are definitely plenty of those. Careful getting a park, if you have a fender bender you’re most likely looking at repair costs on a Range Rover or Porsche Cayenne, and probably a new one!