SA restaurants that have stood the test of time
Fried camembert, sun-dried tomatoes — dining trends have changed a lot in 30 years. But some of our best restaurants have managed to adapt and are still at the top of their game. Here are five that have stood the test of time.
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It was 1989. Bob Hawke was prime minister and the Berlin Wall was coming down. Big hair and shoulder pads were in vogue.
For SA restaurants, this was a golden era, when the emergence of a small but committed band of boundary-pushing chefs won widespread praise and saw Adelaide declared the most exciting place to dine in the country.
The pages of The Advertiser Good Food Guide from 1989 are full of memories: the legendary lunches at Chesser Cellars, special nights out at the Magic Flute or Jarmer’s, the dazzling creativity of Mezes or Mistress Augustine’s, the excitement of a drive to the Barossa to dine looking over the dam at the Pheasant Farm.
The same goes for subsequent editions in 1999 and 2009 that, along with this year’s delicious100 list, give a neat summation of the evolution of hospitality in this state over three decades.
“The eight to 10 years from 1985 was the most exciting time in SA restaurant life in the past century,” says Nigel Hopkins, former restaurant writer at The Advertiser and editor of the 1989 guide.
“The whole period was one of enormous discovery for chefs and customers. If you look at menus they were producing then, and put them out for display, people would say how contemporary they were.
“I felt extremely lucky to be reviewing restaurants at that time.”
Like hairstyles and fashion, the way people eat has changed dramatically over this time. Trends emerge and re-emerge constantly. Remember sun-dried tomatoes? Fried camembert?
As a business, restaurants are also incredibly demanding of time for comparatively little reward. So perhaps it shouldn’t be really surprising that only one has featured in every one of these guides — from 1989 onwards — and still makes the cut in the 2019 delicious100 with the same owners and format.
That restaurant is Jasmin, in Hindmarsh Square, where the fragrant north Indian curries and other specialties have been served by the Singh family since 1980.
(Special mention also goes to Chloe’s, the refined eastern suburbs diner run by the debonair Nick Papazahariakis, which would have been included had it not closed earlier this year.)
Anant Singh, who opened Jasmin with husband Jasbeer, still calls by to keep an eye on the kitchen today.
Her son, Amrik Singh, who now manages Jasmin, puts its longstanding popularity down to one thing — consistency.
“I don’t think we are amazing but we are consistent, so people know when they go to the Jasmin what it is going to taste like,” he says. “You know it is going to be a good experience where other places might be a bit hit-and-miss.”
Amrik says dining out is much less formal now than it was 30 years ago.
“It used to be a big deal to go to somewhere like Ayers House,” he says. “Now people are more relaxed. But they don’t drink as much. In the old days, we would often have people who stayed from lunch through to dinner.”
OUR TOP FIVE GOLDEN OLDIES
JASMIN (since 1980)
31 Hindmarsh Square, city
(08) 8223 7837
A giant brass peacock on the stairs helps transport you back to an era when attentive service trumped funky fit-outs as you descend to this basement dining room.
The interiors at Jasmin have hardly changed over the decades since it opened — there’s still the rich wooden tables and chairs, plush carpet on the floor and antiques and landscape art adorning the walls.
Likewise, a quick look at the menu reveals a focused Northern Indian selection of time-loved classics.
Matriarch Anant Singh, now in her nineties, has been at the helm of this kitchen for almost 40 years and still calls in each week to make sure everything is up to scratch. Over that time she has worked out her recipe for success and is sticking to it.
For entrees, lightly spiced beef samosas are encased in flaky pastry, while tandoori prawns are perfectly cooked, the sweet meat balanced by its spice-laden exterior.
The standout is the Punjabi Lamb Tandoori, the cutlets marinated for hours in yoghurt, coriander, chilli and Mrs Singh’s special curry powder before being cooked over charcoal in the tandoor to give them a nice charred crust over moist pink meat.
Main courses travel all the way up and down the spice spectrum — a beef vindaloo and chicken tindaloo for those who like it hot, while milder favourites like lamb korma and butter chicken still pack plenty of spice-driven punch.
Top it all off with some house-made chutney, pickle and raita, as well as oval-shaped naan straight from the tandoor.
The exceptional service continues the old-school charm of this time-honoured fine dining restaurant.
- Hours: L Thurs-Fri D Tues-Sat
- Bill: E $8.50-$21 M $18-$34 D $11
- Wine: Wine list plus BYO | Corkage $18
- Chefs: Anant Singh and Bishnu Adhikari
AMALFI (c1981)
29 Frome St, city
(08) 8223 1948
Italian food in Adelaide has gone through a renaissance recently with an influx of Napoletana-style pizza joints and modern osterie, but CBD mainstay Amalfi has stuck to the original recipe — and the recipe still works.
The Frome St favourite is packed before 7pm on a Tuesday in winter and we quietly congratulate ourselves for arriving earlier as party after party are politely turned away.
Our waiter insists this is unusual but you don’t get to stay in business for nearly 40 years if you’re not packing them in consistently.
Folks don’t come here for fancy. The decor is plain; bare concrete floor, paper menus, kitchen-style wooden chairs. The service is friendly and efficient; a flat gin and tonic is replaced without fuss.
Amalfi’s eschews the trendy, wood-fired bubbly based pizzas that have become ubiquitous these days, sticking with the Italo-Aussie style most of us know and still love.
The capricosa comes on a thick, slightly oily biscuity base and is loaded up with mushrooms, chopped basil and meaty pieces of salami.
The pasta courses are similarly old-school, perhaps the spaghetti and meatball special with plenty of tomato zing, or the egg ribbon pasta with a house sauce of mushroom, pancetta and chilli cream sauce.
A shared serving of the house dessert — tiramisu — could use a bit more cream but still meets the brief that is the heart and soul of this place.
Simple, traditional, comforting food.
- Hours: L Mon-Fri D Mon-Sat
- Bill: E $14.90-$32.5 M $23.50-$34 D $26.50-$34
- Wine: Wine list, plus BYO | Corkage $15
- Chef: Brenton Loughnan
VIETNAM (1984)
73 Addison Rd, Pennington
(08) 8447 3395
Ultra-fresh herbs, iconic Vietnamese spices and a no-frills approach to some of the best food you’ll taste this side of the South China Sea. That’s what you’re in for at Vietnam.
The legendary restaurant has been in operation for more than 35 years, as the staff uniforms proudly proclaim.
Yes, the dining room is looking a little tired, with its fish tank, wood-panelled walls and laminated tables, but you won’t notice — or care — as soon as a plate of roll-your-own cold rolls is placed in front of you. The pork meatball version of course, because how can you resist those succulent skewers?
Hanoi-style spring rolls feature minced prawn, vermicelli and mushroom, wrapped in deep-fried rice paper, making them crisper than their Chinese cousins. Wrap them in herbs and a lettuce leaf before dunking them in that zingy dipping sauce.
Lucky diced beef is a must-try, the cubes of scotch fillet given just enough time in the pan, while BBQ lemongrass chicken is also a winner, generous portions of meat served skin-on with a dipping sauce that’s got a bit of kick.
Lightly battered crispy squid is topped with an extra sprinkle of flavour — some onion here, chopped chilli there, and a bit of coriander to keep things fresh.
Wash it all down with one of the two Vietnamese beers on the very extensive — and reasonably priced — drinks list for a truly authentic experience.
- Hours: L|D Tues-Sun
- Bill: E $5.20-$18.90 M $12.90-$37.90 D $8.90-$14.90
- Wine: Wine list plus BYO | Corkage $15
- Chefs: Suong Thi Ho, Ben Phan
CHIANTI (c1985)
150 Hutt St, city
(08) 8232 7955
Walk into the dining room and you’d be forgiven for thinking not much has changed in this 40-plus-year-old Adelaide icon.
White linen, professional waiters in black waistcoats and long white aprons, fine Italian fare and a warm welcome for everyone from families to tourists to romantic couples and the city’s movers and shakers have guaranteed Chianti a loyal clientele and a well-earned place as one of the city’s best restaurants.
So what if they’re playing Engelbert Humperdinck or if your waiter can’t quite get his tongue around the name of an Italian red (“my Italian’s a bit rusty,” he says, “but I do speak Klingon.”)
In the kitchen, however, a fresh new approach has shifted the focus, with clever reinterpretations of Italian standards like baccala, served in a crisp cigar of pastry, and more vegetable choices that are a dish in themselves (like charcoal leeks with dragoncello salsa, or cavolo nero with cannellini beans). There are also more sharing options — an “apple orchard raised chook”, cooked over charcoal or a slow-cooked goat leg. Another table has the rear portion of the fish of the day, swordfish, complete with tail.
Traditional dishes like tagliatelle with blue swimmer crab, tomato sugo, chilli and basil, or the ubiquitous cotoletta — crumbed veal with fontina and sage, described by our irrepressible waiter as “an up-market schnitty” — are utterly delicious.
Looking after all-comers, then, continues to be the Chianti way.
- Hours: B|L|D Daily
- Bill: E $9.50-$16 M $28-$36 $14-$17
- Wine: Wine list, plus BYO | Corkage $25
- Chef: Toby Gush
VICTORY HOTEL (c1992)
Main South Rd, Sellicks Hill
(08) 8556 3083
Trust a McLaren Vale pub to do things a bit differently. If you’ve ever been in two minds that South Australia is God’s own country, plonk yourself down at a table at the Victory with a crisp white and a view stretching to the beaches of the South Coast.
You’ll be rubbing shoulders with winemakers and artisan food producers — perhaps Andy Clappis who makes the pita bread for the house dips starter — or the local footy team if you can’t get into the packed restaurant and have to eat in the front bar.
The menu is peppered with local references — Myponga Beach salt and pepper squid, Kangaroo Island king george whiting — and unashamedly swings from twice cooked braised pork belly with gorgonzola polenta to a classic pub chicken schnitzel.
The Coffin Bay oysters with crispy pork are like Kilpatrick on steroids — a rich glossy reddish-brown sauce with chunks of pork which needs to be leavened with a cleansing ale or Wirra Wirra sauvignon blanc.
The pork belly comes with pickled mushrooms and a smooth, creamy polenta, plus plenty of greens for a bit of freshness.
Crisp five spice duck legs sit on a bed of springy yellow noodles amid a hearty broth. You won’t leave here hungry.
And for discerning parents it’s refreshing that the Victory also has a dedicated children’s menu which goes beyond the usual nuggets and chips, with green veggies and pesto pasta, a mini burger, and even a scotch fillet available for the little tackers.
- Hours: L|D Mon-Sun
- Bill: E $5-27- M $20-$35 D $14
- Wine: Wine list plus BYO | Corkage $15
- Chef: Glenn Worrall
