Bond Store review, Wallaroo best restaurants | delicious.SA: Regional 50

Wallaroo, the historic port on the Yorke Peninsula, is home to an enterprise remarkable in its ambition and scope — a micro-brewery, distillery, bar and restaurant in one.

Swordfish steak at the Bond Store, Wallaroo

13 Owen Tce, Wallaroo

[phone]

bondstore.net.au

Travelling to the Yorke Peninsula? See our guide to the region

It’s early in the evening and peals of laughter are already echoing up the staircase from below. On ground level, two bearded blokes are pouring pints of ale and stout they have brewed in the gleaming tanks out the back. So where are we? A city laneway? Melbourne? Madrid? Nope, it’s Wallaroo.

The historic port on the Yorke Peninsula is home to an enterprise remarkable in its ambition and scope.

Derek and Nicole Matthewman have converted a colonial-era warehouse into a business that incorporates a micro-brewery, distillery, bar and restaurant.

The cooking goes above and beyond what you would expect in a town where pub grub rules. Chef Diego Sanchez and his team are making good use of a grill in the kitchen and an adjoining garden patch where they grow fruit, herbs, lettuces and other greens.

A bao of pork belly is overshadowed by a vegan version in which a black bun is loaded with slices of smoked shiitake, house-pickled onions and cucumber.

Yorke Peninsula lamb cutlets are served country style with no fancy trimming around the bone and come with blobs of sweet potato puree, peas and puffed wild rice grains.

Seafood is handled with a creative touch. Fried squid is dusted with a mix of green lentil flour and Szechuan pepper instead of the usual salt and pepper coating, while a handsome swordfish steak zebra-striped by the grill is laid over a splotch of cauliflower puree and a salad of shredded artichoke heart and chargrilled cucumber.

Eskimo pie? This one has honey and stout ice-cream aboard a brownie-like base, all wrapped in dark chocolate.

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• Hours: L Fri-Sun D Thu-Sat 
• Bill: E $14-$19 M $24-$44 D $7-$16
• Wine: Wine list
• Chef: Diego Sanchez