Hortas review, Fleurieu best restaurants | delicious.SA: Regional 50

A beachside restaurant not too far from town makes the most of its stunning location.

Seafood at Hortas, Port Noarlunga.

2 Saltfleet St, Port Noarlunga

[phone]

hortas.com.au

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Cleverly integrated into the upper floor of a building that is also home to the local lifesaving club, Hortas has one of the best restaurant settings along the metro coastline and, unlike a few of its brethren, doesn’t let it go to waste.

Things look promising a few steps inside the front door, where whole fish (gar and sole) glisten in the chiller cabinet. And to the right the sea is such a deep, sparkling sapphire blue that eating something with at least a vague connection to it makes absolute sense.

Owner Filipe Horta understands this and, coming from Portugal, a country where the ocean is always close at hand, has pushed to make this focus stronger since he opened nine years ago. Kick off with a selection of “Petiscos”, the Portuguese version of tapas, including salted cod (or baccala) cakes and crumbed mushrooms that have enough oomph to more than hold their own.

Hortas’ signature dish is the Portuguese specialty “cataplana”, a wok-like metal dish filled with crab, mussels and other seafood in a deep pool of paprika and garlic scented tomato broth.

A pair of garfish, cleverly dissected so head and tail are still attached to butterflied fillets, perfectly fit the day’s brief. The delicate white flesh needs nothing more than its buttery pan juices, though a garlicky dressing off to the side is certainly good on the salad.

For dessert, a picture-perfect fondant produces a decadent ooze of chocolate lava when broken open.

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• Hours: L Mon-Sun D Tue-Sat
• Bill: E $8.20-$19.90 M $23.90-$142 (for two) D $16.50
• Wine: Wine list
• Chef: Geoff Skelton