Five to Try: Adelaide’s best pasta joints

Looking for some comfort in the cold? Eat pasta. Stellar offerings both old and new mean the options in Adelaide are boundless. Here are five of the best.

Italian Pasta Fresca on Henley Beach Road. Picture Supplied

Who doesn’t love a good plate of pasta? There’s plenty of options around Adelaide to satisfy your carb cravings. Here are five of the city’s best.

Nido

Five to Try: Adelaide's best pasta - Nido. Pics: Instagram.

Before Fugazzi, there was Nido. Laura and Max Sharrad launched their pasta bar on the popular shopping and dining strip in 2019, serving up hand-rolled pasta dishes such as ricotta gnocchi, aglio e olio peperoncino and pangrattato, and crowd favourite, agnolotti, taleggio, potato, with chive and poppy seed.

Personally, we suggest the stunning saffron tagliarini, but you can’tgo wrong with this menu, and on the right night you might just see the MasterChef star working her magic behind the counter.

Shop 2/160 King William Rd, Hyde Park

Italia Pasta Fresca

Italian Pasta Fresca on Henley Beach Road. Picture Supplied

From a trio of hospitality veterans comes this revamped Adelaide institution and some of the best pasta this side of Italy.

Claudio Ferraro, Eugenio Maiale and Nick Palumbo took over the pasta factory last year, selling fresh durum wheat pasta by the gram, alongside classics such as ravioli, tortellini and specialty pastas.

Their weekly pasta nights have taken a back seat but you can still take your favourite carbs home with traditional Italian sauces, sold by the jar.

Ferraro and Maiale have also launched their restaurant, Mensa, in Kent Town, with rave reviews for their pappardelle with milk-braised lamb.

219A Henley Beach Rd, Torrensville

Borsa Pasta Cucina

Public holiday listing 2020: Borsa Pasta Cucina. Picture: Borsa Pasta Cucina

No list of the top pastas in town would be complete without this city favourite, tucked away below street level just off Grenfell Plaza.

The menu is dominated by the Italian staple, with 14 options, either fresh (handmade daily in-house) or dry. Our picks include the always popular spaghetti vongole and the authentic carbonara, seasoned perfectly with pepper and healthy amounts of guanciale and pecorino.

Set in a warm, convivial dining space, it’s enough to tempt a Roman to yearn for home.

1/25 Grenfell St, City

Orso

Five to Try: Adelaide's best pasta - Orso in Kensington. Pics: Instagram.

While not strictly pasta-focused, this contemporary European bistro – in the hands of Adelaide restaurateur Andre Ursini – showcases plenty of the Italian delicacy.

Made fresh in-house each day, there’s a range of specials that find their way to the menu, from the maccheroni with musetto salsiccia and fennel brovado, to spaghetti, prawns, squid, mussels and roast tomato.

But don’t leave without trying their tagliatelle, ragu casalingo, pork sausage and Wagyu beef topped with a healthy serving of freshly grated grana padano cheese.

36 Kensington Rd, Rose Park

Secret Pasta Club

delicious 100 SA 2023 - Pasta - Secret Pasta Club

The secret is well and truly out: leading Adelaide chefs Jimmy Toone and Jo Leal serve up pasta magic at these monthly dinners, often held at Aldinga’s Fall from Grace.

For just $65 per person, indulge in three courses with rotating favourites such as bucatini with crab, prawn and brown butter pomodoro, and campanelle with beef brisket ragu, just to name a couple.

It’s refined, melt-in-your mouth pasta brilliance – and they throw in a dessert, too, for good measure.

instagram.com/secret.pasta.club