Pastel, North Adelaide | SA Weekend restaurant review

This new restaurant-wine bar-gallery brings a much needed energy to North Adelaide’s O’Connell St – and has restored our faith in grilled octopus. It’s a whale of a time.

Coconut braised beef, Thai salad at Pastel, North Adelaide.

It’s prime time Friday evening on the once-humming retail and hospitality strip of O’Connell St, North Adelaide. Out on the road, traffic is still heavy but, in the dining rooms and bars of the precinct, too many empty tables and under-utilised staff make a depressing sight.

There are exceptions. The Thai place up the road, the Indian on the other side, a pizza joint, a few pubs. They all possess that secret ingredient, that special sauce, to draw a crowd.

Peer in through the windows of Pastel and this new restaurant-cum-wine bar-cum-gallery clearly has it by the bucket load. Enough to splash into all those cocktails being shaken hell-for-leather behind the bar. Enough to throw around in a kitchen that jumps from the Med to South-East Asia and back again. And, most of all, enough to power the all-encompassing energy that makes the place so compelling.

Dining room/bar at Pastel, North Adelaide.

Crispy eggplant, papaya, snake bean at Pastel, North Adelaide.

Delve into Pastel’s background and personnel and it becomes less of a surprise. The former L’italy is now in the hands of co-owner/manager Daniel Vaughan, who most recently teamed with mates from Sunny’s Pizza on the 1000 Island bar in the CBD. Another partner is designer James Brown, best known in these parts for Africola (both versions), but whose mastery of combining materials, art and graphics to catch the eye and stir the heart has developed an international reputation.

For Pastel, Brown has used acres of honey-toned wood panelling, soft sconce lighting and a collection of artworks to create a scene that has some of the old-school appeal of a cabin-cruiser lounge or a Rat-Pack bar. Later at night, the lights are switched off and candles ignited.

Head chef Darek Krzywdzinski works from a menu that allows his small kitchen to punch out meals quickly when required. His background includes time here when it was L’italy, as well as at Oggi and Peel St, still a strong reference point.

Small things being done right are obvious from the get-go. Like those fried walnuts that build on all the deep, warm toastiness of a za’atar spice mix spooned, rather than sprinkled, over a big splat of whipped ricotta. With sprigs of thyme and a smear of runny honey, it is one of the better things that you will find to load on to grilled bread.

If nothing else, Pastel has restored my faith in grilled octopus. A small skewer impales three chunky portions of tentacle, the exterior showing a little char and remnants of gelatinous skin, the meat retaining some inherent spring when bitten, exactly like it should. An undercarriage of taramasalata and a salsa verde blanket do their job perfectly.

Lamb kofta, also skewered, comes with the full Middle Eastern wardrobe of spices, yoghurt, green chilli and pomegranate (seeds and syrup). The meatballs, however, are made with a mince that is lean and finely ground, resulting in a drier, dusty mouthfeel.

Grilled octopus, taramasalata, salsa verde at Pastel, North Adelaide.

Roasted hazelnut semifreddo at Pastel, North Adelaide.

Snacks finished, we move on to Pastel’s other culinary strong-suit in the larger serves. Our share plates, unfortunately, don’t change and are expected to go the distance.

First comes a big stack of fried eggplant batons that could not be any crisper in their batter coating nor oozier in the middle. To the side is a salad of shredded papaya, snake beans and a big handful of coriander, as well as a small ramekin of chilli dressing with a lovely lingering heat. Large cubes of beef and segments of onion are both soft and sweet after a slow braise in a coconut-based broth. They are camouflaged beneath a thicket of leaves and greenery similar to the eggplant, while the crunch is supplied by half-cucumber wedges and Cassave crackers.

Dessert (with a new plate) is a semifreddo of perfect texture and firmness, cosying up to sticky caramelised figs, coffee syrup and hazelnuts that show the same level of fresh toasting we encountered at the start. Yep, that’s amore.

I’m similarly smitten with Pastel and the way it manages to get most of the important stuff right while simultaneously appearing to have a whale of a time. It is young, fun and bristles with positive energy. Let’s hope it’s contagious.

For more reviews visit delicious.com.au/eatout