The Brompton Hotel | SA Weekend food review

A pub without a parmy? Don’t fret, the culinary creativity at the Brompton Hotel means you won’t miss the forbidden schnitty. Here’s our food reviewer’s verdict.

Dining room at The Brompton Hotel

Let’s rip off the scab from the get-go, address the elephant in the room. I don’t care if a pub has a schnitzel.

Couldn’t really give a schnit. In most cases, they are nothing more than glorified, oversized nuggets, processed in a factory or, at best, by the local butcher.

The Brompton Hotel, however, takes crumbed chicken into a different dimension. Not just because chef Andrew Wandless has shaped the normally flat breast fillet into a perfect orb. He has also given it a surprise soft-centre of Kyiv-style butter, and upgraded the chips to a bed of lyonnaise potatoes.

Still, even with all this kitchen wizardry and the fact it is clearly the biggest seller, I maintain there are many more interesting, rewarding things to try on what is already shaping up as one of Adelaide’s best pub menus.

Chicken Kyiv at the Brompton Hotel

Smoked mackerel, apple and horseradish at the Brompton Hotel

The Brompton is the latest acquisition for Duxton Pubs, the locally run investment group that is buying up hotels around the state and giving them varying degrees of bespoke renovation. In a community where new housing is rapidly replacing the gritty industrial zone, they believe there is an opportunity to provide a sophisticated dining and drinking experience not currently offered by other pubs in the area.

In this case, some of the modernising of the historic (1880) corner hotel was already in place, with a towering metal and glass addition to one side that makes it look like it is in a museum display cabinet. Recent changes, more importantly, include the removal of the gaming zone to open up a space that, with carpeted floor and DJ in the corner, is definitely more lounge than front bar, even with a pool table.

Out back, an indoor/outdoor dining room now has curved rattan banquettes to one side, a rug underfoot, and an open kitchen where the chef and his small team can be seen in action.

Signing up Wandless looks something of a coup, given a resume that includes more than a decade in London at highly-rated restaurants such as The Ledbury, and more recently a stint at Sydney tapas bar Una Mas. Here, his cooking is clever but not complicated, a collection of sensible, bistro-ish plates in which the technical accomplishment of sauces, pastry et cetera is the unifying feature. Slices of excellent (and complimentary) sourdough are just the beginning.

Chicken Kyiv at the Brompton Hotel

Nutmeg custard tart at the Brompton Hotel. Picture George Sotiropoulos

Kingfish sashimi, for instance, is seasoned not with salt but with a glaze made from the fish’s bones and offcuts. It is accompanied by pieces of charred pineapple, Mexican chilli powder and a light buttermilk dressing.

A plate of cured and smoked mackerel fillets trawls cooler waters, particularly when underpinned by chopped apple and cucumber coated in horseradish-spiked yoghurt. A glass of snaps and you could be in Copenhagen.

Raw pieces of beef rump cap are stained red with a fermented chilli concoction that bullies any meat flavour, while sorrel leaves add a cleansing tang.

Looking beyond the Kyiv (as I suggest you do), Berkshire pork cutlet is roasted over charcoal in a Josper oven and sliced off a blackened rib bone.

The meat has a pale tinge of pink and thin strip of sizzled fat … in other words, perfect. It comes with oyster mushrooms, a pork reduction and the soft citrus tang of preserved lemon.

Home-made strands of taglierini pasta come in a soupy roasted cherry tomato sauce and are topped with chunks of charred zucchini, blobs of ricotta and a heavy downpour of fried capers.

Humble, homely and priced accordingly, it is a combination far greater than the sum of its parts.

The same could be said for an exquisite slice of custard tart, the fine pastry shell breaking with a snap, the just-wobbly filling dusted with grated nutmeg.

In a classic case of reviewer’s curse, the menu changed the week after this visit. While many of the dishes described here are available still, there are now extra choices and, in less welcome news, prices have lifted. A separate bar selection is excellent for off-the-cuff visits. Either way, The Brompton should please all comers – other than the most stubborn schnitzel fanatic.