The 15 surprising spots with knockout gluten-free dishes
From battered fish to pizza and pasta, eating gluten-free in and around Adelaide is easier – and more delicious – than ever. Here’s 15 places to try.
Food & Wine
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“Sorry, I can’t eat there. They don’t really do gluten-free food.”
It’s a sentence I’m sure my fellow coeliacs are familiar with.
Unlike those who choose the diet for intolerance or ostensibly in vouge reasons, we with the disease diagnosis can’t afford to have a cheat day or risk it for the gluten biscuit.
Complaining, however good it feels, won’t supercharge our vili to accept all it should.
Instead I’ll complain AND give you my pick of delicious go-to dishes from popular restaurants.
These dishes are gluten-free – with the exception of a sourdough-based pizza which comes with a warning for coeliacs – even though the restaurants aren’t exclusively gluten-free.
Let’s be real, our friends and family who enjoy gluten shouldn’t be made to suffer just because they dine with us.
See, you don’t need to carry that wheat-free cross alone. I am here.
(However, I am not here if you don’t like these dishes and decide you want to let me know.)
Always confirm with the wait staff about the severity of your intolerance or let them know that you are coeliac. Like life, menus change.
Borsa Pasta Cucina, 25 Grenfell St, city
Tagliatelle con Salsicce in Bianco
Imagine being Italian and coeliac. Ah, that is a fate I do not wish on my greatest enemy … until now. You can just go to Borsa!
A restaurant that has stayed within the hidden gem category despite having diehard patrons, and (even better) hasn’t been tainted by the conformity one sees at the myriad of ‘share-plate heaven’ joints.
Here, you can get a big plate of pasta and what a bloody beautiful plate it’ll be.
My pick is the Tagliatelle con Salsicce in Bianco (the tagliatelle swapped out
for their gf alternative). The pasta is fresh and remarkably elastic and the sauce full of spicy and salty flavours, just like how nonna makes it.
* Disclaimer, I am of Asian descent and as such have never had a nonna of my own to make me pasta but as an empath I know what it would feel like.
Hey Jupiter Brasserie Francaise, 11 Ebenezer Pl, city
Steak frites/steak minute
Bonjour, you gorgeous hunk of meat. That’s what I say to my steak frites as I apply a red lip.
The meat? A perfectly cooked medium rare. The chips? Crispier and saltier than fresh out-of-the-oil maccas fries.
But my friends, the piece de résistance here are the sauces; thick, creamy, and balanced.
The added benefit is that you really feel quite chic there and can easily imagine you’re actually in Paris … almost like nearby a beloved and famous metal sculpture awaits your visit (Malls Balls).
Stem, 188 Hindley St, city
Side salad
I know it’s ridiculous to go somewhere for a side, but I will return to Stem just for this plate of greens.
Crispy leaves, charred spring onions, smoked garlic and an anchovy emulsion. I stole that line from the menu but need I say more?
You also have plenty of other gluten-free options, but you really would be remiss to not order this salad.
ShoSho, 164 King William Rd, Hyde Park
Ramen
I went to ShoSho after experiencing a salt water flotation spa down King William road so I can’t tell if that state of relaxation had an impact on me.
But the ramen I had afterwards, cleverly substituted with rice noodles, kind of blew my mind.
It’s pure umami. Mushrooms tantalise the tongue while slimy noodles trickle down your throat.
Don’t knock the sensation until you’ve tried it.
Wasai, 1/9-15 Field St, city
Sashimi Boat
This is the boat that rocks, always.
Fresh pieces of sashimi salmon, kingfish, scallops and even oysters.
The boat is made to be shared, but no one would blame you if you boarded it solo.
Like the phenomenon of piling sushi train plates, once you get started it’s hard to stop.
Soi 38, 74 Pirie St, city
Chive cakes
The Thai are the original founders of gluten-free cuisine. I made that up but they honestly could be.
If Thai cuisine is friendly to our kind, then this Pirie St restaurant is our messiah. Most of the menu is gf, so much so that the non-gluten-free items are marked in their menu.
Anyway, the chive cakes are a ton of fun. They come with the thickest, most luxurious sauce but really, you can order anything off this menu and it’ll likely be a standout.
Arkhe, 127 The Parade, Norwood
Hot-roasted quail
I pray there’s never a shortage of quail, because these open-flame masters know how to cook one.
Crispy but no, never burnt. Tender meat that’s missing the dry gamey bitterness that happens when it’s overcooked.
The jus is also yumbo.
I’m going to be honest; I can’t remember enough to describe what was in it.
It was my anniversary and I was too many wines down.
Fish out of Water, 117 King William Rd, Hyde Park
Fisherman’s basket
Nowadays there are growing fish and chipperies that actually offer you gluten-free grilled fish, but there’s no going past golden batter.
Fish out of Water have a whole gluten-free menu and you can pick between batter and no batter.
My pick is the Fisherman’s basket because I like to imagine a fisherman somewhere has hand-picked my meal for me.
It’s also very delicious.
Part Time Lover, Paul Kelly Ln, city
Corn Ribs
This is technically a side as well, but do yourself a favour and order a plate for yourself and another to share.
The corn is juicy and crispy, the spice mix fiery and the accompanying sauce tangy.
Just make sure you take some floss with you.
This isn’t a coeliac hint, more of a corn-in-teeth sufferer hint.
Rocco Pizza, 336 Findon Rd, Kidman Park
Build your own
This recommendation comes with a BIG warning for coeliacs.
Rocco Pizza uses ‘true Italian sourdough’ wherein the dough has only three ingredients; water, flour and salt, and no added oil, sugars or baker’s yeast.
The sourdough’s three days of natural fermentation breaks down the gluten and sugars so as to ‘predigest’ the wheat before it enters our system.
I did not have a reaction to their sourdough. Actually, I did have a reaction; it was one of bliss.
I ate and ate and did not feel any bloating which often happens even after I have a gluten free pizza base.
HOWEVER, if you do not feel comfortable trying this sourdough pizza, don’t.
It worked for me, but who is to say it’ll work for you? Pizza, no matter how beloved, is not worth it.
Degustations
Feed me menus have a 50/50 hit rate with me.
I’m either getting the best of the best and larger portions because they have to give me my own dish OR I’m given what amounts to the culinary exploration of original flavoured chips.
Lately it’s become an expectation that every restaurant caters to coeliacs.
Sounds great right!
Well most of them don’t do it well. These do:
Summertown Aristologist, 1097 Greenhill Rd, Summertown
If by some awful twist of fate I was prohibited from all the world’s restaurants bar one, I know this is the place I’d pick.
A beautiful rustic restaurant in the hills that lacks the pretensions you would expect at first glance of its JamFactory glassware and hip patrons sporting $150 mullets.
I can’t say that I’ve had fresher ingredients.
Despite a weekly changing menu, the chefs never cease to adapt to a coeliac diet.
During my most recent visit instead of the fresh-made pasta main, they made me a
risotto.
Instead of swapping it out with something I would have still enjoyed, they made sure I
experienced the same flavours but in a slightly different form.
I didn’t realise how cheated I felt out of being denied flavours my dining partners got to enjoy until then.
That’s service.
Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room, 27 Leigh St, city
It’s rare for my gluten-free pasta to be better than the gluten-full version.
But that’s what happened when I went to this Leigh St restaurant.
My only note for the restaurant is please, please get some proper gluten-free bread.
Nothing more depressing than seeing tiny cardboard-like slices of gf bread when your partner gets golden gnocco fritto.
Sunset Food and Wine, 4564 Hog Bay Rd, Kangaroo Island
Talk about value for money!
You will roll out of this restaurant.
Yet with an astonishing sunset view you could almost not care about the food.
Your eyes will feast.
The good people at Sunset Food and Wine decided that your stomach should feast, too.
Restaurant Botanic, Plane Tree Dr, city
There’s a reason why everyone who goes here can’t stop babbling senselessly about it for weeks.
It really is that good and worth the cost of the house deposit you need to get in there.
I’m being facetious, but be aware that booking Restaurant Botanic sets you back about $245 a head.
The food is so explorative and so exciting and SO gluten-free.
As a good friend of mine blurted out to the head chef ‘it stands out on a world stage’.
Imagine that! In little Adelaide, too.
Save your dollars and go; it’s worth it.
Terroir, Main N Rd, Auburn
There should be a movie about this place.
One room and a singular head chef who changes the menu all the time.
Everyone gets the same meal and no, don’t ask questions.
Just eat and mentally plan your next trip to Auburn.
When I was there we were served quail and fish.
My mouth waters thinking about it.
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