Restaurant review: Pearl at Aldinga is a holiday experience at home

Found on the stunning shores of one of Adelaide’s most idyllic beaches, this restaurant almost didn’t open - but is now giving the Star of Greece a run for its money.

Grilled flathead and other food at Pearl restaurant, Aldinga Beach. Picture Kate Potter

The best part of a holiday is coming home, some people say. It certainly helps if that home is anywhere near a beach in the midst of a glorious South Aussie summer.

However, after three months of travelling around Europe towards the end of last year, there are plenty of things that I am already missing.

The seafood, for a start, and not just the razor clams in the bars of San Sebastian that became an enduring obsession.

In Spain and Portugal, particularly, even the smallest seaside settlements will have somewhere to eat with a view, a wood grill and an understanding that the freshest fish and crustaceans don’t need any extra messing.

Lunch at Pearl in Aldinga is the next best thing. It nails the connection between a coastal location and what goes on the plate better than anywhere in this part of the world.

Not just serving fish by the sea (duh!), though that is a good start. It is also the whole unfussed, straight-off-the-sand holiday vibe.

Overlooking the breathtaking stretching sands of Aldinga Beach. Picture: Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism / SATC

Holidays, it emerges, have been instrumental in shaping the vision for Pearl, which opened in early 2020.

Owners Jules Rydon and Bec Seidel grew up on the Fleurieu and this stretch of beach became their playground. Then, travelling to Europe for work and pleasure, they visited tavernas, trattorias and taperias around the Mediterranean and the seed was planted.

Plans for the site of an old kiosk next to the Aldinga boat ramp began over a game of table tennis but took more than a decade of drawings, balsa wood models and negotiation to gain council approval.

Rydon’s dad, Dave, a builder, played a key role during the two years of construction, and family members and friends also contributed.

The result blends beautifully into its surrounds, with a low-slung profile and salvaged timber and other recycled materials favoured over anything too shiny or polished.

That includes minimising the stainless steel in a kitchen where an expanse of glass provides a view every bit as good as the dining room – and that takes some beating.

Exterior shot of Pearl restaurant, Aldinga Beach. Picture Kate Potter

Sardines with pickled currants and almonds at Pearl restaurant, Aldinga Beach. Picture Simon Wilkinson

A chef couldn’t help but find inspiration here and the Pearl menu, a succinct one-pager, has a strong seafood focus, along with plenty of vegetables. Red meat is left to other venues.

Rydon’s Greek heritage and affection for all things Mediterranean also shines through in everything from his yia yia’s tzatziki with warm pide to the scorched padron peppers.

Port Lincoln sardines, minus heads but on the bone, are sizzled briefly in a pan hot enough to char the skin and dressed with plenty of oil and a sweet/sour rubble of finely diced shallot, almonds, pickled currants and honey. A stack of oven-dried crostini can be used for an upmarket sardine on toast.

Squid arrives direct from a Cape Jervis fisho and is cleaned but not skinned before being dissected. The strip and tentacles are simply coated in rice flour and semolina, fried and then finished with a teeny sprinkle of blended spices.

A few dollops of zhoug, a Middle Eastern green salsa, are splattered over the top but all of this is secondary to the brilliance of super-fresh calamari.

The grilled fish at different times can be anything from snook to skate to mackerel. Over summer holidays, however, the choice is crowd-pleasing flathead, a species that splits neatly into two body-length fillets down either side as if deliberately designed for two diners.

The pearly white flesh is immaculate and, with a scattering of zaatar-style dried herbs on top, the cooking juices, cut with a squeeze of lemon, is all the saucing that is needed.

The veg options, it seems, are shown just as much love. Witness a stonking wedge of fudgy slow-roasted shwarma-spice pumpkin, drizzled in orange blossom honey, and partnered by burnt ginger and chilli jam, lemon yoghurt, brown butter and a pearl couscous salad.

Desserts initially look a little dowdy for the mid-summer. However, the crisp layers of buttered filo and excellent custard of a Greek bougatsa quickly win us over, as does the surprising lightness and restrained sugar of a coconut-milk-based rice pudding that is definitely not traditional.

Five years since opening, Pearl has weathered Covid, the vagaries of winter trade and a few format changes, to find its rhythm and become a place where, for a short time at least, you might forget you need a holiday.

Aldinga Beach Boat Ramp, Lower Esp, Aldinga Beach

7477 7177

pearlaldingabeach.
com.au

Main courses $28-$55

Open

Lunch Wed-Sun

Dinner Wed-Sat

Must try

Calamari; grilled or roasted fish

VERDICT

Food 16/20

Ambience 17.5/20

Service 15/20

Value 14/20

Overall 16/20

As a guide, scores indicate:

1-9 Fail; 10-11 Satisfactory;
12-14 Recommended; 15-16 Very Good; 17-18 Outstanding;
19-20 World Class

delicious.com.au/eatout