Cremorne Hotel | SA Weekend restaurant review

Food reviewer Simon Wilkinson is impressed by the happy crowd and clever menu at the recently revamped Cremorne Hotel in Unley. The food itself ... not so much.

It’s the sort of icy mid-week night when you’d expect most of Adelaide’s suburbanites to be tucked up at home with the curtains pulled and the heater cranking.

Turning off Unley Rd and into the carpark behind the Cremorne Hotel, however, it looks like a shopping centre a few days before Christmas. And when we do finally squeeze into a gap and make it to the back door, the racket from inside sounds like another festive occasion.

Even my guess that the bar would be full of punters watching the final game of rugby league’s State of Origin proves misplaced. The crowd, it turns out, is mostly next door in a dining room that, despite its considerable footprint, is near enough to full.

It looks a mixed bunch as well: family groups, naturally, but also business diners, school mums and, over in the prime spot by the gas fire, a few romantic dalliances.

What, then, has brought them out this evening to the Cremorne, a historic venue that since early last year has been in the hands of the rapidly expanding Duxton Pubs Group?

Yes, the new owners have done the place up, in the vaguely Scandi style of pale timber, white marble and vanilla walls that anyone who has been to The Lion since its renovation will find familiar.

Fireplace in dining room at Cremorne Hotel, Unley

The newly renovated dining room at Cremorne Hotel, Unley

Recently appointed executive chef Stephane Brizard has, the pub website says, a passion for quality SA produce, though that isn’t always evident on a “lovingly curated” menu that splits its attention evenly between pub classics and courses that can on occasion push creative boundaries to their limit.

Our beetroot starter is a case in point. Wedges of golden and magenta beet are accompanied by a big splodge of savoury custard cream infused with roasted garlic and dusted with dried raspberry. Underneath it all is a pile of coarsely crushed roasted macadamias and another of finely ground gingerbread.

The combination is certainly different, verging on a dessert, but after tossing-and-turning at each mouthful, I end up liking it.

Heritage beetroot, confit garlic custard at Cremorne Hotel, Unley

On paper, the concept of a savoury doughnut with Woodside goat’s curd, jamon (Spanish ham) and a drizzle of honey spiked with dried chilli looks promising but the fried batons (inspired by the Italian gnocco fritto, I presume) are quite oily and still gluey inside.

An otherwise inoffensive piece of crisp-skinned barramundi is caught in the middle of an epic cage fight of different ingredients. First into the ring is a potent mushroom-based take on an XO sauce, then a few red cabbage leaves nicely charred over a wood fire. That would have done. Underneath, however, is a large dollop of “tomatada”, an intense Portuguese tomato sauce. And all this is finished with a snowfall of what seems to be grated dried ricotta. Poor fish never had a chance.

Savoury doughnut, jamon, Woodside goat's curd, chilli honey at Cremorne Hotel, Unley

More troubling is that one of the pub meal cornerstones, a steak, doesn’t cut the mustard either. While the surface of the sirloin has three narrow strips of char, the rest of it is pale brown-pink and, minus a proper crust, it is lacking in flavour. When cut open, the meat is a uniform rare from edge to edge and I’d take a punt that it has been pre-cooked in some way and only flashed on the grill to finish.

Pressing on to dessert, the poached apple segments are the best part of a sticky date pudding that would benefit from a heavier hand with its toffee sauce. Likewise, the crunchy candied walnuts give a lift to a vanilla rice pudding with saffron poached pears.

So back to the question of what is drawing all these people to the Cremorne.

A fresh look helps, for sure, and an extensive drinks selection.

Most of all, though, the mix of pub classics and more ambitious choices is an easy way to keep everyone happy. Uhhh … almost everyone.