Ocean Bar and Restaurant at Henley Surf Life Saving Club | SA Weekend restaurant review

This new restaurant is blessed with one of the most prime positions on offer. Our reviewer finds out if its fare is fit for the setting.

Ocean Bar and Restaurant has a pristine location at the Henley Surf Life Saving Club.

Ours is a cricketing household over summer, with two boys playing and we spectators on a constant search for the fleeting shade at Adelaide’s suburban ovals.

Lifesaving hasn’t really got a look in, as noble a pursuit as it is.

Life-saving clubs … well that’s a different matter. They have long owned prime real estate along the state’s beaches and recent investment and rebuilding has resulted in some extraordinary places to enjoy a bite to eat.

The hospitality on offer comes in varying levels of professionalism.

Volunteers still do a first-rate job at some clubs, while others have hired caterers.

A few, however, have come to an arrangement with private operators, allowing them to create a fully fledged restaurant.

Which brings us to Ocean Bar & Kitchen, newly opened in the upstairs dining and function room of the Henley Surf Life Saving Club, with an unimpeded view over the beach, sea and jetty.

The location and setting at Ocean Bar & Kitchen at Henley Beach is idyllic. Picture: Tommy Lane and Zachary Clothier/Twin Socials

Owners Adam Swanson and Josh Harkin have some experience in capitalising on a coastal location like this.

The latter is also publican at the Marion Bay Hotel on Yorke Peninsula.

Swanson at one time was a partner in Zucca and Esca, at Holdfast Shores, one of a string of restaurant, television and ambassadorial roles he has held over the years.

The pair have taken charge of a big, function-friendly space, with a remarkably high ceiling and vast expanse of glass at the front.

Candy-stripe umbrellas and stylish woven seats fill the balcony that will be in demand when the evening isn’t so breezy.

The service crew are an energetic bunch but their sterling efforts can be undermined by a messy serving system.

Does it really matter? If this was a club, probably not, but the ambitions are higher here, and so are the prices on the gastropub-meets-southern-Italian menu.

Spaghetti mare is stacked with seafood at Ocean Bar & Kitchen. Picture: Tommy Lane and Zachary Clothier/Twin Socials

Whether your dining inside or out on the balcony, the view is spectacular. Picture: Tommy Lane and Zachary Clothier/Twin Socials

Can they be justified? When choices include a $30 burger and spaghetti stacked with seafood for a few dollars more, it depends what you consider good value.

Particularly when all the seafood used is local (as in Australian, not imported).

The small trawler squid for the calamari fritti are a case in point, the tubes extra-tender and tentacles in little clumps, all coated in gluten-free potato starch and finished with a zingy dusting of salt and mixed pepper.

There is raw kingfish presented with a dab of nduja/tomato aioli, fried capers and a trio of rolled white anchovy fillets that aren’t really necessary.

White balsamic adds a sweet edge to this and many of the other dressings.

Zucchini ribbons, some briefly grilled, others raw but doused with olive oil and lemon juice, are mixed in a tangled pile beside a thickly sliced ball of smoked buffalo mozzarella sitting on a bed of salsa verde.

The interplay of subtle smoky cheese and the veg makes this the favoured starter all round.

Seafood also has a strong presence among the mains.

This is one of very few places around town to have access to Port Lincoln blue fin tuna that is trimmed to a neat, square-shaped steak and grilled until both sides have neat stripes of char, while the middle is still pretty much raw, as it should be.

Tuna steak with salsa verde. Picture: Tommy Lane and Zachary Clothier/Twin Socials

Kingfish crudo, white anchovies and tomato. Picture: Tommy Lane and Zachary Clothier/Twin Socials

Salsa verde and a salad of fennel, radicchio and orange keeps it fresh and clean.

More trawler squid and mussels are the stars of a seafood spaghetti also including prawns and kingfish offcuts that have spent too long in the pan.

Orecchiette is the base for a vego pasta with broccolini, a heap of soft, squishy peas and basil/pistachio pesto.

Desserts include an excellent, wiggly panna cotta that probably doesn’t need strawberries AND roasted figs as an accompaniment.

Aperol-soaked sponge is the point of difference for an adults-only trifle layered with zabaglione custard and cream, a bittersweet match that may split the room but I can’t stop eating.

And, no, you won’t find anything like that during a day at the cricket.