Peel St Restaurant – SA Weekend review

It’s one of the CBD’s most popular, best-loved restaurants, known for its huge servings – but since it changed hands two years ago, does it still hold up?

Inside the dining room at Peel St Restaurant.

Dessert at Peel St. What a novel experience. Over countless lunches and dinners at this soul-restoring CBD eatery, I’ve normally been too stuffed by the end of the savoury courses to go any further. Now I know what I’ve been missing.

A log of pistachio ice-cream is mounted on a biscuit base with the punch of fresh ginger. Slices of fresh fig are spread across the top and the whole lot is drizzled in a syrup full of sweet/sour barberries that are nature’s version of acid drop lollies. What a cracker.

Peel St (the restaurant as opposed to the laneway in which it is located) holds a special place in the heart of many Adelaide diners, myself included.

Few places can match the heady atmosphere of its dining room … and the certainty that you will leave thinking the world is a better place. So when news broke two years ago that its trio of founders were selling up, it was greeted with some trepidation, particularly when so little was known about the buyer, Jay Patel. Would there be significant changes, along the lines of the overhaul at another of his high-profile purchases, Press Food & Wine, only a few blocks away?

The short answer is no, though there are a few gentle ongoing adjustments. More of that later. Walking in on a night midweek and everything seems to be in order. The black T-shirt brigade in the open kitchen are already super busy. The stripped brick walls and sunny mural haven’t been touched. The blackboard menus are still there, though there is also a paper version.

We’ve happened to come during the week when Peel St is also a vendor at the Tasting Australia festival, which might explain some uncharacteristic elements of the service. It’s not a lack of training or numbers – more a question of systems. Every waiter working this night seems to take turns at our table.

The menu board and exposed rafters of Peel St Restaurant.

Pistachio ice-cream terrine, figs, barberry syrup at Peel St Restaurant.

Thankfully, the strain doesn’t show in the kitchen.

Much of the credit for this should go to head chef Phil Helyard, who has been at Peel St for seven years and had time to soak up the ethos under the previous regime before taking over. No surprise then that the menu, while perhaps a dish or two shorter, retains the important hallmarks: the double act of Mediterranean and South-East Asian; the self-contained plates already loaded with veg and salad (no sides here); and the made-to-share servings.

While this generosity might have been tempered slightly, it is still easy to fall into a trap of over ordering. Just remember that the smaller plates aren’t entrees, the bigger ones far larger than a normal main.

Exhibit one is a bowl that looks like an overgrown garden, with clumps of enoki mushroom shooting skywards, chunky wedges of eggplant in a besan-flour batter, black fungus sheets, cucumber pieces and a tangle of herbs, all in a puddle of ripping Sichuan chilli and soy dressing that might have been better added at the table to keep all the fried bits crisp.

Crisp eggplant, cucumber, enoki, szechuan chilli dressing at Peel St restaurant.

Red snapper, caponata, pancetta at Peel St Restaurant.

Then it’s a quick trip over to the Med for a pan-fried flank of red snapper with lovely firm, pearly flesh alongside dollops of caponata and tapenade, fried cavolo nero leaves and scattered pieces of pancetta – the full southern-Italian playbook. There are more big personalities here than the streets of Naples and keeping them all in check, and the fish shining through, is quite an achievement.

The same goes for the hefty chunks of beef that have been grilled as a satay and have the complete package of a smoky, savoury charred crust without overcooking` the middle. A fry-up of peanuts, shallots and other bits and pieces is scattered over the top, while strips of pickled green mango, cucumber ribbons, snake beans and herbs including rau ram (Vietnamese mint) and Thai basil provide a fresh balance.

It’s classic Peel St – bold, punchy, bursting with good intentions – but light enough for once that we still have some room. Now, about that dessert menu …