Restaurant review: Cottage Kitchen is a culinary delight

This North Adelaide eatery might look like an upmarket home from the outside – but inside, it is all class and refined dining.

Whole grilled squid, red capsicum at Cottage Kitchen restaurant, North Adelaide. Picture: Supplied

A little girl runs from the opposite table to ask the waiter for a bowl of ice cream. With sprinkles, naturally.

We are sitting on a deck surrounded by white pickets in front of a graceful sandstone villa on an evening for which the word balmy was invented. It’s a setting that couldn’t be further removed from a humdrum hotel restaurant.

On that level at least, Cottage Kitchen does exactly what it was designed to do.

From the branding to the separate website to the historic home it occupies, this most agreeable all-day diner in North Adelaide gives few clues it is actually part of the Majestic M Suites next door.

The only giveaways are the name tags on the staff and a connecting passageway out the back.

Both properties were for many years the base for Channel 9 Adelaide, with studios on one side and offices/storage on the other.

The former was replaced by boutique accommodation in 2021 but in the early years a function room was used for breakfasts and other in-house catering.

Whole grilled squid was the standout dish.

Yellowfin tuna ceviche was also sampled.

Street view of exterior at Cottage Kitchen restaurant found in North Adelaide.

Renovations on the old (1885) villa, known as Burtonhythe, began last year and what is now known as Cottage Kitchen opened in December.

The clever deck out front has a banquette along three edges and well-spaced tables with tiled tops, all in the shade of two huge white umbrellas.

Inside, the main dining room is built for comfort and quiet, with co-ordinated upholstery and fabrics. A casual space at the rear connects to the Majestic, as well as an al fresco terrace. From early in the morning, those staying the night (and outsiders) can call in for eggs benny or granola or a brief lunch offering including steak, prawns and chicken.

Dinner is more elaborate and nothing is left to chance, with a squadron of staff of differing skill levels assigned to assure no water glass is allowed to empty and dirty plates are removed the moment they are finished.

Victoria (it was on her badge) does an admirable job as team leader and makes sure there are no major hiccups. Still, it is this part of the operation that feels most hotel-y.

No such qualms about a menu from chef Justin Lee that looks promising on first reading and in practice over-delivers.

Almost everything is sourced locally and vegetable lovers should be particularly pleased by a “From the Garden” selection (grilled zucchini, burrata, capsicum, za’atar) that is as long as meat and seafood put together.

"Garden Shed" dining space at the rear of Cottage Kitchen restaurant offers fresh interiors with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Interior dining room at Cottage Kitchen restaurant.

The “market fish ceviche” is really more a sashimi/crudo with minimal, if any, curing but, that said, doing too much to this super-fresh piece of yellowfin tuna would have been a pity. Instead, prosciutto-pink slices, as fine as paper, are overlapped across the plate, with the acidity coming from the pearls of two varieties of finger lime, one the colour of lemon flesh, the other magenta.

A log of peeled pumpkin is treated like a hasselback potato, cut at regular intervals almost through to the base, before oven roasting until tender but, unfortunately, not quite caramelised or fudgy. Pomegranate seeds, date and crumbled feta make a festive topping, while a cracking blood orange vinaigrette brings everything happily together.

Whole grilled calamari excels on all levels. It smells wonderful (even from a distant table); it looks terrific with everything sliced into manageable pieces and then reassembled; and, most importantly, it could not be cooked better, with a few charred bits in the right places and the thickest parts of the tube flesh just beyond translucent.

Strips of roasted capsicum, chilli, garlic and some lemony juices complete a dish that even has the staff excited.

A pair of double lamb rack cutlets are interlocked so they stand tall on the plate but unfortunately topple just as they reach the table. Coated in a well-balanced rub of fragrant Moroccan spices, the medium rare meat and sizzled strip attached to the bone both make terrific eating. A mint gremolata is really more like a chimichurri but its vinegar bite is a perfect foil to the fatty goodness.

To finish, a dark chocolate dome made from high quality couverture is filled with banana cream and caramel, rested on a bed of white chocolate soil. Assorted petals, leaves of lemon balm and a twist of gold foil provide decoration.

Is it hotel-y? Yes, absolutely. But given the effort put into everything, I forgive them.