Restaurant review: The Gilbert’s new menu offering is a standout

‘Put together with love and care. Something for everyone. No judgments. A proper pub, no less.’

Barramundi tostada at the Gilbert Street Hotel, Adelaide

A much-loved historic hotel on the fringes of the city is not the setting you expect to find a dish from the Deep South of America.

Jambalaya. The poetic name alone is enough to make you fall for this dish from America’s Deep South. Jam-ba-lay-a. The word flows slowly like the mesmerising waters of the Bayou. Jambalaya. It’s a one-pot wonder that brings together chicken, seafood, sausage, rice and Creole spices. A noble example of world food if ever there was one.

Yet there it is listed alongside the burgers and schnitzels in the “pub grub” at the Gilbert Street Hotel where it has been on the menu for more than eight years.

Owner Luke Saturno reckons the kitchen tried to drop it once but there was an uprising among regular patrons.

Add the jambalaya to an already lengthy list of reasons that I love the Gilbert, situated among a mix of business and residential properties on the southern edge of the city.

Barramundi tostada at the Gilbert Street Hotel, Adelaide

Jambalaya at the Gilbert Street Hotel, Adelaide

First, there is the history of the two-storey building that has stood on its corner site since 1848, when it was known as the Shoemakers Arms. While there have been four changes in name and many, many more different publicans, the hotel still looks remarkably similar to the original.

More importantly, it still sounds… smells… feels like a proper pub. A place where people can unwind, all walks of life are welcome, and conversation is the main currency. That applies equally across the hotel’s different gathering points, whether out on the street; in a terrific beer garden with a backyard patio vibe; around the front room that is nerve-centre, beverage repository and a regular live performance space; or on the sofas in the quieter, comfier adjacent nook.

On this Friday evening, a DJ with his deck propped precariously on the bar provides the background rhythm to proceedings. When the volume becomes a little too much for easy conversation, we take our pints across to the space on the other side where tables are lined along a padded banquette and a hatch opens to the kitchen.

This is the designated dining area though, in reality, meals can be eaten anywhere. Just don’t expect restaurant-style service. Head to the bar and grab another pint or choose a wine from a carefully curated list of mostly local labels. While you are there, pick up a menu and then return to place your order. Be sure to take note of the specials that are scrawled on a blackboard overhead.

Not that you are likely to want more choices when the standard list already covers the aforementioned “grub”, pizzas, pastas, salads, more sophisticated “chef plates” and 10 or so smaller serves that are loosely referred to as tapas.

Duck breast, beetroot and roast pumpkin at the Gilbert Street Hotel. Picture: Supplied

Spiced lamb cutlets, baby carrots and green hummus at the Gilbert Street Hotel. Picture: Supplied

Dining area at the Gilbert Street Hotel. Picture: Supplied

They include hash brown “toasts” that are spread with a heavy piping of aioli and topped with pickled shallots and anchovy fillets. From the specials, baby octopus work surprisingly well coated in an extra-crisp knobbly batter and dropped on a puddle of romesco. The clear standout, however, are the tortilla triangle crackers smeared with a zesty salsa of Kiwi fruit (!), jalapeño and lime, then loaded with chunky flakes of lightly smoked barramundi and slivers of radish. At around $15 a pop, these snacks make it possible to have a longer, multi-course meal without blowing the budget.

Particularly when followed by the jambalaya. A most reasonable $26 brings a big mound of rice studded with poached chook meat, spiced sausage, peeled prawn tails and tomato, all brought together by an elixir that starts with an onion/capsicum/celery sofrito and then introduces a blend of spices led by paprika that brings everything to a crescendo. It’s the kind of homely dish that you’d have on weekly rotation if you had the time/ingredients/motivation, but this is much less bother.

Chef plates are more restaurant-y but still generous in spirit. Lollipop lamb cutlets, their rib-bone handles stripped clean, are coated in a dark, earthy Middle Eastern spice mix, and partnered by baby carrots, crisp chickpeas, pickled shallots and a green blend of hummus and fresh herbs. Roasting the carrots longer and the cutlets a few moments less would make a big difference. No complaints about a duck breast that has been carved into thick slices that show off the meat’s rosy-pink interior, before plating up with lightly pickled beetroot wedges, a beetroot puree, slabs of roasted pumpkin and torn pieces of crisp kale scattered like fallen leaves.

The Gilbert is one of my favourite places to have a drink and it is reassuring to find that the dining on offer is in step with the overall house ethos. Put together with love and care. Something for everyone. No judgments. A proper pub, no less.

88 Gilbert St, city

8231 9909

gilbertsthotel.com.au

Main courses $22-$38.50

Open

Lunch, dinner Daily

Must try

Smoked barramundi tostada; jambalaya

VERDICT

Food 14.5/20

Ambience 15/20

Service 11/20

Value 16.5/20

Overall 14.5/20

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