Ruby Red Flamingo | SA Weekend restaurant review

From a rich and homely ragu to an on point polenta, this Adelaide favourite is dishing up food nonna would be proud of, writes Simon Wilkinson.

My opinion doesn’t count for much tonight. What really matters is the judgment that comes from the other side of the table.

Barb digs her fork into the mound of fettuccine, twirls a few strands around it as she was taught as a child, eats slowly, sighs and delivers her verdict: “It’s just like being at nonna’s house.”

Praise doesn’t come much higher than this for Barb, whose grandmother, Apollina, now 97, came from the Veneto region of northern Italy in the early 1950s to begin her new life in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs.

And the pasta and polenta aren’t the only things to provoke these nostalgic pangs during dinner at Ruby Red Flamingo. There’s also the brown and orange floral pattern on the crockery that every Adelaide household seemed to have in the 1970s; the random pieces of bric-a-brac furniture and accessories; and an informal feel-good factor that has echoes of a time when life was less complicated at both ends of the world.

Supplied Editorial Poltena, mushrooms and three cheese sauce at Ruby Red Flamingo, North Adelaide

It’s a formula that has served RRF exceptionally well now for almost a decade since transforming what was previously a bastion of the fine-dining establishment, in a grand former manse in Tynte St, North Adelaide.

But beyond the element of counterculture coolness, it can also be seen in a more personal light – as a tribute from restaurant entrepreneur Walter Ventura to his father, Vic, and the era in which he was a pioneer of Italian dining in this city. Both have been co-owners here since the beginning, as have head chef Enzo Verdino and manager Lauro Siliquini. Verdino came to Australia from Veneto, just like my friend’s nonna, a happy coincidence that would explain the familiarity of some of the flavours.

Not that everything is from the north. The Ruby Red menu, much of which has survived unscathed, also contains a smattering of red sauce and dishes more associated with the warmer end of the leg, such as a signature macchertoni eggplant with smoked scamorza (cheese) and grated dry ricotta.

Supplied Editorial Maccheroni and eggplant at Ruby Red Flamingo, North Adelaide

Our shared meal is a blend of our own ideas and Siliquini’s recommendations that favour the least fussy of choices. Slices of bresaola (air-dried beef) are so fine that, when spread across a plate, you can see the outline of the piece below where it is overlapped by another. They are topped with rocket leaves, shaved parmesan, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Simple.

The hollow at the top of a puck of surprisingly delicate baked polenta is filled with a medley of mushrooms, including porcini. A ladle-load of triple-cheese (provolone, fontina, parmesan) sauce is poured over the top, with plenty left on the base of the bowl to bring some wickedness to two clumps of wilted spinach.

Supplied Editorial Beef bresaola, parmesan, rocket at Ruby Red Flamingo, North Adelaide

The polenta prompts the first nonna mention but it’s the ragu that seals the deal. Made with an unusual mix of turkey and chicken mince, a lengthy session of bubbling away with red wine and passata ensures it has the warming, homely appeal of a hand-knitted jumper.

Cotoletta is Italy’s chicken schnitzel, the crumbed portions of breast covered by a landslide of chunky tomato and cucumber pieces, a Siliquini family special that would be at its best when the salad ingredients are in season.

Veal scaloppine slices are topped with sage and prosciutto, saltimbocca style, then hidden beneath a blanket of braised Swiss brown mushrooms. Fried discs of semolina gnocchi, the ideal sop for all the juices, just about steal the show.

To finish, an unmoulded cylinder of semifreddo (semi-frozen) custard comes with amarena cherries and candied almonds, the fruit syrup drizzled in a crisscross pattern that is the closest the kitchen gets to deliberate styling.

One of the few changes over the years at RRF is definitely for the better. The endurance test of queuing for a table has been replaced by a sensible booking system. That should make it much easier to take along your nonna.