SA Weekend restaurant review: Arkhe on the Parade at Norwood

A chef who made his mark in Singapore has opened up an exciting new eatery in Norwood where everything is cooked over flames – making for delicious eats and entrancing kitchen theatre.

Cooking over fire in the kitchen.

The world seems weary, cynical, distracted. The good times more distant than ever, integrity and trust in short supply. Then you walk into Arkhe, a restaurant that buzzes with positive energy, and the planets start to realign.

Initially, it’s a primal response to the flames and glowing embers that are wrangled with such dexterity in the kitchen, then an appreciation for the craftsmanship of the stonework and timber cabinetry used to such great effect across the room.

The welcome is warm and genuine, the mood upbeat, the sense of a large team working with respect and common purpose strangely reassuring. Then you eat …

Arkhe is the culmination of a dream of co-owner/chef Jake Kellie, who returned to Australia wanting to put his own spin on the high-end barbecue experience he helped to deliver at Singapore’s famed Burnt Ends.

Roasted onions with miso and hazelnuts Picture: Duy Dash

He enlisted financial support and mentoring from Martin Palmer and the Palmer Hospitality Group.

Together, they have taken over the old Stone’s Throw, a premises that, from minimal frontage on The Parade, expands Tardis-like into a bar, then a restaurant and, finally, a rear courtyard. Designers Studio Gram have reimagined the footprint, opening up the spaces, putting the kitchen at the heart of the whole operation, changing the key materials, finishes and lighting to make it dark and seductive.

Money has also been spent attracting the right talent, particularly the restaurant manager Greta Wohlstadt (Orana) and sommelier Bhatia Dheeraj (Est, Sydney) to foster a culture of laid-back precision.

From a seat at the counter, it is a pleasure to watch it all unfold … the fire powering furnace-like ovens, grills and even a cauldron deep-fryer; the preparation of unlikely ingredients such as a magnificent turbot (fish); the synchronicity and sense of calm in a well-run kitchen.

Rock lobster dish. Picture: Duy Dash

Eating at Arkhe can be expensive, but for every serve of caviar or $400 wagyu rib (to share), there is a $35 lamb rack.

And the $120 chef’s menu, which comes after a two-way consultation, is remarkable value. They had me at the first snack, a preposterous combination of briny oyster topped with a tongue of fresh urchin roe, seafood’s version of foie gras, an indulgence fit for Neptune.

And on we go. Folded slithers of beef tongue are skewered, grilled until dark and crisped at the edge, before dousing in fermented chilli.

A superb, meaty collar of kingfish is coated in a sticky savoury varnish. Roasted onion boats carry a cargo of miso and roasted hazelnuts. Little tarts of molten liver parfait are topped with a bitter-sweet blackened brulee lid.

Seating at the kitchen counter. Picture: Duy Dash

While everything is cooked over fire, the effect of smoke and char are carefully measured.

Larger serves become more hands-on, more visceral. A roasted quail arrives with a large knife for carving, challenging when the bird sits amongst scorched grapes, red sauerkraut and a dangerously splashable reduction sauce.

Grilled lobster half also requires work, first releasing the tail meat from the shell, then tearing away legs and feelers to crack open and extract the delicate morsels.

A hefty chop of milk-fed pork loin is sliced from the bone and topped with wedges of barbecued plum and pickled currants.

Defiantly pink, fleshy and even (gasp) fatty in parts, it is a reminder that good pork such as this has a flavour all its own and isn’t a pale, bland substitute for chicken.

Of course, not everyone will agree. Some will want their pork cooked through, won’t fancy the idea of pulling apart lobsters, or even dividing up the whole scorched pineapple tart that is the sweet (overly so, for mine) finish.

But for those entranced by the theatre of the kitchen, by food in all its sensual wonder, by hospitality at its finest, Adelaide has no better package. It makes the world a better place.