SA Weekend restaurant review — Restaurant Botanic

Food reviewer Simon Wilkinson hasn’t raved this much about a meal in a long time, declaring this SA restaurant an “extraordinary experience with few parallels”.

Dining room at Restaurant Botanic. Jon Wah

The starting point is a bowl of lemon aspen jelly with finely diced kohlrabi and halves of twice-shelled green peas that look like minuscule lily pads on the surface of a pond.

The finish is a toffee-topped semi-frozen cream and matching syrup, flavoured with the spiky fallen branches of a bunya bunya tree. Think of old wooden boxes filled with toasted marshmallows and nuts.

Both are stunning but the remarkable part about lunch at the re-imagined Restaurant Botanic is that every one of the nine courses between are their equal. The standard never drops. The thrills don’t let up. As a collection, it is the culinary equivalent (and apologies to youngsters here) of listening to a Beatles album.

Let’s take a breath and backtrack a bit. Restaurant Botanic is the new identity of the eatery in the historic enclosed rotunda beneath the ancient fig and plane trees at the heart of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

Under the watch of owner the Blanco Horner group and previous chef Paul Baker, the restaurant took giant strides, particularly in forging far stronger connections with the bounty growing in its own “backyard”. The current experience, however, is at a different level.

Marron, charred cream, fermented chilli and lemon myrtle at Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide. Picture Simon Wilkinson

The changes start with a large investment in the dining room, where the quaint details of the original structure are now secondary to more contemporary features, such as gorgeous porcelain cylinders that illuminate some tables, and a dried bush chandelier hanging in the centre.

The space has three loosely defined zones: the outer ring looking over trees and lawns; a carpeted dress circle in the middle; and a new open kitchen with counter seating that juts into the heart of the restaurant like a ship’s prow.

This is the stage for a team led by executive chef Justin James, whose CV includes time at Noma (Copenhagen) and Eleven Madison Park (New York), before a shift to Melbourne and Vue de Monde.

Since arriving at the start of the year, James has been exploring the garden to add to his repertoire, experimenting with pickles, ferments and other techniques, sourcing produce from near and far, combining these elements into plates that are intricate, intelligent and inspiring.

A single Coffin Bay oyster offers an initial trickle of briny juices mingled with horseradish cream, then the plump meat and, as this disappears, a final tangy flourish of pickled dessert lime and green ants.

Fallen bunya bunya branches with native thyme at Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide. Picture Jon Wah

Roasted marron tail rests on a puddle of charred cream with artistic splashes of fermented chilli and lemon myrtle oil. Presented on a ridged plate looking like a majestic sea shell, it is destined for magazine covers. On the side are scones made with duck fat and chives, along with cheesy cultured butter and “clam jam” to spread like a sweet XO sauce.

Next comes a charred paperbark parcel that is unwrapped to reveal a whole abalone, neatly dissected and spread to fit a sliver of fresh asparagus between each slice. A fermented asparagus puree and abalone liver butter bring the whole orchestra into play. How do you top that?

A locally foraged morel mushroom comes close. The spongy, cone-topped fungi, a variety prized in Europe but rarely seen here, is skewered with a cube of grilled kangaroo and a pickled rose petal.

A clump of braised and butter-fried coral mushroom has turnip, dried egg yolk and scattered through its delicate fronds, and an egg yolk sauce beneath.

Coral mushroom, egg yolk at Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide. Picture Simon Wilkinson

Roasted duck breast is topped with little daisies cut from sweet potato in pink, orange and white, some pickled, others raw. The leg meat is tossed with plumped-up wattle seeds beneath a golden blanket of sweet potato foam. If one dish had to be cut, this could be it. Along the way, there are also sorbets, palate cleansers and petit four too numerous and too complex to be done justice here.

At a time when many in the industry are playing it safe and simple, Restaurant Botanic is pushing the boundaries. The new format won’t suit everyone. The two menus offered (short or long) are supplied with no other detail. And, on this day at least, beef, lamb, chicken or even fish are not included anywhere.

Oyster, horseradish and desert lime from Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide. Picture Jon Wah

Dining is also more expensive than it was (especially with an annoying $10/head charge for bubbly water) and some of the service lacks the polish and confidence of the rest of the package.

All that said, for those who care about what they eat, and come with an open mind, it is an extraordinary experience with few parallels elsewhere in town. A Magical Mystery Tour from start to finish.