Temperance at Hotel Renmark | SA Weekend restaurant review

Would you shell out $120 for a meal at what is ultimately a country pub? These young chefs are doing just that and they’re starting to make some waves.

The Hotel Renmark takes pride of place in the major Riverland centre. Picture: Matt Turner

The story of the Hotel Renmark is, well, remarkable.

Old photographs and artefacts displayed in the bars, corridors and an upstairs museum tell it brilliantly – a tavern opened in a town determined to shun the evil of alcohol; the community taking ownership; a tower built to spot enemy planes in World War II; the ’56 flood (look for the jar of old water); and the somewhat dubious tale of Breaker Morant riding into the bar on his horse to get a drink.

Historian Y.M. 'Johnny' Gurr, who died in 2018 and wrote a book on the Hotel Renmark, pictured inside the Breakers Bar, a tribute to Breaker Morant, in 2011. Picture: Matt Turner

Now, the pub’s latest chapter is being written, largely thanks to a resolute trio determined to silence the sceptics and alter perceptions about the area.

Starting from the premise that the Riverland should offer at least one top-flight dining experience, they have opened a sophisticated new restaurant in one of the hotel’s bistro spaces.

Temperance is not just a very good restaurant “for the Riverland”. No special allowances or fudging is needed.

From the first bite-sized snacks to the final petit fours, it unequivocally deserves a place among the state’s regional heavy hitters.

Anthony Cresp and Hugh Hazelwood are the chefs behind Temperance restaurant, Hotel Renmark.

Credit for this starts with executive chef Hugh Hazelwood, a local lad who did his apprenticeship in Adelaide, before moving to Europe and honing his skills in the English countryside.

Returning to Renmark four years ago, he was hired by the hotel to overhaul its dining as part of a masterplan that also includes an accommodation revamp.

These projects were quickly put on hold due to Covid but it was during this downtime that the idea of a second, more ambitious offering began to take shape.

Hazelwood sought help from an old school mate, Anthony Cresp, whose foraging passions and simpler tastes are a great foil to his buddy’s Euro leanings.

The classy and comfortable interior at Temperance restaurant, Hotel Renmark

The third musketeer is Mel Hamilton, who brings the service smarts and elite people skills that have made her such an asset across the Barossa.

The hotel’s main dining space is the Nanya bistro, which also benefits from a trickle-down of the chefs’ expertise and ingredients, particularly in the specials.

At weekends, Temperance takes over a room screened off to one side, where the luxe padded seats, scallop lights and walnut panelling immediately up the ante.

Two food choices are available. “Austerity”, a play on the hotel’s wartime ration menu, is not exactly penny-pinching at $80.

“Prosperity” adds a savoury course, dessert and other bells and whistles. The latter starts with “canapes”, an old-fangled word for contemporary snacks such as a memorable turmeric cracker loaded with king prawn and curry leaf.

House-made haloumi, tomato and avocado at Temperance at Hotel Renmark.

The restaurant pays homage to the River Murray with its Coorong mullet, leek, onions and roe dish.

A cleansing flask of precisely balanced tomato consommé segues to the slice of fresh oxheart tomato that comes with whipped avocado and tiles of house-made haloumi fried until a golden “batter” forms on the surface.

Temperance regards the Murray as far as the mouth as its turf, hence the Coorong mullet that is soaked in a heavy brine and then briefly torched, so the flesh stays in a translucent twilight between raw and cooked.

Confit leek, pickled onion, fermented fennel and salmon roe reinforce the fish’s Scandi character.

The commitment of this mob can be judged by the whole beef carcass they procure from Nomad Farm, hang for three weeks and butcher, before using the different cuts across the business.

We have rump that, true to form, more than makes up for an extra chew or two with its old-fashioned, true-blue, meaty flavour (the ageing would help with that as well).

A mix of “forest mushrooms” includes porcini that Cresp has collected in the Adelaide Hills, a reflection of both his zeal and the bonkers season.

Local fig, dried fig ice-cream and pistachios with vincotto is a hit for dessert.

To finish, fresh slices of local fig are accompanied by a frangipane tart, pistachios, melting dried fig ice cream and a sublime, syrupy vincotto made by reducing the port from a nearby winemaker.

Temperance is reason enough to make the trip to Renmark before you do anything else in the area.

Once the young service crew come up to speed, surrounding producers jump on board and the hotel rooms are up to scratch, its potential is unlimited.

And the entire region, and its broader population, are the ones who can benefit. This is River Revival at the most desirable level.