Four Sides Bar and Kitchen, King William Rd, Hyde Park | SA Weekend restaurant review

There’s a melting pot of forces at play at this new King William Rd wine bar. And while it may confuse your senses, great tastes eventually win out.

New wine bar Four Sides Kitchen & Bar on King William Rd at Hyde Park also offers a pleasant dining experience.

The nose is sending one message, the eyes and then the tastebuds something completely different.

The smell comes first – an intoxicating perfume of warmed olives triggering memories of a sunny day in Tuscany, taking freshly picked fruit to the local oil press.

The strange part is that we haven’t ordered olives and the smell has drifted over from the next table.

And sitting before us is a dish – part Japanese sushi, part French remoulade, part Turkish bread – that is from another planet.

Four Sides, a new wine-bar-cum-restaurant in Hyde Park, has embraced multiculturalism with gusto.

It’s Modern Australian cuisine – and then some. That’s not completely surprising when you look into its background.

The interior of Four Sides Bar and Kitchen on King William Rd at Hyde Park. Picture: Supplied

A selection of snacks on offer at the venue. Picture: Supplied

Three of those four sides represent the owners – French chef Fabien Streit, Italian manager Nazzareno Falaschetti and their business partner Baz Rampal, who is Indian.

The trio first joined forces to open the impressive Bistro Francais, where the classic recipes of Escoffier and other giants are brought to life.

Rampal was already running the Local Wine Co directly across King William Rd and, when he decided to go for a more food-focused format, the others bought in.

The fourth side, then, is the location itself, which has expanded beyond the original wine bar footprint to also take in a neighbouring nail salon that has become the dining area.

Along with another room at the back, these spaces have been unified with a series of arched entrances and niches, as well as an inviting palette of coffee, mocha and orange.

The greener-than-green exterior colour is echoed in a variety of small details, including the cover of a drinks list built around 24 wines available by the glass, thanks to an Enomatic dispenser that is a legacy of the previous business.

Pork chop, bok choy and miso sauce at Four Sides Bar and Kitchen. Picture: Supplied

It’s a terrific asset for the venue but isn’t fully realised without someone who has the wherewithal to spruik what it is pouring.

Service on the food side works much better, with plenty of guidance to navigate a menu beginning with bar snacks and a range of flatbreads that can easily serve as entrees.

Given a thematic free rein, Streit’s focus is on the kitchens of Asia and particularly Japan, guided no doubt by his earlier stint at Kosho in North Adelaide.

There are no hard-and-fast rules, however, as evidenced by those olives.

Aburi salmon soldiers have no firm allegiances either, with two large pieces of grilled bread topped by shredded kohlrabi in a creamy remoulade-style dressing and then draped with slivers of briefly torched salmon.

The lemon posset, blueberries with pistachio biscuit is a hit. Picture: Supplied

A final application of Kewpie and a teriyaki sauce head into sushi-train territory but this surprisingly appetising pair of doorstops are far more substantial than anything found there.

The smoked potato dumplings started life as a Ukrainian recipe but swapping to an accompaniment of fermented chilli oil has taken them to somewhere more like Korea or Taiwan.

Either way, the trio of supple pasta parcels plump with mashed spud and herbs are most enjoyable.

A warm salad of chargrilled local squid and matchsticks of green papaya also features a twist, switching the more familiar zesty punch of Thai or Vietnamese flavours for a gentler dressing from the Philippines.

It allows the natural sweetness and smoky char of ultra-fresh calamari to shine unimpeded.

A grilled pork loin cutlet, on the other hand, is dominated by its sauce, a force-10 blast of umami based on miso, sesame and soy.

It’s all too much for meat, which isn’t helped by pre-cooking in a sous-vide bag before the grill.

Lemon posset is an old-fashioned cream dessert in which the setting work is achieved by mixing with lemon juice rather than relying on gelatine as is the case with panna cotta.

It’s a classic worthy of revival, particularly when served with poached blueberries and an awesome oven-warm pistachio biscuit.

The retail strip along King William Rd is rapidly becoming a go-to destination for wine bars outside the city.

Four Sides, with its greater emphasis on dining alongside the drinks, is a worthy addition. Be there, be square.

Originally published as Four Sides Bar and Kitchen, King William Rd, Hyde Park | SA Weekend restaurant review