Africola, Adelaide: Duncan Wel­gemoed looks to Maghreb

With its new menu and elegant redesign, Africola might just be the nation’s hottest restaurant now.

Adelaide’s Africola may well be the hottest restaurant in the country.

But Africola’s not new, you say. It may as well be. Everything you may have known about Adelaide’s quirkiest restaurant has gone. Except the quirk. And the staff.

Chef-owner Duncan Wel­gemoed, who is South African, has moved the culinary axis of his restaurant from Africa’s south to its north. It’s like Ottolenghi on steroids, with a sense of humour. He also has gone all grown-up on us; the place has been redesigned around a massive dining bar and a new kitchen. Gone is the Soweto chic of artist James Brown’s original look; newly arrived is a more mainstream elegance.

The Pitch: Africola is still all about South Australia. The chef is fiercely parochial when it comes to the state’s fruit, veg, fish, meat and wine. There’s a strong ethical thread if you care to look for it, but no piety. Other than focusing on food inspired by the Maghreb, there has been a conscious shift to more vegetables, fish and pulses. And while you can put together a great meal from the various departments (sea, lucky dip, pickles and so on), the generosity of the host and his food is best experienced via a “feed me” option that will have you re-examining your notion of North African standards.

In the kitchen.

The reality: For its flavours, its cooking and techniques (lots of charring and smoke), its clever melding of new ideas and staples that have been kicking around the desert for millennia, Africola may well be the hottest restaurant in the country. There was nothing like it before; there still isn’t. It’s just … better.

The cuisine: Welgemoed somehow gives robust, traditional food a modern lightness without losing any of its power. Take his baba ganouj: an ethereal cloud of smoky eggplant puree dressed with seaweed dust, crisp shallot and briny orbs of trout roe. It is arresting, especially with injera, the slightly elastic Ethiopian flatbread.

Highlight: fried green peppers with a creamy tarama-like whipped black cod roe. Picture: John Lethlean

Highlights: So many, but for sheer ugliness, belying utter deliciousness, it’s difficult to go past the blacker-than-black fried green peppers with a creamy/briny tarama-like whipped black cod roe. The whole Barossa Birds peri peri poussin with spiced green tomato halves. Wonderful Goolwa pippies in a complex fermented chilli broth. Springy, charcoal-grilled occy tentacles on a tahini hummus of surprising complexity, with a version of tabouli as garnish. The simplicity of perfect chargrilled sardines with a herb dressing. And Africola’s contribution to the great cauliflower revival (featured in The Australian’s Flavour of the Month column recently): tahini, pomegranate and hitherto unimagined vegetable flavour, let loose.

Lowlights: Some will find the parochial, left-of-centre/natural wine selection unfriendly.

Will I need a food dictionary? You bet. Africola has its own vocab. Who on earth ever heard of “boom!chakkalaka”? (It’s a condiment).

The damage: Value for money.

In summary: Unique, generous, fun. A really interesting chef has found his true metier.

Africola: 4 East Terrace, Adelaide | Phone [phone], africola.com.au | Open: dinner, Mon-Sat | Style:Regional Australian | Score:4.5 out of 5