Featuring: The Pot Food and Wine, Shobosho, Crafers Hotel…
FOR nearly 20 years The Pot Food and Wine has been a comfortable and popular institution with a loyal, largely local, clientele.
At times it’s been a stepping stone for some highly talented chefs, at others it’s slid a little sideways on the culinary radar. Not any longer, with the recent appointment of highly-skilled chef Emma McCaskill, who’s had stints at such luminary restaurants as Tetsuyas, Tokyo’s two Michelin-starred Narisawa and most recently as co-head chef at Magill Estate with husband Scott Huggins, where they together won a major award as South Australia’s Chef of the Year. Although still a tiny, 30 or so seater, this is a restaurant that has undergone plenty of transition since it began as The Melting Pot and the first in serial restaurateur Simon Kardachi’s now extensive restaurant empire. And along with its new chef it is about to undergo yet another transformation and name change to The Pot by Emma McCaskill, along with a modest more contemporary redesign of its interior.
It’s a terrific opportunity for McCaskill to bring together a diverse range of culinary influences, Western and Asian, while still satisfying the unrelenting demands of the local clientele. She’s assisted by an excellent wine list in the care of experienced sommelier Michael Murphy, with a string focus on food and wine pairing that is best exemplified by The Pot’s Last Friday of the Month lunches of four courses with matching wine. McCaskill’s early menus cover broad ground, with one of her most recent offering everything from a chuck steak cheeseburger to Comte gougeres with cauliflower and herring roe or a sophisticated steamed and fried Chinese bun filled with roasted pork with chilli sauce and Szechuan salt among the starters, to fenugreek chicken with celeriac three ways – roasted, pickled and pureed, with a salad of lovage leaves, or waygu rump cap with broccolini and a sesame and miso paste. 160 King William Rd, Hyde Park; phone (08) 8373 2044. Open for weekend breakfast and lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday.
With a name that means “fire house” in Japanese, Shobosho takes things literally starting with a vast wood oven and an impressive fire line of hydraulic grill, rotisserie and customised yakitori grill in an open kitchen that runs the length of the restaurant and takes nearly a third of its space.
It’s part of the reason Shobosho has become one of the hottest places in town and another example of Adelaide-based Studio-Gram’s award-winning design work, delivering a range of seating options from along the kitchen bar, providing some of the best kitchen theatre around, to individual tables and booths. Chef Adam Liston’s menu is equally fire-powered with strong Korean and Japanese influences in dishes such as raw yellowfin tuna with charred edamame and black wild rice, skewered chicken meatballs with raw egg yolk in taro sauce from the yakatori menu, or spit-roasted Barossa chicken (with feet attached) from the rotisserie. Best approach is to sit at the bar and choose one of the “feed me” menus, with wines to match by the glass from an eclectic and interesting list that features plenty of sake. 17 Leigh Street, Adelaide; phone (08) 8366 2224. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday.
It may be the oldest licensed venue in its original location in South Australia, dating from 1838, but the Queens Head’s menu is as contemporary as it comes.
All the usual pub favourites are there as weekly bar specials, from top notch wood-oven pizzas and burgers to a massive plate of mixed grilled ribs, but the restaurant menu, served in a small, well-dressed and relatively quiet dining room, sparkles with dishes such as wood-oven roasted pulled lamb shoulder with pumpkin wedges on miso-infused hummus, or whole roasted cauliflower with pancetta and hazelnut crumble. Despite its compact size, there are plenty of dining options, from covered courtyard to discrete dining spaces around the front bar, with a kid’s menu that would tempt most grown-ups. 117 Kermode St, North Adelaide; phone (08) 8267 1139. Open for lunch and dinner daily.
The Crafers Hotel continues to grow as one of Australia’s most interesting pub dining destinations.
There aren’t many suburban pubs where you can start with a 1920 vintage Chateau Mouton Rothschild at $11,000, straight from owner Ed Peter’s private cellar, to go with the usual pub grub of burgers and schnitzels, although you can go upmarket with beef bourguignon or duck confit with rhubarb compote, while chef and avid fisherman Ben Carli’s seafood dishes such as mussels with saffron and white wine are always a treat. There’s a much more down to earth wine list as well to go with a menu that sees customers drawn from around the Adelaide Hills and across the city. But then, a half bottle of Chateau Guiraud sauternes at $1400 really would be perfect with the creme brulee to finish. 4 Main St, Crafers; phone (08) 7099 2012. Open for lunch and dinner daily.