Featuring: Red Chilli, Est Ovest , Bai Long, Hey Jupiter…
ALMOST submerged under a huge carpark it’s easy to miss Red Chilli, or even worse to dismiss it’s bland facade as a front for a less than significant restaurant. But open the front door and you’re in for a considerable surprise.
Although there are now Red Chilli restaurants in six state and territory capital cities in Australia, part of a chain that began in Sydney in 2002, there’s nothing about the Adelaide version to suggest it’s part of some cookie cutter franchise. The main dining room has 8m-high ceilings hung with huge glowing lanterns, with one wall a massive aquarium with tanks holding live fish and seafood such as grouper, parrot fish and abalone. Further back and upstairs is a series of elegant private dining rooms, all individually themed. You can’t see the kitchens but they’re equally impressive, not least for the all-Sichuan team of chefs who speak in local dialect that even the owners don’t understand. That’s authenticity for you, and it shows in the menu where the dishes could have come straight from a Chengdu restaurant, no compromises for western tastes.
One of the most impressive and delicious is the chef’s special fish fillets, which gives no hint that it’s covered in a blanket of fat, chopped dried chillies that’s scooped off to reveal the fish beneath. The deep-fried diced chicken also features a mass of crunchy dried chillies, hot but not ferociously so, while the deep-fried prawns with tea leaves and black pepper has a gentle, delicious spiciness. Not everything features chilli. The steamed marinated pork belly with pickled vegetables and broccoli was melt in the mouth tender, with much more subtle flavours, while the Sichuan style tea-smoked duck is tender and succulent, with mild smoky flavours. Red Chilli, 86 Grote St, Adelaide. Open for lunch and dinner daily; phone (08) 8231 9661.
Also wedged under a city carpark, Est Ovest doesn’t look much from the outside, but inside it’s pure Italy, a colourful, noisy celebration of the choice early Italian migrants had to make – east to Australia or west to Canada and the US.
With a list of post-war migrant ships on its front window and a wall filled with ’60s mementoes, the menu is a blast from the past and homage to all those nonnas who longed for the food they used to cook at home. The team of Italian chefs all cook as if they, too, had just arrived off a migrant boat, keeping their dishes as authentic as they know how.
There are fluffy pillows of grandmother’s recipe eggless gnocchi in very slow-cooked ragu, crunchy street food snacks straight out of Palermo or Naples, Sicilian classics such as rigatoni alla norma and typical cucina povera dishes such as pasta with chick peas (pasta cecce). The tortellini in a beef bones and chicken broth tastes so healthy it could bring the dead back to life. Yes, the pizzas are great, too, baked in a splendid-looking copper-encased oven, the star attraction of the open kitchen. Go for the one with slow-cooked porchetta and Calabrese sauce. Not a pineapple in sight. Est Ovest, Shop 1 / 111 Angas St, Adelaide. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, dinner Wednesday to Sunday; phone (08) 8225 6062.
Bai Long means “white dragon” and here the minimalist design is an elaborate metaphor for the various elements of this invisible creature.
Fortunately head chef Jae Hyun-Park (ex-Bistro K, Nobu) is not given to such abstractions, offering an inspired modern Asian mix of Korean, Japanese and Chinese-influenced dishes that cover a lot of territory, both geographically and stylistically. Beautifully balanced small dishes such as kingfish sashimi with truffle soy and wasabi puree, or beef tenderloin tataki with quail egg and wasabi mayo – an Asian-style steak tartare, lead the way, before settling down to larger dishes such as a very homely mapo chicken with soy egg custard, or meltingly tender beef ribs with an Asian-style pickled salad. The drinks list includes teas sourced exclusively from a Taiwanese tea master, which can also be bought from the store. Bai Long Store, 80 Hutt St, Adelaide. Open for breakfast Thursday to Sunday, lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday; phone (08) 8232 5484.
Vardon Ave and Ebenezer Place, tucked away just south of Rundle St East, have become food and wine destinations that stir the ghosts of the East End Market that once inhabited these lanes.
None is more worthy of that heritage than Hey Jupiter. What began as a cute little cafe with a fairly strong French accent has morphed into a fully-fledged restaurant that now wouldn’t look out of place down the boulevard from Le Deux Magots in Paris, complete with traditional close-spaced pavement tables. Hey Jupiter’s express lunch menu features staples such as beef cheek bourguignonne with mashed potato, while the dinner menu could have you start with mussels steamed in white wine with saffron before moving on to classic dishes such as steak (a choice of three cuts) with exemplary frits and bearnaise sauce, or whole deboned pan-fried trout almondine with green beans.
If you want a traditional, hand cut beef fillet tartare, this is where you’ll find it. The wine list stays in theme with a fine regional choice from France. Hey Jupiter, 11 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily; phone 0416 0505 721.