Featuring: iTL, SkyCity, Daughter in Law…

IT’S rare that a restaurant of the quality of Aurora opens with so little fanfare, trumpets blowing and so on, but that’s consistent with the very understated manner in which its surrounding business and/or artistic venture has been launched.
Aurora is part of an $11 million complex housed in an historic Adelaide building that includes a range of creative performance spaces and hospitality ventures, more than can be fully explained here. But with Aurora the aim is to have a highly creative restaurant built on seriously held sustainability principles, and to make that happen responsibility has been given to head chef Brendan Wessels, who previously had a similar role at the acclaimed d’Arenberg Cube restaurant.
Aurora is, perhaps a little more down to earth but the beauty and finesse of Wessels’ dishes is possibly more pronounced than ever, helped along by equally gorgeous surroundings whose semi-industrial style is tempered by soft lighting, parquetry floors, discrete little table lights, comfy banquettes and smooth service.
Wessels’ South African heritage is evident in his kitchen with a purpose-built braai, familiar to the rest of us as a rather sophisticated barbecue, but this is sophisticated cooking that goes well beyond any contemporary cooking in his homeland and puts Aurora in the top echelon of Adelaide restaurants.
Snacks to start might include gin-cured New Zealand salmon with puffed skins and fat salmon roe or a crumbed slice of pulled pork belly with pepper sauce topped with a couple of hot green chilies. Kingfish sashimi is given brilliant treatment with Szechuan pepper and grated green tea-cured egg on top and tapioca crisps, then move on to something from the braai – perhaps really simple grilled garfish or grilled tiny leatherjackets, served with a warm yuzu-infused beurre blanc.
If it’s on the menu, then try the trinchado – a powerfully-flavoured South African meat dish, in this case made with chicken livers in a peri peri gravy. You will want to order more. Aurora, 63 Light Square, Adelaide. Open for lunch Thursday to Friday and Sunday, dinner Wednesday to Saturday. Phone (08) 7089 9600.
Although Adelaide’s SkyCity is a place where people go to gamble, it continues to open restaurants that seem to be sure-fired winners and are sufficiently removed from the gambling side of things to be seen as stand-alone restaurants.
Such is the case with iTL, an Italian restaurant whose enormous floor to ceiling windows overlook the Festival Centre and the city’s riverbank precinct. Inside the kitchen is dominated by twin white, space-age looking wood ovens, but as you look further it’s obvious that iTL is a very serious piece of restaurant design created as part of SkyCity’s $330 million expansion.
It was a two-year project for design firm Genesin Studio who teamed with Adelaide architects Walter Brooke, and it’s worth having a studious look around before you get distracted by menu and wine list. It had to have a “mid-century Italian feel” to it, according to the designers, and you can start by admiring the pink marble terrazzo floors before checking out the bar stools, the down lights and so on.

Eventually, though, head chef Luca Guiotto’s menu will grab your attention, with gorgeous looking starters such as a fat pillow of burrata surrounded by tiny heritage tomatoes and wild olives, or grilled slivers of squid tossed in nduja sitting on a bed of soft enriched polenta. Even though the soft wide strips of freshly-made pappardelle with braised lamb ragout is the big seller here, you’ll have to try one of Luca’s pizzas – the iTL topped with local prawns would be a good choice. iTL, SkyCity Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday. Phone (08) 7077 3948.
Daughter in Law describes itself as a “Fringe pop-up” but it’s clearly here to stay in the former Taj Tandoor premises at the busy end of Rundle Street. The fact that it often seems to be packed when its neighbours are half empty also speaks volumes for the popularity of its offering.
With its pastel pink tables and salmon walls, it’s hardly a typical Indian-style restaurant. But then neither is its menu which, while clearly Indian inspired, admits to “respecting tradition” whilst “following its own path”. Rather than hardcore dishes such as vindaloos and tindaloos, this is “India light” with dishes such as “unauthentic butter chicken”, Aussie lamb chops with mint chutney and cumin yoghurt, or chilli margarita naan pizza.
It’s a formula that works – so long as you’re not dogmatic about Indian authenticity. Start with Balls of Happiness, or gol gappa, crunchy hollow chickpea balls filled with a yoghurt, mint and tamarind sauce, or thinly sliced kingfish in coconut broth with chili oil and a crisp pappadum before moving on to a roasted snapper curry. A side dish might be asparagus topped with grilled Comte cheese, the only Indian element being that the asparagus has been seared in a tandoor oven.
The only way to finish the meal is with some kulfi icecream, cleverly shaped like a candle on a skewer. Daughter in Law, 290 Rundle Street, Adelaide. Open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday. Phone (08) 7228 6182.