BACK in the days when banks managed to have personal relationships with their customers, the conventional wisdom was to “follow your bank manager”, wherever he or she went. These days it’s probably much more sensible to follow that chef.
In the case of Adelaide’s acclaimed Indian chef Ragini Dey, that’s required some doing given that it’s exactly 30 years since she opened her first restaurant, the Spice Kitchen, on Kensington Rd in 1989.
But for those loyal customers who followed her to her second and larger restaurant a little further up the road, then to Waymouth St, then upstairs in Hutt St as Ragini’s Spice and now in larger and more obvious premises downstairs, along with her many appearances at events and festivals, that effort has always paid off.
There are cheaper and grander Indian restaurants in Adelaide, but none display the extraordinary knowledge of the breadth of Indian cuisine – and deliver it so well – as Ragini’s kitchen. And in terms of personnel, these days it’s also a very small kitchen, usually just Ragini toiling at the stoves, which makes the end result even more amazing.
Although now less encyclopedic than it has been in the past, Ragini’s menu still ranges across the sub-continent, from a family favourite lamb kebab terrine that she first tasted in Hyderabad, where her father was once stationed (it’s served with fruit chutney made from her grandmother’s recipe), to a Goan beef xacutti (a kind of curry) and Bengal spiced fish and prawn khichari (with rice and lentils).
One of her most outstanding dishes is a Kashmiri style osso roganjosh, with meltingly tender chunks of osso bucco on a mix of lentils, chickpeas and oats, and side condiments of mint, fresh ginger, garam masala, fresh coriander, chilli flakes and lemon. If you’ve already started with Ragini’s crisp sago, potato, peanut patties with coconut chutney, or her Indian style “floater” of a vegetable samosa in lentil dal, you’ll be very happy. Ragini’s Spice, 1/210 Hutt St, Adelaide. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Friday, dinner Saturday; phone (08) 7222 4969.
What started as successive single dish pop-up restaurants, Spaghetti Crab followed by Spaghetti Meatballs, has morphed into something far more sophisticated at l’Italy, one of North Adelaide’s newest additions.
Although it’s closely related in ownership to near neighbours Ruby Red Flamingo and Tony Tomatoes, there’s nothing traditional here, no nonna’s favourites. Instead it provides a far more sophisticated offering that wouldn’t be out of place in a smart suburb of Rome or Milan.
That’s hardly surprising given that manager and partner Riccardo Puccio is indeed from Rome: “We have created a venue where you come in and have a little sputini, or snack, have a glass of wine, stay with us, stay relaxed, take your time,” he says.
“With our kitchen serving the best seasonal and local produce, flavours will be fresh and not fussy. Like any Italian osteria our menu will change regularly with a strong focus on traditional Italian dishes, prepared with love in our kitchen by the team every day.”
Chef Joe Carey’s cooking is clearly influenced by his two years at acclaimed Victorian regional restaurant Brae, with everything from pasta to salumi made in-house. Stay with the smaller dishes and order lots of them, from crisp, caramelised strips of pigs ear with chilli and grilled radicchio to deboned whole garfish, fleetingly grilled and topped with sweet-sour onions and hazelnuts, or a warm seafood salad of steamed pippis with grilled and sauteed calamari in a seafood broth.
Helped along by a wine list with plenty of Italian imports and Australian-made Italian varietals, it looks, feels and tastes very Italian indeed. L’Italy, 47 O’Connell St, North Adelaide. Open for lunch Friday and Sunday, dinner Wednesday to Saturday; phone (08) 8361 8714.
Not many bars have been inspired by a painting, but when owner Marty Palmer saw Picasso’s La Cruche Fleurie (Jug of Flowers) in a San Francisco art museum it gave him the theme for the look and feel of Adelaide’s latest bar Paloma.
Although it’s at the heart of the most competitive bar scene in Adelaide, joining the 100 or more that now throng the city centre, it has the advantage of being the little sister to major city restaurant 2KW, which ensures its pantry is filled with pickled, fermented and preserved goodies to eat in or take home.
Paloma’s Spanish vibe carries through to both food and cocktails. There’s a tapas-style bar menu that includes prosciutto-style baby goat with Sicilian olives, Queso de Cabra – goat’s cheese with Josper-roasted apples and honey and hot-smoked ocean trout with wholegrain-mustard mayonnaise.
The cocktail menu features agave spirits – tequila, mezcal, raicilla – but there’s also a focus on sherry, which keeps it slightly out of step with everyone else and might even encourage a comeback for this most delicious of drinks. Paloma, 20 Peel St, Adelaide. Open for lunch Friday, from 4pm until late Wednesday to Saturday.