Featuring: Peel St, Eleven, Press Food & Wine…

THERE’S always going to be a level of anxiety when the both the ownership and chef of one of the city’s best-loved restaurants both change at the same time, but in the case of Peel St that anxiety has proven to be unfounded.
Peel St was founded in 2013 when the former Aquacaf team of chef Jordan Theodoros and Ben McLeod joined with chef Martin Corcoran in what was then almost a pioneer restaurant venture in an unloved and rather decrepit alley in the heart of the CBD. Now, of course, it’s the heart of a thriving bar and restaurant scene and Peel St went on to widespread acclaim.
The restaurant had a pared back, semi-industrial style, fairly radical for the period, with exposed beams and brick walls, and a long polished concrete bar. But what distinguished it most, and still does, was the vibrancy of its cooking. It was said that if acclaimed British chef Yotam Ottolenghi were to come to town, this is where he’d go to eat, but he would also have to join the queue. Chefs Theodoros and Corcoran dispensed his sort of food – ravishing, fresh, full-flavoured dishes, strongly Mediterranean but with a healthy dash of Middle Eastern energy and spice.
Cut to late 2021 and enter emerging hospitality investor Jay Patel, who has been actively investing in Adelaide’s dining scene during the Covid-19 pandemic, acquiring Press Food & Wine and taking a major stake in Leigh Street Wine Room, both highly acclaimed establishments and both within a stone’s throw of Peel St.
Recognising the unique nature of Peel St’s offering, owner Patel has sensibly retained sous chef Phil Helyard, who worked under Theodoros and Corcoran for more than five years and knows not just the style and content of their dishes, but the thinking behind them. And with former co-owner Ben McLeod still running the floor, it’s fair to say the transition has been pretty well seamless.
The menu is divided into smaller and larger dishes, but as Helyard says; “There’s nothing definitely small”. In fact, servings are generous and most main courses can easily feed two.
A good start is the tuna sashimi with a soy, sesame and daikon dressing decorated with celery tops and crisp fish skin – a terrific mix of flavours, textures and colours, very typical of the Peel St style. Alternatively, from the so-called smaller menu and just as flavour packed, are the pork and chive dumplings with steamed prawns and sizzling spring onion in a broth laced with chilli oil, and masses of fresh coriander on top.
More substantial, and definitely a dish to share, is the richly delicious coconut braised beef, on a bed of green papaya salad with fried peanuts and a nam jim dressing, and a pile of betel leaves on the side to wrap it all up. After all this, dessert won’t be a high priority but the chocolate tart with blood orange sorbet and pistachio halva is almost irresistible. Peel St, 9 Peel St, Adelaide. Open for lunch Monday, Wednesday to Friday, dinner Monday, Wednesday to Saturday. Phone (08) 8231 8887.

One of the more anticipated restaurant openings in Adelaide this year has been that of Eleven, the latest venture by business partners dietitian Themis Chryssidis and chef (and former MasterChef star) Callum Hann. It’s the second restaurant started by the pair, who co-founded Sprout Cooking School in 2011, with Lou’s Place at Lou Miranda Estate opened in the Barossa Valley in 2020.
Eleven is located right at the heart of Adelaide’s CBD and already looks to be taking over as the hot place for top end lunchtime diners. Its large south-facing windows overlook an internal plaza and courtyard, with the sprawling Eleven open air bar and café that opened some months earlier on the far side, providing everything from morning coffee to lunch and post-dinner drinks.
But its inside Eleven that you get a sense of the serious intent and style of this restaurant, with a gorgeous and clearly expensive fitout with forest green walls, brown banquettes, dark marble, quiet and calm, with an open kitchen extending along the whole northern wall. It’s not unusual to see almost the entire kitchen brigade lined up along its length post-lunch, shucking oysters for the next service.
There’s also very serious intent in the kitchen, headed by executive chef Dan Murphy who, with sommelier Geoffrey Hunt, worked previously at the acclaimed Appellation at The Louise in the Barossa Valley. Murphy’s menu has a strong bias towards classic French technique, not quite as pared back as cuisine nouvelle used to be, with servings that tend to be on the small side but adequate and exquisite.
There are $90 or $125 tasting menus plus an a la carte menu, depending on how ambitious you want to be. You can start with a slice of brioche-style bread with chicken fat butter, great tasting but you might wish for something more substantial for mopping up the delicious sauces yet to come.
A typical entrée is thin tendrils of calamari from Kangaroo Island seared on a hibachi grill, tossed with kaffir lime oil, with lime juice and lemon verbena, and a hemp seed and rice milk crème. Alternatively try the goat’s cheese agnoletti in a burnt onion broth with chive oil.
Main courses include crisply pan-seared Murray cod with steamed mussels and yellow bean sauce, and grilled waygu skirt steak from Mayura Station, with roasted celeriac and almond puree, topped with green peppercorn sauce and sorrel leaves. Eleven, 11 Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Open for lunch Tuesday to Friday and Sunday, dinner Wednesday to Saturday. Phone (08) 7008 0222.