Art Gallery Restaurant
Art Gallery of South Australia North Terrace
Adelaide South Australia 5000
w
www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
e ckfood@ozemail.com.au
t +61 8 8232 4366
f +61 8 8232 7266
open Lunch only 7 days 12 noon till 3.00 pmFOOD This is the restaurant were I sneak when totally fed up with bad cooking, boring menus and terrible service because it rejuvenates my spirits and makes me feel that restaurant reviewing is perhaps, not, the worst job in the world. This restaurant is not posh but it does have tablecloths for diners and linen serviettes and butter that isn’t rock hard or tastes of the fridge. They serve everything from little cakes and Haigh’s chocolate frogs, to coffee, to sandwiches to restaurant (real restaurant) quality meals. The menus here are always tantalising, offering that rare treat of interesting dishes that are not copied from the latest fad cookbook and there is never anything on their menu that could be allocated a page number and cursed for its dreary plagiarism. It is a menu that is always good from entrée to pudding and our choices have predictably become two entrées and a dessert.
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Last Sunday, even though it was chilly, even their outside dining area was packed and the restaurant remained full with diners continuously coming and going. Two entrées are $32.90, entrée and main course $42.90 and entrée, main and dessert $54.90 so the Art Gallery Restaurant is also extremely good value for money and their desserts, better than most other Adelaide restaurants are just $10.90. Coffee and dessert at any time during their opening hours is a very lovely thing to indulge in. Add to that they have an excellent intelligently written small wine list with 17 wines available by the glass. The wines are also modestly priced and this list is a credit to long–term manager and sommelier Mykilja Butt who has the knack for spotting new producers, good examples of grape varieties new, or less common in South Australia, like for instance the 08 Fox Gordon Princess Fiano (Adelaide Hills) which went brilliantly with the terrine of smoked cod, horseradish and caper berries. Equally excellent, the 02 Padthaway Estate Eliza Pinot Noir Chardonnay enjoyed with their tempura battered Coffin Bay oysters, swede purée and watercress salad. The terrine, although a little cold was complex and interesting with a decent amount of horseradish sauce, that unlike the modern smear was sufficient to last right till the last mouthful. Fried oysters also prettily presented without being fussed over, they came on spoons and were devoured in four easy gulps. Pudding, oh bliss! Upside down pineapple and ginger pudding with rum sauce was ordered with the intention of tasting a spoonful or two. As if? Kerry’s puddings are way too tempting. Crunchy edged, soft centred with a lovely marzipan end palate the pudding was moist, delicious and complex. Not too sweet the pineapple and the ginger providing just the right amount of edge to allow slathering it in the cream that comes with the dessert. It was fabulous!
Housed in one of the best small galleries in the world, the Art gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery Restaurant is a favorite Adelaide restaurant and when dragging your visitors through the historic and arts precinct it is the only eating establishment to always deliver.
OWNER — Catherine Kerry
CHEFS — Catherine Kerry and Frank Williams and Linda Westacott
RESTAURANT MANAGER AND SOMMELIER — Mykilja Butt
