GEORGES ON WAYMOUTH
20 Waymouth Street
Adelaide South Australia 5000
W www.georgesonwaymouth.com.au
E george@georgesonwaymouth.com.au
T +61 8 8211 6960
F +61 8 8211 6968
OPEN Monday to Thursday 7.00 am to 6.00 pm, Friday 7 am to late, private functions by arrangement – reservations essential

FOOD Georges is packed with the business brigade. These well–dressed well–traveled groups of diners are on the demanding side and their loyalty to this venue is recommendation in itself. Seasonality has always been reflected in their menus; winter celeriac and fennel, real rocket, the fat big leafed peppery kind, they make their own bread (and its complimentary) and, praise the lord, they have salt and pepper on the table.
We chose from their menu; Snapper baccala gratinata with poached egg, truffle parmesan and salsa Verdi crostini $16.90 and Bresaola with celeriac, toasted hazelnut salad and goats cheese dressing $17.90. The house–made baccala rather missed the strong flavour and stringy threads of salted fish cured on the bone and hung for months to air dry, but the bresaola was excellent, perfectly foiled with the toasted hazelnuts and the properly dressed celeriac salad.
From the pasta we chose Pumpkin and goats cheese ravioli with black olive tapenade, amaretto biscuits and sage brown butter $23.90 and Fusilli with chicken livers, paprika, almonds, tomatoes, lemon and parsley $21.90 and a salad, the Panzanella with artichokes, orange, fennel and black olives $9.90. The addition of amaretto biscuits was audacious, but pointless and ordered only to see if it worked. It did not and spoiled what would have otherwise been a good dish, despite the thickness of the pasta in the ravioli that made them rather rigid. Given that there were so many good things to choose from we were stupid to order something so purposely provocative. The chicken livers were fresh and tasty, but fewer ingredients and less sauce they would have been better.
A dessert of Poached quince, rhubarb and strawberry with scorched almond meringue and buttermilk sorbet $14.90 was delicious and the coffee, a double very short espresso was the best in a long time in Adelaide. Perfect crema, absolutely no hint of bitterness from over extraction it was wonderful.
Georges offers quality for a very modest price, a point that must be strongly addressed in their favour. In search of restaurant reviews we eat at a lot of suburban venues that provide no service to speak of, no tablecloth, no linen serviette, no decent glassware, a very limited wine list and they are frequently charging the same (often more than) Georges. Georges is exceptionally good value for money and we love it enough to forgive the occasional transgression into silliness like ravioli with amoretti biscuits and baccala that hasn’t been salt cured for months on the bone.

WINE This is a very nice wine list with a depth and breadth that shows a passion for wine way beyond what is normally found at this level of dining. Twenty wines by the glass is a commitment to offer customers a diversity of choice and they range from as little as $8.50 for the 07 Trevor Jones ’Virgin’ Chardonnay to $11.50 for the Italian NV Nino Franco Prosecco. Thirteen champagne and sparkling wines are backed with a seductive list of white and red wines with a terrific smattering of old world wines. We chose the Barossan 06 Tscharke ’The Master’ Montepulciano $49 and appreciate so many fine wines being listed at around that price. Equally if you are feeling indulgent you might like to try the 04 Castagna ’Genesis’ Syrah, still a bargain at $140.

OWNERS — George & Voula Kasimatis
CHEF — Sandor Palmai
RESTAURANT MANAGER — George Kasimatis