The Apothecary 1878
118 Hindley Street
Adelaide South Australia 5000
wwww.theapothecary1878.com.au
e drink@theapothecary1878.com.au
t +61 8 8212 9099
f +61 8 8212 2744
open Bar Tuesday to Saturday 4.00 pm, Tapas Bar Tuesday to
Saturday from 5.00 pm, Restaurant Tuesday to Saturday from 6.00 pm, High Tea
4.00 pm Saturdays bookings are advised
recommended by Champagne Editor Kaaren Palmer as a great place to drink Champagne if you love Champagne CLICK HERE to go to Kaaren’s Champagne section
FOOD The Apothecary’s dining
room is situated in the basement of the well–known tapas and
wine bar on Hindley Street, and with its basic brick and wood trimmings
it is a welcoming and unpretentious retreat away from the harshness
of the surrounding bars and clubs at street level.
Last week we ate at the Apothecary for the third time in the past
six months. On the first occasion we had a theatre date and had arrived
on spec, asking if they could manage to serve us and have us out
in time for the performance. We were pleased that they succeeded
with time to spare without us feeling rushed or the food skimped
on. The
second time we decided to savour the experience and were not disappointed:
the food, wine and excellent service, and one particular dessert,
made it a sure thing for a third outing. This time quality of the
food ranged from good to very good: the service was as usual excellent.
The two young men who served us were unobtrusively attentive, they
responded knowledgeably to questions about the food and offered thoughtful
suggestions about the wine when asked. Our food choices presented
a challenge when it came to selecting the wine and our waiter suggested
a 2003 Curly Flat Pinot Noir, which worked perfectly across each
of our dishes. The kitchen is presided over by Natalie Homan and
from her ’To savour...’ menu we selected the Beef
broth with marrow, horseradish and parsley toast. A simple,
tasty, unremarkable dish, with unfortunately only the merest hint
of horseradish, and the Blue cod ceviche with pomegranates,
a wonderful mélange of flavours and riot of colour including
segmented ruby grape fruit and fine slices of spring onion and perfect
marriage of flavours.
From the Principal flavours menu we selected the Grilled
veal escalopes with roasted radish and celery vinaigrette and
from the specials menu, the Twice cooked duck leg with lentil
and roasted baby carrots.
The duck legs were crispy and full of flavour, and not at all dry
as can often be the case. Servings are generous and we didn’t
really need the side dishes, but the sautéed
green beans with lemon and anchovy was an excellent accompaniment
for both meals.
We were offered an excellent selection of cheeses, but opted for
the desserts instead. The Fried custard with cinnamon and a lemon
sugar and saffron syrup had a crude commercial donut flavour
which overwhelmed the subtlety of the saffron, however, the caramelised
sugars of the Amaretto roasted peaches with fromage blanc with
a hint of amaretto, cut nicely across the subtle creaminess of the
fromage blanc. Desserts were perfectly accompanied by the 2004
Torbreck ’The Bothie᾿ from the Barossa
Valley, and the All Saints ’Rutherglen’ Tokay.
The Apothecary is a very reasonably priced restaurant, with good,
unfussy food and excellent service in an intimate setting. Entrées
range from $15-$19, Mains from $22-$32 and Desserts from $10-$12
. Mystery Maude
High Tea
Arrive on Saturday at 4.00 pm and the tables are laid with starched
white linen and bone china and it’s High Tea ($26).
Dainty silver dishes and tea services, pâté, smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches, fruit tarts, meringue kisses, almond and chocolate biscuits, ginger bread and to finish scones, jam and cream. Everything was perfect except for the supermarket white bread and the scones, which although they tasted good lacked the crust and dense soft moist dough of a good scone. With such attention to detail in all respects, from the immaculate linen through to the china and glassware, not to buy good bread seems wildly out of character with The Apothecary’s
overall philosophy. It is not High Tea at the Ritz but it is fun!
AO
drinks
Walking off of Hindley Street into The Apothecary is a bit like being
in the middle of a Dr Who segment; so surreal is the transition
from the street to the old–world serenity. It could equally
as well be in France, Italy or Spain as The Apothecary 1878 is
so utterly European, so old-world.
It’s a fascinating but awkward space that has been faithfully
restored and embellished with some modernity including a kitchen
that sits mysteriously concealed somewhere in the middle of the building.
The awkwardness of that is not missed, nor is the difficulty of getting
food hot to the diner, which they do. The Apothecary is an oasis
in a cultural street that is part city slum whilst managing, at the
same time to house some of Adelaide’s best shops like Imprints
Booksellers and O’Connell’s
Bookshop and Blue Beat Records if you have a taste for jazz.
Drinks and anti pasto on the ground bar level are a great way to finish the working day, or start dinner. A tiny courtyard with lovely red brick (which has been almost lost to Adelaide) and corrugated iron embellishments are finished with the spectacular backdrop of the slab concrete wall of the high rise that flanks their rear. It must be fun to sit there on a hot night and indulge on their excellent wine list and listen to their very cool music. And, this is from a reviewer that detests music in a restaurant! AO
WINE The Apothecary
1878 has a solid interesting well managed list of some considerable
depth. There are many opportunities to compare old and
new world wines and drink over a range of back vintages, even compare
one vintage against another over a meal which is always fun. Long
as you might in Adelaide for a wine list as fantastic and unpretentious
as Melbourne's France Soir, Willy’s
Wine Bar in Paris or some of the most famous tapas bars of Barcelona
and Madrid you just cannot expect to find them.
We like The Apothecary 1878 very much, but it has
never replaced Universal Wine Bar in the scheme of Adelaide drinking
mainly because it has never welcomed guests with the same encouragement
or made them love it enough to happily do credit card melt down by
tackling their top of the range wines. Small criticisms
because their list is as good as it gets in Adelaide's wine bars.
The Apothecary 1878 does some excellent tastings during the year
that, apart from being interesting are very good value for money.
Join their mailing list by emailing them AO
Owner — Paola Coro, Roberto Cardone & George Kambitsis
Chef — Natalie & Brendan Homan
Restaurant Manager — Paola Coro
