Jolleys Boathouse Restaurant
1 Jolleys Lane
Adelaide South Australia 5000
w www.jolleysboathouse.com
e jolleys@jolleysboathouse.com
t +61 8 8223 2891
f +61 8 8223 1739
open 7 days lunch Sunday to Friday12 noon till 2.00 pm, dinner Monday to Saturday 6.00 pm till 8.45 pm
FOOD when you constantly review food the need to always find something new to excite readers is not always easy especially since many of Adelaide’s menus show a boring similarity. Jolleys is a favourite with the restaurant trade who love Carroll’s intelligent cooking and obsession with quality local ingredients. A good example is that Jolleys is on of the very few Adelaide restaurants to open oysters to order and best of all remove them from their menu when they start to spawn. Would that more restaurants would follow suit rather than initiating unsuspecting tourists to South Australian oysters at their possible worst. Does nothing for the memory or the possible export market.
There are signature dishes that Carroll has found it difficult to escape. The popularity of his tea smoked half duck can see an entire table order the same thing and his excellent pork belly dishes with a Thai/Vietnamese influence is another dish in several incarnations that we find hard to go past. The duck, a full half duck, comes plainly plated on a bed of green vegetable, with halved plums and plum sauce in the stoned fruit season and in Autumn usually comes with poached quince. Steaks are a specialty and as is often the case when the chef is also part of the ownership there is a separate cool room devoted to aging prime beef. Food at Jolleys is consistent and if you are European and used to the exorbitant prices to get a certified safe premium steak in Europe you will undoubtedly be in beef heaven. we like the way they are not messed around with and everything that goes with the steak is intended to embellish not disguise the meat flavour. A good case of where less is more!
Desserts at Jolleys are always excellent and we opted to share their nougat parfait with oranges, a dessert that Carroll sometimes specials. If you love nougat this dessert works. A perfectly textured parfait laced with pistachios and finely chopped glacé fruit, the syrup coated orange slices and tissue thin pistachio tuille all combine to make an outstanding dessert. Carroll has also made one of the few truly Australian desserts, the pavlova and art form.
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left — divine just shucked Kumamoto oysters and right art form pavlova with cream and passionfruit sauce
right from top to bottom — river view, and you can expect a swan to waddle up, scallops with crispy pork, the room looking towards the rowing sheds, nectarine cheesecake
Like just about every restaurant in Adelaide service can sometimes be vague but it is a small annoyance and we are willing to put up with to eat Carroll’s terrific food. It is after all a criticism that can be leveled at 99% of Adelaide’s better restaurants. We also note it is a mark of confidence when a kitchen opens a window to the public and allows them to peer in and observe what is clearly a very well–run kitchen. We like Jolleys a lot!
left — well spaced tables Jolleys is a casual but well cared for dining room on two levels and right — Carroll’s signature dish tea smoked duck
WINE at Jolleys there remains a solid list, that whilst it does not have huge depth or breadth has good price points and doesn't succumb to the generic and boring at the lower end of the range.
OWNERS — Barry Matthews and Tony Carroll
CHEF — Tony
Carroll
RESTAURANT MANAGER — Alicia Sloan
