Nutrition Republic

I’ve been following Nutrition Republic on Instagram for a while now and have been impressed by how fresh and amazing everything they make looks! On a recent trip to Adelaide we stopped in to try their raw cakes for afternoon tea. It was close to their closing time (4pm), so we go our cakes in takeaway trays rather than on plates. The staff were really friendly and happy to answer my questions about the food – everything here is designed to be considerate of dietary requirements, and the raw cakes ($8 per slice) are all dairy and gluten free, as well as being vegan to boot! I picked the vanilla bean and berry cake with its pretty layers of colour. All of the cakes do contain nuts of some kind, and these (cashews and almond) help make the base of the cake. I love the texture of raw cakes – they remind me of cheesecake – thick (but light), rich and smooth. The vanilla flavour was nicely combined with the berry flavour, so it wasn’t a strong artificial vanilla taste, but a blended, more complex flavour. The slice looks small but was really filling – a lovely treat!

Nutrition Republic, Shop 2, 92-94 King William Road, Goodwood SA, http://www.nutritionrepublic.com.au

Spats Coffee Lounge

I’d never heard of Spats when my friend suggested we stop in, but was happy to roll with it given how similar our tastes are in dining venues. Spats announces itself as ‘Adelaide’s first and finest dessert lounge’, and not having a point of comparison, I’m inclined to agree. The store is wonderfully cozy, with dim lighting (chandeliers, candles!), red walls and velvet drapes creating a sense of quiet buzz that is rare in this world of wood and tile-floored restaurants. We were seated on couches under the stairs – despite being a small place, there’s plenty of space between tables for privacy. We ordered a sticky date pudding to share and couldn’t have picked a better dish on a chilly night. The slice of cake was just the right size to share, served with a large scoop of vanilla icecream and a jug of butterscotch sauce. The cake itself was so fluffy and was served warm, as was the rich butterscotch sauce which was quickly absorbed into the cake. I was delighted that the cake was light rather than dense and the chopped dates inside were divine. Great service, atmosphere and cake? Definitely a winning combination.

Spats Coffee Lounge, 108 King William Road, Goodwood SA, no website

Pepper Lunch

I was very excited to see that Pepper Lunch had opened in Adelaide – I’d enjoyed their food years ago in Sydney and stopped in for a quick dinner on my way back from the airport. My first impression was that the restaurant was untidy – the floors were dirty and the tables hadn’t been wiped down, but the staff were hanging around playing on their phones. I can’t fault the service though, my order was taken promptly and the food came out quickly and beautifully presented. I ordered the kimchi beef plate, which includes thin slices of raw beef, a big mound of rice with corn and lots of kimchi. The plate is sizzling hot and you cook your food at the table. The beef was thin and didn’t take long to cook – whilst it wasn’t a high quality cut, the flavour was nice and there was a good amount on the plate. The kimchi was wonderfully spicy and I loved the way the rice started crisping up at the bottom, the longer I left it without stirring. Sure, this isn’t fine dining, but if you’re after a tasty, filling, inexpensive meal, stop in and give it a try.

Pepper Lunch, 82 Gouger Street, Adelaide SA                   http://www.pepperlunch.com.au/

Raw Karma

On my visit to The Market Shed’s Twilight Market, my friend and I scoured the stalls looking for the beautiful mini doughnuts posted on Instagram. After getting through a couple of savoury courses, we found them – success! There were six flavours on offer ($6 per doughnut) and we picked one each – Turkish delight and peanut butter. Disclaimer – we didn’t get to eat these on the night so refrigerated them overnight to taste test the next day. Raw Karma’s doughnuts are vegan, paleo, and gluten-free, and wow are they filling! Whilst they may look small, the dough is less of a dough and more like a fudge – dense and packed full of flavour. The peanut butter doughnut is topped with dark chocolate and crumbled peanuts – it could have had a stronger peanut flavour, but the chocolate is decadently rich. The Turkish delight leaves you in no doubt that’s the flavour you’re enjoying – the rose flavour is beautifully fragrant and cuts through the richness of the chocolate. I’d recommend getting these to share or eat over sometime, as they’re really very dense, but they’re absolutely delicious!

Raw Karma, fortnightly stall at The Market Shed, Holland St, Adelaide SA http://rawkarma.com/

Oscars

We went to Oscars to celebrate my brother’s birthday, and absolutely everything about our experience was lovely. We started with a plate of the housemade port, thyme and Cointreau pate, which was served with cornichons, flatbread and a divine apple and pear chutney. Best. Pate. Ever. The flavour was utterly perfect and I would love to be able to buy this in bulk!!! For the main, I went for a pizza (I always think of Oscars as a pizza place) and had zero regrets. The Idaho comes with potato, rocket, sour cream, caramelised onion, bacon and sweet chilli sauce, which makes for one damn fine pizza. The base was lovely and the potato was cooked perfectly. There was plenty of sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, and every mouthful was delicious. If I could have eaten more, I would have. Somehow we were persuaded into dessert and three of us shared the Belgian chocolate mousse – it was far heavier than I would usually expect from a mousse, but despite that wasn’t sickly rich, although my stomach was really struggling for space. A special mention must go to the staff, who were so friendly and welcoming and set the right tone for a truly lovely celebration.

Oscars, 201 Main Road, McLaren Vale SA  http://oscars.com.au/

Africola

Part one is here. Finally the main game – the peri peri 1/2 chicken. Oh my. Next time I’d skip the entree and just have this baby. Hello spice, hello flavour! The chicken was perfectly cooked and the (boom) chakalaka spicy leaves on top were so tasty. I loved the little pickled root vegetables and the crunch from the toasted pepitas. The chicken livers and hearts were deliciously rich and there was a fabulously spicy sauce coating the whole lot. A pot of polenta-like something came out with a lovely tomato sauce through it, which meant there was no way we were leaving hungry. We’d also ordered a plate of the yoghurt-baked carrots (also served with goat’s curd) and these were to die for. They were perfectly roasted and the flavours were so well-balanced! They also helped to cool down the spice from the chicken. Whilst the entrees felt ‘chefy’, the main was exactly what you would imagine South African food to be – hearty, jam-packed full of flavour and perfect for sharing. The wait staff were amazing, getting us fed in the one hour we had and regularly checking on the gas heaters and refilling our water. I’ll book for inside next time, because the vibe was amazing, but I’m glad I got to experience that chicken. I will be back for sure.

Africola, 4 East Terrace, Adelaide, SA                                     http://africola.com.au/

Africola

I finally made it to Africola! I was super excited to try South African food for the first time! We booked on a Friday night and were allocated outdoor seating, but we certainly weren’t neglected despite seating in front of Botanic Bar. I started with the Bluna cocktail – gin, orange wine, gooseberry and Rooibos cola combined into a light and lolly-sweet mix (yum!). Meals come with a complimentary serve of house-made flatbread and smoky goat’s curd – a perfect way to whet the appetite. Dish one was the charcoal marron served with a seaweed dressing. The marron was tender and soft and I mopped up all of the seaweed dressing – it was like the best nori in oil with a great salty hit. This dish was a real winner for flavour, but when they say entree size, they mean it. Entree two was the raw kingfish with mandarin segments, mandarin gel and goat’s curd. For me, the kingfish was the only thing that didn’t work – when I order fish I want to taste it, instead all I got was mandarin with the texture of fish, which was a bit odd. Overall I felt like the entrees were trying a bit too hard to be ‘chefy’. Part two to follow.

Africola, 4 East Terrace, Adelaide, SA                                     http://africola.com.au/