Peel St.
The place is packed tonight. I hear a lot about this place, and I know it's popular.
This also happens to be the epicentre of bad parking in Adelaide. I can expect to pay about $20 to park in the Wilson park on Hindley St, five floors up, jammed against a wall by a big Chrysler that parked 15% of the way into my space. If I were a bit portly, I wouldn't have managed to squeeze out the passenger side door.
The parking is extremely close to the restaurant, however. I'm squeezed in at the bar within a minute or two.
This place is a minefield of coriander, with a majority of the dishes containing it. The staff are happy to help explain the menu to me. It's rather inconveniently located on the back wall of the restaurant.
Roast garlic aioli, pickled fennel, fresh tomato, lemon & chilli on sourdough.
The serves here are for multiple people, so I've had to pick from these entree-ish dishes.
Though I'm seated on a bar stool with almost no back, the food is being prepared behind the bar, so I can watch what's going on.
I'm not usually a fan of this kind of cuisine, but this has a huge amount of flavour. The fish feels raw, but tastes cooked, and the toast provides a good base for the dish, so it's not just a salad. There are all kinds of strong herbs in here, and the aioli adds creaminess to hold it all together. It doesn't have the harsh edge that a lot of Asian salads have, though I'd prefer more fish and bread relative to the amount of salad.
The waitress recognises me. She has read The Feed Report, and found it "quite humorous".
I'm trying to be 100% serious here. :(
With fresh mango, palm sugar syrup & pandan coconut cream.
The parfait "ice cream" doesn't taste like much. It's just slightly fruity and sweet. The coconut exterior isn't really sweet either. There's an expectedly sourish passionfruit sauce on the plate, and some fresh mango, which also happens to be slightly tart.
These are all components that need to be paired with something sweet. I don't want a few varieties of sour on the plate.
Mint is nice, when it's sweet. When it's not, it just turns everything else in that mouthful into a mint leaf.