The Stag

August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

date of visit: Thursday 21 July 2016

disclaimer: I was a guest at the ‘eat and tweet’ to celebrate the menu launch

So – apologies to both venue and reader for just two photos from this event. I’d spent the day at a wine tasting and exhausted my phone’s battery’s capabilities snapping away at wine bottles.

You may remember that The Stag has had a time of it of late. A few years ago it touted itself as “the worst vegetarian restaurant” (yep – it was a steak house). After a bit of financial excitement, new owners came in, and operating from a clean slate rejigged its dining offering as a fine dining restaurant.

A bit of tweaking and we see that The Stag has shifted to a more moderate position when it comes to dining. Venue Manager Robby Lippett describes the new menu as ‘gastropub’.

This means that the pub classics (yes, you can still have a schnitzel, burger or S&P squid) sit alongside a ‘tapas plates’ menu and a list of ‘big dishes’. Our tasting menu took in some of both (I think they figured we’d know what a schnitzel was like!). We were served tasting portions and the full size dishes were available to photograph but sadly technology failed me – just trust me, these two images aren’t representative of portion size!

We started with the chargrilled octopus – a $15 tapas plate. It’s served with black bean, cucumber and chilli jam. As we were having five courses, you can see that this was just a taster – or just a teaser because those two mouthfuls of octopus were really good. Definitely a dish I’d order again.

Next, the softshell crab slider. For $14 you get two of these and yet another dish I’d order. It was delicious – the crab was crispy and both that and the crunch of the pickled carrot worked well with the bun and mayo. It was lovely to taste a slider that was something a bit different too.

The duck pie floater ($26) was a dish that sounded really interesting but I’m not sure how well it worked in its scaled down form. I think it’s really hard to miniaturise anything involving pastry – quite often, as here, you just can’t scale down the pastry enough and our tasting portion was dominated by it. I’m sure this isn’t a problem in a normal portion but unfortunately I’m not a big enough fan of pea and ham soup to ever revisit it!

The vegetarian option at this course sounded great – handmade gnocchi with cauliflower, blue cheese, porcini, kale and a parmesan crumb. Unfortunately I wasn’t sitting near to anyone eating vegetarian so I didn’t get a taste!

Our final savoury course was the scotch fillet mac & cheese. Now Andy loathes mac and cheese (seriously – what is wrong with him?!) so it’s not something I get to eat. In fact, it’s something you rarely see on restaurant menus – but here it is, with some beef, onion rings and truffle sauce. At $34 it is almost the most expensive dish on the menu (the porterhouse surf & turf at $38 takes honours) but from the taste I had it’s worth deviating from a schnitzel with gravy …

We wrapped up with the peanut butter parfait ($12). My love of legumes sadly does not extend to peanuts but this was a nicely put together dessert, complete with peanut brittle and salted caramel.

The dining room is set apart from the pub’s front bar and is actually quite a plush, relaxing space. Even though the Stag is returning to its pub roots, you do feel like you’re in a proper restaurant dining room and there are even soft furnishings. That’s right – you can have a conversation!

For those seeking pre or post dinner drinks, the Stag’s front bar is complemented by the upstairs Champagne Lounge.

From what I saw, the new menu hits its mark. By staying true to the pub staples, while allowing the kitchen a little foray into more interesting dishes, it should mean that the Stag has broad appeal.

The Stag Hotel
299 Rundle Street
Adelaide SA 5000
phone: 8311 0392

Joan’s Pantry, Hawthornedene

August 10, 2016 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

date of visit: Wednesday 20 July 2016

School holidays … a time to catch up with all those friends you don’t see during term time (er, and the ones you do see during term time too). Winter holidays are tricky – no one wants their house trashed by two five year olds who you can’t stick outside.

Our house was full of wine (long story), the friend’s house is having a ceiling repaired … so there was nothing for it but to choose a park and hope it didn’t rain on us.

Somewhat miraculously, even though it rained on us on the WAY to Apex Park, Hawthornedene, it was actually pretty dry at the park itself. After an hour or so running around and squeezing in some geocaching (an excellent way to keep small children occupied) it was time for a sit down and something to quieten down the inevitable wails of ‘I’m hungry’.

Part of our choice of Apex Park had been driven by the fact that Joan’s Pantry is right there. I’ve driven past it for years and years and years (and I’ve subsequently found out that a friend’s parents used to own it – got to love Adelaide!) but never been in. It’s had a recent refurb so while the outside looks relatively small, there is quite a lot of space inside.

We got in (luckily) just before the lunch rush and set about choosing food and drinks. A tactical mistake saw Master 5 opt for chocolate milk while his friend ordered an orange and mango juice. Oh no!

After some agonising, I decided on the ‘Big Breakfast’. Even though it was lunch time and I didn’t really need a big meal, it worked out at about the same price as ordering eggs and a few other bits and pieces … PLUS it had HASH BROWNS! Master 5 chose the hot dog with onion from the child’s menu (he was originally tempted by the big breakfast too … but was swayed by his mate’s choice!).

As we sat waiting for our food and drinking our coffees, we realised that some of the tables around us were enjoying glasses of wine! Tactical beverage mistake number 2.

The food arrived swiftly and, overall, was very good. The boys’ hot dogs were ENORMOUS – for $7.50 two big ‘halves’ of a hot dog, complete with onion (if requested!) and sauce. It looked like good quality bread too. And guess what? Master 5 was unable to eat all of his. There’s a first time for everything!

The big breakfast was indeed big. Mine was with scrambled eggs which were delicious. I hoovered them up sharpish before starting on the remainder. The mushrooms were delicious (not those horrible insipid watery mushies you so often get) as was the grilled tomato. Naturally the hash browns went down a treat and the bacon and sausage were lovely too. After all of that I could hardly make a dent in the big slab of toast. And the bowl of chips we’d also ordered? Yeah … we didn’t need that at all!

The one downer was that my friend had ordered poached eggs with her big breakfast and they were both firm in the middle. Always disappointing – and perhaps I didn’t help by smugly remarking how good my scrambled eggs were!

Joan’s Pantry gets a big tick from me (hmmm, is it just the hash browns?) and, judging by how busy it got, it would appear that the locals and visitors feel the same. If you are planning a visit – particularly on a weekend or during school holidays – I recommend you give them a call.

And hopefully, my next visit will be sooner rather than later.

Joan’s Pantry
7 Watahuna Avenue
Hawthorndene 5051
phone: (08) 8278 2091

50sixone

July 31, 2016 - Alex Prichard Leave a comment

date of visit: Saturday 16 July 2016
disclaimer: I was a guest at the launch

50sixone (the name is, indeed, Hyde Park’s postcode) is the latest addition to King William Road. Although it’s billed as the street’s newest dessert bar, it will actually serve you plenty of savoury food too. It opens at 7am – and if red velvet pancakes first thing are not your thing, then you do have plenty of interesting choices.

The launch party was (bravely I think!) held on a Saturday morning. It was great weather, King William Road was busy and 50sixone was filling up with Adelaide food lovers and media.

While we enjoyed some bubbles (civilised at any time of day) we were able to take in the fit out and photograph an array of full size dishes that had been pre-prepared. After the official opening by Unley’s Lord Mayor, Robert Clyne, we were then treated to a selection of mini-treats from the kitchen.

We had little smoked salmon canapés based on the menu’s ‘salmon and fennel’ followed by the smoked salmon slider from the ‘breakfast sliders’ trio. Our final savoury taster was the crispy corn fritter which was lovely. The fritter really was crispy and it was topped with a bacon jam.

Then it was on to things sweet. Mini red velvet pancakes, peanut butter ice cream sandwich (which you’ll find on the menu as ‘between two cookies’ – your choice of ice cream) and then Andy and I wrapped up by sharing the ‘Oreo you glad to see me’ shake. Unless you’re a particularly thirsty sweet tooth, I’d suggest ensuring you find a friend to share a shake with – they’re not small!

oreo milkshake topped with zeppola and cream — Oreo you glad to see me? – $17

I really enjoyed everything I tried, particularly the smoked salmon slider. Obviously, for hardened dessert fans, this place will be heaven but it’s great to see that other tastes have been catered to too. The ice cream is housemade and looked absolutely amazing – and if you’re really keen you can pre-order Australia’s most expensive ice cream. It might be $55 a pop but it is all layered up with gold leaf!

There’s been a lot of hype around 50sixone’s launch and I understand that at the moment it can be ridiculously busy. I almost returned in the final week of school holidays (until my friend and I realised that we’d never get our five year olds to eat anything but ice cream!) which might have been a bit chaotic for me. However, I definitely plan to head back and check out both a savoury dish and some of that ice cream.

50sixone
144a King William Road
Hyde Park SA 5061
phone: 8271 2003

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The Stag

Joan’s Pantry, Hawthornedene

50sixone