Australian Recommendations?

Regional Dining Discussions Asia Pacific
41

Thanks for all the help PhilD and C.Hamster. Had a great time though I didn’t go through most of the recommendations since my dad basically mutinied after Adelaide… lol.

I’ll do a more indepth write up and add pictures later.

I will say that I did not think too highly of Flower Drum or Jade Temple for those picks. Billy Kwong was great though and we actually quite enjoyed Golden Century. Also, I shudder at my seafood bills right now.

@sck the Coral trout was uh… slightly cheaper in Australia than the US, but its still extremely expensive haha. Meat’s great though.

2 Likes
42

I assume that was after Orana…? As I said upthread its pretty bleeding edge in terms of food - not for a conservative diner.

Interesting feedback on Flower Drum and Jade Temple. I understand Jade Temple is reformatting to pan-asian as the kitchen wasn’t designed for intensive wok cookery…mmmmh. I think based on that and your experience its off my list.

Look forward to hearing more of your travels. I have just had 5 days in Darwin and ate in a broad selection of restaurants - however the best food of the trip was on the plane home…!

43

Actually, I think he mutinied in Cairns haha. Just a lot more complaints at random restaurants that irritated me to no end… anyways.

I can give a brief text description on the things we ate in Adelaide minus pictures right now cause… I’m terrible at this:

We went to Shobosho for lunch and had some different items. Never had garfish (funny looking thing) before and it was stuffed and had a little salty/sour sauce of sorts. Some other things included their chicken, deep fried tendons, and a vegetable dish of snake beans (which I found out were long beans). However, I was expecting a traditional izakaya style cooking and was not too enthusiastic with some of the flavor combinations.

We went to Mandoo for dinner (not sure who recommended it), but I was not a huge fan of their dumplings. Thought they were on the large end and had a rather dry kinda crumbly interior. Their complimentary pickles were pretty good but… I wouldn’t go to a restaurant just for that.

We had lunch at Orana and that was a fantastic meal! Definitely a nice highlight of some native Australian dishes with some fun twists. Also lunch is a … cheaper affair haha (but less dishes). After that, we had dinner near the Central Market area… Kingdom Chinese restaurant! Okay, not one you would probably expect haha, but I didn’t quite like the menu at Concubine (some of the dishes on the menu reminded me of a more upscale version of PF Chang’s though I’m sure Concubine actually does a good job on their dishes. In any case, we wanted to try some Cantonese style seafood in Australia and when we asked, they had mud crabs in the tank. I thought the crab prices were on the higher side and maybe we were getting jipped, but little did I found out later on that it was one of the cheapest seafood meals (2 crabs for $168 AUD). Kingdom had a pretty good rendition of ginger and scallions mud crab and one with huadiao wine and egg white mud crab. Paired that meal with a nice steamed fish (barramundi) and it was a fantastic dinner. I am surprised that the restaurant offered some complimentary shrimp chips though.

The following day, we headed off to the Lane Vineyard for lunch and I had a good meal there. There was this scotched egg was quite well done along with the main dishes (red snapper, duck breast, and a nice wagyu tenderloin). I also got the quail which was also excellent. After exploring

Dinner at Africola was quite interesting, though I don’t think I really did a good job at ordering African cuisine. We tried their peri-peri chicken, pork neck, and sirloin steak and each one had a slight subtlety to their spices which I cannot quite place. We also ordered a dish called a cauliflower steak… well… it was pretty much one gigantic cauliflower covered with a slightly sweet and sour sauce (not sure how they called it a steak).

On the last day, we headed to Magill Estate Kitchen for lunch. The Magill estate restaurant was booked for a wedding event; however, the Kitchen seemed to be bogged down as well due to the wedding. I wasn’t quite happy with their bread (seemed way too dense) and the butter was just a cold puck. Some things were pretty good though such as their market fish and other meat dishes. I did try a small sample of their 2012 Grange and thought it was a subtle mellow wine… Alright, I really have no true idea on wine haha, but its kinda interesting seeing the way the wine sweats. Note that small 90ml taste was just over a hundred dollars, yikes.

For our last meal in Adelaide, we went to Star House Chinese Restaurant and tried a steamed fish and their take on a ginger and scallion mud crab (as a comparison to Kingdom). I liked Star House’s usage of the noodles (more like yee mein than the wider flat noodles) in the crab a bit more, but overall thought Kingdom did a better job cooking the crabs.

In some ways, I think I kinda hyped myself up on those two restaurants and they just didn’t meet that expectation. I was thinking that they might hit the notes that The Chairman in Hong Kong reached.

Flower drum was on the expensive end with great service, just the food wasn’t as stellar as what I would expect from the price. For Jade Temple, service was also exemplary just some food items just didn’t meld as much for my tastes. I’ll definitely do a write up as I find those pictures…

I can’t wait to see the places you tried in Darwin.

Oh and little note, I’m actually kinda glad I didn’t shift a day out of Adelaide and try to get a night in Port Douglas or Cape Tribulation. We actually arrived the day after Hurricane/Cyclone/Tropical Storm Nora hit the area and Cairns was flooded and the nearby roads could barely connect the outer cities. The day after we arrived (start of the tours) the major roads were cleared a few hours beforehand.

44

Glad you liked Orana.

Gouger Street in Adelaide has a few places with a reputation for mud crabs - I used to work for a Taiwanese boss who was based in HK, every time he came to Adelaide we went out for mud crab.

I used to like the Chairman in HK (although I hear it has changed after staff defections) and rarely find places as good. Although some of the cheaper looking places around the markets are pretty good.

Shame about Maghill Estate. It’s a pretty outrageous price for the small glass of Grange. Although Penfolds has really pushed its prices up over recent years. The BBQ reds are now priced in the fine wine range.

I can’t write up Darwin as there was nothing really positive to say about the food. There is a new indigenous food truck/pop-up (Elijah’s) that kicked off when we were there but it was fully booked out. Although my wife wasn’t keen as it was in the open air in a town centre park so you ate an expensive indigenous meal ($60 a head) surrounded by indigenous people begging for money - seemed incongruous.

45

Ohh, I see. I’m pretty sure I still paid a high price for mud crabs, but Cairns, Melbourne, and Sydney out did Adelaide’s prices.

I went in 2016 to both the Chairman and one of their staff defection places (Tasting Court). Honestly, I think it was still really good, a little more towards say modern/Californian style Cantonese. Tasting court seems somewhat more of a throwback to great traditional Cantonese cuisine.

I just heard a few people while we were bustling about telling us that the Grange was one of the most notable brands, etc. So it was just out of curiosity to try their wine just once. Couldn’t get to the Barossa valley though since it was further out.

And yikes, :confused: thought there might have been one redeeming feature of Darwin.