Five New Adelaide Restaurants and Cafes We Got Excited About in Winter 2026

It’s winter, so perhaps it makes sense that the local restaurant scene has been undergoing hibernation. After welcoming nine new venues in summer, and 10 new diners opening over autumn, winter was a bit slower with only five new spots joining the fray. (That’s all set to change as things heat up again, with eight new venues to get excited about.)

Here are the venues we got excited about recently.

Angry Penguin, Adelaide

The first thing diners see when they enter Angry Penguin isn’t the menu. It’s Sidney Nolan’s 1973 portrait of the fictional poet Ern Malley, which hangs at the entrance to the restaurant, which opened as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s $55 million redevelopment. On loan from the Art Gallery of South Australia, the painting depicts the invented subject of a famed hoax and subsequent obscenity trial that was a media sensation of 1940s Adelaide. At the centre of the Ern Malley hoax was the modernist literary magazine Angry Penguins, from which the new restaurant takes its name.  

Studio Nine Architects’ design incorporates plush red carpets, bespoke furniture by local designers Andrew Carvolth and Jon Goulder, and a colour palette drawn from Nolan’s painting to create an appropriately theatrical atmosphere.

Executive chef Alex Katsman, who previously helmed kitchens at Adelaide’s Sofitel and Marriott hotels, follows suit with a European-influenced menu featuring classic dishes like a prawn cocktail and well-sauced coq au vin, as well as more sprightly dishes like roasted brussels sprouts with tahini, hot honey and lashings of freshly grated Parmigiano. Theatrical desserts like the decadent dark chocolate, raspberry and gold Velvet Rouge round out the offering.

Barro, Adelaide

Alejandro Huerta is one of Australia’s best Mexican chefs. Alongside his wife, chef and sommelier Galia Valadez, Huerta opened Barro in an Adelaide laneway in July. It quickly became one the state’s best Mexican restaurants.

Huerta and Valadez each have seriously impressive CVs. The pair have worked in Michelin-starred kitchens across the world. Huerta worked at Pujol in Mexico, Spain’s Quique Dacosta, Alinea in Chicago, and Noma, while Valadez worked at Lillas Pastia and the lauded Café de Oriente. Huerta moved to Australia to head up Mexican Society on Gouger Street, before moving to Sydney, where he spent 10 years leading teams at the city’s best Mexican restaurants including Lottie, Comedor and No. 92, where Valadez later took over as head chef.

The menu at Barro reflects their shared heritage and their decades of experience in hospitality. Popular dishes include a compressed pig’s head taco, inspired by queso de Puerco, a popular dish in Valadez and Huerta’s native CDMX; the mole with mushrooms and zucchini flowers; a fresh and zingy snapper toastada; and an incredibly moreish cheesecake inspired by ate con queso.

Gang Gang on Holland, Adelaide

Over the last eight years, the Gang Gang name has become synonymous with burgers to many South Australians. You’ll often find it popping up at festivals, almost always accompanied by a queue. Co-owners Nina and Morgen Wynn-Hadinata are no strangers to the CBD restaurant scene, but after their twin Hindley Street stores 99 Gang Social and Thirsty Tiger closed, they were in need of a new city shop for their colourful burgers. 

The new Holland Street location serves a simplified takeaway menu with burger favourites like the Cardi B fried chicken with salsa, the all-American Cali Love with animal sauce, and the smashed beef burger known as God’s Plan, plus mozzarella spring rolls and a build-your-own section. 

Masa Bakery, Adelaide

When chef Diana Lozada and her husband Camilo Dávila moved to Australia from Bogotá 12 years ago, they found themselves homesick for Colombian baked goods. That homesickness led Lozada to try to re-create roscon Dávila, a soft, round bread filled with guava. That one bake led to the couple developing more than 25 recipes and popping up at markets around SA.

Now Masa Bakery has its own bricks-and-mortar space. On the menu are empanadas, Colombian roscones, Venezuelan cachitos, palitos de queso, Chilean sandwich rolls, alfajores and pan de muerto. There’s also flaky savoury pasteles and tres leches cake. 

Toriok Ramen, Adelaide

Chef Hugh Ok and head chef Terukazu Mukai have spent almost 15 years working together in Japanese kitchens across Adelaide, including Ramen & Izakaya Himeji and Ginza Miyako. The pair travelled through Tokyo in 2024, eating their way through the city’s ramen scene before settling on the concept they wanted to bring to Adelaide. After returning home, they spent almost a year refining recipes, adjusting ingredients and fine-tuning techniques before they felt ready to run a venue of their own.

Originally, Toriok opened as a pop-up. Within a few months, queues were a regular sight outside the 16-seat venue, so they decided to make things permanent.

Just 100 bowls of ramen are served each service, with a new batch of broth started every morning to simmer for 22 hours before serving. The menu ranges from the signature tori paitan and its spicy variation to a lighter shoyu matcha ramen and a brothless mazesoba. A communal table encourages quick, casual dining, lanterns hang at the entrance, and photos from the pair’s research trip line one wall.

Additional reporting by Stacey Caruso, Alexis Buxton-Collins and Claudia Dichiera.