Where did the time go? Summer barrelled through town in an incredibly humid blur and now it’s “mad March”. But before everyone slips fully into a Fringe frenzy, let’s take a moment to appreciate the hottest new openings of the summer. Here – in alphabetical order – are all the new venues we got excited about in December, January and February.
In Japanese, “buta” means pork and “yama” means mountain – put them together, as in Buta Yama, and you get “a mountain of pork”. For a ramen restaurant that uses over 50 kilograms of pork leg and back bones daily, the name couldn’t be more apt. The highlight of the menu is its shi tonkotsu ramen with a rich, creamy pork bone broth and slices of tender pork. Other menu highlights include a black garlic oil tonkotsu ramen; Jiro-style ramen; miso pork back fat ramen (a soup rarely seen in Adelaide or even Melbourne, according to owner Jameson Chiang); and a spicy miso ramen.
Cha-no-wa is well-known in Japan but the King William Street store, which opened in December, is the brand’s first Australian outpost. Its premium matcha is sourced from Kyoto. Charlie Lu, an ex-Muni and Hardy’s Verandah chef, brought the tea to Australia. As well as matcha and hojicha, the drinks list includes frappes and desserts like matcha sundaes, cakes and more.
Owned by Shay Kelley, former manager of Levant Eatery, and her partner Sam Scott, East Mediterranean Eatery is catering to the time-poor office crowd. The menu is a mix of fuss-free street food: pita pockets, salads and rice bowls. Its signature dish The East is packed with grilled chicken, lemony yoghurt sauce, and crispy fries. Two other standouts have also proven popular: The Beef, made with grilled meat, pickled cabbage, feta and garlic sauce; and The Baba, a pita pocket loaded with grilled veg, haloumi, baba ganoush and pomegranate sauce. All dishes can be turned into a meal with fries or zucchini chips.
After closing his original Hahndorf pop-up in June 2024, teenage cafe owner Tom Oswald made the move to the big smoke. Late last year, he opened a sleek, pared back space on the ground floor of Yugo, a student accommodation building on North Terrace. The takeaway-geared site – secured thanks to Renew Adelaide – has an intimate courtyard, planter boxes, and a hole-in-the-wall service window in keeping with the faster pace of the city. The menu is simple with focaccia toasties, cinnamon scrolls made by Oswald’s mum and his own blend of Homeboy coffee.
Adelaide is no stranger to Italian cuisine, but it felt like there was an avalanche of new openings last year. Mensa – the final of 2024’s Italian diners – is something special. The Kent Town eatery comes from Eugenio Maiale, who co-founded Auge and Citrus in the early 2000s, and Claudio Ferraro, one of the founders of Cibo Ristorante and its subsequent franchises, plus Valentino’s. (The two also own Italia Pasta Fresca alongside Messina’s Nick Palumbo.) They’ve teamed up with third partner Zoran Pavlovic, who first met Maiale when he was working as a dishie at Citrus. Since then, he’s clocked time at institutions like Chianti, Press and Osteria Oggi. In short, there’s some serious Adelaide dining DNA running through this place. The open kitchen is turning out traditional and fancified Italian dishes, including a selection of house-extruded pastas. There’s a classic rabbit ragu with thick ribbons of pappardelle; a knockout orecchiette with chicken livers, marsala and crisp-fried guanciale; and pumpkin-filled pasta triangles with butter and sage. Otherwise, you can snack on pasta fritta (fried pasta) with honey, ’nduja and mascarpone or Abruzzese-style crumbed and fried olives stuffed with pork mince. Or go large with proteins including pork Milanese, served on the bone with a buttery sauce, fried sage and crispy capers.
Steven Lee, the director of the Plus 82 Group, has transformed his Norwood eatery CNB into a dak-galbi restaurant called 88 Pocha. For the uninitiated, dak-galbi is a dish that originated in the city of Chuncheon. Chicken – which is marinated in garlic, gochujang, onions, ginger and soy sauce – is brought to your table raw and then cooked in a deep pan. Beyond dak-galbi, there are side dishes including oysters, fried chicken and kimchi pancakes. Dessert includes hotteok, a street food favourite consisting of a shallow-fried pancake filled with brown sugar, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
For more than 40 years, the food scene in Forestville was limited to a smattering of fast food outlets and the cafe inside the Le Cornu furniture store. Now, Forestville is set to be redeveloped with new apartments, a school and an urban farm. Sensing the suburb is set to soar, Josh and Jacob Baker (the brothers behind Whistle & Flute, Just Down the Road, Sofia and Part Time Lover) wanted to be part of the action. Alongside four other business partners, the pair have created an all-day diner built on fluffy flatbread.
The opening of Clare Falzon’s Maltese restaurant was plagued by setbacks. After finally receiving a liquor licence in December, Falzon and team swung open the doors of the former 1922 schoolhouse. On the menu, you’ll find Mediterranean small plates, like Port Lincoln blue mussels in sugo; a summery tomato con pan with zucchini escabeche; and spring greens with ricotta, salted lemon, pecorino and spiced oil. The former classroom’s original blackboard is now used to scrawl the daily wines by the glass, beginning with drops by Barossa locals Rasa Wines, Reislingfreak, Forage Supply Co, Whistler, Wonderground and Laughing Jack.
Additional reporting by Stacey Caruso, Kurtis Eichler, Daniela Frangos and Nicole Wedding.
