Visiting Arkhe Soon? Jake Kellie Says You Need To Order These Five Dishes

After stints at Singapore’s Burnt Ends and Sydney’s Aria, Jake Kellie opened Arkhe in Adelaide in late 2021. At the time, Broadsheet called it “one of Australia’s hottest new openings”.

Almost five years on – a lifetime in hospitality – the fire-fuelled restaurant hasn’t lost any of its heat. “We cook everything over fire,” says Kellie. “It’s a very natural way of cooking. We look at local ingredients. South Australian produce is obviously amazing. At the moment, I would say we’re very meat-orientated.”

That last bit is, perhaps, an understatement. Scott de Bruin of Mayura Station became a part-owner in 2024, and the restaurant’s focus on steaks began to sharpen. This year, Arkhe was named 16th in the world on the World’s 101 Best Steak rankings.

“We’re on a bit of a mission to be the number one steak restaurant in South Australia. We’ve probably done that now. People naturally come to us if they want a good steak knowing we’re the home of Mayura in Adelaide,” Kellie says.

It’s not just the steaks, though. Everything on the menu at Arkhe is good – and you can try them all without breaking the bank. Broadsheet and NAB have teamed up for Booking With Benefits, a dining program that gives you $50 off the bill when you spend $250 or more and pay on your NAB credit or debit card at selected venues across the country, including Arkhe.

Keen? These five dishes are Kellie’s favourites.

Scallop toast with caviar

This snack was added to the menu after one of the 12 chef collaborations Arkhe hosted in 2025. “This was a dish [from] Dan Hong, which was a take on a prawn toast. We reimagined it as a scallop toast,” Kellie says.

This version takes a scallop mousse and spreads it thickly onto a piece of Lost Loaf sourdough. It’s grilled as a whole piece, sliced to serve, and topped with a nearly translucent piece of raw scallop before it’s dressed with white soy and lemon.

“Then we just glorified it by putting some [Caviari Cristal] caviar on it. It’s a great little snack that we probably won’t be able to take off the menu, because people come for it now, which is great.”

Mayura Station intercostal skewer with lime crema

Intercostal is a rich cut of beef that’s hard to get your hands on. “We only get two boxes per month of the intercostal meat, if we’re lucky,” says Kellie.

“We slice it super thinly and we marinate it in a little bit of mustard and Worcestershire sauce overnight. We skewer it and crust it with a three-peppercorn crust and then we grill them over the fire and serve with a lime crema.”

While lime crema might not be something you expect to have served with meat, it’s essential to the taste.

“It’s kind of weird. For me, it tastes like a cheeseburger. The acidity in it is nice and fresh and helps cut through the fat of the beef. It just works. When you have it all together, it just reminds me of a Macca’s cheeseburger,” he says.

Peking duck wontons, shaved abalone, grilled duck broth

Arkhe might be a very South Australian restaurant, but this dish has its roots in Sydney dining.

“When I was an apprentice at Aria, Matt [Moran] was very well known for his Peking duck wontons with the duck consommé and shaved abalone,” Kellie says. “So this is kind of like my little homage to my time at Aria as an apprentice.”

He uses the same wonton mix here. Diced Peking duck is folded into a chicken mousse, then folded into wontons that are grilled in front of the hot oven. Eyre Peninsula abalone is braised and thinly sliced, then laid over the wontons with a topping of chives and lemon juice. And the bones from the duck are used to make a broth, served in a pot on the side for you to pour over the dish.

Ferguson rock lobster

Ferguson Seafood is a South Australian-based producer that sources most of its lobsters from Port Lincoln. They’re delivered live to the restaurant and killed to order.

“They’re grilled nice and slowly over the fire and finished in front of the hot oven. We simply serve that with a garlic brown butter sauce and capers,” Kellie says. “It’s nothing too crazy, but we do cook a good lobster here.”

Signature Mayura Station tomahawk

Once you’ve tasted Mayura Station beef, you’ll look for it on every menu. And although cuts from the Millicent-based cattle station are all over the Arkhe menu, the tomahawk is the most popular.

It’s dry aged for 30 days and then coated in smoked chocolate, Laphroaig whisky and beef tallow, which “gives it this nice richness.” The chocolate is a nod to how the cows are raised. “Mayura Station is the biggest buyer of Allen’s lollies in the Southern Hemisphere. Scott buys all the seconds – the stuff that doesn’t make the packet. He takes that and creates his own feed. For the last 120 to 140 days, the cattle are fed on this feed.”

The dish is served with a horseradish cream, honey mustard and beef jus, but Kellie’s favourite condiment to enjoy with the steak is the pickled walnut paste, made with sauteed shallots that are caramelised and mixed with pickled walnuts, then blitzed into a paste. “It’s nice and high in acid and helps cut through the beef,” he says.

The Broadsheet Dining Program Special Offer of a $50 discount when you spend $250 or more is available when you dine at a Participating Restaurant between 13 January 2026 and 16 December 2026. To be eligible for the Discount Offer, you must make a booking via the NAB Exclusive Booking Link for the Participating Restaurant which is found on the Broadsheet Booking Page and spend a minimum of $250 on your NAB credit card. Between 2 June 2026 and 16 December 2026, Select venues will also accept NAB debit card payments. The Discount Offer will apply at the Restaurant when you pay the final bill amount including GST and service fees and charges (if any) with your NAB credit card (includes a digital NAB credit card) or NAB debit card (includes a digital NAB debit card) at select venues. The Discount Offer is only valid once per booking and will not apply to any split bills and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. For the full Terms and Conditions of this Offer, please click here.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with NAB.