Where are you having dinner tonight - Spoon. Where? Never heard of it. It was amazing that no one had heard of Spoon in Adelaide. A colleague had booked it for us and so I had to research it before we got there. Spoon is a new restaurant wine bar by Aramis vineyards from McLaren vale. It basically bring the celler door experience to down town Adelaide. A small but funky restaurant that my Adelaide colleagues felt reminded them of Sydney restaurants. A huge wine list of their own wines and other wines as well by the glass or bottle. Wine flights and tasting add to the celler door kind of experience. Very few tables and a kitchen that was smaller than our dining table but a great and innovative modern Australian menu. The spoon tasting option was a good way to start as you got to try most of the dishes on the menu at a go. But the partridge got me as it is not often that you see that on the menu. I had to try it and even thought it was cooked well, the cabbage was too strong and sour for me and couldn’t finish the dish for the first time. The lamb was a stand out, the saganaki decedant and the chocolate good.

 

Spoon Tasting:
Cajun limestone coast lamb loin
Seared ocean trout
BBQ pork neck
Roast cherry tomato, grilled polenta, marinated goat chevre

Saganaki - pan fried kefalograviera cheese

Roasted Redgate Farm Partridge with spatzle, salt and pepper legs, braised aramis black label shiraz red cabbage, creamed watercress

Warm Mediterranean seafood salad:
Pan fried coorong mullet fillets, spencer gulf prawns, scallop, radicchio, grapefruit, olive tapenade, lemon and parsley

Mayura station wagyu fillet 8+ score - crisp onion rings and pink pepper sauce

Coconut crème, grilled fig and strawberry salad, vincotto, sesame snap

Belgiun chocolate brownie, dark chocolate sorbet, romcaffe and frangelico soup

Kenji has been on my list as a must visit restaurant in Adelaide for a long time. Kenji is a modern Japanese restaurant and has consistently won the best Asian restaurant in Adelaide. Chef Kenji has pulled together an amazing menu. It is 6 pages long and has almost anything you could want in Japanese food. If you don’t feel like choosing - they also have a 5 or 6 course degustation and the famous 8 course Kaiseki menu. We decided to go a la carte tonight but our neighbors had the degustation and it looked really good. May have to go back for that one! To start we took a short cut and ordered the mixed appetizers. This was a mix of 7 different entrees and a great way to try a few different things. Surprisingly, for an Asian restaurant, desserts were also very good and the service very warm and friendly. I must say a nice simple restaurant - not the wow factor you find in some modern Japanese restaurants in Sydney but good food.

 

Zensai - mixed appetizers:
A shot of miso bisque soup.
Duck and prawn cold roll with duck egg tofu
Yuzu marinated octopus, artichokes, snow pea
Chicken egg roll stuffed with peach and caramalised onion, spicy miso soup
Persimmon, pistachio, konnyaku and mountain caviar with tofu paste, kipfer potato
Spicy tuna tartare with avocado smash, passionfruit
Rice cracker crusted snapper and mixed mushroom cake with red pepper aioli

Poached duck leg in orange and Japanese hoji tea-smoked duck breast with fragrant red rice, Asian green, pickled quandong

Wagyu sirloin steak with potato and leek gratin, sautéed enoki mushroom, mixed tomato salad, teriyaki jus

Fig and walnut warm pudding with poached quince, pure jersey cream

Banana and chocolate soufflé with pouring cream