SA's Top Regional Restaurants
- Fino Seppeltsfield, Seppeltsfield
Owners, chef David Swain and sommelier Sharon Romeo, source largely from the Barossa, but also from South Australia’s various regions, to make their elegant new restaurant a showcase of the state’s culinary heritage and ample availability of high quality local produce.
Romeo’s wine list offers with plenty of interesting vintages by the glass and a signature selection of sherries.
Fino Seppeltsfield is an elegant and airy hangar of a space, with a beamed ceiling and bespoke bentwood chairs with yellow cushions. There’s a huge central gas fireplace to keep it cosy in the cooler months.
MORE INFORMATION: Fino
- The Mallee Fowl Restaurant, Berri
In land abundant in orchards and vineyards and four kilometres from the festival- and farmers market-hosting town of Berri, the Mallee Fowl restaurant , surrounded by bushland and a quandong plantation, has earned must-stop status for tourists passing through for its collection of eclectic Australiana and deft handling of Australian ingredients with European techniques.
MORE INFORMATION: Mallee Fowl
- Prairie Hotel, Parachilna
South Australia’s outback rivals the Red Centre for wow factor.
The centerpiece of its majesty is the Flinders Ranges, a stretch of breathtaking rises, awe-inspiring gorges and the kind of rural red river gum-populated vistas that inspire bush poets and painters.
Sparsely populated (by humans, anyway) the Prairie Hotel is a beacon for tourist trade and locals. In a town of seven residents, it’s always buzzing and serves what it calls Flinders Feral Food with a focus on local and South Australian produce.
The feral mixed grill, featuring kangaroo, emu and camel, is listed as one of the top 100 gourmet experiences in Australia.
Or try the feral antipasto which includes kangaroo mettwurst, emu pate, goat’s cheese and house made bush tomato chilli jam with flavourings of quandongs, wattle and acacia seeds, saltbush and native limes and bush tomatoes.
MORE INFORMATION: Prairie Hotel
- The Bridgewater Mill, Bridgewater
The Bridgewater Mill is a symbol of the successful melding of past and present the Adelaide Hills district .
This space is a casual collection of shared tables where friends can graze on platters full of locally sourced produce as well as things from the property’s own kitchen gardens.
MORE INFORMATION: The Bridgewater Mill
- Sails at Robe, Robe
Few places in the world have such a spread of culinary excellence as the South Australian Limestone Coast.
When it comes to food, the Limestone Coast’s most emblematic is the southern rock lobster and while nearly 95 per cent of the succulent (and pricy) crustacean catch heads overseas, Sails at Robe snares its share so its customers can taste the flavour of the region in situ.
When it’s in season, October to May, Sails gets delivery of fresh live southern rock lobster straight from the boats and serves it “unadorned” under its Australina moniker of “crayfish” with a little lemon or seafood sauce on the side. If you must, you can opt for thermidor.
There’s plenty more on chef Adam Brooks’ modern and interesting menu, with Limestone Coast seafood the star in dishes using local herbs, vegetables and fruits.
MORE INFORMATION: Sails at Robe
- Sarin’s Restaurant, Port Lincoln
An oyster the size of a steak? The Coffin Bay king oyster has 10 times meat 10 times the size as a normal oyster, and there’s few places in the world you can eat them: Sarin's Restaurant at the Port Lincoln Hotel on the Eyre Peninsula is one.
The grand oysters, which get their size from being grown commercially for five to six years, are served on a bed of rock salt, with lemon and limes.
For the brave – and fanatical oyster lovers – who partake, there’s a keepsake at the end. The shell is cleaned and tagged with a personally numbered disk.
Phone or email ahead to let them know you’re up for it.
MORE INFORMATION: Port Lincoln Hotel
- Zone Restaurant, Aurora Ozone Hotel, Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is gourmet heaven, with adventurous and innovative locals growing or creating some of South Australia’s finest produce.
Sooner or later, come lunch or dinner time, they’ll end up at the pub, a great place to sample everything the island has to offer in the one sitting and under a historic roof and original Victorian awning of the restored 1920s bay-front hotel. Zone Restaurant is a bistro by day and a table-service diner by night.
It’s the Ozone seafood platter – all from Kangaroo Island or South Australian waters – that’s the don’t-miss showstopper.
It’s a succulent pile of freshly caught yabby, fish of the day in Coopers beer batter, American River oysters, South Australian king prawns and baby abalone – and a side of chips, of course.
MORE INFORMATION: Aurora Ozone
- The Inland Sea, Warooka
The Yorke Peninsula is really the undiscovered South Australia – for those outside South Australia.
Fishermen relish the quantities of blue swimmer crab, southern rock lobster, scallops and King George whiting.
That’s just in close. Fortune favours the brave who head out into open ocean for exciting catches.
Inland Sea Restaurant is, well, inland from all that.
But really not that far – on the Yorke Peninsula, nowhere is far from the sea. The restaurant, at the town of Warooka where the peninsula joins the mainland, showcases all that is spectacular about Yorke Peninsula seafood with an honest menu dedicated to the freshness and flavour of this seaward-looking region.
MORE INFORMATION: The Inland Sea
- Seed Winehouse and Kitchen, Clare
Pretty, romantic, relaxed and blessed with great produce and amazing wines, it’s easy to fall in love with the Clare Valley. And that’s exactly what Guy Parkinson and Candice Leighton did. The restaurateur twosome from the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region came on holiday, then came back for good, to open Seed Winehouse and Kitchen.
It’s housed in a stone-built old mill, with the stonework laid bare, offset by corrugated iron walls and a warming potbellied stove.
This Italy-inspired eatery with flavours from all across Europe does the simple things well.
Quality cured meats and cheeses from around the world share the menu with Spencer Gulf prawns and other South Australian seafood, pork from the Clare’s producer, Eagle Spirit and Piambong Farm cherries.
Plates are for sharing, with a fine Clare Riesling or shiraz. Locals love it, so you never know - you might end up chatting to the producer of the drop you’re enjoying.
MORE INFORMATION: Seed Kitchen
- Leonard’s Mill, Second Valley
The Fleurieu Peninsula is in an enviable spot, wedged between McLaren Vale inland, and Kangaroo Island out to sea and the menu at Leonard’s Mill reflects that good luck. The restaurant is at Second Valley, a coastal village not far from the island ferry at Cape Jervis.
The wine list features interesting McLaren Vale vintages and some of the better ones from Kangaroo Island. Food is seasonal, local, deftly presented and delicious.
Word of that has spread – people are coming from all over Australia to try it.
MORE INFORMATION: Leonard's Mill
