Orana Restaurant Review
It’s taken a Scottish chef to renew the Adelaide restaurant scene’s interest and love of foraging for native ingredients.
Orana is a very special, special occasion restaurant. It was the singular best restaurant experience of my life.
Let me count the ways.
To make your way into Orana, first you pop into Street ADL’s bar, an institution in it’s own right. Bar staff happily pop down their cocktail shakers and walk us to the “secret” staircase just in a laneway next to the bar.
Through the door at the top of the stairs, is what looks like an upmarket house’s living and dining room.
No reception desk, but we are immediately greeted by host Aaron Fenwick and escorted to a table in the cosy, intimate, almost familiar feeling dining room, and the “Alkoopina” meal is explained. ($295 food & wine, $155 food only). 15 or so “snacks” followed by four or five main courses, and then dessert.
Nothing is hidden away, the wine and beverage cabinets are in the room, with just a small table for the sommelier to open and check bottles.
Josh Picken, sommelier at Orana, introduces himself and the first wine of the night.
Champagne sets us off on the right foot.
The Champagne Gaston Chiquet Spécial Club BRUT MILLÉSIMÉ 2007 – GRAND CRU has a perfume of brioche and lemon curd like Nanna used to make, which continues to the palate and is then cleaned up with clean, green apple acidity.
First taste of the night, potato damper which is presented on red hot charcoal rocks in a cast iron pan to cook yourself at the table.
Served with a sweet lamb butter, or a macadamia based butter for the vegetarian (me!) it is interactive, delicious, innovative and more-ish.
Potato Damper & Lamb butter is how we begin snacks. #restaurantorana
Posted by Restaurant Orana on Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Mulberry leaf with muntries is the next snack, served as a trio on a piece of oiled wood. It is tart at first, then spicy with a secret ingredient of a native Davidson Plum spice powder.
Thinly sliced and rolled Emu started meaty then also became spicy with that same tang.
Willunga squid, or for the vegetarian, sweet potato thinly sliced and dressed with the pop-pop-crunch of finger lime pearls.
This course was also served with a macadamia milk, topped with a wild thyme oil. It smells grassy, and is heavenly smooth, savoury and sweet.

Mulberry leaf with muntries; spicy Emu; Willunga squid or sweet potato with finger lime. Photo: Willunga Wino
Roast pumpkin with thyme and beef was the next course, and Mr Wino found it tasted just like a piece of smoked meat, a clever trick. My vegetarian one was beautifully smokey.
Heart of Palm with native honey and ants were presented on pearlescent spoons. A sweet, tart, soft, coconut like crunch from the Heart of Palm, and according to Mr Wino the ants added a gently earthy crunch.
Mulloway skin turned into a cracker was served with raw mulloway, ruby saltbush and new season Lilly Pilly fruit.
My vegetarian one was a tapioca cracker, contrasted with cooling dollops of sauce and the crisp-tart fruits.
Choko with fermented Davidson Plum was the next snack (unpictured) which was crisp and sweet-sour.
Large and perfectly cooked Spencer Gulf Prawn had that magic native Davidson Plum spice powder, leaving a spicy heat on the palate after enjoying the sweetness of the prawn.
Samphire & pork tail served on a deep spoon (unpictured) was earthy, salty, crunchy. My vegetarian version equally crisp and intriguing.
Another trio.
Smoked salmon with sea blight is paper thin, threaded onto a skewer, and sprinkled with the hot Davidson Plum spice.
Morton bay fig shoots brushed with pandanus tasted like a pickle sauce with a smooth heart of the lamb or macadamia butter.
A spoonful of little sweet Elderberries was sour, then spicy at end.
Smoked Boston Bay Mussel had juicy, sweet meat with the crisp saltiness of samphire.
Wild Guava was fruity and tart with a drizzle of spiced oil.
Wattleseed ice cream tasted of coffee and sat on a bed of salty, chewy, very fine vermicelli noodles.
Roasted Cos with Clare Valley carob emulsion was surprisingly flavoursome. Smokey, earthy and with the caramel note of carob.
House made sourdough is cartoonishly crunchy and perfectly soft inside. Cows buttermilk butter has an irresistible sour, cheesy tang.
For the first of our main courses – yes, up until this point we were still having ‘snacks’ – a very limited release Vinteloper Refosco, the first I’ve seen grown in Australia.
Savoury, herbaceous and tart with a nice red cherry note and a touch of dark sulphurous-ness.
Chef Shannon Fleming introduces the first, larger dish, personally.
And what a dish.
Bunya nut, beetroot, 7 hrs roasted buffalo curd, black garlic, saltbush and a salty, dry, intense, sweet, beet reduction. This artistic dish just had so much flavour, each bite a different mix of flavour contrasts and textures.

Bunya nut, beetroot, 7 hrs roasted buffalo curd, black garlic, saltbush and beet reduction. Photo: Willunga Wino
Gubinge fermented for 12 months, purslane, three clove garlic, with slow braised kangaroo tail, falls apart like a lamb shank. The fillet is perfectly rare in centre, having been cooked on the fire pit.
Mine was a cucumber also cooked in the firepit, with wild garlic that is like a cocktail onion. Served with an ashed, smoky, tart, crunchy, earthy, leek and this was my favourite dish so far.
Red Kangaroo, gubinge, purslane, wild garlic & leek ash. Red cedar & birchwood smoke, served with a beer. #bbq #restaurantorana
Posted by Restaurant Orana on Wednesday, 29 April 2015
To create the full “Aussie beer & BBQ” effect, Josh paired this course with a crisp fresh beer, in an brilliant match.
Tasty barley shines through the Endeavour Reserve Amber Ale.
Mud crab with yogurt sorbet, sea purslane, seaweed and Geraldton Wax, with kaffir lime was next.
My vegetarian alternative was Corn, beurre noisette and inland native succulent.
This dish made me cry.
Singular best thing I have ever EVER eaten.
Floral, with the faintest hint of sweetness. Pop and crunch, smoke, the taste of the sea. Never tasted anything like it, before or since.

Corn beurre noisette, yogurt sorbet, sea purslane, Geraldton Wax, kaffir lime, inland native succulent . Photo: Willunga Wino
Josh matched this course with the Dexter Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2013.
Fleshier, richer than many of the new-age lean chardonnays, but still racy – which is what you want – no flab.
Black face Suffolk lamb two ways was the next offering. Firstly a sous vide fillet, and secondly a knuckle. Different flavours and textures from each.
Eucalypt Smoked Pumpkin, with Pickled Kohlrabi and a Quondong & Madeira jus.
Shocking, this dish also was so perfect, so interesting, so comforting, it also brought a tear to my eye!
Yes, food made me cry twice in one meal! I was as shocked as you are.
Paired to this smoky, rich and tart course, was the Little Brampton Farside Clare Valley Cab Sav, served in the eye catching and effective Riedel Snake decanter.
Lovely eucalyptol (not menthol) noted varietal, fermented in open slate fermenters. Spicy blackberry on the palate, not herbaceous at all as it was a hot year.
Buttermilk panna cotta – not ! Set buttermilk, seasoned with salt, and a strawberry eucalyptus emulsion.
As Chef Jock Zonfrillo calls it, “Australian Strawberries and Cream”.
With fresh strawberry tartness, and salty sweet flavours, this couldn’t be matched to a dry wine.
Fritz Haag Braunberger Riesling Kabinett 2012 was fragrant with apple blossom. It balanced oiliness, the acid and the sweetness all in one, with its characteristic slatey Mosel flavours and sweet clean finish.
Muntries Tart with house made ice cream sat atop flakey, layered almost caramelised Speculoos flavoured pastry. Muntries are reminiscent of the most flavoursome blueberries imaginable. It was presented and introduced by the pastry chef.
To match and finish off the night, a local Aussie sticky with a youthful attitude, and great honey apricot notes balanced with just enough acid to prevent it being cloying.
This was the best restaurant experience I have ever had. What a perfect blend, between casual chic surrounds, friendly “Aussie” service, meeting the chefs justifiably proud of their wares, the clever wine matches and that stunning, innovative food.
When can I go again?!
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