In the old Pirie Street Subway, this hawker-turned-restaurant continues its vision of regional Thai cooking in a sleek, modern space. Come for elevated takes of classic curries, grilled meats inspired by the country's north, and plenty of fiery wok drama.
Run by a husband and wife duo since 1985, this Malaysian favourite has a special place in the hearts of market-goers and laksa fans alike. Come on Friday for the special Sarawak soup and taste the difference.
With a European menu and a record collection that’s off the charts, this vinyl-spinning bistro is another solid effort from the Clever Little Tailor gang.
It’s all about decadent dining at this New York-Style Italian Restaurant. Riffs on traditional dishes include “Roman Vegemite” soldiers, lasagne pizza and steak frites with Italian bearnaise. Settle into one of the intimate booths or get a ringside seat at the striking marble bar.
At this socially responsible restaurant you can expect meats cooked on a custom-made braai, and small plates influenced by Korean and Japanese cuisine.
Descend to the basement of a heritage city space to find this moody, late-night brasserie from the Nola and Shotgun Willies teams. It’s serving up French fare, live jazz and one of the best Martinis in town – but it’s here for a good time, not a long time.
You’ve eaten chicken nuggets. But not like at this American style diner and bar, where nuggs might be marinated in laksa or tossed in parmesan spice “dust”. Plus, there’s beer on tap, natural wines and cocktails.
Spanish food is designed to be shared, and this sophisticated diner encourages just that. Bring your crew for charred octopus, mussels with tarragon aioli, and a show-stopping Basque cheesecake.
This unpretentious brasserie will take you from breakfast right through to dinner. Expect a menu spanning flat iron steaks with cafe de Paris butter, and ricotta and truffle gnudi. Plus, afternoon snacks and special reserve wines from France and beyond.
A lively Southeast Asian restaurant by a former Rockpool pastry chef – need we say more? Come for creative Malaysian and Indonesian dishes, and one very eye-catching dessert. Plus, a vinyl-spinning bar upstairs.
Kiin’s Ben Bertei is one of the country’s most exciting chefs. Taste the cuisine-crossing menu at his buzzing restaurant and you’ll understand why. Dishes include burrata with green nam jim and roti, and a Thai red curry cheeseburger.
After 30 years in the game, star chef Sean Connolly put this gem together. Equal parts simple and sophisticated, it’s a place where you can order a side of caviar alongside your burger and chips.
The smell of the parrilla grill – and top-quality steaks sizzling on it – hits you as you enter this lively Argentinian restaurant, where house-made sangria flows freely.
This Scandinavian steakhouse offers about a dozen different cuts from Hereford cows. Dry-aged beef is hung for at least 45 days in-house and 700-gram rib eye steaks are carved from the bone at your table.
The standard-setter for Neapolitan pizza in Adelaide. The rest of the selection – including antipasto, pasta and desserts – is tight and considered. The same goes for the wine list of Italian and South Australian drops.
You'll ask yourself the following when you enter this neon-lit gem: is Sunny’s a pizza joint that also happens to feel like a house party? Or is it a bar with DJs and primo pizza? Happily, the answer is “yes” to both.
Perusing Peel Street’s giant blackboard menu feels like an Adelaide rite of passage. On it you’ll find dishes mixing Asian and Middle Eastern influences, with a dash of laneway attitude. Sit at the bar, order well and enjoy the hum of the space.
On a leafy Adelaide corner is one the city’s benchmark diners. Quentin Whittle’s borderless menu looks to Asia and the Middle East for cues – but everything’s done in a way that feels effortless. This is casual, modern Australian dining at its best.
Fino at Seppeltsfield is a Barossa icon, so expectations were high for its first urban outpost. Good news: this charming 70-seat wine bar and restaurant delivers. The food is simple and elegant, with next to nothing wasted. A 100-strong wine list is backed up by a range of sherries.
Set inside an old printing house, this influential eatery was among the city’s first to champion nose-to-tail cooking back when it was a novel concept. Local and ethical produce is still the focus, as is a dedication to SA wines and sharp service. An elegant dining room ties it all together.
Don't let the name or the fun atmosphere fool you. When you try Golden Boy’s energetic modern takes on Thai cuisine (and cocktails to match), you’ll know this place isn’t messing around. Go for the Tuk Tuk menu – you won’t regret it.
Emu on the cob. Garden flower and ants. Restaurant Botanic serves one of the most exciting tasting menus in the country, driven by produce from the surrounding 51-hectare gardens. Executive chef Justin James is at the peak of his powers here.
At this colourful pan-Indian restaurant, you'll find Melbourne chef and restaurateur Jessi Singh's takes on self-described "unauthentic" Indian cuisine. There are naan pizzas, tandoor-fired dishes, Indian-inspired cocktails and a roving champagne and whisky trolley.
One of Adelaide's most prolific restaurateurs is behind this compact yet sophisticated ramen and curry bar. Roll in big steaming bowls of 12-hour pork tonkotsu, soupless tantanmen and several original styles of ramen.
The second iteration of East Terrace taverna Yiasou George is as fun as ever. But this time around, one of Adelaide's best chefs is turning out Ritz crackers topped with café de Vardon butter, smoked whiting and salmon roe; plus a rotisserie spin on Yiasou George’s signature lamb.
Fitting a pizza oven and restaurant into a tiny space would worry most, but not Est Pizzeria. It uses the space it has – and uses it well. If you’re coming with a group, the banquet here makes things nice and easy.
In the ’50s, pizza was something most Australians had only seen in foreign magazines. Lucia's changed that when it opened in 1957, introducing locals to the Italian staple. It serves the same pizza and pasta that’s been around for decades. We hope it never changes.
Fill your plate with a selection of antipasto, pizza al taglio, stuffed eggplant, slow-cooked meatballs, hearty roasts and more, then try to leave room for a strong line-up of Italian pastries, or kick on into evening with cocktails.
Adelaide meets Africa to create a singular restaurant unlike anything Australia's seen before. Even though Africola’s been at it since 2014, everything – from the signature peri peri chicken to the finely-tuned service – is sharper than ever.
After eight years of serving a taste of her home at events and catering gigs, Meg Barathlall has opened her first bricks and mortar restaurant in the former Kutchi Deli Parwana site. Come for koeksisters (syrupy fried doughnuts), samosas, curry and rice, and roti rolls stuffed with lamb meatballs.
Korean fried chicken is all over town, but Gunbae is one of the best. The menu is blissfully simple: chicken (brined for 12 hours before being fried), beer and Korean sides including kimchi pancakes, mandoo salads and rice balls.
Tucked away in the city’s Dacosta Arcade, this homey Japanese eatery serves some of Adelaide’s best – and most affordable – lunch fare. Think ramens, curries, bento boxes and more, courtesy of a father-and-son team drawing on more than two decades’ experience.
This refined rooftop restaurant and bar is one of Adelaide's best rooftops. For good reason, from up high you can see out over the Governor's garden and the city.
This ambitious all-day venue comprises an elegant fine-diner serving degustations, and an open-air cafe and bar serving upmarket snacks and local wines. Find them both inside a handsome courtyard in the city centre.
This all-day dining hall at the old Adelaide Railway Station is a triple threat. It's a cafe, bar and restaurant that opens early and closes late. Whether you’re a commuter looking for a coffee and a small bite, or you’re from farther afield and want to sit down to a steak and a Martini, you’ll be well catered for here.
This diner raised the bar for Italian food in Adelaide when it opened in 2015, and it's just as good as ever. Visit for excellent hand-made pasta, hearty share-plates and one of the best cellars in town. It's all set within one of South Australia's most awarded restaurant interiors.
Where the Mediterranean meets the Middle East. Starters hew towards the Middle East, while the wood oven in the corner delivers pizzas and house-made pita bread.
The menu hasn’t changed in over two decades – no one wants it to. You can find nearly every dish in the Southern Italian culinary canon here, but special marks go to the pizza.
A Queensland-born boutique burger chain serving burgers and frozen-custard desserts it calls “concretes”. Despite being a chain, the quality of the burgers has remained consistently excellent – and attractively priced – over the years.
This soda bar and diner dishes up fully vegetarian burgers and hot dogs. They taste like the real deal, too. The patties – made with soy mince or black beans – aren't a like-for-like beef replacement, but the whole thing adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts. Trust us, you won't even miss meat-based burgers.
This place has one of Adelaide's best – and most extensive – menu of burgers to choose from. Every burg is very American, and very over-the-top. There's one or two options for vegetarians, but this is really the place for the meat eater in your life.
At this ambitious seafood restaurant from the 2KW team, you'll find everything from fish and chips to beluga caviar, plus a raw bar, an ocean-themed video installation and fish-themed cocktails.
The sprawling concrete jungle has a spacious wine cellar, a private dining room and a whole lot of plants. Plus woodfired pizzas, seasonal cocktails and a menu by an ex-Osteria Oggi chef.
A laid-back neighbourhood coffee shop that’s like a second home for the city’s south-end locals. House-roasted coffee, hearty salads and bagels baked on-site are all part of the equation here.
The “accidentally nostalgic” menu features slow-cooked sarsaparilla pork with apple slaw, a sous vide chicken roll, and an inspired spin on the ham-and-cheese toastie (with Hawaiian pizza DNA).
A little corner of France in Adelaide’s East End, Hey Jupiter has been throwing down champagne breakfasts and Bloody Marys for more than a decade. If you come for dinner, it transforms into a laid-back spot for small plates and big-flavoured French classics.
Occupying an iconic corner in Adelaide’s East End, Exchange Coffee has long been at the front of the pack in the city’s specialty coffee scene. Come for Market Lane coffee brewed every which way, produce-driven brunch dishes and a signature sandwich worthy of cult status.
This cafe-bar hybrid is in a restored octagonal kiosk on North Terrace. It was the first food and beverage joint for Adelaide’s innovation precinct Lot Fourteen. The brunchy menu here, by the owner-chef of Fine & Fettle, is Asian-inspired takes on brekkie staples.
Pastries from Italy and beyond, made fresh every morning. The sfogliatelle – a strudel-like Italian number – is unmissable, equal only to the house croissant.
Callum Dinnison lives just a two-minute drive from his cafe, Mister Pigeon. That's probably for the best, because many of his possessions have ended up at Mister Pigeon. To furnish the cafe, Dinnison pilfered his own place. No wonder it feels so homey. The end result is a community-focused cafe with comfy couches, a book exchange and excellent toasties. It's a relaxed spot that feels miles away from its inner-city surrounds.
This cafe in the former Paddy's Lantern site opened in October 2020. The interior’s had a refit and a new kitchen installed, but the trusty Synesso espresso machine that served Paddy’s so well for over a decade remains. Come for the “barista’s breakfast” (a potent coffee trio); handmade dumplings; a croissant with soft-shell crab and scrambled eggs; and halal bao buns with “beef bacon” and egg.
At this Hutt Street patisserie, you'll find miso cookies, plum and rose Danishes and chai blondies. Plus, there's quiche with freshly-foraged porcini mushrooms, flourless brownies and whisky-and-almond knots.
CLT is cosy, classic and has a quality libation to satisfy every whim. If you’re after snacks, it’s got you covered with imported tinned fish, local cheese and sliced-to-order charcuterie.
One of Adelaide’s original small bars also happens to have one of the city’s strongest drinks lists. It's also turning out elite bar snacks in the form of levelled up toasties.
No standing, no rowdy groups and no Dirty Martinis. This intimate, 12-seat cocktail bar isn’t for everyone. But if you’re game for a hospitality experience unlike anything else in Adelaide, Bar Peripheral is the one for you.
After one of Leigh Street’s longstanding tenants closed its doors, it was reborn as this Mediterranean cocktail bar paying tribute to its former life. Visit for local craft beers, European wines and a simple food menu of cured meats and cheese.
This sleek bar offers something different: South American and Catalan small plates alongside wines on tap. Don’t leave without trying the show-stopping desserts, like Molotov cake with an innovative twist.
The conversation flows just as freely as the South Australian wines at this cosy wine bar. Its snug interiors, homemade snacks and record player make it feel less like its namesake, and more like hanging at your coolest friend’s place.
Head upstairs to find this neon-lit vinyl bar, which has a balcony and red-tinted dancefloor. Come for its disco balls, DJs, and 800-odd disco, funk and house records. Stay for its tropical cocktails and late-night dance parties.
Aperitifs reign supreme at this romantic riff on the Parisian bistro. Pull up a stool at the dimly lit bar for freshly baked bread and imported French cheese, or spill out onto the street with a lo-fi wine in hand.
This intimate, San Sebastian-inspired bar stands in a former Flight Centre. But it does a better job at evoking wanderlust than a discounted airfare ever could. In between plates of pintxos and glasses of cava, you'll feel totally transported.
This intimate, San Sebastian-inspired bar stands in a former Flight Centre. But it does a better job at evoking wanderlust than a discounted airfare ever could. In between plates of pintxos and glasses of cava, you'll feel totally transported.
This Western saloon – by the Cry Baby crew – is part honky-tonk, part truck stop and all Americana. Expect live music, darts, American beers and whisky – with most drinks around the $10 mark.
At this tiny natural wine bar, there's no service bar, removing the barrier between staff and guests. Instead, you can pick your wine off the shelf – a bit like a bottle shop, but it's a bar.
Big groups are well catered for at this spacious, neon-lit warehouse. Inside is a brewery, burger truck, coffee caravan and even a retro-style wedding booth for couples looking to elope after a few drinks.
Not your average rooftop bar. Here the team is reducing waste with innovations such as tomato skin “paprika”, apple core “flour” and celeriac-skin treacle, plus sorbets and ice creams created from vegetable by-products.
Ascend the stairs from Hindley Street to a slice of island paradise, with pan-Asian and California-inspired bar snacks, playful cocktails, a disco ball and DJs spinning house and funk tunes.
An intimate wine cellar with a list of close to 200 bottles, including hard-to-find drops like a single-vineyard palomino from Spain. Pair them with Ortiz anchovies, duck terrine or a slice of Basque burnt cheesecake.
Expect foraged produce, atypical pub food incorporating Mismatch beers (think kingfish garnished with hops and a riff on beer-can chicken riff) and experimental brews made in the “Mismatch lab”.
Hidden behind Leigh Street Luggage, this good-times cocktail bar is a love letter to the Adelaide hospo crowd. It's the kind of place you can drop in late, grab a fancy toastie and a well-made cocktail, then boogie to a rotating cast of DJs spinning everything from hip-hop to house until the early hours.
A former drycleaner is the setting for one of Adelaide's most exciting drinking dens – a cosy, cleverly designed natural-wine bar serving world-class vino and inventive plates by a young chef with Michelin Star cred.
American-style burgers, beef rendang hoagies and tropical cocktails are the signatures at Gang Gang’s disco-ready burger bar. After the dinner trade, a floating DJ booth provides danceable tunes till late.
A New Orleans-inspired bar featuring whiskies from around the world and 16 beer taps. On the menu , you'll find Creole soul food – including Cajun fried chicken – that will help you soak up all that booze.
A "polished-up" dive that splits the difference between pub and small bar. You could just as easily come here to sip from the 300-strong spirit list heavy on tequila and bourbon, or dance to the jukebox rock 'n' roll tunes spinning until late.
Formerly Fowler’s Live, this heritage live music space is one of the best places to see live music in the city. It's had a modern revamp by a team of SA hospitality veterans, and now it stays open late with a diverse line-up of bands, DJs and more.
This inclusive bar and nightclub is a safe space for Adelaide’s queer community, but it's open to anyone who's looking for a gay old time. Mirrored ceilings, light-up go-go dancing cages and a giant rainbow are the canvas for your Saturday night boogie.
This tiny, timber-panelled bar next to the Exeter Hotel is a destination for cocktails, lo-fi local wines and simple food such as olives, cheese and tinned seafood.
Dance all night at this inclusive, fully accessible nightclub in a former ‘70s-era German Club. Expect boozy and non-alcoholic drinks, queer pride anthems and a tight menu of toasties available all night.
It’s a “pub in wine-bar skin”, with a rotating list of classic cocktails; bar snacks and cheeseboards; and a laid-back courtyard with loads of mediterranean energy.
A contender for Australia's most well-hidden cocktail bar. But trust us, this one is worth seeking out. But once you find this subterranean 1950s inspired cocktail lounge and take a seat in one of the comfy leather booths, you won't want to leave.
This cocktail bar, which is inspired by – you guessed it - Brooklyn, has its own internal "street" featuring three separate shops, each with different offerings, to choose from.
A trip to this intimate basement on Rundle Street feels a lot like having a party in a wine cellar. There are cheap cleanskins by the glass and more than 200 wines by the bottle, which range from affordable to eye-wateringly expensive. Then there's a couple of cocktails and beers to choose from, with plenty of bar snacks, too.
A bar from the team behind 2KW that specialises in agave-based spirits and sherry, with tinned anchovies, terrines, charcuterie and cheese to eat in or take home.
The first South Australia outpost broadens this curated fashion marketplace's network that already spans Melbourne, Hobart and Canberra. With stock rotating so regularly you’ll likely encounter dozens of new pieces every time you visit.
Descend the stairs to this west end basement for pre-loved and vintage clothes, new streetwear and hemp basics, and recycled cotton garments made from Australian offcuts.
At 3.15am on January 23, 1869 a bunch of market gardeners set up shop between Gouger and Grote Streets for the first time to sell their homegrown produce. They sold out by 6am. This was the birth of the Adelaide Central Markets.
These days this historic undercover market houses 80 traders spanning fresh fruit and vegetables; seafood; smallgoods; nuts; meat and poultry; cheese; breads; and health foods. From Tuesday to Saturday visitors to the lively hub of globally influenced foodstuffs can pop in for coffee and their weekly grocery haul, or linger to dine at the clutch of cafes and eateries ranging from sushi to pizza to Latvian and Algerian fare.
The market is a go-to source for native-Australian ingredients, and often hosts cooking demonstrations, workshops and seasonal festivals (think truffles).
Holding the title of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest arts festival is no small thing. But how do you make the most of the Fringe? Planning. [Browse shows by genre](https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au) to find hard-hitting theatre, death-defying circus or side-splitting comedy. Tickets are on sale now. If you’re notorious for leaving things until the last minute, discounted rush tickets are available most days for that night’s shows. Adelaide Fringe runs from February 16 to March 18.
This guerrilla arts festival began in 1960 when a bunch of artists decided to stage their own event in rebellion against the tightly curated attitude of Adelaide Festival.
Today it continues to foster new talent and independent performance from both Australian and international artists. Its eclectic program carries an air of liberation and experimentation, and spans cabaret, comedy, circus, theatre, dance, film, music, puppetry, visual arts and design.
The four-week celebration will pop up in unassuming warehouses, laneways, empty buildings and parks, as well as in theatres, hotels, galleries and cafes. The next event is February 17 to March 19, 2017.
Come March, Adelaide Festival overlaps with Adelaide Fringe and WOMADelaide to see festivals take over the city.
Running March 3–19 in 2017, this multi-arts festival also encompasses Adelaide Writers’ Week – a free six-day literary event. The annual festival’s bold programming covers challenging theatre, mesmerising dance and emotionally heavy classical and contemporary music, as well as striking visual arts and new media from an ever-evolving suite of international artists.
