Insieme Ristorante
63 Flinders Street,
Adelaide SA 5000
8223 2777
Open Breakfast to Lunch, Mon - Fri & Dinner on Fri
In the Adelaide CBD a chic, modern and bustling eatery is piled full of business people for a Tuesday lunch. Being a Tuesday, and being in Adelaide (no disrespect, I love this place) I was expecting that my brother and I would be sitting with only a handful of other diners. How wrong was I! Insieme Ristorante was jammed packed, it appears that the CBD workers know exactly where to eat. We were 10 minutes late for our reservation for my belated birthday lunch and our table was seemingly given away. Unfortunately we were left to wait standing for about 10mins until a table became available. However, once we assumed our position the service was excellent and the food and wine that were to follow were fabulous. We chose a bottle of Italian 2007 Peppoli Chianti Classico which again was a hit and after only a few minutes of breathing, was easy to drink and perfectly matched all our food. The complimentary, and in my opinion mandatory, bread and olive oil was divine, the oil was beautifully soft and almost buttery.
For entree we shared an antipasto plate which was presented very cleanly and consisted of olives, jamon, scallops, meatballs, squid, salad, and white anchovies. Needless to say in keeping with the restaurant the flavours were clean, concise and tasty. The scallops, wrapped in pancetta and seared to perfection were fabulous and the puree it was served on even better. The mini meatballs were absolutely sensational with a gorgeous tomato sauce that got completely mopped up. The small salad of rocket and red onion had a beautiful dressing which transformed it into a fighting contender among some starring elements. The white anchovies were succulent and flavoursome, the olives were nice and the squid and jamon were yummy. I was very happy.
For main I enjoyed a most delicious lamb fillet on sauteed spinach with a barolo (red wine) sauce and a twice cooked four cheese souffle ($34). This dish was superbly cooked and the flavours of the scented lamb, and the sauteed spinach brought together by the sweet borolo sauce was well balanced and completely delectable. The four cheese souffle was also extremely tasty and the oozing cheesy sauce really moistened it up. I did however question its place sitting on the plate with lamb and spinach as it seemed a little out of place. In saying that it tasted great so I shouldn't complain too much!
Unfortunately my brother took the step of ordering something he had never tried, rabbit (Coniglio Al Forno), and sadly it did not pay off. The rabbit ($34.50) came roasted and wrapped in pancetta with potatoes, peas and in unfancy terms, gravy. Although it was all well cooked, the meal essentially tasted and looked like a Sunday roast chic with gravy. This dish was worlds apart from the quality of what I was eating. For dessert we shared a chocolate torte with vanilla bean icecream and mixed berries. The size of the serve of the chocolate torte was a little small in my opinion, however it was fairly rich. The vanilla infused ice cream and berries in their thick couli-type sauce were the perfect accompaniment. Overall, very satisfying.
Insieme Ristorante has a good wine list with some great Italian as well as a few local varieties. I highly recommend trying the Pippoli Chianti Classico. All the other meals on the menu looked very appealing and I no doubt had a hard time when it came to deciding (this is a good thing!). The food and wine is on the expensive side but people are obviously happy paying for the food as the restaurant is very successful and I for one would be happy to come back again soon. Insieme Ristorante is well worth a visit for lunch or a Friday night dinner if you're in the city. You'll just have to contend with the suits to fight it out for a table..... Book ahead.
The Eatery by CK
