Restaurant News

Lola's Pergola, The Standard, The Rogue Rennard, Kim Restaurant

Our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats around the country this week.

Lola's Pergola, Adelaide
Our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats around the country this week including Lola's Pergola, The Standard, The Rogue Rennard, and Kim Restaurant.
ADELAIDE
Lola's Pergola
The Torrens River pop-up venue serving as the nightclub/after-hours nerve centre of the Adelaide Festival (until 16 March) not only wows big crowds with its extravagant, oversized, backyard party setting, but also with the sensational barbecue provided by the Happy Motel team of Jordan Jeavons, Andy Nowell and Duncan Welgemoed. Tickets to their themed dégustation dinners have sold out, but clubbing crowds under the big pergola are still enjoying their food cooked on a barbecue fashioned from a Hills Hoist. Kranskies are the big hit: pork sausages with chilli and fennel, hung all day in the on-site smokehouse (a converted garden shed), then grilled on the Hoist barbecue. These are being stuffed into crisp baps and topped with salsa verde - the perfect late-night snack for revellers. Demand has created an express lane for serving the snags, while others queue for a wider selection of barbecued meats. Lola's Pergola, Torrens River frontage (off North Tce), Adelaide, SA. Open nightly from 6pm. DAVID SLY
HOBART
The Standard
Yeah, yeah, yeah, another day, another burger. But this happens to be a very good burger, served in a slightly bizarre loading dock setting. What's more, in addition to The Standard burger (nicely proportioned, flavoursome beef patty, tomato, lettuce, pickles, mayo and properly melted cheese on a good soft, steamy bun), there's also an outstanding fried chicken burger. One of the best we've seen anywhere in the country, in fact. The shoestring chips are a cut above and the thickshakes (in Oreo or Butterfinger flavours) are so thick with ice-cream you can write your name in them, so they double nicely as dessert. Put together by the team from Pilgrim Coffee (the burgers are sold out the back of the Argyle Street café), it's a class act. Or as classy as an act can be using milk crates for furniture in a laneway fringed by chain-link fence. To say the site is exposed is something of an understatement. On our last visit, someone asked the (very friendly) young woman on the counter how they coped with inclement weather. "Hasn't rained yet," she replied. "We'll find out when it does." The Standard, Hudson Lane, Liverpool St, Hobart, Tas, (03) 6234 1999. PAT NOURSE
BRISBANE
The Rogue Rennard
Winding down at the close of a working week is all very well, but what to do at the heel end of a hectic weekend? How about a Sunday Wine Down, at Paddington's Rogue Rennard? This quirky den kicked off as a café a couple of years ago serving an excellent brew by roaster Cup Coffee. Last spring, it became a bar-restaurant, and a fortnight ago added a hassle-free Sunday evening session to the menu. The leafy front courtyard, with its door-top trestle tables and high bar is a soothing spot for a sundowner. The menu is perfect for sharing with a drink in hand. Order veal sweetbreads with punchy green peppercorn mustard and the house-made baguette with cultured butter; or figs served warm with melted Brillat-Savarin and a splash of vincotto. A bucket of craft beer (a lucky-dip of four bottles) is $25, or there's a clipped list of cocktails and wine priced to ease you back into Monday, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The Rogue Rennard, 106A Latrobe Tce, Paddington, Brisbane, Qld, (07) 3151 0093. FIONA DONNELLY
SYDNEY
Kim Restaurant
Moon Park knocked off two of the most popular name options for Korean restaurants in one fell swoop, but in naming their new eatery Kim, Tae Kyu "TK" Lee and David Ralph may have gone one better. Both chefs have worked at Quay; Ralph is best known for his involvement in William Street chocolatier Kakawa, while Lee has also done time at Ms G's. There are no kimchi snow eggs or bo ssäm bánh mi baguettes on the menu, though, with the pair treading a (broadly) classical line with their flavours. Fried chicken fanatics will find much to like with the powerfully crunchy TKFC, while the loose, rustic texture of the haemul pajeon, an omelette-pancake packed with squid and prawns, holds plenty of appeal. So far the desserts don't knock socks off, but the chocolates are (perhaps unsurprisingly) top-notch. Kim Restaurant, 24-30 Springfield Ave (enter via Llankelly Place), Potts Point, NSW, (02) 9357 4578. PAT NOURSE
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