Fernalee — Restaurant in Adelaide

We stopped in on the way back from the city - and arrived just after opening time at 5pm. First time visitors and we were looking forward to trying the food after my wife had read some positive online reviews. We ordered Spring Rolls, Honey Chicken, Crispy Steak w/Plum sauce and a large Special Fried Rice. We decided to order it 'Take-away' as it was a little early but also did not want to go out again on a rainy night. We noticed straight away that the Steak and the Chicken were packed with the sauces in separate containers - this is a red flag for us. A good Honey Chicken is usually tossed in the sauce to coat it , then served or packed, same with the steak. Upon arriving home 5 minutes later we served up the food - 4 good size Spring rolls, quite tasty and a interesting dipping sauce. The main - a big serve of Honey Chicken - the chicken itself was lovely - lightly battered and cooked really well.......but the sauce was not honey sauce - it tasted like Ginger and neither of us like Ginger. He melted honey in a jug and drizzled that over the chicken - 5/10 for that. The Crispy Steak/Plum Sauce - wow, the Steak looked so dried and dehydrated and covered, I mean covered....in Salt. Think what it would be like if you ordered hot chips and asked for extra extra extra salt - and you would be close - inedible, could not eat it - we tried a couple of bits but it was awful and ended up in the bin. The rice was dry and gluggy, not light and fluffy - overall - very disappointing. Please - cut down on serving size and concentrate on quality and flavour. We debated calling to provide feedback - we did call, in the hope that they may care, or even offer to replace one of the dishes. Instead, we were offered a free bag of prawn chips and told "I will tell them". HJ's or the golden arches would have been a better choice, unfortunately we will not...

Great service, not great food.

The fried rice was yellow, bordering on orange. I was told this was because of a sauce they added, which confused me because the rice lacked flavour. It was gluggy, as if it had been fried straight from cooking in a rice cooker. The veg (sweetcorn, peas and spongey cubic carrots) tasted very frozen and was the main flavour of the dish. It also had egg, small prawns and the tiniest specks of char siu (BBQ Pork). This is genuinely the worst fried rice I have ever had, including on aeroplanes.

The crispy beef in plum sauce looked good and the texture was good but the plum sauce just seemed to be composed of sugar, water and red food colouring. The beef was pretty tasteless so the overriding flavour was of the batter. I see a previous reviewer complained the batter was over salted, well I’m happy to report that is no longer a problem, it tasted completely unseasoned. So basically it had great texture: crispy and tender/nicely chewy but just tasted of sweet, slightly old oil. The portion was very generous.

The staff were lovely and very helpful.

If you’re used to more authentic experiences, like those in the city, you will be very disappointed. If you like Aussie style suburban Chinese food you will only be mildly disappointed. Considering the prices match or exceed those in Gouger Street the food probably should...

Most of the food was pretty good…

However I placed a phone ordered and arrived 20 minutes after calling as they said my order would be 15-20 minutes. When I arrived my food was ready- however it was just sitting on a bench with a tea towel and was already going cold once we got home to eat. (Only live 3-4 mins away) Food should always be kept in food safe temps until ready to serve to reduce any risks of food poisoning. A lot of customers may not be exactly on time or the food may be cooked earlier and it’s the restaurants responsibility to ensure the food is kept at safe temperatures until it is collected. (Below 5deg or above 60deg- in-between is classed as the “danger zone”)

We also found it disappointing they only offer the discount with the entertainment book for dine in when there’s still so many issues with covid spreading and families getting sick and having to isolate. It would be far more covid safe to be encouraging take away rather...