Osteria Polpo — Restaurant in Adelaide

My wife and I dine out quite frequently and we don’t often post reviews, but I feel this time it is necessary to give you constructive feedback. We dined at your restaurant base solely on the reviews we had read and they were mostly positive. Our experience left me with the urge to say something last night but my wife urged me not to! The ambience was wonderful and the waiters were extremely attentive and knowledgeable about the menu, however the food was ordinary bordering on bland and tasteless. It doesn’t help when you have a wife that is a chef! My pasta dish which resembled an appetiser size was cold on arrival at the table. The pasta was not al dente but raw still needing more cooking time! The crab sauce tasted like the chef had simply added some pasta water and butter - tasteless! The price $47! How can you justify that as a restaurant! My entree of mussels was overcooked and so small in size! My wife’s red fin fish at $55 was again tasteless! It definitely shows that you cannot judge a restaurant by its reviews alone! As it was my wife’s birthday I was extremely disappointed and angry with a meal I could have cooked at home and better and saved myself $195. Surely as a reputable restaurant charging overpriced prices you have some quality control over the food that is being served to your customers! I don’t mind paying a high price for quality as most people would but what we received last night was just plain ordinary! Thank you for sending through a priority booking for future visits but sorry we decline - we...

What a breath of fresh air for Adelaide’s hospitality scene. The perfect mix of rustic northern Italian flavours and a fin-er dining experience (that isn’t pretentious). In a city full of Southern Italian restaurants, Polpo offers us a different take on Italian food, swapping the bold flavours of Southern Italy, that most of us are used to here in Adelaide, for a more delicate and savoury take on Italian cuisine.

The attention to detail placed in all of the dishes made it worth every dollar (I lost count of all of the ingredients that they said were made in-house). Starting the night with the hand crafted chicchetti sets the tone (reminded me of being at bars in Spain, being served a single serve tapa with every beer) - I had to re-order a serve of one they made with house made porchetta it was so good.

Personally I always judge a restaurant by how their vegetarian dishes stack up against the rest, and the grilled eggplant main dish passed the test (almost one of the best of the night - behind the rabbit ragu pasta). We were also impressed by the suite of desserts that finished the night (highlight was the passionfruit semifreddo style dish) and it was refreshing to have something other than a tiramisu, which is a staple of most restaurants.

I think this place can proudly stand amongst some of the best in Adelaide for its unique take on Italian food (for most locals, anyway), its great location (secluded in the Parklands behind Hutt St) and the care and consideration placed on its menu.

Bravo...

The atmosphere was lovely – very cozy on a cold winter’s night – and the waitress was attentive.

However, I did run into an issue with the menu. There were four of us dining, and I was the only one wanting steak for my main course (dietary restrictions ruled out all the pasta dishes and the fish). The only red meat options were a mixed grill for a minimum of two people at $65 per head or an 850 g T-bone steak at $160.

As I was the only one wanting meat, it left me with no reasonable choice. I wasn’t going to order two mixed grills for just myself, nor could I eat an 850 g steak. I did speak to the waitress, who was understanding but said those were the only options. Honestly, how hard would it have been to cook a simple 300 g steak?

It set the mood for the evening, and while the other food was quite good, it really dampened the experience. One of my fellow diners, understanding my dietary restrictions, offered to also have the mixed grill to meet the two-person minimum. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let-down: the chicken Maryland (divided between us) was nice but bland, the steak was lacking flavour, and another piece of sliced meat (we couldn’t even identify it) was completely overcooked. The 2 sausages were probably the best thing on the platter.

Would I go back? Probably not. There are plenty of great Adelaide restaurants that would happily serve a steak to a single diner. Would I recommend it? Again,...