Topiary — Restaurant in Adelaide

Topiray Lunch Tuesday 21st May 2024. Topiary is 30 minutes drive from Adelaide. It so well worth the trip. It’s amazing simple concept done perfectly. Deliciousness in beautiful setting I want to pay homage to Chef Alex and his delightful cherry way and amazing work. To Kane I hope you don’t mind if I call you a new friend. Your contribution to the Adelaide scene is pure inspirational brilliance. I thank you in so many ways. Next year my friend next year. If you visit Adelaide this is so much worth visiting for lunch Forager’s menu - degustation

Sourdough with butter & TYRANT ANT butter that would be the one with black spots. Wow. Lemony citrus with herbal notes. Delicious. Yes I’m eating ants. What do they look like I asked. I’ll get you some. 1/4 teaspoons of ants arrived. I eat 1 hmmmm yummmmy. Sensational. I ate the lot. Crunchy deep citrus. Oooooo I like. Might buy some. Would be awesome in pasta or rice.

In house marinated Olives. Wild fennel marinated olives with stem treacle These. Are the softest olives egg they just melt. The treacle and a nice yumm

Halloumi with Delicate sweet persimmons Our halloumi with it’s ricotta, green tomato House made halloumi then with leftover whey they make their own ricotta Halloumi crumbed crunchy light delicious. The added sweetness of persimmons & tomatoes it genius delicious.

Spent mother cracker, chicken liver pate, preserved plum. - Left over sourdough dough baked to cracker Sourdough left over Is that bit of dough taken out each day as they turn the sourdough starter. Dough then baked to a sourdough cracker. So delicious A tribute to their philosophy of no waste. Pate is so deep in flavour together sweet jam

Dicon radish as the carrier cracker like Venison tartare Amazing awesome delicious sweet naked slices of venison with subtleness of Dicon and horseradish cream Oh YEAH

House made feta cheese, guanciale, saltbush Dashi pear sliced. Feta, crispy bits Guanciale (pancetta like) salt bush fried macadamia nut charred. WHITE GRENACH ROSE. what. Wow this is beautiful THIS SO DAM GOOD. Sweet salty fruit deliciousness The pear sweetness is matched with creamy feta then guanciale & salt bush. It’s a magical combination balanced perfectly sublime delicious amazing. I just love it. Did I mention the crunch of roasted macadamis Best ever BEST DISH OF THE DAY. Sweet potatoes roasted then blended. Dicon in strips Oyster mushroom, sweet potato, fennel, chilli Chill garlic spring onions toasted jam Oyster mushrooms My mouth is humming with such delicious tastes. Roasted sweet potato gives that toasted sweet taste. Dicon adds crunch and bit sour. Mushrooms the complex soft chew umami flavour. The jam ties it all together in harmony.

Tommy ruff wrapped in fig leaf, sour capsicum Cucumber, ajo blanco Such a great mix it soaked into the leafs so I ate them too Crispy leafs charred yum. Strawberry and rhubarb whipped cheesecake, nut crumble So yum way to finish. Delicious cheese cake on a tiny meringue with whip sweet “stewed “ rhubarb. Delightful If it wasn’t for the Dashi pear dish it would be dish of the day. A few drams of local honey like whiskey. I’m done Home feel asleep missed...

We've been coming to the Topiary for many years and my partner and I were shocked and appalled by our recent experience. When we walked in we were greeted by a young woman with platted hair, she hesitated to serve us and then eventually asked for our booking, after confirming she seemed to laugh at us under her breath and said the table wasn't ready (we arrived a couple of minutes after the booking so this was a surprise) and she walked outside to get it ready. We stood waiting for a while and were even asked by another staff member if we needed help. Once seated we were prompted very quickly to order, which was fine since we did know what we wanted. We waited about 25-30 minutes for drinks and 45 minutes for food, it was a beautiful Sunday and they were relatively busy so this was all fine. When served our food, we of course snapped some pictures of our decorated food and were about to eat it when my partner noticed a grub-like bug on her food. We know they pick their garnish fresh from their gardens and it had mostly likely come from there which was again fine these things happen. By the time we flagged a staff member it had crawled all over the eggs, bacon and cheese and what we believe to be the manager said don't worry we'll take this and make the entire meal again fresh. My partner was disappointed, it had taken 45 minutes so it was most likely going to be another wait but again we were pleasant about it. It was brought back within minutes and we knew something was wrong, my partner touched the food and most parts were room temperature when she compared the food to the photos she snapped before it was the exact same food that had the worm in it. We were immediately grossed out, upset and appalled. We flagged down the staff member who originally seated us and she seemed incredibly disinterested and just said I'll take it back. My partner became visibly upset and at this point, we had enough of the service, it was incredibly insulting to be served the same food that had a worm crawling in it minutes ago and being told it was fresh. We stood up and went to the counter, I ended up having to pay for the drinks and not the food, with no compensation and hardly an apology. We've spent many special occasions at this restaurant and we are heartbroken by this experience and the lack of accountability for such appallingly service, we cannot see...

Beware ! We came on a Saturday morning for the 9-am sitting; got there 10 mins early and it was very cold and raining; door was locked … staff saw us standing there …. There was no one else waiting. We tapped on the door and asked if we could come in. Was told very officiously that the coffee machine wasn’t on yet and we could sit inside but service didn’t start until 9 !! “Thank you “ we said shivering. Our young waitress didn’t crack a smile the entire time - the lady I was with is one of the nicest kindest people you will ever meet; all the service was grudging - and inattentive; two ladies came in with a booking after us and two men who didn’t have a booking. - were seated - apart from that we were the only three occupied tables inside. We both had toast with our breakfast - two large pieces … no butter - we asked for butter and 5 minutes later no butter - we caught miseries eye and asked where the butter was please (toast cold ) and she went and checked and came back and told us the chef was ‘preparing jt’ we nearly laughed ..: I could see the chef slapping something butter like out of a big white plastic margarine like tub - the lady I was with asked for salt and pepper and the traditional large pepper grinder was offered with a tiny plate with 36 grains of salt that presumably we both had to stick our fingers in and share (great hygiene !) at 10:10 another lady came over and informs us our sitting was over at 10:30 - what was there a rush for our particular table ( what with the 7 ish) other free tables that were currently available ??? Plus won’t they be told that they have to wait until 1030 ?? The last issue that actually disgusts me is we were then told on payment that in future NO CASH- I find this aspect most horrifying !!! I only went back as I had bought a large amount of plants the week before and thought it looked nice …. We like to support locally owned places but will not go...