Udaberri Pintxos Y Vino — Restaurant in Adelaide

(4.5 stars) Three light and fluffy golden orbs with oozing cheesy centres—buñuelos ($12)—had me groaning in pleasure at Udaberri Pinxtos y Vino. This was kind of awkward as a solo diner sitting on an outdoor table, so I buried my grin in a mandarin corpse reviver #2 ($22) and quietly thanked the Adelaide chef who recommended this spot. The cocktail was also excellent—a clever update to a classic that’s been relatively hard to find in Sydney since the demise of Owl House. The gin y tonic list is also a standout, the new world Papa Salt Coastal ($17) teamed with dehydrated pineapple, thyme and FeverTree tonic was so good I ordered it again when I revisited with fellow conference attendees.

Across both visits the sautéed portobello mushrooms ($18) curried favour, topped with an egg yolk you stir through at the table and smoky-sweet espelette (French peppers). Oysters ($4.50/each) from Coffin Bay are shucked to order with plenty of liquor and a persimmon vinegar mignonette. Udaberri also stay local with the squid ($32) tangled through ‘nduja, capers and Spanish guindilla peppers. It’s great with a squeeze of lemon, or mopped up onto buttered house-made rye sourdough ($7.50). Personable staff suggested scraping up the juices with the accompanying frilly lettuce leaves, but the bread did...

Went as a group of 15 people there for a birthday, we were sitting in two different areas, half of the group was sitting around the bar area, and the other half was sitting on a table. The table had a jenga game, where anyone could play with. We were having a great time playing the game - two staffs members, came to us at two different times telling us to 'be quiet' because there are other people in the bar sitting next to us - little did they know it was the same group & why would you tell a group to stay quiet and have a social game on the table to play with? On the second time after they told us to keep quiet, the other half of the group noticed something was off with the staffs and we all left. They just lost a group of 15 people who were having an amazing time and the staffs wanted us to remain quiet and there was barely anyone except us at that time. The other staffs had a very disappointed facial expression after seeing the way their co-workers handled customers.

Had the place not want people having fun playing a social game, do not even put A GAME on the table & put a stay silent sign on the main entrance. Not stepping there ever again,...

tl;dr.: Heaving, happening place w/ ok food but better drinks

Perhaps I'm very old, but I'm definitely one of those people that felt that this place was much too loud (c.f. if you think the music's too loud, you're too old) for a conversation. Around me there were younger people eating before a night out, while others were on dates. We had initially picked the place because of an interesting Basque cheese selection, not realising that the menu changes so often, while not a bad thing, when we were there the menu had reverted to boring, stereotypical "Spanish" tapas, and what was served was ok at best. The drinks were not bad, and that was the saving grace.

While the service was very good & friendly, it was also quite slow, and they'd forgotten to put one of our orders through, but made up for it by a round of free drinks. It was probably a combination of staff shortage post COVID and a huge crowd following the Wallabies Springboks game, and the staff were run off their feet, so it's...