Serenity Bar and Restaurant — Restaurant in South Australia

UPDATE: Dined at Serenity again last night 21.1.23. Absolutely wonderful again on all counts. Took my Chef Brother who was equally impressed. Such a priceless little gem of a restaurant!

Not long moved into the greater area and needed to find a nice Restaurant to celebrate our anniversary on Saturday 19th November. Google found us Serenity and we are so very glad it did. This wonderful restaurant would not be out of place in the Melbourne dining scene but bonus for us it’s local. Decor is minimalist but chic and warm. A candle lit on every table. We received a very warm welcome and they even remembered it was our anniversary from my booking and offered us complimentary drinks for the occasion. Wow! So few restaurants do anything like this these days and forget that it’s touches like this that make dining out an ‘experience’ rather than just having a meal but there were nice touches all the way through. A bread basket on steroids, water glasses refilled at regular intervals and no ugly bottle just sitting on your table. We also noticed that diners who had children were provided with brightly presented activity packs for the kids. The cocktails were out of this world and unique and our food was SENSATIONAL! Timing was perfect and each dish was executed perfectly. I’m the sister of a classically trained chef so I know a thing or two. I can only assume that some of the reviews left here are from those who are difficult to please or like their ‘review power’. The service we received from Anthony and his entire team on the night was attentive and personable. We left feeling so valued, very full and blown away. Best anniversary dinner in a long, long time. Thank you Serenity. It’s a given that we will be back and I’ve already told a hundred people about...

Attended the Mother’s Day lunch. They took into account we had four young children and set us up in the corner near a wide selection of toys to entertain the kids. The kids even got little bags of toys which was very considerate. Glass of wine on arrival and a chocolate rose on the table for the mums, and a raffle drawn gift for each mum, it was a great concept and the mums loved it. However, the food was hit and miss. My wife’s beef cheeks were amazing, but my chicken breast was dry. It was poorly executed however, it was almost an hour and half before the mains and kids mains came out. And about three hours after we arrived before dessert came out. And they left the kids desserts until last. Two of my kids ordered the frog in the pond, and it wasn’t until they were serving they advised they were out of jelly. Jelly is something that is pre made, surely they could have noted that on the menus? For a set menu, it should not have taken that long. And they provided live music which was so ridiculously loud, we could barely hear each other talk. Based on reviews and the price for the event, I was expecting a lot more. And $18 per kids meal is ridiculous. We’ve been travelling around Australia for the last ten months and I’ve never seen a kids meal charged so much. A lovely concept, but poorly executed. Might give them another try on a normal night, but probably won’t do...

While the service was great and the only two staff where managing a nearly full restaurant fantastically. The food was unfortunately very Very lacking. I had heard mixed reviews and was reluctant to go considering this. One customer at our table ordered the ravioli and it very closely resembled a meal put together with Coles ravioli and Coles pasta sauce, it was studgy and tasteless. The chicken schnitzel, while huge was over cooked and dry, the creamy sauce was watery. I had the salmon and while the combination of ingredients was nice the salmon was not crispy skinned, making the skin soggy and not appealing. Obvious effort is made with a nice selection of bread rolls and bread sticks, cute little butter rounds and a good selection on the menu. I would like to say that maybe the chef was just having an off night but I won't be...