Sure it’s home to the most delicious list of espresso martinis in Adelaide and yes, they do maintain a drinks list that boasts a number of outstanding South Australian wines and brews that you’ll struggle to bypass (and why would you want to?) but, just as Ryan Gosling is much more than a shirtless ‘Hey Girl’ meme, Electra House is much more than just a well-stocked bar.
The same venue that dishes up next level (and award winning) eats in their restored heritage restaurant one floor up also offers a more casual lunch and dinner menu in their Garden and Chamber Bars downstairs. Perfect for the mid-week corporate lunch break or a casual dinner between friends, Electra House is serving up ample sized plates of food that will simultaneously whet and satisfy your appetite.
With their high ceilings and spacious interior, Electra House stands apart from the trend of small, hole-in-the-wall and laneway venues that have been making their mark on Adelaide’s casual dining scene over the last few years. In an emphatic nod to our more stately past, where space, elegance and a touch of sophistication were the order of the day, Electra House is perfect for the lunch time crowd that wants to get their mouths watering in a venue with enough space for them to truly relax and unwind in. With a casual dining menu that nails the balance of giving you a decent choice of tasty meals to choose from without going overboard and causing order-paralysis, Electra House, like Ryan Gosling, has a lot to offer.
On the night we attended as guests of Chef Asa and his culinary team in the downstairs kitchen, we were given a delicious cross-section of their menu to try. With appetites calling out to be sated, we started off with a couple of their freshly made burgers. The chicken burger, with it’s spicy bacon jam and charred pineapple got those spicy and sweet savoring taste buds a’tingling and our rumbling stomachs were well looked after with the chef’s being anything but shy with the walloping serve of fried chicken they sandwiched into our burger. The vego option, our other bun-ensconced choice for the night, was an absolute colour-smash of haloumi, grilled vegetables, pesto and tomato relish that was almost as good to look at as it was to eat. We were left feeling completely satisfied without that horrible overfull feeling. Perfect.
A good burger is the cornerstone of any venue…
After two burgers we were, not surprisingly, no longer even remotely hungry. But, being the true professionals that we are and, knowing you’d want to hear more, we bravely soldiered on with a few selections from the ‘fresh eats and cheats’ section of the menu. The mushroom pot pie with golden pastry grabbed my attention right away and, to balance out the vego option, we decided the slow-braised beef briskit with potato puree and seasonal vegetables was about the most perfect winter dish we could find; we weren’t wrong. The slow cooked beef pulled apart like nobodies business and the flavours were right on point. Finally, we sampled a couple of the salads on offer; the roasted butternut with chickpeas, feta, lettuce, sumac almonds and fresh herbs went down a treat and the pulled pork with red cabbage, carrot, spring onion, chilli aioli, toasted peanuts and coriander delivered the perfect hit of heat.
Mushroom Pot Pie
Pulled Pork Salad
Roasted Butternut, Chickpea & Feta Salad
Slow Braised Beef Brisket
Overall, we were delighted with the menu that Electra House has put together for their casual dining areas downstairs and we’ll certainly be hitting it up again; along with the bar of course because, who doesn’t like a shirtless Ryan Gosling?
For a look across the full Electra House menu, visit their website. They also some have Cards Against Humanity shenanigans coming up over the next few months. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram to stay across it all.
All photography by Dougal McFuzzlebutt
More News
