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Lunch review: Giallo Wine Bar

May 29, 2015
Tuna tataki. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Tuna tataki. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Giallo is like a little secret that has been kept reasonably quiet since it opened in 2012. Maybe it’s because the tiny restaurant/wine bar is tucked away in Kent Town, between the Australia Post Business Centre and Greenaway Art Gallery.

In the three years since Giallo opened, Adelaide has sprouted quirky little wine bars in abundance. Places to be seen, places with buzz, places that aren’t necessarily intimate. But through all this emerging vibrancy, Giallo has remained constant in its presentation of modern Australian cuisine and a curated list of cocktails and old and new-world wines.

Giallo interior

Giallo interior. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Owner Goran Trivic hasn’t always been a restaurateur. Before opening Giallo, he ran furniture store Studio Barcelona in the East End, worked as a builder, and was part of the team at the Botanic Café, working with front-of-house luminary Sharon Romeo (now of Fino) – and it shows. Just as Romeo has flair for making a dining experience personal, Trivic also knows how to make exclusive cool.

Given that the colour yellow features as pops and splashes around Giallo’s mostly monochromatic decor, it’s probably safe to assume the name is more about colour than crime fiction*.

Out the front of Giallo overlooking Rundle Street is a slightly sunken outdoor dining area surrounded by lush courtyard containers. A large street tree provides shade for diners in summer and loses its leaves in the cooler months, perfect for on a sunny winter’s day. There are gas heaters and knee rugs within reach if it gets a bit chilly.

Giallo meatballs 2

Spanish meatballs. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Indoors, on a wall painted with blackboard paint at the back of the restaurant, a digital fire flickers (or a couple of parrots in a cage titter and bob, depending on the weather) and a servery window is open with a view of chef Fabian Coq (French, of course) at work. It’s a warm and casual vibe. Coq has been in Australia for 12 months, coming from Montpellier in the south of France, where he learned to cook “fish, seafood, coquille”.

The menu is divided into tapas dishes, second plates, side dishes and desserts, and customers are encouraged to share. There are also daily food and wine specials scrawled in white chalk on the back wall. If you’re not sure, you can always have a quick chat to Coq through the hole in the wall. His enthusiasm for the Central Market produce he works with is pretty persuasive.

Giallo seafood dumplings

Seafood dumplings. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Favourite dish: Tuna tataki ($22). A piece of fresh tuna, marinated in soy, pan seared, rolled in toasted black and white sesame seeds and served sliced with a soy, chilli and lime dressing and a salad of baby salad leaves. Fresh, clean flavours; it’s delicious with or without the dressing, but a simple squeeze of fresh lime would have been sufficient.

Other dishes: Warm kalamata and green olives with orange zest and fennel seeds ($9), seafood dumplings ($16), Spanish meatballs ($14), linguine with crab, fresh tomato, chilli, garlic and extra virgin olive oil ($32), and home-made potato gnocchi with spinach, Persian feta and walnuts ($28) are just a few of the other dishes on the menu. As an appetiser, bread is served with an excellent peppery green extra virgin olive oil which Trivic sources from a small unbranded producer in the Riverland.

Giallo lemon curd tart

Lemon curd tart. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Something sweet/to drink: Coq had just made a large bright yellow lemon curd tart when InDaily visited, so we had to have a slice (more yellow), but he was also talking up his apple tarte tatin and gluten-free chocolate cake with chocolate sauce.  All the desserts ($15) are served with vanilla-bean ice cream and decorated with a pretty purple and yellow edible viola flower.

The wine list is interesting, with suggestions from a few small local wineries, some familiar and some foreign to InDaily, some Victorian and Tasmanian wines and some Italian, Spanish, French and American.

Giallo crab linguine

Crab linguine. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Trivic suggested a glass of Ottelia Pinot Gris ($10) from Wrattonbully on the Limestone Coast to go with the tuna. It’s a wine with a palate of apple and lemon zest, a hint of spiciness and a pinkish hue. And for the meatballs, the spicy and savoury Jonathan Tolley Shiraz ($8) from the Adelaide Hills.

*Giallo is Italian for yellow; it is also the term for the crime fiction genre in Italy.

Giallo Wine Bar
Open Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 3pm and 6pm till late, and Saturdays, 6pm til late.
39a Rundle St, Kent Town, 8362 9006

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