Lunch review: Kangkong
Jasmin tea and lemongrass creme brulee. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily
Not only is Topham Mall experiencing a renaissance, so is chef Matt Miles who heads up Kangkong, a modern Asian restaurant which sits at the Waymouth Street entrance.
Before we start on Miles’ new break, it must be said what a fantastic result all the enthusiasm for redeveloping Topham Mall has produced. It has eradicated the nasty place that most people did all they could to avoid, as well as creating a new destination for the CBD and extending the vibrant corridor that now runs from Adelaide Oval to the Central Market.
In addition to Kangkong, Topham Mall now boasts other new enterprises, including Lady Burra Brewhouse brewery, bar and restaurant, The Coco Stop chocolate shop, Booknook & Bean coffee shop and book store, bagel specialist The Beigelry, the Flower Nook florist, the gallery/furniture store Transform, a bar called Gypsy Dragon, and street art by Fredrock and Matt Stuckey. City workers are like bees to this new hive.
Before starting at Kangkong, Miles was known for his work interstate (including at Quay in Sydney) and overseas (InterContinental Hotel Group, Dubai and Qatar). He is originally from South Australia and came home a few years ago to work with the Adelaide Convention Centre and Gaucho’s Argentinian restaurant.
“In between all that I travelled for a while in South-East Asia and found things that I loved when I was away that I couldn’t get here,” he explains.
When restaurateurs Rob Parsons (Treasury on King William) and Ron Kohli (Chocolatree, Holy Guacamoly and Coffylosophy) presented Miles with the opportunity to head up a modern Asian street-food restaurant inspired by Sydney’s Mr Wong and Melbourne’s Chin Chin, it was the perfect way to distill both his formal training and his exotic culinary adventures.
“I wanted to take some of the authentic flavours I had experienced overseas and present them in a way that’s more appealing to South Australians in dishes they can share,” says Miles.
The restaurant is located in a former glass-walled bank building and has a modern, industrial feel with a large open kitchen, bar and high bench seating, and lots of smaller tables indoors and out on the terrace. The bank may have departed, but the ATM machine at the front remains operational and now also acts as a podium for a painted red bicycle tuk tuk.
The menu features a large selection of “small bites” for sharing, such as interesting takes on fritters, cakes, skewers, dumplings and sashimi with diverse influences from all over Asia. There are salads and sides with noodles, rice, and pickled, fermented and char-grilled vegetables. Larger dishes include steamed buns, coconut-husk-smoked Chiang Mai sausage, twice-cooked crispy pork hock, curries, char-grilled miso steak, and fried whole fish and baby chicken. The servings are generous – even the desserts are large enough to share.
Favourite dish: Steamed Hervey Bay scallops ($14). Four tender scallops steamed in their shells and dressed with yuzu butter (yuzu is a Chinese variety of citrus similar to a mandarin, but with the tartness of grapefruit), very finely diced tomato and shichimi (Japanese chilli) pepper salsa.
Other dishes: Sesame prawn toast ($14). Four generous squares of house-made wholegrain potato loaf are topped with minced green prawns, finely sliced Chinese sausage, ginger and garlic, sprinkled with sesame seeds and grilled before being topped with shrimp floss, shallots and curry mayonnaise.
Steamed chicken dumplings ($12). Four handmade dumplings filled with chicken and shitake mushrooms and served in a laksa-inspired emulsion and topped with fresh bean shoots, snowpea sprouts, coriander, Vietnamese mint and fried tofu cubes.
Kangkong tofu and sweet potato curry puffs ($14). Four golden pastries that pack some punch with a spicy tofu “palak paneer” filling and a tamarind and date chutney for dipping.
Something sweet/to drink: The drinks list includes all sorts of beers and wines, but it’s the exotic teapots and cocktails that are worth a look. The dessert list is short, with only four dishes on the menu including a sweet spring roll ($5.50), a roasted banana pannacotta ($12.50), and a date and tamarind steamed pudding ($12.50).
InDaily chose the lemongrass crème brulee ($12.50). A fresh lemongrass-infused cream custard topped with dark burnt toffee (adding bitterness to balance out the sweet) and served with toasted coconut and dried slivers of pineapple.
The amenities out the back are also remarkable – is there a trend towards sharing cubicles and basins with the fairer sex?
Kangkong
Lunch – Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm
Dinner – Monday to Saturday, 5.30pm til late
44 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, ph 7226 5255