La Bonne Table hasn’t had the most grandiose of beginnings, but the team has been willing to bide its time and gain a following through hard work.
A new player in Adelaide’s dining scene, the small diner places a heavy emphasis on wine and twists classically French dishes – sometimes with an Asian touch, sometimes with a modern Australian feel.
Adjoining a rug store and opposite the MFS station on Wakefield Street, La Bonne Table is ambitious in its menu and interesting enough for more than one visit.
Wine decorates the walls, and plain tables and chairs adorn a contemporary industrial setting for about 40 diners. An open kitchen moves into a bar featuring several tap beers and a handy spirit selection.
It is a setting which clearly has thoughts of Friday night office parties and corporate catering. For lunch, however, La Bonne Table features a constantly changing menu which caters for the discerning vegetarian but also the most devoted carnivore.
Well-used French terminology and a contemporary smattering of Asian ingredients add interest to dishes which are otherwise tried and true and at risk of being hum-drum.
Steaks of varying cuts and weights are each served with different styles of potato (fondant, pomme parisienne, fat chips), sauce and vegetables/salad. They also come with a collection of house-made flavoured salts: coffee, green tea, lemon, mixed fruit and porcini.
Other selections include a buttered chicken salad, a kimchi and bacon risotto, harissa grilled quail with apple and bean puree, and a thrice-cooked pork belly with apple gel.
It is an ambitious and interesting menu that makes the lunch choice difficult.
To start, a charcuterie platter of salami, prosciutto and a spicy sausage comes with watercress and caper berries and easily serves three.
Oysters, served with a chilli vinaigrette and a mignonette, were delicious, although inexplicably, had been drained of the salty liquor in which they normally sit.
All of this was broken up with a simple amuse bouche of British blue cheese, celery and mayo. Sounds weird, but somehow the tartness of the cheese was mellowed by the mayonnaise with the celery clearing it from the palate.
The fillet steak was deliciously plastered with a thick layer of pepper and sat in a rich deglaze decorated with balsamic and olive oil and perfectly al dente balls of potato (pomme noisette). Our table carved up our perfectly cooked and nicely rested steak into sections to taste-test the individual salt flavours. The menu claimed it was 200g of fillet, but a scale would easily have read 300g.
The service during the meal was attentive, unobtrusive but definitely willing to engage. The waiter showed a passion for wine and his suggestion of a Clare Riesling, although something not traditionally matching our meal, was a brave but inspired choice.
La Bonne is the perfect corporate setting: not snobby, not loud, but classy enough to entertain clients in a relaxed atmosphere. The diner is also only going to get better, with the owners planning to purchase the rug shop next door and open a bar named Next Table.
It is ambitious for its position, but the addition of a bar will enhance La Bonne Table and make it a stand-out city destination.
3.5 out of 5
La Bonne Table
128 Wakefield St, Adelaide
8223 2487
Cuisine: European with a twist
