Jamie’s Italian opened last month to much fanfare, but does its food live up to the hype that has surrounded the celebrity chef’s first Adelaide foray?

With millions spent renovating the old Westpac Bank building, the restaurant is now probably the best and most extravagant setting in Adelaide.

It features light wooden floors, extremely high ceilings with grand hanging lights, a deli-style kitchen mid-room, a well-stocked bar to the left of the entry and a small lounge area on the right. Every spot available for seating is taken: bar stools ring the deli-kitchen, benches line the walls, sofas and seats surround the bar.

The main kitchen runs along the back wall, and waiters with hand-held devices weave through the packed restaurant.

Lighting is dim and music is intermittent; overall, it comes off feeling somewhat luxurious. The atmosphere is bustling and loud, yet enjoyable.

The high ceilings make conversation easy despite the close proximity of other diners – in the few hours our party was there, there was three renditions of “Happy Birthday”, sung with gusto by guests and staff alike.

It is this friendly atmosphere that makes Jamie’s Italian work. Even a hapless customer freed from the lift after it had become stuck between floors was met by a round of restaurant applause.

We arrived at 6pm, having booked a table; others were already being turned away. After being seated at a cosy spot behind the deli-kitchen, we were handed an uncomfortably vast array of large and small menus. There is the large cardboard food menu, the drink list, a bar-snack menu and an “aged-wine” list, while specials are scrawled on various wall-hung blackboards.

To start, we chose the “plank” ($14 per person), the four-cheese gnocchi and the arancini, matched with some local beers and Italian sparkling white. Shortly after a waitress delivered two large tins of tomatoes, upon which the plank would be balanced – a charming yet awkward gimmick on a small table.

The food didn’t take long to come out and, in true Jamie style, it was served simply yet enticingly.

A long wooden board was loaded with salami, mortadella, prosciutto,  bresciola, olives, and pecorino and buffalo mozzarella cheeses – all piled on in a rustic manner as the ultimate antipasto. The salami was the pick of the meats, a slight hint of fennel adding to the garlic and spice, while the prosciutto was shaved finely and melted in the mouth.

The gnocchi ($10) was also served on a board – six small cubes of potato, lightly fried and dusted with cheese. They were delicate and delicious, with a sharp bite from the cheese and a perfect pillow of potato encased in a crisp coating.

The arancini ($11.50) – with a light coating of crumbs and slightly over-cooked but well-seasoned rice – came in a pool of spicy tomato sauce.

The food was delivered at the same time and well presented, with the staff doing an admirable job of servicing a large number of people. They were polite, well versed in the large menu, and jotted down orders quickly.

For mains, our table ordered three pastas and one risotto, which ranged in price from $25 to $28.50, along with a bottle of “Jamie’s favourite” red – a 2011 Italian barbera blend priced at $65 a bottle.

Again, the food arrived in reasonably good time and at once.

The strong and fragrant truffle risotto was the pick of the bunch. The rice was perfectly cooked and retained a slightly nutty texture, while three small slivers of fresh truffle offered a special bite.

However, the wild boar lasagne was a let-down. The slab of pasta came in an earthenware dish and sat in tomato sauce (similar to that of the arancini), with a large chunk of fennel resting on top. Instead of delicate layers of pasta separating sauce and boar, it was more a lump of over-cooked mush lacking texture and distinctive flavours.

The two other pastas – a black angel spaghetti and the prawn linguini – lacked seasoning and piquancy.

The squid-ink infused spaghetti was perfectly cooked and coated in a wine and caper-based sauce, with slices of scallop adding freshness, but it was generally uninspiring and lacked the chilli and anchovies mentioned on the menu. The linguine had flavours of garlic and a slight touch of fennel in a tomato-based sauce with a fair amount of smallish but succulent prawns; once again, it was passable, but not outstanding.

We finished off with a delicious panna cotta with raspberry compote and an extremely rich chocolate brownie – a nice closer to what was overall an enjoyable night.

Jamie’s Italian may suffer a bit from diners’ high expectations, as well as the inevitable comparison with the extremely high-quality choice of Italian restaurants in South Australia. Chianti, Enzo, Pranzo, La Tratt and Amalfi, among others, have formed large and loyal customer bases with superior cuisine and similar or cheaper prices.

That said, having also eaten at Jamie’s Italian in London, I found Adelaide’s version a step up from the British model. And while the food wasn’t the star on this particular night, the fun, friendly and enjoyable vibe of Jamie’s was probably enough to tempt another visit. It caters well for groups and is far and away the most impressive CBD restaurant setting.

Three and a half out of five

Jamie’s Italian
2 King William Street, Adelaide

Open Monday-Sunday, 11.30am until late