Meaty eating spot takes over empty Fishbank in CBD
A new restaurant will soon be firing up the grill at the coveted King William spot that used to house Fishbank and Jamie’s Italian. The designer behind Adelaide’s latest restaurant tells CityMag how creating a viable hospitality experience goes beyond the menu.
At Hunter & Barrel, it new owners claim everything from table height and chair weight to crockery style has been meticulously chosen, with style and service just as important as the menu.
The theatrical steak restaurant already has Melbourne, Sydney and Perth locations, and it will make its Adelaide debut in the heritage-listed King William Street and North Terrace corner on October 30.
Meat & Wine Co gave the ground floor of the art deco building a hunting lodge theme, with a focus on grill-fired skewers, full-blood grass-fed wagyu and cocktails featuring barrel-aged spirits.
The group’s restaurant will fill the space that’s been vacant since Fishbank closed in January 2025 after five years of trade.
Fishbank’s owners first suggested on Instagram that it would return with a new concept in May, but it never did and seemed to be a casualty of Adelaide’s hospitality crisis.
Aiming for longevity, Hunter & Barrel is experience-based hospitality, the same ethos Adelaide saw earlier this year when The Big Easy Group turned House of George into Tarantino’s.
Emphasising a dining experience is something hospo operators are catching onto as the cost-of-living climate changes customer behaviour: smaller groups are going out, people are spending less frequently, but spending more on quality.
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But the Hunter & Barrel team and their design partner of 10 years, COOOP, say they’ve always been all about experience.
In the new Adelaide restaurant, there’s a fire grill spit rotisserie in the centre of an open-plan kitchen, two glamping-inspired tent structures on either side of bench seating, and individual lights on each table to set the mood.
“These things all speak to the kind of experience that you are having, it all aligns, and it all finds comfort and balance within everything that you experience in that evening,” COOOP’s Creative Director Callie van der Merwe tells CityMag.
Callie explains their approach is called ‘envirohacking’ – combining data-driven insight, predictive behavioural patterns and intentional design to enhance guest experience, make staff more efficient and increase profit for the business.
“Our principle is always to put predictive human behaviour first and then design second, which sounds crazy, design feels like it should come first, but if you don’t understand how people behave in a space you can’t design for their behaviour,” he says.
“People like to cocoon, they like to feel safe, you need to get a heart in this space.
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“People like to sit and look at each other, create that opportunity to see each other at a distance.”
CityMag understands the design science approach is proven in the venues interstate counterparts and means the crew aim for a return on investment in 24 months, rather than the 36–48-month timeline of other restaurants.
And of course, the menu still plays a big role.
“How many times have you been at a restaurant and you actually see a dish pass, you’re looking at the menu, but it’s not playing to sense and then you see a waitress, a waiter, walking past with a dish in hand, and it piques your interest,” Callie says.
“As they walk back, you kind of motion them to talk to them, because ‘what was that, that looks amazing?’
“There’s something within us where we actually subconsciously copy other people, and we learn through copying.”
Callie says these are things business owners need to be conscious of, from training staff to planning the pathway they take with the plates through the room.
As for what will be on those plates, expect smokey skewers like honey-glazed pork belly and tahini-marinated chicken thigh and cuts like bone-in striploin and rib-eye grilled on high-heat and caramelised.
Hunter & Barrel’s head of culinary, chef Sean Hall says their seasonal menu is about celebration.
“The flavour of a fresh prawn or vibrant vegetable isn’t masked—it’s honoured,” he says.
“Every dish, from the chopped vegetable salad to the Humpty Doo saltwater barramundi, is designed to let the produce shine. It’s clean, honest, and powerful.”
Hunter & Barrel would move into the King William Street spot as rooftop bar 2KW, located atop the eight-storey circa-1940s building, celebrates 10 years of trading.
Hunter & Barrel opens to the public at 2 King William Street on October 30.
