Restaurant review: Press Food and Wine
Press* Food & Wine has been rewarded with a large following after an ambitious beginning.
Situated on what is now Adelaide’s premier eat street (Waymouth), the two-level diner could easily host more than 100 at any given time.
And despite being one of Adelaide’s largest restaurants, there is no lack of quality or attention to detail.
Press* initially captured the attention of the city’s foodies thanks to its offal menu – a hark back to the old days of sweetbreads, tongue and liver.
That set tongues wagging, so to speak, and it has now progressed into a dependable dining option for the street’s bankers and journalists at lunch and for everyone else for dinner.
The separate levels offer a different degree of service – downstairs is communal-style, high-bench seating and is mainly for walk-ins. Upstairs offers a more exclusive, upmarket setting with private booths and tables for bookings.
It is a timber-laden industrial build with the large kitchen tucked down the back.
Service is experienced, quick and efficient – even on a weekday night when the entire downstairs is full and casual diners chat and laugh over laden plates and full glasses like tourists in a German beer hall.
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The wine list at Press* is international, well maintained and very extensive. Starting with a small selection of traditional cocktails and aperitifs, and an impressive range of both gin and ales, the list samples nearly all the world’s prestigious regions in a reasonably affordable fashion.
As the inside of the booklet states: “A small snapshot of what we think is interesting and appetising at this particular moment.”
Press* has a long, interesting and very eclectic menu. There is offal, fish, salads and a large selection of steaks, from a minute steak to a rib-eye which serves two.
The starters or “smaller” section is an interesting tour of world cuisine.
Ever-popular pork buns, a delicious artery-hardening chicken liver pâté, soft-shell crab, and corned beef with fennel and mustard aioli are among the choices.
I settled on the pâté, which is delivered as a large quenelle served with super-intense caperberries, cornichons and crunchy toast, perfectly balanced and simple.
Pork and cabbage buns encased in a Korean-style thick dough and fried are flavoursome and provide the desired textural combo of crisp exterior and fluffy interior. (According to the waiter, they are challenging the establishment’s well-known pulled pork buns in the popularity stakes.)
Moving past the always tempting Press* burger, which is rated as one of the best in town, there is the aforementioned offal menu.
It includes a tempting mixed grill of brains, tongue, sweetbreads and blood sausage – an appealing reminder of how our forebears could turn cheap butcher off-cuts into tasty treats.
There is also a roast suckling Berkshire pig, which feeds about eight, with all the trimmings. Having enjoyed this marathon before, I can say it is a delightfully gluttonous meal of pig, pork and crackling, served with purees, sauces and salads. Not for the faint-hearted, at $78 a head it is an excellent choice for a special occasion.
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On this night, however, we order a crispy duck leg served with watercress and cucumber, and a beetroot and speck salad of bitter witlof with a dollop of goat’s curd.
The duck leg is incredibly juicy with a light and crispy batter. It mixes perfectly with the slightly bitter, mayonnaise-laden salad which is cut through with fine slivers of shallot. The salad is a great combination of sweet beetroot, bitter leaf, orange segments and wafer-thin chips of salty speck.
Press*offers an awful lot of very good things. I am normally quite critical of restaurants with large menus, but Press* is an exception to my rule.
The influence of the menu ranges from Asian to French, covering a lot of territory in between.
Press* cures its own meats, pickles its own vegetables and makes its own pasta – it’s obvious the kitchen’s passion and creativity is what makes the restaurant so popular.
There is a reasoning behind each dish, and although there is no overall theme to the menu, the kitchen pays a great deal of care and time to its food.
One also hopes the American-style charred brisket with macaroni cheese will one day make a comeback.
Press* is always interesting, always changing and always has a way of pleasing even the fussiest of foodies.
Four out of five.
Press* Food and Wine
40 Waymouth Street, Adelaide
(08) 8211 8048
Open for lunch and dinner, Monday-Saturday, 12 – late
Cuisine: For citizens of the world
