Celebrated chef Andy Davies’ Stirling restaurant Patch is the kind of place you want as your local. But with warm hospitality and food this good, it’s well worth the short drive from Adelaide.
“There’s no unspoken, strict policy on how you should use this space,” says Patch Kitchen & Garden’s owner and executive chef, Andy Davies.
“Some people come twice a week and know how to use the restaurant as a vessel – they pop in, have a glass of wine and bowl of pasta or a couple of snacks, and go.”
For Andy, taking over the well-known Stirling site three years ago presented a sea (rather, Hills) change.
The Uraidla local had been working in high volume city kitchens including Press* Food and Wine (“we’d go through 400-450 covers a day”), Bread & Bone, and the pasta-pumping Osteria Oggi, where he remains a co-owner. Prior to that, he cooked in fine dining European kitchens – the kind that speak with tweezers and foams and stars of the Michelin kind.
Patch was a breath of fresh Adelaide Hills air. With his wife Belle Kha (plus another couple who are no longer involved), Andy gutted the former kids-focused cafe (goodbye, blackboards and playthings) and created a relaxed dining destination. Natural light floods the main dining room, where pops of foliage and warm grain timbers bring rustic, yet sophisticated charm. Most importantly, it’s comfortable, welcoming, and offers a menu that equally suits a quick bite or leisurely lunch. In Andy’s words: “This is the best little place I’ve had”.
Other spots to perch include a communal table that faces the kitchen, a private dining room at the entrance, and sprawling outdoor space. Soon, a custom pergola will be erected over the beer garden, seating 40 people.
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Longstanding Press* and Oggi fans will spot familiar menu items. Take Andy’s pithivier, a former Press* signature best described as a fancy chicken pie. And the gnochetti – little gnocchi-shaped pasta – enrobed in a punchy broccoli-garlic-chilli-anchovy-pine nut sauce that was among Oggi’s launch offering.
Andy’s European influence weaves throughout the menu, from the shareable small plates to house made pasta and larger mains. Belle works the floor, her warm and friendly personality putting diners at ease. She’s helpful, too, suggesting which dishes to pair and what to save for later, allowing the experience to unfold at just the right pace.
Raw grass-fed beef is sliced slightly thicker than the usual paper-thin carpaccio, resulting in the occasional chewy bite. It’s topped with generous shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano, fresh flat leaf rocket and crispy fried capers that bring welcome bursts of salty texture. Drizzles of garlic-spiked aioli and olive oil round out what is a tasty start to the meal.
Bite-sized rounds of tender Boston Bay octopus polka dot the plate along with similar-sized pieces of kipfler potato as a kind of deconstructed seafood salad, with heat from a nduja-based sauce. A scattering of soft herbs and dill aioli freshen things up.
No surprises, given Andy’s track record (Oggi has been named “best Italian restaurant” more than once), that pasta is serious business, here. It’s all made in-house using a Bottene – “the Rolls Royce of pasta machines” – and a collection of bronze dies (cutters) that Andy’s collected over time. His most recent die-sourcing expedition saw him travel deep in the foothills of Vicenza in Italy’s north to a 400-year-old stone building housing a 280-year-old pasta business. He bought six dies.
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Bucatini – the hollow spaghetti that’s inexplicably addictive in texture – is served as excellent carbonara, complete with crispy speck and cured egg yolk. Wide ribbons of pappardelle are tossed through chicken hearts and livers – an ode to Andy’s deft hand with offal, which won him wide praise at Press*.
Today’s tagliatelle with crab is a crowd-pleaser, with generous chunks of Port Broughton crab, fresh passata and a gentle hum of chilli.
Carnivores are well catered for, too, with a selection of steaks among the main-sized dishes. You might also find polenta topped with sausage ragu, local fish and that fancy round pie.
Today’s “catch” is the white-fleshed mulloway, generously seasoned and crispy-skinned, perched atop a decadent serving of buttery mashed potato. More of those salty crisp capers and a good glug of olive oil completes the dish.
There’s a lot to love here. It’s the kind of place you want as your local – somewhere to call by for a bite, take the family when you can’t be bothered cooking, or indulge in celebration.
Though, when it’s just a 20-minute drive from the CBD, it’s also well worth the trip.
Patch Kitchen & Garden
Chef: Andy Davies
Cuisine: European
Wines: Mix of local and international wines ticks the boxes’ plus spirits and cocktails
Cost: Smaller $10-$30, larger $35+
Must try: Pasta. Any pasta.
Hot take: Understated beauty
143 Mt Barker Rd, Stirling
patchkitchen.com.au
Open: Thurs-Sat lunch and dinner; Sun lunch
This review first appeared in the May 2026 issue of SALIFE magazine.
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