Rating: 14/20
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- 3A Torrens Place, Torrens shops, 6286 2966
- www.pistachiodining.com.au
- Owner and chef David Keeley
- Open lunch Wednesday to Friday, dinner Tuesday to Saturday
- Licensed and BYO, corkage $7 a bottle
- Wheelchair access to the restaurant, but toilets difficult
Our city of suburbs and little shopping centres is home to numerous small neighbourhood restaurants whose worth is probably more in proximity and convenience than food. But there are some exceptions, and in our view Pistachio is one of these.
Chef and owner David Keeley handles meat and fish really well and with loads of care.
We enjoy the lamb's brains, crumbled in hazelnuts and served in a sticky soy-based sauce with sage and bacon. And salmon served with a medley of seafood - a mussel, a prawn, a cockle, a shellfishy sauce, all giving the nicely cooked salmon the context it deserves.
OK, you can fault aspects of the food here - the saltiness of a brussels and ham hock mix under the scallops, the uninspiring pastry ''dumpling'' served alongside a hunk of beef. And the menu as a whole is quite conservative.
But it's the long list of good things that lands Pistachio in the city's top 20 this year.
The brevity of the list, for starters - four entrees, six mains. It's a menu that sticks to the point and gives you the feeling that Keeley, who you just know is out back looking after your meal, is careful about just how much he can handle well in a small kitchen with a small staff.
The fixed price is welcome too - $18 for entrees, $28 for mains, $14 for desserts. And the wine list, now this is daring. Pistachio's list is exclusively local - good wines, lots by the glass and well-priced.
A nice, intimate feel also, in this small space, not many tables, and just a few staff.
For dessert, we really like the apple and cinnamon mousse with a soft-centred meringue, roast rhubarb, and berry ice cream - a pretty dessert. Pistachio might not be the kind of place you'd cross town for (or maybe you would, you adventurous lot), but it's popular locally and you can see why.
We're convinced that neighbourhood restaurants like this work precisely because the chef is also the owner and always on deck.