On Monday, Adelaide Food Central visited Acacia located on the beautiful Henley Beach Road. This small, modern café serves not only breakfast but also a beautiful fine dining style lunch and dinner. We tried a few items from their new menu including a selection of their fine wines.

We started the day with the Pork Roll with pork, wakame and red yuzu kosho sausage roll, and mandarin puree. I would describe this dish as an upmarket sausage roll, and a delicious one at that. The delicate, juicy pork paired well with the crisp coating of the roll. My favourite part of the dish was the citrus, sweet mandarin puree that really gave the dish zaps of flavour and one that is quite unique to Acacia.

Next up we sampled the SA Prawn and Wild Fennel Dumpling with soured tomato butter. What a beautiful combination for a dumpling. The light dumpling stuffed with subtle fennel, made a fantastic filling that went well with the intense flavour of the soured tomato butter. This is what I love so much about this restaurant is the fact that everything is unique and very different to flavours that you may have tasted before.

Blanketed in green and yellow was the Tuna Carpaccio with cauliflower vinegar, chicken garum, cured egg yolk, and lettuce. Raw tuna is a favourite of mine so I was excited to see what gorgeous tastes this dish had to offer. The carpaccio just bursted with flavour and paired well with the subtle season of the crunchy cauliflower. I loved the fresh addition of the crispy lettuce, and parmesan cheese, which is not a common thing to see on a carpaccio, but worked very well.

The next beautiful dish we were lucky enough to try was the Gnocchi with cultured goats milk, almonds, walnuts, butternut sauce, mushroom, blueberry and kelp. This dish was the most interesting of them all and unlike anything I had seen or tried before. At first glance this beautiful dish looks exactly like a little garden. The gnocchi itself was cooked just like Nonna’s soft and fluffy. The goat’s milk was a fairly heavy sauce, but the mushrooms, blueberry and nuts helped to even it out making it an incredible dish.

Always a favourite, was the Grilled Market Fish with barley risotto, bacon broth, and zucchini. What a combination. The bacon broth was like nothing I had tasted before and it helped to give the subtle fish a smoky flavour. The barley was creamy and tasted like a thick Italian risotto, and worked well with the gentle fish. The added addition of grilled zucchini gave the dish that extra healthy crunch.

To conclude the meal we tried the Chocolate Mousse with pepper berry ice bream and saltbush. I can honestly say that this was one of my favourite desserts I have ever tried. The first taste of the mousse was phenomenal; it was thick, heavy and everything you could ever want in a dessert. I loved the saltbush as it gave the dish an almost salted caramel element and worked well with the light and creamy pepper berry ice cream. It was safe to say we left this meal with happy stomachs and full hearts.

Thank you to the team at Acacia for having us along to try the new additions to their menu. We were so impressed with the standard of food and we highly recommend Acacia to anyone who wants quality food with great service.

Words by Tomika Salerno

WHERE: 3/269 Seaview Rd, Henley Beach