Perched below the famous Windy Point Restaurant, overlooking the beautiful city of Adelaide settles Bird Box the new pizzeria and tapas bar in Belair. Replacing what used to be Windy Point café is this modern, stylish but upmarket eatery.

Currently they offer their diners a Bird Feed Menu which consists of a range of tapas, one pizza to share and a dessert. We started with the Milk Bun, Smoked Scamorza, and Vegemite Butter nestled on top of a Potato, Almond, Saffron Soup Shot. The milk bun was a thick yeasty bread consistency with a crunchy cheese coating on top. The vegemite butter was surprisingly subtle, but worked with the thick milk bun. What was certainly a delight was dipping the bun in the thick warm soup shot. The strong taste of saffron complimented the almond and potato, and made for a hearty and flavoursome soup.

We then tried the next tapas ‘Beetroot, Goat Curd, and Walnuts’. A combination of some of the simplest elements, but a flavour party that worked well. The semi soft consistency of the beetroot complimented the soft, bite goats curd and crunchy walnuts. We loved eating this small dish and think it complimented the other Middle Eastern inspired dishes that came after it.

The next dish we tried was the ‘Turkish Eggplant Borek, Baba Ghanoush and Pineapple Relish’. My favourite thing about this was the smoky eggplant. That was the first thing that you could taste when you placed it on your lips. The baba ghanoush was smooth and worked well with the crispy pastry coated around it. The pineapple relish was the sweet cherry on top of the pie.

You can’t go wrong with ‘Pork Meatballs, and Tomato Jam’ this combination is one of those simple, homey pleasures. The juicy pork meatballs as well as being incredibly moist, included some beautiful herbs. Together this blend complimented the sweet and tasty tomato jam, a flavour combination that I believe can not be proved wrong.

Following on with what we felt was a rather Middle Eastern inspired menu was the Moroccan Chicken, and Honey-fetta Yoghurt. Ever tried KFC but Moroccan style? This is pretty much what you will get. I thoroughly enjoyed the authentic herb combination and was pleased to see it work around the moist chicken. The chicken itself was not overly oily but was fried enough to gather a crunchy skin. The honey-fetta yoghurt was flavoursome but not too overbearing, to avoid overpowering the chicken.

The last tapas we tried was the Broccoli, Hazelnuts, Orange, and Pomegranate. This was our favourite dish of the day. I have never been a huge fan of fruit and savoury but this one blew my mind. The broccoli was crunchy, salted well and charred to add that extra bit of flavour. The sweet mandarin gave the dish the difference it needed and was a fabulous flavour combination.

We couldn’t leave without sampling two of their thin crust style pizzas with generous amounts of topping. We opted for the: Squid, Mussels, Prawns, Tomato, Garlic, Anchovies, Chilli pizza and the Hot Salami, Tomato, Chilli, Olives, and Fior de latte pizza. The seafood pizza was a combination of fresh ingredients, with a topping of delightful herbs. The hot salami pizza was flavoursome with some basic but delicious ingredients. The bushy fior de latte helped to give the topping a little bit of an edge. Personally, I am not a huge fan of crusts on pizza and I rarely eat them. Along with each pizza the staff will give you a side of cheesy sauce. This is soley to dip your crusts in. I think this is a grand idea, as of course I won’t say no to cheesy crusts.

We ended with what was an elegant and diverse dessert the Egyptian Semolina Cake, Rosewater Syrup, Rhubarb, and Caramelised Yoghurt. The semolina was thick and grainy and had an extremely textural difference to a normal cake, but I loved it. The creamy yoghurt was a pleasant surprise, thick and inviting. The rhubarb tied together all the subtle flavours with its zingy, sharp taste.

Bird Box Pizzeria & Tapas currently offers dining from noon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thank you for the team for inviting us along to their new restaurant. Not only did we enjoy the beautiful food but the stunning view overlooking Adelaide, made all that little bit of difference.

Words by Tomika Salerno

WHERE: 339 Belair Rd, Belair