A friend of mine from the eastern suburbs calls Adelaide's West Terrace 'The Wall'…read more
'There's nothing out there, mate,' he'll tell you, referring to the vast cultural desert between the West Park Lands and the sea.
He's wrong, of course, on so many counts it doesn't matter. One of these counts is Liquid Espresso, a relatively new cafe in one of the small retail redevelopments that have sprung up on Grange Road.
This establishment features the magic ingredient which usually can lift a cafe from the mundane to the spectacularly good. I speak of a gifted chef, in this case an Italian one.
I dined here today in the company of an Italian friend, whose judgement in the matter of Continental food is spot on.
We shared a chicken Caesar salad, and I have to say, I've rarely had better. The greens were crisp, almost still dewy, and the egg perfectly poached and complimented by fresh shavings of Parmesan cheese with slivers of bacon and lashings of anchovy. The slices of grilled chicken breast were succulent, warm and slightly toasted, and the homemade Caesar sauce drizzled over the lot was perfect - tasty and tart without overwhelming the variety of other flavours. The croutons were a little hard, though.
I had started with a sausage roll and sauce. Call me unsophisticated, but a good sausage roll is a delightful start to most meals, except perhaps breakfast. Sadly, this item seems not to have been touched by the chef's wand. The pastry was fine and flaky, but the all-important filling was a disappointment. Instead of a fat, juicy finger of spicy pork sausage meat, this stuff, while juicy enough, was insipid, almost grey, and I'd say contained a lot of breadcrumbs. Even the tomato sauce was generic. So a bare pass on the sausage roll brings down the overall score.
However, the legend of Italian cuisine wasn't built on stodgy pastries, so order up on the traditional items with confidence.
The prices are very fair, especially considering the quality on offer. The $10 pasta night looks like a real treat, ditto the burger night.
Sadly, we had to go before trying the coffee, but it smelled great.
The modern hard-surfaced decor makes for a bit of noise, so Liquid Espresso is possibly not the venue for a candle-lit romantic interlude.
On a Monday afternoon, the place was quietly buzzing with happy customers - I'll say no more, except that the smallish carpark was full. That's the price of fame, but there is plenty of parking nearby.
