I was looking forward to eating at this popular new space, which looked fantastic from the outside, had a hip / business / urban type vibe. While the food was delicious, I did leave feeling disappointed by the experience. Any place with high ceilings, like Public, can battle with acoustics that aren't conducive to table conversations. I lunched here with two friends on a Friday afternoon and Public had the music PUMPING which meant we shouted at each other for most of our time there. The menu is curious. A large element is taken up by 'Snacks' and then a few Pasta items and Meat items (one fish, one chicken, one ... you get the idea). I opted for the snack prawns and onion rings. They were divine eating. The onion rings themselves were enormous and generously salted; the prawns had a tasty charcoal edge. We also shared broccolini on the table which was crisp, dripping, and accompanied by crispy almonds. One companion had the salmon and seemed to enjoy that; our vegan friend had only the option of the pita and olives, sadly. The wine menu was populist, if that's the correct term. It contains a lot of South Australian favourites, few adventures, and is sure to be a crowd pleaser. What let the experience down was the service. I did expect this polished new restaurant to offer a sensational level of service, however attention was lacking and it was yet another Adelaide venue that didn't seem keen to sell us more drinks. More drinks! Please ask us if we want another drink! We also had to ask for our table to be cleared. We queued to pay the bill. I'm glad I've tried it, but won't go back again in a hurry. If Public pushed its staff to a standard of excellence (and turned down the muzak) it'd be a compelling place indeed. read more

Public - Public's crowdpleasing wine list. - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

By the people, for the people, PUBLIC has created a space where you can street watch from window benches, hide away in leathered booth, sit at a communal bench with the "rest of us," or book a long table for lunch. With exposed ceilings, wooden shelves containing bottles, books and things that look like they are from a beach and an old train station clock that you can literally see the minutes pass by, I hate to say it but this place is very Sydney chique. And please don't mistake that statement - I love Sydney chique I lived in it for 4 years! The glass cabinets full of crispy cibatta rolls, baguettes, fresh salads of the day like orange, rocket and beetroot or apple, rocket and goats cheese and carefully crafted desserts is just the start of a well thought out lunch and breakfast menu. The Chicken Burger was a stand out for me, let alone a business meeting killer. If you're trying to be serious this thing, with is soft bun, juicy crumbed chicken and lime mayo, will not let you be. It'll dribble, it'll slide, it'll squish and you are guaranteed to make a perfect mess of yourself. The chips were huge, mouth wateringly salty and the Public slaw was a nice refreshing ending to the meal. I am a tad conflicted though. The service was friendly and welcoming - I swear we had about 3 different waiters. Problem was that it was 1pm, there was no line up for lunch and yet I was asked 3 times within a period of 5 minutes if I was ready to order and then 3 times 15 mins later if I was finished my meal...A little too attentive maybe? This place is the higher end of a "casual lunch," and would be a wonderful spot for a special meal, lunch with clients and the like. Why? - The lunch menu of pastas, fish and meat mains and even their burgers were minimum $19 and above (but you are getting quality produce to boot). - The wines by the glass were on average $9 and above (and don't snort at the cheapest wine on the menu because it was devine). - You are treated with incredibly efficient and helpful service and you walk out stuffed with siesta-prompting fullness. read more

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Funky and fun! Love the decor and the variety of interesting design features. Great atmosphere and beautiful hand wash in the toilets (very important). I'm not sure how busy it is on other days, but on this Monday morning for breakfast it was frequented by a mix of seated customers and people buying takeaway coffee, which provided a buzzing atmosphere without being too hectic. The cakes in the display case looked spectacular. I enjoyed a detox beetroot, ginger and other 'good for you' ingredients juice. Delicious and energy providing. I appreciated the variety of dishes on the breakfast menu, which also made it difficult to choose, so, alas, I shall just have to return;-) I settled on the poached eggs with beetroot relish and spinach. So delicious with the eggs perfectly done with the yolks just slightly runny. My friends enjoyed Eggs Benedict and porridge respectively. I'm looking forward to my next visit already! read more

Public - Poached eggs with beetroot relish and spinach. Delicious! - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

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Public has a great industrial design, that's part industrial and part modern chic. I was here on Easter Saturday for brunch and it was surprisingly quiet. This helped add to my view that Adelaide was a very quiet and relaxed city, however it also made Public feel like it was all show and no substance... Then my coffee arrived, it was the best coffee I've had in a long while! And I even ordered soy! The macchiato I ordered I have now been craving for two days, it truly was a highlight. The food was also tasty, but took forever to come out! I mean there was maybe 15 people at the venue and my order took approx. 40min after ordering. This really hampered the whole experience. Decor can be great, coffee can be amazing, but you make an already hungry person wait that long for their tomato and eggs with a potato hash side and you loose some serious points. All in all, everything was tasty and well cooked, but the wait time really killed the experience. read more

Public - Tomato and Eggs, with an additional potato hash side - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

Great place for a Friday night drinks, came as a group booking and had nibbles, were assigned the writers corner which is fantastic for a group of 25. Food was fusion n tendency to Japanese flavour, pity the wasabi bit has no 'kick'. Cocktail on offer were good n like both the berry n elderflower. Will come back here for lunch one day as I was told that the burger is amazing read more

Public - Scallop n sweet potato - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

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Cool decor, very clean & trendy open space. Friendly and quick take away service although they don't attach a name to the orders and only shout out what the order is eg "skim latte" which can be a little confusing if you have the same order as someone else and you aren't sure who ordered first. Good pit stop on your way to work or for a coffee catch up with a friend. Medium sized booths are available so it could be suitable for a more private business chat too. Coffee was good although my "double shot" espresso seemed a little on the short side and was served in a "small" take-away cup rather than a small espresso specific take-away cup which normally holds the crema perfectly & keeps it warm (less top surface area.) But that's really only important to a big coffee snob! read more

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Public took a very rapid dive at the end of 2016 in both its customer service and the food. I had posted during the year about how great the place was and then they lost their chef and raised their prices more than 10% overnight. They don't seem to be able to retain staff there either, so we lost that lovely "give me my usual" feeling. As a loyalty card holder who hadn't been too fussed about using credits as soon as they accrued, I additionally lost about 12% of my loyalty dollars when the prices were increased. I did raise my concerns with the cafe about the drop in food standard and the pricing policy, but I received no response. We used to eat here regularly, but the brekkies are not good anymore. The new chef's food simply doesn't measure up to the previous experiences...a real shame. The lovely thing is I have now had the opportunity to explore Franklin Street, Waymouth Street and Vic square that are all within a couple of minutes of the place, so I have discovered great new venues that value my patronage. read more

After hearing rave reviews about this place, our expectations were high as a kite and then swiftly brought down like a lead balloon. Not that its their fault but there's absolutely nothing vegan on the menu and to make matters worse, the chef told the wait staff that every kind of pasta is made with egg (that's not my experience but perhaps I'm eating a rare form of pasta). So I had bread and olives which was nice. The other two people I dined with had a selection of snacks and a salmon dish which also looked nice and very well presented. We were there on a Friday lunch and all commented that we felt like we were shouting to be heard over other diners, loud music and shuffling furniture. Once we finished our meals, we asked for our table to be cleared and the waiter didn't hear/ignored us. We also ordered coffee a few moments before another wait staff asked for our coffee order. All in all, it seems like they've spent a substantial amount of money on the refurb that looks great but the staff training side lets the whole thing down. read more

Not a bad place to have a quick and tasty lunch or grab brekki. I think this place looses out to crack kitchen opposite as it's breakfast options are not as enticing some other brunch joints. Overall though I have found the staff very friendly and welcoming. I have tried the eggs benny here and it's not bad either. On a weekday this place can get full with city workers on their lunch break. But they are also open on a weekend ( which I recently found out) - so if you fancy a quiet brunch bite this might be the place to check out. read more

Great little cafe close to work with great service. It's always busy but you get served quickly. Their breakfast menu is pretty generic, but the food tastes great. The size of their muffins is huge ! Love their chai latte !! read more

A relatively new venue in the Adelaide CBD , Public is wonderful place somewhere between casual bar and restaurant. The bar menu, available on Friday nights, is an absolute must try, full of delicious shared plates. Don't be afraid, like my dinner guest & I, to order just about everything on the menu. Not only is it excellent value for money, but it is just too hard to choose only a few meals. The burgers are a standout, even though they look small they are filing and you won't leave hungry. The rustic feel of the interior extends into the open bar area. Look out for the cute little tags on the side of the large bench lining the window so the wait staff know exactly where to bring your food. A brilliant idea that doesn't involve those ugly giant sticks with numbers on them you have to bring back to wherever you are sitting. read more

One of my fav places for Friday night dinners. Haven't been for lunch but can highly recommend their Friday dinner menu's and bar menu. Wine list is great and the bar staff are very helpful when recommending something when you don't know what you want or want to try something new. If you can book a booth they make a cosy dinner and sometimes can be loud so shelters you from the noise. read more

What a welcoming, bustling space this bar was on a miserable winter's day. We were lucky enough to grab the last three seats at the end of a communal table. Rule number one: book ahead, especially if you'd like one of the groovy looking booths. Others at our shared table were digging into a rustic looking soup which had already sold out by the time we ordered at about 12.45. Rule number two - be early! We decided to go with a mix of naughty and nice - some triple cooked chips to share and some more healthy salads. The salads were amazing... tasty, zingy, and filling. Unfortunately I got so excited by the look of the pumpkin and lentil salad I neglected to read the rest of the ingredients - there were little bits of pink pig in the bowl I got, which made it no go for this vego. Rule number three - vegos should pay close attention to the ingredient list! (I thought it was a shame they didn't offer a no-pig version of this one, my carnivorous friend raved about how good it tasted) The waiting staff were really good about doing a swap, and I ended up with another Asian inspired salad which included roast peanuts - not something I've ever tried before, but it worked really well. The chips were a work of art (I took a photo!) - seriously chunky with a nice dollop of mayo. The wine list is probably a bit on the pricey side - they'd sold out of the only $8 option, so I went for a nice drop of Wirra Wirra red for $10. I'm not sure what the price per serve was with the food, but three of us were full and happy for $20 each (including wine). Too full, unfortunately, to sample the handmade desserts which looked very promising. I liked the flexibility of the menu and the option of having some smaller plates to share. I got the sense that all of the staff actually really cared about their customers and they were all super attentive and friendly, especially given it was a busy Friday lunchtime. One waiter stopped to chat when he noticed we were eyeballing a burger he'd delivered - we were trying to identify one of the sides - it looked like fried zucchini, it was in fact fried pickles. Whatever it was it looked good! - all the presentation was top notch. The decor is perhaps a little bit on the too-cool-for-school side of things, but it is like the super popular kid who you can't actually hate coz they are so damn nice to everyone! I'm already planning my return visit. 'Nuf said. read more

Public - Triple cooked, chunky cut, with mayo... yum. - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

Is it a cafe? Is it a restaurant? I am not sure. They appear to have both the walk up counter for cakes or coffee/hot chocolate but also waiters who will take your order at your table. Cute ones too :-) Its layout and decor is very Melbourne CBD. It would fit into their busy business district quite well. I am glad that this place exists on this street as their isn't much else going for it. I ordered the mushroom ravioli which was restaurant quality. I also ordered the bee knees shake that wasn't too bad. The food is expensive though so don't expect to come here for a cheap lunch. Come here to indulge. It's worth it. I want to see more places like this in Adelaide. read more

Had a family brunch on Saturday - great value for money at $9 for scrambled eggs/Sriracha brioche (large portions). Really attentive staff, they didn't mind my kids being indecisive. Nice decor. Tempted to try in-house pastries next time. read more

Public - The original British railway clock - Restaurants Near Me - Adelaide, SA

This was going to be my first eating experience there and I really hoped that the food was going to be better than their coffee! Decor was impressive and the place was reasonably full. I think the waitress was new in the game as she didn't know much about the menu and had to return 2 mins after taking our orders to reconfirm our selection. We selected the Mixed Mushroom Ravioli and the Seared SA Squid. Both dishes were beautifully presented and the serving size was more than enough. We both commented on the sensational tasting experience - thumbs up guys! Overall, we were both more than happy that we chose to have lunch at Public and would definitely choose it again read more

Breakfast Brioche amazing! Great coffee. Would be dangerous if I worked nearby every day...

Heaps of outdoor seating on Franklin St, and because the building faces south it's always in the shade, so it's a great place for a quick lunchbreak from work. Their coffee is good, and the salads and baguettes are always fantastic. The old train station clock is really cool - this place has loads of atmosphere! My only suggestion would be that during busy lunch periods, they had someone standing at the door to greet you, as if you have a lunch booking, and there are people lining up to order coffee/ buy take away, the whole front area with people standing there gets a bit crowded. read more