If chefs had superhero-style backstories, then the Botanic Gardens Restaurant and Kiosk (now Restaurant Botanic and The Botanic Lodge) would be Tom Tilbury’s radioactive spider.
“Growing up we used to be in the gardens all the time,” Tilbury tells Broadsheet. “The kiosk is where I tried a Golden Gaytime for the first time and then we went to the Botanic Gardens Restaurant for my grandmother’s birthday when I was about 10 … That lunch inspired me to become a cook.”
Considering the poignancy of his boyhood memories, it’s no surprise the venue is dripping in nostalgia.
Like Restaurant Botanic, Tilbury’s team can forage the Botanic Garden and its trove of native and international ingredients. But The Lodge’s menu is a world away from the urchin, emu fillet and foams of its sibling venue. Instead it puts elevated twists on playground favourites aiming to be both accessible and exceptional.
“The kiosk used to sell pies and pasties by the truckload. So got we’ve got a little pasty snack on. It’s like a garden greens and cheese pasty that has a mushroom dipping sauce,” says Tilbury. It comes out served on a crumpled tuckshop order form and topped with grated cheese.
As a tribute to his dad, who would serve barbequed meat, “obliterated” onions and tinned beetroot as a regular dinner, Tilbury is serving barbequed lamb skewers with a burnt-onion paste and pickled beetroot.
There’s also a Tommy Ruff sandwich pulled straight from Tilbury’s childhood. “Growing up fishing, when we caught Tommy Ruff it’d go straight into white bread with butter. So we’re serving crumbed Tommy Ruff with iceberg lettuce and a little bit of mayonnaise.” The crusts are even cut off – child approved.
Fish’n’chips, is represented by raw snapper with horseradish cream served in a semi-circle next to a perfectly fried half-moon of potato rosti.
Desserts like a Golden Gaytime semifreddo, a lamington with quandong jam and coconut ice-cream, pavlovas, and Kitchener buns with Davidson plum jam are elevated twists on childhood treats.
Even the cocktails get in on the game with drinks designed by Restaurant Botanic manager Alma Pasalic like the Home Among the Gumtrees, a refreshing drink made with rum, house-made macadamia and strawberry gum oregeat syrup and lime served in a ceramic koala with eucalyptus leaves poking out from behind its ears.
Tilbury describes the venue as both indulgent and casual; you can drop in for a glass of wine (the list is by Restaurant Botanic sommelier Elle Foster) and a pasty, or settle in for a set menu (at either five or seven courses).
The soundtrack is also a Tilbury throwback, “it’s all ’70s, ’80s, ’90s – the stuff that ’80s kids grew up with their parents listening to. Dire Straits, The Eagles, the Mamas and Papas, The Clash ... music that hopefully will be familiar and nostalgic for a lot of people.”
The Botanic Lodge
Main Lake (Kainka Wirra), Adelaide Botanic Garden, Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide
No phone
Hours:
Daily 10am–4pm
