Sparrows Flying into North Adelaide

Bonjour!


First off, désolé for M.I.A. (missing in action) for a good long while. I will compensate for my actions by providing you with not only one review, but make it a DOUBLE review! For starters, it will be Sparrows on O'Connell St, then I will move to Saldechin on King William Road, but first thing's first.

So a couple of weeks ago, I went to Sparrow to celebrate a birthday of a friend of mine (happy birthday again for then LS). It was a beautiful Sunday with perfect weather - not too hot, or too cold, yet sunny with blue skies. As it was lunch time, I really felt ] like a main meal rather than tapas. So decided to order a steak...

Black Angus Sirloin with Salsa Verde with Green Salad as a side

The cut of sirloin was actually really good, with some streaks of fat through it making the piece very nice and tender. I did order the meat medium-rare, but when I started cutting into it, it was more medium, to medium-well done (similarly with another friend of mine who ordered something similar). That was really the only criticism to the actual steak, but it was still nice. The salsa verde sauce was pretty light which was what I wanted. As I needed a side to go with it, I decided that the green salad was probably a good choice. I did have a whole bowl of salad (placed some beside the steak) - it is pretty pricey for a bowl of green leaves which was absolutely drenched in olive oil... really didn't need that much and the vinegar was pretty bland (bit of white wine or red wine vinaigrette would have been the better option here clearly!), but nevertheless, steak was still good.

This wasn't actually the first time that I've been to Sparrows. The previous time (which was quite a while ago now), we ordered purely tapas - they were actually fantastic (based on what's available here in SA). The menu at Sparrows does change quite frequently so some of the items are not currently available or they may have been replaced.

Grilled scallops with potato mousse

Duck donut, aioli, porcini salt

Sparrow's Mini Wagyu Burger

Sour Green Apple Macaron and Creme Brûlée (or Catalana...can't actually remember)

Lemon tart (I think)

Molten lava chocolate cake with peanut brittle and vanilla ice-cream

The potato mousse and the salty bacon bits with the scallop was A-MAZING (can't believe it's not on the menu at the moment!). The texture was extremely silky and the grilled scallops in the middle was bursting with flavours. If you ever go to Sparrows, duck donuts are a MUST! Yes, they are slightly pricey, but the flavours in them are just incredible. The donut itself is made from taro (or yam) and the duck is just tender and juicy in the middle... aioli of course gave it that extra edge. If this was fast food, I'd definitely be eating it everyday! The signature Wagyu burgers are pricey, but they also tasted pretty good! I think one of the Wagyu piece was slightly dry, but the other one was just dripping with juices.

Then came desserts... the sweetness from the creme dessert balanced out the tartness from the sour green apple macaron. The lemon tart was also a memorable item; the tang of the lemon was cut out by the slightly sweet meringue (pretty good looking dessert as well). The downside was the actual lava cake which was actually not melting as much as we had hoped, but the peanut brittle was quite nice. I have realised that the desserts have completely changed in the menu so do try them out and let me know!

Of course, when you're having tapas, you need Sangria as well! We tried out all their Sangrias and were quite impressed. I suggest going on a Sunday to utilise their "Sangria day" offers. The staff there were quite nice and service was quite good. Recommend that you try it out.