Esca

For Father's day, my family and I had a lovely dinner at Esca on the Marina Pier in Glenelg.

[Apologies for the lighting in the photos - it was rather dim in the area of the restaurant in which we were seated!]

The front of the restaurant. There was also a lot more seating towards the back, facing out towards Glenelg beach. I'm sure there would have been spectacular views during the day!

 Hot bread, chilli, olives, salted butter & oil $8

 Antipasto of small goods, cheese, vegetables & seafood $22

Great selection of antipasto! Well worth ordering as the 6 of us happily nibbled on the generous portions of salami, cheese, sundered tomatoes, Italian sausage, olives and more while waiting for our mains.

 Zucchini flowers, stuffed w ricotta, w haloumi, apple & candied walnuts $18

A lovely starter. The zucchini flowers had a thin, crisp outer layer and filled smooth ricotta filling. I particularly enjoyed the candied walnuts and apple salad as they complimented each other very well. I do question why this cost $18 though.

Pork belly w crackling, apple & ginger puree, savoy cabbage & rhubarb chutney $32

I saw pork belly on the menu and couldn't refuse it! The meat was so tender and could only be described as 'melt in your mouth'. The apple and ginger puree was a rather interesting combination, but tasted great with the pork. My only complaints would be, firstly, with the crackling which was overly salted (you can see the grains of salt in the photo!) and not as crunchy as it could have been, and secondly with the cabbage which was rather bland and did not add anything to the dish. I also found the rhubarb chutney quite strange- it had the texture of raw minced meat and had a very distinct sour and tart flavour. I ended up leaving most of behind on the plate.

 Fish of the day: Garfish rolled with raisins, cauliflower puree and olive tapenade $34

 Beef fillet, char-grilled, w white polenta, shallots, asparagus & jus $34

My dad ordered this and even though I didn't taste it, I could see that the beef was cooked to absolute perfection!

 Linguini w local SA seafood: prawns, crab, mussels, cockles, calamari & chilli $30

Risotto w pancetta, tomato and broad beans $25

The risotto was soft yet still had a bit of bite to it, and the flavours worked together very nicely overall. The serving was very generous and my sister struggled to finish it!

We were all completely stuffed after dinner so we didn't order any desserts. This was unfortunate because I was eyeing the almond panna cotta! Oh well, there's always next time!

All of us really enjoyed our dinner. The restaurant was situated in such a gorgeous location and the food was definitely above average. The service was also great, with staff who were very attentive and friendly. Although this could be classified as fine dining, the restaurant was definitely child friendly and there was even a separate kids' menu.
I'm sure I'll definitely be back to try some of the other things on their menu!