The new venture of ex-Manse chef Ayhan Erkoc (also previously of Sydney's Marque and Pier, and not to mention the world's best restaurant, Copenhagen's Noma), Celsius is the most anticipated newcomer to Adelaide's restaurant scene for some time. The much-hyped fine diner has already received rapturous reviews for its experimental menu and focus on hyperlocal produce. Erkoc has planted a kitchen garden to supply the restaurant with much of its vegetables, and has even gone as far as organising "foraging expeditions" to find seasonal, wild-growing ingredients usually overlooked and growing around the city.
The a la carte menu is fresh, innovative and reasonably priced, while the eight course degustation menu features such morsels as the Vegetable Patch, with snails, herbs, "soil", flowers and raw and pickled vegetables, and a ceviche of kingfish, wasabi snow and pickled cucumber. Even bar snacks are haute-cuisine here, like the tantalising and appetite-whetting bubbled pork crackling with yoghurt and fennel pollen.