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    The Colonist Tavern

    3.7 (27 reviews)
    ModerateBars, Australian
    Open 9:00 am - 3:00 AM (Next day)

    The Colonist Tavern Photos

    THE COLONIST TAVERN ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Loud
    Trendy
    Outdoor seating
    Good for groups

    Recommended Reviews - The Colonist Tavern

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    Raw wood, textured walls, pop art...what's not to love?
    L G.

    Ahhh, the good old Colonist! The personality packed establishment takes the prize for my local pub of choice, and here's why: 1. The decor. The Parade is awash with blandness when it comes to interiors (especially the pubs...snooze), but the Colonist is decked out pretty much how I would decorate my apartment. Vintage couches, chandeliers, paint-peeling walls, raw wood, lots of art. In short: a bricolage (I always wanted to use that word!) of quirky, organic pieces that give it an overall warm and inviting atmosphere. The dining room has a more traditional style and feels a little out of place if I'm honest - we always prefer to eat in the bar or alfresco. 2. The crowd. It's a local pub and there are locals in it. Despite its Melbourne-esque "I just threw this together and it looks this awesome" vibe, hipsters haven't caught on yet, which means it's a super chilled out and mixed crowd. Your after work people mix with younger locals and older regulars: I'd be equally happy taking my mum as my girls. 3. The food and drinks. My absolute alltime favourite on the menu is the lamb burger, which is basically an excuse for me to eat bacon and eggs in yet another form: the words 'hells' and 'yeah' spring to mind here. But the salt and pepper squid takes a close second place, and the breakfasts are solid. A great selection of beers on tap and SA ciders aplenty. In short: it's the perfect place to cosy up and have a beer-fuelled convo. If you are so inclined. And yes, yes I am.

    Nice eating area at front
    Brian T.

    Holy hell, the colonist has become a cool and now upmarket place to eat! New cool dining area at front next to bar, New menu and chef (new to me) Amex no surcharge - yes Open fire - yes Good wine, cocktails and beer - yes Fantastic food- yes tapas, yes full menu All day dining - yes You have to go, the bar has been raised, totally tasty!

    The pork belly here is amazing! Recommend it to any pork enthusiasts
    Shane H.

    My wife and I had dinner here as a bit of a date night type of thing. Mother in law watching the kids so we thought we would try somewhere new! Wasn't disappointed, some great looking meals came out for surrounding tables and our pork bellies were no different. Beautiful meal and the wines were pretty good too, even stoked to find some Matsos beer on the list!

    Another Cool Painting
    David S.

    Isn't it great when friends decide to go to pubs that they normally don't visit? This is what happened a few years back, and while we were sitting at home one Saturday afternoon we all received a text inviting us to come down here. This was cool because I had driven past this pub numerous times but never been inside. Anyway, when I was back in Adelaide recently I decided to come back, if only for a drink. Okay, it was Christmas Eve, which meant that it was packed, but it was still a nice pub. I can't say it was a great pub, but it did have an old, rustic colonial feel about it though. I suspect that it is sticking with the name. Oh, it doesn't have a beer garden, but it does have a heap of tables out on the sidewalk.

    Kylie M.

    A newly refurbished restaurant popped up in Norwood and of course we wanted to try it! We headed there for a quick bite to eat before a movie. The menu is pretty massive so it was a hard decision. I usually rate a restaurant by the quality of their Schnitty so of course I had to order one! My partner has a burger and our friend had the pizza it did take a little while for the food to come out but it was hot and fresh. I was a little disappointed with my schnitty it looked pretty average, but it tasted alright. Partners burger was of a weird flavour, it has a lot of middle eastern spices in it and didnt really work well with the rest of the meal. Our mate's pizza looked ok and he said he enjoyed it. It was a good meal, but nothing to write home about. i'd rather go to coopers or Schnithouse in future. Location is convenient and they always seem to be busy! Bonus - the ice chandelier is pretty damn cool, literally...lol

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    8 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Great pub. Nice food. Nice people. Very pricey! 31.00 for a Caesar salad? 12.50 for chips? Come on!

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    6 years ago

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    11 years ago

    Solid neighborhood pub with a solid food menu. Definitely worth checking out in Norwood.

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    Review Highlights - The Colonist Tavern

    We were near the Parade so we headed over to the Colonist for a late breakfast, as they serve breakfast on weekends until 1pm.

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    Stone's Throw - The Beer Garden

    Stone's Throw

    3.4(20 reviews)
    0.6 kmNorwood
    $$

    I'm from the South and have a complex about not fitting in at the best of times, so on my first…read morevisit to Grace I was shaking in my boots. So much light, so much posh, so many manicures! But after a few minutes of good service and chilled out vibe I was able to relax. The place to be on The Parade is thanks to that A-Team the Trims family, who are also responsible for the equally buzzy Sparrow and The Manse. All the carry on and hoo haa about this place I reckon is well deserved, coming here is a unique experience and there's nowhere else around quite like it. You get a little drinks card to hang onto so you can order ten dollar glasses of wine and pricey food without having to actually think about how much you're paying. Last time I came here we had fries, which come out on a wooden block with an accompanying bowl of 'aerated ketchup,' which was absolutely delicious. They appear to be fans of aeration, there are also donuts with aerated chocolate sauce, and scallops with aerated almond cream. We all know how Adelaide folk like to get all worked up over new things, and I reckon this place is worth the hype.

    This is a neat little place. I didn't know what it was on the outside until one night I stopped and…read morelooked. It's a really long bar and has food. We just had drinks but they had a nice menu. All the way down the back is an outside area. Really liked the layout. Must check it out.

    Photos
    Stone's Throw - Great bar

    Great bar

    Stone's Throw
    Stone's Throw

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    Windy Point Restaurant

    Windy Point Restaurant

    4.0(15 reviews)
    8.9 km
    $$$

    The only reason why I gave 3 stars is because we were given seating's with one of the worst view of…read morethe house. And we booked well over a month (Mar 4th) before dining April 7th. And we traveled so far to get there. This would be the managers faults since he said "...the best I can do for you". And the manage Derrick asked if I wanted to tip when I was paying (Embarrassing for the restaurant that they have to ask); I felt we deserved better than that. For those that doesn't know the Aussie culture, we do not tip in Australia as locals. The minimum wages starts off really high, whereas, the wages as a wait staff in USA is low therefore we tip if the service was excellent. I've been around Australia since Feb 2014 so I KNOW this. Excellent service deserves a tip. A tip is NOT earned by asking for it..... ANYWHERE in the world. The service and food was excellent. I will post a YouTube Food & Travel review about this establishment soon to come.

    The views of the city at Windy Point are undoubtedly a winning aspect of the long time romanticised…read morerestaurant. So to finally be treated with dinner here was a long awaited feat for me. Unfortunately, and perhaps this was partly due to the raving reviews and reputation of the restaurant I had grown to understand, my experience here fell short of my expectations. The food was for the most part delicious however the menu itself is very standard traditional fine dining. Signature steak and red meat for the most part with a few fish dishes and even less vegetarian options. We ordered the house made gnocchi for entree. Unfortunately it lacked the melt in your mouth aspect I was expecting from freshly made gnocchi. For mains we ordered the wagyu corned beef brisket which was absolutely delicious. Cooked to perfection. It was fairly salty though and had a rich sauce. The Lamb rump shoulder unfortunately was a bit on the over-well-done side. Sides ordered were the Korean fried Broccoli and sweet potato. We loved both dishes although everything was deep fried and it became a bit much. It would have been nice to accompany our rich mains with sides that were fresh to break it up. For dessert we chose the popular Chocolate Melange for two - the signature board of mini desserts. This was amazing. Word of warning, we were in struggle town by this point - but you are able to opt to take away what you can't finish. Good service is extremely important to me, and this was the down side. For an expensive fine dining restaurant with so many staff, our wait times were terrible. We were not checked upon and particularly between dinner and dessert, we waited almost an hour. It took a few reminders for our dessert to finally come. And after eventually giving up and asking for the bill, it came. Our waitress offered another round of drinks on the house but by that point we were bursting from eating so much that we couldn't possibly fit anything else in. It would have been appreciated if we were offered the dessert on the house instead and we were extremely dissatisfied with their failure to compensate for their overlook in service. Overall the food was enjoyable but it wasn't the best and I've enjoyed better food at more reasonable prices elsewhere. For the steep outlay and reputation they pride themselves on I expected a much higher level of service and taste across the board.

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    Windy Point Restaurant
    Windy Point Restaurant
    Windy Point Restaurant

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    2KW Bar & Restaurant

    2KW Bar & Restaurant

    3.8(33 reviews)
    2.5 kmAdelaide
    $$$

    We came into the restaurant for lunch as a group of 9 visiting from a cruise ship and didn't feel…read morewe were greeted quite NOT welcome as we were seated outside the dining area when there were room inside the dining area. Additionally we were only offered bar menus and when we requested for a regular dining menu, we were told that they could not provide then due to a wedding event that they are catering to and could not accommodate us. If this was the case, then, why didn't they tell us that when we fist walk into the restaurant and seated us outside. I thought at first It was quite odd to seat us outside when the dining area was nearly empty; but after they told us that they could not accommodate our dining menu, that's when we realized there is some type of racial and age discrimination going on that we -- as as senior Asian citizen group sensing. Without creating any further commotion, we decided to walk away and take our business elsewhere. As a season cruiser who like to enjoy fine dining, I would NOT recommend this place!!! It's not what we came to Australia to see and we were very disappointed.

    We went during the weekday for lunch. They have an amazing patio that over looks Adelaide it's…read morereally nice. They also have an inside eating areas. There are little cabana areas which I think you can reserve. The wine selection is great and we had a pizza which was great! They have a DJ on the weekend nights. You need to be dressed.

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    2KW Bar & Restaurant
    2KW Bar & Restaurant
    2KW Bar & Restaurant

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    Hill of Grace Restaurant

    Hill of Grace Restaurant

    4.0(5 reviews)
    2.9 kmNorth Adelaide
    $$$$

    I had a work function here in the cathedral room. We had a 4 course sit down meal with matched…read morewines and oh my! What a delight. It really tested me as I was sat with a couple of executives and I had to be polite and eat things I wouldn't have ever eaten before and I'm glad I did as I really enjoyed it all! Even the weird bits!! We had a natural oyster to start with which had an amazing lime mousse. It was delicious. I had kangaroo tartare which was lovely, but I'm just not a fan of uncooked meat - the texture just doesn't do it for me. For the second course I had mullet, followed by beef cheeks and banana cake for desert. The Henschke wines were incredible and the food was presentable and perfectly executed. I would definitely recommend matching the wines to your food. It really made the experience for me! I thoroughly enjoyed it... I don't get to fine dine often but this was definitely a good experience.

    firstly, the setting is picturesque…read more the staff are delightful and knowledgeable on local produce with added interesting tidbits about the meals origins and South Australian history.... The wine, Henschke, fabulous! The food? worst ever. Be a vegetarian or meat eater, neither options were inspired or tasty. Each course was more insulting than the previous, as you were presented with something that resembled a miniature succulent plant, that a hipster had potted up for his organic cafe, or rather a prize winning botanic display. Raising the question at each course, "Can I eat this part?" The creativity was high, but felt experimental. At such a rhapsodical price range you expected the experience to be visually impressive and physically satisfying. Which it was not. The meal was likened to the notion, "Would I rather be eating Chinese takeaway right now". Unfortunately for 'Hill of Grace' that answer was 'yes'.

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    Hill of Grace Restaurant
    Hill of Grace Restaurant
    Hill of Grace Restaurant

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    Baddog - Pegu Club is the name if gin is your game

    Baddog

    4.8(4 reviews)
    2.1 kmAdelaide
    $$

    This is by far, Adelaide's best kept secret right now. Small bars are popping all around town, but…read morethis one stands true to the whole hole-in-the-wall hidden bar concept. GENIUS. It is so refreshing. If you're not looking hard enough you would easily miss it. Walk in and it's like the prohibition era, from the grungy shelves to the dark, moody decor and booths to the sad music. It is easily one of the best themed cocktail bars in Adelaide. Drinks are fantastic. Some bars have expensive drinks for not much and they don't taste great. Not at Baddog, they are top notch and the barman does it right in front of you on the bar so you don't miss a thing. Brilliant. Best find of the year for me so far.

    Zack has built an amazing speak easy style bar that makes you feel like you've ducked back in time…read moreto a prohibition era. The waist coats, crystal glasses and twisted stainless steel and silver spoons all work to make this a top spot for a cocktail or cheeky beer. A maestro of the common and rare cocktails and a range of spirits you wont find in many bars Zack makes this bar. Sitting at the bar is mandatory for the first drink in my opinion then sneak off to the lux booths for quiet and intimate drinks. Its dark, has very cool décor and edgy clean bathrooms. Bad Dog Bar doesn't have tvs, doesn't have pokies and doesn't have tap beer and for goodness sakes never order an apple-tini :) and that's the way we like it. Top Tip: order the pickleback - rye bourbon shot followed by some freshly made pickle juice. The SMoking Joint cocktail is also a fav!

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    Baddog - The wall of wonder

    The wall of wonder

    Baddog
    Baddog - Come hither

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    Come hither

    The Colonist Tavern - bars - Updated July 2026

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