Tasting Adelaide at Part Time Lover, Adelaide

Part Time Lover is a Modern Australia restaurant located down Paul Kelly Lane in Adelaide, South Australia. You'll find a range of vegetarian, seafood and meat dishes in an indoor and outdoor setting at this all day diner. And yes it is named after the Stevie Wonder song!

I'm walking down Paul Kelly or Pilgrim Lane and I follow the illuminated signs that say "Love" in every colour until I reach the restaurant. Part Time Lover's neon sign is on the blink but the large outdoor section is busy. I had rung earlier that night to see if they took walk-ins and they were friendly and accommodating. The owners of Part Time Lover also own Whistle & Flute. The menu at Part Time Lover is broken down into sections: Plants, Seafood and Meat and each section has small to large plates of each plus snacks and dessert. Most of the offerings have an Asian twist to them.

Service from the waiter is lovely and helpful and he suggests some dishes. There's also the Feed Me menu which seems to be popular in Adelaide where restaurants bring a range of dishes chosen by the chef to suit the table. But in the case of Part Time Lover, the dishes are actually chosen by the waitstaff. I do have some things that I like the sound of and one of these is the popcorn broccoli that the waiter also strongly recommends. I've had popcorn prawns, chicken and cauliflower and they've all been delicious but never popcorn broccoli. Here broccoli florets are dipped in a very light coating and deep fried and then served with a vegan hot sauce and soy. And it's so utterly moreish that it should come with a warning. The crunch of the broccoli and the flavours of the hot sauce are absolutely addictive. Even after I try a few pieces and try to pace myself I find myself going back to the plate for more.

The salt and pepper Balmain bug roll is crunchy with big chunks of tender pieces of battered bug meat paired with shreds of iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing on a super soft bun. I particularly like the strong amount of white pepper in this.

This is a lot of deep fried food and I think next time I might order the sashimi for something more fresh. But then again I'd miss out on these banh mi croquettes that are very tasty. They're triangle points of pork mince toast (sort of like prawn toast) topped with pickled carrot, chilli and coriander on top. They come two pieces per serve and are a clever idea.

I did enjoy the crispy scallops but I think I was expecting some stir fried noodles topped with scallops rather than 3 scallops in the shell. The honey soy sauce is drinkable and delicious and the scallops have a crunchy, hard batter around them.

I barely have any room for dessert but I'm curious to see what the dessert offering is like. My waiter suggests the cheesecake mousse as it is on the lighter side. When he sets it down it's enormous and enough to feed 2 or 3 people. On the base is a light and airy cheesecake mousse topped with a thick cascade of browned butter biscuit crumbs and fresh fig slices through it. It is delicious, anything with browned butter tends to get my vote but it's very large size means that I can barely make a dent in this (because of course I snuck in more pieces of broccoli popcorn!).

So tell me Dear Reader, do you often take yourself out to dinner when you travel by yourself?

This meal was independently paid for.

Part Time Lover

Paul Kelly Lane, Adelaide SA 5000

Monday to Friday 7am-10pm

Saturday 6am-10pm

Closed Sunday

Phone: 0488 448 807