Romantic Restaurants Adelaide: Charming Eateries to Suit Every Couple

If you’re the kind of person who knows exactly what they want from a dining experience with your significant other, or if you are more than happy to go with the flow and try something new, Adelaide never fails to deliver the perfect spot. 

From five-star fine dining in sky-high restaurants with views across the city, to cosy, intimate corners with velvet booth seating, get ready to be inspired and admired for your impressive restaurant-picking skills. 

With a dash of seductive charm and a sprinkling of mood lighting, here are our picks of the most romantic restaurants Adelaide has to offer, guaranteed to make date night the best night of the week. 

Eleven

For the couples who like things a little more lively for their date night, Eleven may be what you're looking for. Taking inspiration from Paris and New York, this modern eatery is loaded with charm and sophistication, with high ceilings, dark finishes, and city lights all around. In the middle of the CBD, you're in the perfect spot to have a pre dinner drink at a nearby bar before settling in for a delicious meal. With a menu filled with modern dishes - think Smoky Bay oysters, salmon carpaccio, ricotta gnocchi, quail pancakes and pork belly with ginger salsa - this menu is always fresh and full of flavour, showcasing the best South Australian produce. Dine inside the restaurant to keep it romantic, or head to the outdoor 'Piazza' for something more casual and lively.

11 Waymouth Street, Adelaide

Garcon Bleu

Immerse yourself into this romantic restaurant in Adelaide, filled with 1920's Parisian elegance and glamour. Garcon Bleu welcomes those who are hungry for a taste of French gastronomy, with a side of rich and textured interiors that have won awards, and an innovative menu bursting with fresh and bold French flavours. With the restaurant's ethos simply for the love of good food and wine, you and your date are set for a seductively satiating experience. Elegantly presented cocktails and a rich wine list are the ideal accompaniment to dishes from their seasonal and a la carte menu, carefully crafted by talented Chef de Cuisine, Gianni Delogu (formerly of Melbourne's highly-lauded Vue de Monde). It's fun and accessible French cuisine, with simple, uncomplicated, ingredient-focused dishes that highlight local produce. 

And if you are tempted to extend your romantic dining experience in Adelaide into a cheeky city escape, then Garcon Bleu delivers from its location at level 9 of Adelaide’s 5-star luxury hotel, the Sofitel.

Level 9, 108 Currie Street, Adelaide

Aurora 

You and your date are set for a memorable night out that both nourishes and engages at Aurora. This uniquely romantic restaurant in Adelaide is a fusion of world class yet accessible dining, with a focus on sustainability, local produce and social responsibility. Both the a la carte and tasting menus take you on an ever-changing and evolving journey, with a fusion of diverse cuisines on offer, crafted by the talented team whose expertise is shaped by their rich heritage and life experiences. Treat yourself and your partner to current dishes like lamb and labneh with strawberry and shisho, Flathead with avocado and soy crisps, Black Onyx Angus steak with potato and mushroom, and beetroot with creme fraiche and walnuts, all housed within sophisticated and moodily lit surrounds. 

Aurora is also part of Light ADL, an independent creative project, not-for-profit organisation and registered charity designed to be a beacon for creativity while maintaining a focus on the wellbeing of its people.

63 Light Square, Adelaide

arkhé

With charcoal black walls, brass fixtures and seating options  that range from intimate booths and bar stools, to the chef’s table or a spot in a private outdoors courtyard, arkhé offers all the vibes depending on what type of date you're on. 

This moodily-designed romantic restaurant in Adelaide is for sophisticated partners who love to dine out together on cutting-edge, flame-licked feasts. 

Their open-flame dining speciality can be experienced throughout their seasonal menu, where it's recommended you order as many small plates as you see fit; they're all designed to share, and they all deliver big on flavours and textures. Indulge and ignite a flirty little spark over cocktails and dishes including succulent scallops, raw kingfish, oysters and hot roasted duck leg with caramelised orange. 

127 The Parade, Norwood

Luma Restaurant and Bar

Last year, The Playford MGallery welcomed a dramatic new restaurant and bar in Luma, that showcases the best South Australian produce on its refined, European-inspired menu. Expect delicately prepared seafood, perfectly-plated vegetarian dishes, and a must-try handmade gnocchi with lamb shank ragu. Luma surprises and delights at every turn, from its fancy cocktail list (the bar manager once created a $2,000 cocktail) to its sophisticated Art Nouveau-style fit. The crown jewel of this new Adelaide restaurant is its 800m handcrafted lighting sculpture, which provides an otherworldly backdrop to your dinner – and looks like its plucked straight from a Stanley Kubrick film. It's one of the most romantic restaurants Adelaide has to offer - so book in, pronto!

120 North Terrace, Adelaide

Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant

Venture just 15 minutes from the city and discover the embodiment of romantic restaurants in Adelaide with Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant

With stunning views, contemporary food and exemplary service, your dining experience is complemented with the finest collection of Penfolds wines from their cellar door, which is handily located just next door and considered the spiritual birthplace for some of the most famous Australian winemaking stories, dating back to 1844. The restaurant offers a truly intimate setting, complete with ceiling to floor windows to frame the dazzling city lights that are complemented by low-lighting and plush red furnishings that could well be inspired by their famed Barossa Valley reds.

78 Penfold Road, Magill

The Meat & Wine Co

One of Australia's best-known steakhouses, The Meat & Wine Co offers up a truly gastronomic experience right in the heart of Adelaide. The diverse menu features the finest cuts of meats prepared and grilled to perfection and curated international and local wines, making every date night visit an indulgence in culinary excellence. The location is just the right blend of masculine and romantic, blending sophistication and warmth, so you can snuggle up and dig in at the same time.

39 Currie Street, Adelaide

Fugazzi

Dine with your love in decadent style at Fugazzi on Adelaide’s ever-popular Leigh Street and immerse yourself in their furnishings of velvet, leather and marble, with a buzzing atmosphere to match. They are open late 7 days a week, so there is no rush for you to cut the night short or ruin the mood. Cosy up in booth seating, share a bottle of excellent wine and choose from their menu starting with oysters, the famously famed food choice for romance, small plates to share, or reinvent your very own lady and the tramp moment with Fugazzi’s contemporary Italian hand rolled tagliarini with blue swimmer crab.

27 Leigh Street, Adelaide

Restaurant Botanic

Situated in a heritage rotunda and nestled within the beautiful Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the visually stunning Restaurant Botanic is a luscious romantic restaurant in Adelaide that everyone should experience at least once. It is clear to see why Restaurant Botanic was named as Australia’s Restaurant of the Year 2022 by Gourmet Traveller, from their ingredients being sourced straight from the botanic gardens themselves to the artistic effort put into creating each of the 20+ courses of their degustation menu of flavour combinations, not including the addition of a delectable, paired wine flight. Recent renovations introduced an exclusive ‘chef’s table’ option with 10 seats surrounding the culinary kitchen to see your culinary and sensory escape prepared fresh.

Plane Tree Drive, Adelaide

Apoteca 

With an old-worldly charm, Apoteca is a food and wine escape, nestled into the otherwise party strip of Hindley Street. A contemporary twist on a New York brasserie, locals immerse themselves into the elegant yet relaxed ambience with a glass of wine in hand. For the full wine experience, the iconic cellar restaurant is available for dinner bookings on Friday and Saturday nights. Located in the actual cellar of the building, it’s the perfect place to wine and dine, and is one of the most romantic restaurants in Adelaide, perfect for your next date night. 

118 Hindley Street, Adelaide

ShoSho

Be seduced by this low-key albeit romantic restaurant in Adelaide. Inspired by the Japanese Izakaya way of dining, ShoSho offers a unique dining experience, with food designed to enjoy a drink with. This small and compact dining experience focuses attentively on tempura style dishes. dishing up crispy, lightly battered goodness ranging from veggies and seafood to the more complex and unique dishes of toothfish and scampi. Their menu wouldn't be complete with touches of big sister Shobosho's authentically inspired meals, with the chefs featuring some of their signature dishes from time to time. 

164 King William Road, Hyde Park

Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant

Hardy’s Verandah is noted to be the best fine dining experience in South Australia, with sweeping views of the below Piccadilly Valley to gaze out to from your table along the wrap around balcony. Set within the historic walls of Mount Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills, Hardy’s Verandah serves a seasonally changing 4 to 7 course deguststation menu, also available in pescatarian and vegetarian, following the ‘Valley to Verandah’ concept and paired with a multi-award winning wine selection, sake collection and creative cocktail menu. Expect an explosion of flavours from Head Chef Jin Choi, who takes the finest fish, meat, fruit and vegetables to craft inspiring dishes that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Mount Lofty House, 1 Mawson Drive, Crafers

Fishbank

Find yourself a catch of the day at Fishbank and enjoy date-night in an inner-city romantic restaurant in Adelaide with cool, industrial-come-art-deco style interiors. Your mouths are guaranteed to water over their broad range of fresh seafood dishes available for dinner 7 days a week and lunch on a Sunday and Friday, including caviar on toasted brioche, small and larger plates, and their standout dish of Southern Rock Lobster. Compliment your seafood feast with a drop from their award-winning wine list and try a taste of the Raw Bar for freshly shucked Coffin Bay oysters. We will let you be the judge as to whether they’re an aphrodisiac!

Ground Level, 2 King William Street, Adelaide

If you loved our edit of the best romantic restaurants in Adelaide and you want to feel a little more love, take a look at our top pics of things to do on your Adelaide date night, or check out our favourite romantic bars in town from swanky rooftop cocktail joints to cosy pubs with fireplaces in Adelaide!