Adelaide Nightlife Guide: Hindley Street, Peel Street and the City's World-Class Bar Scene

Adelaide's nightlife is consistently and significantly underestimated by visitors from the eastern capitals: the city's bar and restaurant scene is one of the finest in Australia, driven by the extraordinary local wine and food culture (the Barossa, McLaren Vale, and the Adelaide Hills provide some of the world's finest wine on the city's doorstep), the competitive hospitality market of a smaller city that forces quality, and the Rundle Street and Peel Street small bar precincts that have developed over the past decade into genuinely world-class late-night destinations. Adelaide's reputation as a "city of churches" profoundly underrepresents the sophistication and vibrancy of the city's contemporary nightlife.

Peel Street — the laneway-style Peel Street bar precinct (running south from Rundle Street between King William and Morphett streets) is Adelaide's most exciting nightlife development of the past decade: Udaberri (tapas and pintxos bar, the finest in Australia), the Clever Little Tailor (a basement bar with one of Australia's finest cocktail lists), the Casablanca cocktail bar, and the Peel Street restaurant and bar density create a small-bar precinct that is genuinely comparable to the finest Melbourne lanes. Quality is outstanding and prices are below Melbourne and Sydney equivalents.

Hindley Street and the West End — the traditional Adelaide entertainment strip (Hindley Street, West End) has been revitalised with higher quality hospitality alongside the traditional live music venues: the Jive (live music, the finest small live music venue in Adelaide), the Rocket Bar, the Grace Emily Hotel (one of Australia's last great live music pubs, free entry, no pokies, live music seven nights a week), and the Supermild bar provide the Adelaide live music and late-night bar scene that has produced a remarkable number of nationally successful Australian music acts.

Rundle Street East — the East End of Rundle Street (from Pulteney Street to Hutt Street) provides Adelaide's finest restaurant and outdoor dining strip, with the excellent outdoor café culture (Penfolds, the Ruby, the Lotus Espresso), the Ramada Tapas Bar, and the East End outdoor beer gardens creating an evening atmosphere that is particularly fine in the Adelaide spring and autumn seasons.

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