Ruby Red Flamingo

A trip to a new trendy Adelaide restaurant which doesn't take bookings always generates high expectations. We arrived 6:15pm on a Saturday night. The aromas inside were mouth-watering and the staff very friendly. But we had to queue for a table (in the upstairs bar) for almost an hour an a half. Friends have told us that getting there after about 7:30pm you might as well not bother at all, you'll be waiting so long for a table. So we would probably just make an actual booking and go to one of the other multitude of Italian restaurants in the area next time, but, hey, whatever works for you, and obviously this business model works for Ruby Red. Anyway, queuing aside, once we were shown to our table, we selected our food from our very friendly waitress and it came out very quickly. The two pasta dishes which our table had were quite large and very filling, generally very good. The remaining two dishes ordered were both the calamari and prawns, which the menu claimed was gluten free, but which actually had a small (non-gluten free) crumbed octopus on top. So for the coeliac in our group, this meant the meal unfortunately had to be sent back and re-made. In the end this main looked very large but actually contained a disappointingly small amount of calamari and (edible parts of) prawns. We had a bottle of Chianti Classico and it was OK, but we all agreed it was plain compared with the several other Chiani Classicos we've had in Europe. The mains were $26-$30 each, which we found to be quite expensive for what is essentially just Italian fare, albeit of a slightly higher quality than you might get elsewhere.