Adelaide local and celebrated emerging chef Max Sharrad not only took out the Appetite for Excellence’s 2018 Young Chef of the Year, but has also been a guest star on Masterchef. Having cooked for Mick Jagger at award-winning Orana, worked as head chef at Shobosho, and completed stints at L’Enclume in the UK and Noma in Denmark, this is one chef who knows his way around a menu.

Now, the food-obsessed South Australian has opened his own contemporary Italian eatery, NIDO. Here, Max shares his top picks for those travelling to the state’s capital. Here’s where he suggests you eat, drink in Adelaide and beyond:

1. The Summertown Aristologist
   The Summertown Aristologist is a wine bar that also serves up small plates of food designed to share. The team wants to create a beautiful world, where in the background a lot of work is done to ensure purity and nourishment.
   
2. Sunny’s Pizza
   Retro and wonderfully kitsch, Sunny’s Pizza is a must-visit Adelaide restaurant. Opened recently by five friends and designed by Adelaide’s Studio-Gram (the architects behind Africola and Osteria Oggi), digging into a pizza at Sunny’s feels like a meal at your most eccentric friend’s house, but with the addition of an awesome bar, DJs and, let’s face it, probably much better food.
   
3. Casa Carboni
    Located in the picturesque town of Angaston in the Barossa, Casa Caarboni is an Italian cooking school and enoteca/wine bar serving up authentic Italian cuisine.
   
4. Myponga Beach
   Myponga Beach is a small seaside cove surrounded by holiday houses and coastal hills, offering spectacular coastal views. The beach offers excellent swimming and diving, as well as rock and surf fishing.
   
5. Maybe Mae
   Below its sibling eatery, Bread & Bone Wood Grill, Maybe Mae is an intimate bar with a hint of luxury where the green leather booths make the perfect place for after work drinks or celebratory catch-ups – and the surrounding décor will have you thinking you’re in a 1950s speakeasy.