One of Australia’s most anticipated restaurant openings in recent years, chef Justin James’s Restaurant Aptos is now open in the Adelaide Hills.
After his departure from Restaurant Botanic in 2024, James didn’t necessarily set out to open out of the city, but an encounter with the 1868-built church, which was most recently a gallery, made the decision to open in the Hills simple: “The building has this massive presence when you pull up to it,” he says. “The first time I walked through it, I basically mapped out exactly what the restaurant is now.”
Delivered over (around) 16 courses to no more than 14 guests per seating —and currently priced at $495pp — the Restaurant Aptos menu is served progressively in three distinct spaces over three storeys. Guests are welcomed before their seating into a dedicated arrival lounge (“To me, luxury is having a space for people to hang out before and after their meal,” says James), before being escorted upstairs to the first dining room for the first six courses, which might include chilled starters, or abalone done over a small charcoal grill.
“The next space we call the kitchen,” James continues. “It had plaster all over the walls covering the original stone wall of the church, which the stone masons have reappointed. Now you’re in the back of the building, and it’s designed like you’re sitting in the kitchen with us. You do five courses there of more substantial, hotter food.” The final step, upstairs again, is Up Top, where around six small dessert courses are presented.
Beyond diners’ physical movement through the venue, each room is distinct with six different playlists in the building, different napery in each setting, and even different kinds of water. “It’s almost like going to a new restaurant every time,” explains the chef.
Prior to launching Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide in 2021 (and claiming Gourmet Traveller’s Restaurant of the Year in 2022), the Michigan native was executive chef at Melbourne’s Vue de Monde following time at esteemed international restaurants including Noma, Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Eleven Madison Park. “Eleven Madison Park was like getting my doctor’s degree in culinary. What I learned there is still the foundation of everything I do,” he reflects.
Known for a concerted commitment to native ingredients at Botanic, James installed around 600 individual plants in the Aptos landscaping, including mountain pepper, native thyme, river mint, lilly pillys, muntries, native ginger, native lemongrass, myrtle, Geraldton wax, ruby saltbush, bush tomatoes, warrigal greens, quandong and wattle. “When I first came here, I remember tasting all these ingredients and thinking, ‘That’s what Australia is to me.’ It’s acidic, it’s bitter, it’s astringent and salty — it’s all these different berries and citrus and leaves.”
The first dish (for now, at least) sees five native Australian fruits presented in various forms: “some are turned into puree, like smoked quandong, or lightly pickled. We stuff a quandong with a little bit of horseradish and grilled parsley, and the last part is like a little leather made from those fruits. It just sets the tone for the whole Aptos experience,” says James.
“I think the most logical way [to develop a menu] is to have structure and pillars, so I say: This is an Australian restaurant. Our proteins include kangaroo, emu, wallaby, marron and Murray Cod,” he continues. “We also have camel and water buffalo — things that were brought here and are telling this Australian story.”
Five beverage pairings, including a lineup called Just the Hills, feature wine and more from local producers including Deviation Road (“They’re like, six or seven minutes from the restaurant.”), Vinteloper and Tapanappa Wines.
Set to join Restaurant Aptos on the site later in 2026, Bar Cruz will comprise a further three spaces and offer an a la carte menu geared towards local and return visitors, and Bar Mary will be a dedicated whisky bar.
“I think if you can’t explain something in one sentence, you have to go back to the drawing board — my one sentence for Restaurant Aptos was to bring people here. I’m bringing people here as part of the team — from Lima, my head chef from Kyoto, a few inter-staters, a chef from Sweden, two chefs from Korea that moved over — but also bringing people to Adelaide, South Australia and Australia.”
Restaurant Aptos is open for dinner Thursday–Saturday (with 5.30pm and 8.30pm seatings) and Sunday lunches (12pm or 3pm) at 147 Mount Barker Road, Stirling, South Australia. Bookings are available online.
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