Mietta's Review
Started by the legend in his own lifetime, Russell Jeavens, and now run by Pip Forrester, this restaurant has never wavered in quality. With a wonderful setting, facing a vista of grape vines, and located in a lovely coaching inn, this is a place for many occasions. Sophisticated food of high quality with attention to all the details. The wine selection has recently been expanded, and while there is still a great range of local wine, there is now an extensive selection of older wines. An essential stop in McLaren Vale.

Other published opinions

The Adelaide Food Guide 2010 "In its 1850's stone building on the outskirts of McLaren Vale, the Salopian Inn has long been a beacon of country hospitality, serving well-crafted food from mostly local produce"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "The Salopian Inn is as much part of the McLaren Vale landscape as the vines seen through the dining room's windows. The 150-year-old building was an inn for travellers en route to Willunga"

Adelaide Advertiser Simon Wilkinson, 07-5-2008 "A new chef has added a touch of Paris bistro to a Southern Vales landmark that has long championed regional produce. JUST HOW regional does a regional restaurant need to be? Do diners really give a fig (preferably from a tree grown around the corner) whether their lamb chop once gambolled in a paddock over the back fence? It's a question raised by a visit to the Salopian Inn, the McLaren Vale restaurant that for years has been a powerful advocate for the area's food culture"

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide * "Chef David Swain continues his fine work at this lovely country restaurant, serving truly regional cuisine. What the rustic stone space may lack in comfort is more than offset by the quality of the cooking. Dinner service at the weekend is warm and friendly, with a lively mix of locals and visitors."

Gourmet Traveller 2005 Australian Restaurant Guide * "If ever a restaurant was a reflection of its surrounding region, the Salopian Inn is just that. Some 150 years after it was built as a rustic country inn, it maintains its place as one of South Australia's most regionally authentic restaurants."

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004, 2 Black Stars,'menu is a showcase of produce from McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula, all beautifully cooked and presented...the cellar contains a good selection of local wines and interlopers from other regions...This former country inn has several dining rooms that feature open fires in winter.'

The Weekend Australian, Life, 24-25/5/2003, Deborah Bogle, 'it was all so blissfully rustic, the rural practicality of payment in kind adding to the charm of the casual, friendly place, with its pot-belly stove pumping out heat on a cold southern night.'

Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living, 12/11/02