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Justin James

@chefjustinjames

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After 87 services, Aptos receives 1 Michelin ⭐️
Chef Patron:
@restaurant.aptos
@bar.cruz
@bar.mary_

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Bar Cruz: A more relaxed expression of Aptos

Located within the ground floor of the historic building, Bar Cruz offers a more relaxed and approachable way to experience the culinary philosophy of Aptos.

The menu celebrates native Australian ingredients and flavours while introducing elements inspired by James’ American heritage.
Among the offerings are playful interpretations of familiar American favourites, alongside
signature dishes drawn from the Aptos kitchen.

The result is a dining experience that remains
deeply connected to James’ culinary identity while being more casual, flexible and accessible.

The beverage programme follows the same philosophy, with cocktails incorporating native Australian botanicals and culinary techniques, alongside a wine list rooted in the Adelaide Hills and extending to producers from across Australia and beyond.

The venue includes an intimate six-seat bar, dining spaces and an outdoor courtyard, with the wider Aptos building offering additional spaces for guests to explore.

@chefjustinjames
@bar.cruz

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Restaurant Aptos
📍147 Mount Barker Rd, Stirling, South Australia

Chef Justin James has created this restaurant inside a beautifully restored 1878 church.

A 16-course tasting menu built around around 50 Australian ingredients, with a clear philosophy, concept and vision behind every dish and gesture, and an obsessive attention to every single detail.

Acidity, umami, sweetness, saltiness, bitterness.

A truly unique experience. And when I say unique, I really mean it.

Justin James is a genius.

@chefjustinjames
@restaurant.aptos

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Skulls, sticks, jaws – it’s all part of Justin’s wild interpretation of native Australia but there’s intention behind the theatrics.

For our September Luxury issue, Jessica Galletly headed through the towering church doors and into the world of @restaurant.aptos

A progressive dining experience comprising 17 “drops” across three levels of the venue. Rather than remaining seated at one table, guests are escorted through different rooms and floors as the meal progresses.

Embark on this dining experience with us in the September Luxury issue.

Find your copy at Coles, Woolworths, newsagents and independent supermarkets across South Australia.

WORDS - @tasting_adelaide
PHOTOGRAPHS - @henrytrumble @_christopher_morrison

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The most luxurious fine dining experience at @restaurant.aptos

Award-winning @chefjustinjames takes Australian fine dining to another level with a 16-course, multi-level, multi-sensory tasting experience that celebrates native Australian ingredients in some of the most creative and theatrical ways we’ve experienced.

From the very first course, Five Australian Fruits — muntries, Illawarra plum, desert lime, quandong and sunrise lime — it was clear this was going to be something extraordinary.

We travelled through an incredible lineup of dishes including slow-cooked greenlip abalone, charcoal-kissed and finished with desert lime and green ants; bluefin tuna served inside a beeswax-coated mandarin; Adelaide Hills venison presented on a deer jaw; lime-cured scallop with lemon aspen granita; and a spectacular Sea & River course featuring oyster, cod and Murray cod.

Then came Prawnya, combining prawn, bunya nut and Oscietra caviar; crocodile tongue served on its skull; and the wonderfully named Wag-a-Roo, pairing South Australian kangaroo with wagyu.

The Marron & Myrtle course was another highlight, with marron served on its own claws alongside a warm lemon myrtle béarnaise, followed by a marron-filled doughnut.

And just when we thought the experience couldn’t get more creative, dessert delivered native cherry sorbet, nitre bush ice cream, wattleseed and paperbark waffles, emu egg and whisky sabayon, chocolate-covered mushroom and a beautiful red finger lime creation with peanut milk sorbet and pineapple.

What makes Aptos so memorable isn’t just the food — it’s the storytelling, presentation, interaction and sense of discovery behind every course. From eating directly from branches and shells to dishes served on skulls and claws, every plate encouraged us to engage with the food in a completely different way.

A truly immersive celebration of Australian produce, native ingredients and modern fine dining.

And the experience doesn’t stop here — sister venues Bar Cruz and Bar Mary are now also open.

📍147 Mount Barker Road, Stirling

#restaurantaptos #adelaidefoodcentral #invited

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HAPPY (very belated🙈) BIRTHDAY Becky Boo!! They say making close friends in middle age is a rarity, but here we are, and I’m so, so glad to be in your gang 💗 @bec_morse ..and take a look at this utterly stunning dinner at this utterly stunning hot spot! @bar.cruz @restaurant.aptos

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“It all stems back to creating a place people would travel to. I want to bring people to Australia.” - @chefjustinjames

Peek inside the most ambitious restaurant in the country, in the September @salifepublications.

#restaurant #southaustralia #adelaidehills #food #michelin

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Celebrating 50 fabulous years of VIRGO’S GROOVE aka our darling @bec_morse at the divine @bar.cruz last Saturday night ✨ Genuinely no notes but I will make the following three disclaimers;

1. If I’m not giving THIS at 50, I’ll be kicking & screaming! 🧡
2. That fried bread, house-made bun/burger & cookie has been haunting my DREAMS ~ @chefjustinjames, please take a bow for the space & the menu 🤌🏾
3. This snow-coloured @bubish__ faux fur coat has catapulted itself to my favourite wardrobe item! If you can’t tell, LIVING in #bubish this season 🙌🏾

Queen @bec_morse 👑

Call of duty 🎨 @mariekargiotis & I #ontools

Who looks this good shucking? 🦪

@sarah_abbott_pr @chriskontos_ 🖤🖤

Family Portrait 📷

When I tell you the space is suuuuuch a vibe ⛪️

🤤🍔

Ugh. This was soooo good! 🍪

Took approx four days to recover

You’re a pearl my girl, HAPPY 50 🎂 @bec_morse

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Uncover Bodrum’s top hotel milestone, Aptos’s fresh bar arrivals, exclusive insights and this week’s essential gastronomy headlines.

Read the full stories in our latest newsletter. Link in bio 🔗

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I was there in May. The church at 147 Mount Barker Road already held something extraordinary, and before dinner I was handed a Rose Negroni that I still think about. Rounded, floral, precise: it was the sort of drink that tells you everything about a house before the first course arrives.

But then then the building was only two-thirds finished.

On 10 September, Justin James opened Bar Cruz and Bar Mary, completing his Adelaide Hills destination. Downstairs, Bar Cruz brings the Aptos philosophy into a more relaxed register: native Australian ingredients threaded with the American flavours of James' own heritage, à la carte or a five-course tasting, cocktails built on native botanicals, a six-seat bar and a courtyard. Upstairs, Bar Mary is an eight-seat whisky room where the food follows the Japanese tradition of otsumami, small dishes made to accompany the drinking rather than compete with it.

My kind of church: Fourteen seats for the tasting menu, a bar for a longer evening, and a hidden room for eight.

Which leaves me with a problem. Stirling sits on almost the precise opposite side of the world from where I am sitting now, and I want to go back for the Cruz menu and the Mary whisky list with an urgency that is frankly inconvenient.

@restaurant.aptos
@bar.cruz
@bar.mary

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First ever service of @bar.cruz - how lucky are we?! Incredible food, drinks & vibes🍷

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DAY OF DAYS — THE ANCIENT MARINE SANDS

Long before Carribie was a place we called home, this landscape was shaped by the sea.

Beneath the dunes, ancient marine sands and limestone form part of the 540 million year old geological foundation through which Carribie’s water moves.

Rain enters the landscape.
Water moves through the sands and limestone.
Minerals are naturally gathered along the way.

Nothing formulated.
Nothing engineered.
Nothing added to create its character.

Just geology, water and time.

This is where Carribie gets its mineral architecture.

A water shaped by the place it comes from.

DAY OF DAYS.THE ANCIENT MARINE SANDS.

#Carribie #mineralwater #terroir #thesource #nature

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So much love for my party people 🥂❤️‍🔥
I’m ALMOST done 🫣

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