Our Pick of Adelaide’s Gourmet Supermarkets | Review

From gourmet groceries and ready-made meals to cafés, fresh pasta and even Hot Wheels, these Adelaide supermarkets are worth a detour from your usual weekly shop.

Review by Carla Caruso

Supermarkets are my happy place. I’m weird enough that, when I go on family holidays, one of the first things I do is visit the local supermarket.

I love checking out the different products and soaking up the local vibe. Maybe it’s because I was a checkout chick in my youth!

Closer to home, some supermarkets are a step above your ordinary grocery shop – almost like a little vacay without leaving town. While I’m quite partial to my local Aldi, sometimes you want a bit more of an adventure.

You may have seen our guide to Adelaide’s international grocery stores. Here are two gourmet supermarkets we’ve tried lately, for when you’re feeling fancy.

Pasadena Foodland

When I was younger, we’d often go on big shopping outings with my Nonna Maria (my Italian grandma, for those who don’t speak Italian).

One of the joys of those trips was stopping for lunch at the cafés within the stores, often down south. My big sister, Natalie, had to jog my memory on some of the places: Holly’s at Kmart and cafés at Big W and Harris Scarfe (whose names escape us). Plus, Pinocchio’s at Westfield Marion, which wasn’t inside a shop but was near the David Jones end.

There are far fewer places to eat inside stores in SA these days (IKEA, Costco and Coco Republic aside). Pasadena Foodland, however, brings a little of that old-school eat-and-shop experience back – within a supermarket.

It’s part of the Adelaide’s Finest group, which also owns Frewville Foodland, twice named the world’s best supermarket.

I recently visited the Pasadena store with my family of four, fuelling up before tackling the shopping. Within the supermarket is Mr Nick’s Kitchen & Coffee Bar, offering breakfast, lunch, coffee and light meals, with flavours spanning European and Asian cuisines. (Mr Nick, aka Nick Chapley, is the Greek-born founder of the Adelaide’s Finest group.)

We tucked into a chicken burger, chicken katsudon, salt-and-pepper squid, sashimi, wok-tossed greens and rice. In other words, there was something for everyone, meaning no arguments over where to eat. And it all tasted top-notch!

Then there was the shopping. Alongside your regular groceries, you’ll find an Asian grocery section, bread bar and patisserie, butcher, cheese bar, flower bar, fresh produce, health and beauty, organics, salumi and deli, seafood, a spice bar, ready-made meals, platters and cakes.

The only problem? How much damage you might do to your credit card.

Pasadena Foodland, 20 Fiveash Drive, Pasadena

Drakes Wayville

Drakes is another supermarket where the weekly shop can easily turn into an outing.

We headed to Drakes Wayville recently in search of something a little more special than your average supermarket meal.

The store’s Little Kitchen serves freshly prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner, while Nonna’s Pasta makes fresh pasta in-store. There’s also an impressive range of gourmet cheeses and smallgoods, vegan products and plenty of grab-and-go options.

For a drink, you can grab kombucha on tap or freshly squeezed orange juice. There’s also self-serve popcorn, soup, coffee and frozen yoghurt, plus a bread slicer you can use yourself.

With more than 60 stores across South Australia and Queensland, Drakes is hardly a hidden gem – but the Wayville store is a standout when you’re after something beyond the usual supermarket staples. We’ll be back when our hunger cravings get the better of us!

Side note: You may also know Drakes director John-Paul Drake as the passionate Hot Wheels collector behind the supermarket’s exclusive partnership with the toy brand, which has now delivered two major collectible-car promotions. Vroom, vroom!

Drakes Wayville, corner Goodwood Road and Young Street, Wayville

See our Top Parks & Playgrounds Around Adelaide

For more information and all enquiries, please visit the Pasadena Foodland and Drakes Wayville websites.

All photos by James Elsby for Play & Go Adelaide. 

At Play & Go Adelaide, we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (2026).

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