Best Pub Burger in South Australia 2026: Bentleys

The best pub burger in South Australia for 2026 is the Bentleys Deluxe Burger at Bentleys Hotel, 191 Main North Road, Clare. It beat 37 other hotel entries to win the 2026 AHA|SA Pub Burger Challenge. Executive chef Cristian Carbone stacks a Wagyu beef patty, mature cheddar, lettuce, tomato and black garlic aioli on a toasted local milk brioche bun, and it comes with chips for AUD 28.00 on the bistro menu I checked on 11 November 2026. Before you set off, know this: Clare is a country town in the Clare Valley wine region, north of Adelaide. It is not a suburb.

Who won the AHA SA Pub Burger Challenge 2026?

Bentleys Hotel in Clare won the 2026 AHA|SA Pub Burger Challenge with the Bentleys Deluxe Burger, the title of South Australia’s best pub burger. The Australian Hotels Association (SA) runs the competition. Glam Adelaide reported the win, as did InDaily/CityMag on 24 July 2026 and the hotel’s own page.

Thirty-eight hotels entered in 2026, and the judges cut the field to 12 finalists for a live cook-off. InDaily names the panel: Rory Dowdell (InDaily), Dale Alsop (Thomas Foods) and food stylist Chris Stephan.

The People’s Choice award went elsewhere, to The Famous Royal Mail Hotel and its chef Alan Tran. The other named finalists were the Windmill Hotel, Salisbury Hotel, Bridgewater Inn and McLaren Vale Hotel.

How the challenge is judged

Four criteria decide the result: taste, presentation, quality of meat content and value for money. InDaily reported them for 2025, and Glam Adelaide gives the same four for 2026.

The finer rules are murkier. Glam Adelaide puts the cook-off time limit at 5 minutes, InDaily at 10, and the two disagree on where the final was held. Only Glam Adelaide mentions an AUD 32 price cap and a “made in-house” rule. The AHA|SA event page returned an error when I checked it, so I couldn’t confirm any of this with the association. Treat those details as unconfirmed.

Past winners: from The Griffins to Bentleys

The 2025 title went to chef Luke Brabin of The Griffins, with a Mayura Station Wagyu beef burger topped with crispy potato. The Magpie and Stump took People’s Choice that year, according to InDaily. That makes two Wagyu winners in a row, at least by the venues’ own descriptions. InDaily’s 2026 report says only “beef”.

What is in the Bentleys Deluxe Burger?

According to the hotel’s official page, the Bentleys Deluxe Burger is a Wagyu beef patty with mature cheddar, lettuce, tomato and black garlic aioli on a toasted local milk brioche bun, served with chips. Bacon and caramelised onion are optional extras.

Why reports disagree on the competition burger

The burger the judges tasted may not match today’s menu exactly. InDaily/CityMag described the Bentleys entry as “beef, American cheese, caramelised onion and house-made pickle aioli” on milk brioche. Glam Adelaide lists Wagyu, mature cheddar, smoked streaky bacon and black garlic aioli. I’ve used the venue’s own menu build above, because that’s the burger you can actually order. If you want something closer to Glam Adelaide’s version, add the bacon.

A menu staple, refined over years

The Deluxe wasn’t built for the competition. Glam Adelaide reports that it had been on the permanent menu for several years and was refined continuously before the challenge. For me, that matters more than the trophy. A burger that has lasted years of ordinary weekday service in a country pub has been judged by far more diners than three people at a cook-off. After the win, the hotel says, the kitchen briefly sold out while it restocked local produce.

Two other burger-style dishes sit on the bistro menu: the Southern Fried Chicken Burger and the Grain-Fed Sirloin Steak Sando, both AUD 26.90. The award winner costs just AUD 1.10 more. That’s an easy call.

Burger prices on the Bentleys Hotel bistro menu, checked on 11 November 2026: the award-winning Bentleys Deluxe Burger costs AUD 28.00 with chips, and the Southern Fried Chicken Burger and the Grain-Fed Sirloin Steak Sando cost AUD 26.90 each. (Chart: Burger Breton from Bentleys Hotel menu data (11 November 2026), rendered with QuickChart, original work)

Cristian Carbone, the chef behind the burger

Cristian Carbone is the executive chef at Bentleys Hotel in Clare and the chef who won the 2026 title. Glam Adelaide reports that he joined Matthews Hospitality six years before the win.

He played the award down: “You never set out to win awards. You set out to make something people genuinely enjoy eating.” Coming from a cook who spent years refining one dish instead of designing a showpiece for a single day, I believe him.

I couldn’t verify his training, his earlier kitchens or the date he started at Bentleys itself in any public source. I’ll add them when I can.

Matthews Hospitality: the pub group behind Bentleys

Bentleys Hotel belongs to Matthews Hospitality, a family-owned South Australian hotel group. Drinks Trade reported the purchase on 10 March 2022 and quoted CEO Andrew Kemp. In Adelaide the group also runs the Salisbury Hotel, Feathers, Maylands and Buckingham Arms. In regional SA it has the Eyre Hotel in Whyalla and the Mt Gambier, Park and South-Eastern hotels.

The 2026 challenge went well for the group. Three of the Top 12 were its pubs, Bentleys Hotel, Salisbury Hotel and Windmill Hotel, according to InDaily, which names Lee Cook as the group’s general manager of hospitality.

Bentleys Hotel Clare: address, hours and practical info

You can only get the burger during bistro hours: lunch runs 12pm to 2:30pm and dinner 5:30pm to 8:30pm, seven days a week. The bar trades until well after midnight. The kitchen doesn’t. I checked these hours on 11 November 2026 on the hotel’s site and on the Clare Valley Tourism listing. Ring ahead before you drive up, because hours can change.

Map of Bentleys Hotel, 191 Main North Road, Clare SA 5453, in the Clare Valley wine region north of Adelaide. Clare is a regional town, not an Adelaide suburb, so check the drive time before you leave. (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)

Is the best pub burger in South Australia worth the drive from Adelaide?

Yes, if you make a day of it in the Clare Valley. For a burger alone, I wouldn’t drive from Adelaide to Clare and back: the city has well-reviewed burger bars much closer to home (see below). As a lunch stop between cellar doors, or as dinner before a night in one of the hotel’s rooms, it makes far more sense. Plan around the kitchen: lunch service stops at 2:30pm, so leave Adelaide early and check the drive time with a route planner first.

Where to eat in the Clare Valley: Bentleys as the pub option

For a casual meal in the Clare Valley, the Bentleys bistro pairs the state’s award-winning burger with stone grill steaks and pizzas, and a combustion fireplace for winter. The beer garden takes dogs, there’s an EV charger out front, and the pub does takeaway and live music. It’s a practical end to a day at the cellar doors, kids or friends included.

Best burgers in Adelaide if you can’t make it to Clare

If Clare is too far, Adelaide’s burger guides most often point to arkhé in Norwood, 127 Days, Stax Burger Co. in Prospect, Burgastronomy on O’Connell Street in North Adelaide, Nordburger, Good Burger in Daw Park and Diamond Burger in Glenunga. Our Adelaide burger guide is where I’m collecting verified venues in and around the city, and Bentleys Hotel is the first.

For more Australian burger trips, see the best burgers in Perth, Grill’d in Sydney, Grill’d in Brisbane and Ze Pickle in Burleigh Heads. For another chef with Adelaide roots, read about Ochre in Cairns. Its founder, Craig Squire, opened Red Ochre Grill in Adelaide in 1993. All our city guides are on the Restaurants hub.

Bentleys Hotel is not Brent Savage’s Bentley in Sydney

Bentleys Hotel in Clare has no link to Sydney chef Brent Savage or to his Bentley restaurant. I started this piece from a lead about Savage and “Bentley’s in Adelaide”. The research showed that two different businesses had been mixed up.

Savage co-founded the Bentley Group with sommelier Nick Hildebrandt, and their Bentley Restaurant & Bar opened in Sydney in 2006. In September 2026 Broadsheet listed the group’s venues as Bentley Restaurant and Bar, King Clarence, Eleven Barrack, Ashe and the Vespertine bar. None is in Adelaide, and none is a burger concept.

How I put this profile together

This is a sourced profile, not a scored review, so it carries no Burger Breton rating. I haven’t eaten the Deluxe in Clare yet. When I do, this page becomes a review with tasting notes and a score. I took the burger build, price and hours from the hotel’s own pages and the Clare Valley Tourism listing on 11 November 2026. I cross-checked the competition facts in Glam Adelaide and InDaily/CityMag, and the ownership history in Drinks Trade. Where these sources disagree, I’ve said so. I left out what I couldn’t confirm: the final’s venue and date, the Wagyu supplier and the bakery behind the brioche.

FAQ

Which pub has the best burger in South Australia in 2026? Bentleys Hotel in Clare, in the Clare Valley. Its Bentleys Deluxe Burger won the 2026 AHA|SA Pub Burger Challenge ahead of 37 other hotel entries.

What is in the Bentleys Deluxe Burger and how much does it cost? The menu version has a Wagyu beef patty, mature cheddar, lettuce, tomato and black garlic aioli on a toasted local milk brioche bun, with chips. Bacon and caramelised onion are optional extras. It costs AUD 28.00 (checked 11 November 2026).

Who is the chef behind South Australia’s best pub burger? Cristian Carbone, executive chef at Bentleys Hotel. According to Glam Adelaide, he joined Matthews Hospitality six years before the 2026 win.

Where is Bentleys Hotel? At 191 Main North Road, Clare SA 5453. Clare is a regional town in the Clare Valley wine region north of Adelaide, not part of the city. Phone (08) 8842 1700.

When can I order the burger at Bentleys Hotel? During bistro hours only: lunch 12pm–2:30pm and dinner 5:30pm–8:30pm, seven days a week, closed Christmas Day. The pub stays open later, but the kitchen does not.

How does the AHA SA Pub Burger Challenge work? South Australian hotels submit entries. There were 38 in 2026, and the 12 finalists cooked live in front of judges. Burgers are scored on taste, presentation, quality of meat content and value for money. The Griffins won in 2025 and Bentleys Hotel won in 2026.

Is Bentleys Hotel connected to Brent Savage’s Bentley restaurant in Sydney? No. Brent Savage co-founded the Sydney-based Bentley Group, whose Bentley Restaurant & Bar opened in 2006. Bentleys Hotel in Clare is a separate South Australian pub owned by Matthews Hospitality.