Penfolds Magill Estate
I was looking forward to coming here. There's nothing like this place in Adelaide. In the middle of a small vineyard, the service here is super-fancy.
I know the waiter, but I'll still expect the same classy service.
There's now a single menu of seven courses for a slightly higher price.
With salmon roe and ponzu jelly.
The egg yolk has a fishy taste. Actually everything here has a fishy taste. The giant roe add more pops of fishiness.
I don't like mussels, but this one's spongy black crust adds an interesting salty flavour.
The little bagel is chewy, but it contains a nice burst of salty trout. The chivy hint is slightly extraneous.
Cold asparagus isn't anything special, and its miso and sesame emulsion sauce is fairly irrelevant and potent.
The cucumber tastes like a more potent gherkin, and is sweeter than the rest of the dish. I'm not a fan if cucumber, but the cucumber jus was just cucumber juice, and the pellets of tomato had a taste that disappeared into the stronger cucumber jus.
The fish is infused with the salty, flavourful broth, and is very juicy and tender. The cauliflower is a bit pedestrian, but it doesn't detract from the dish. The broth actually tastes slightly like miso, but is actually kombu (a seaweed) and bonito (a fish).
Ladies each get a special little tripod table to put their purse on. Fancy.
While I'm in the loo, my jacket mysteriously gains one too!
With eggplant purée, slices apple soaked in ginger beer. With candied walnuts.
The quail has a deep poultry flavour, which goes nicely with the roasted walnut. The thin slivers of apple provide an interesting but irrelevant crunch to the outside of each bite.
The lamb is soft and delicate, and has a very mild taste. It's nice enough, but the chunks of salt add a nice kick to it, while still keeping it simple.
The desiccated kale and fig, and the almond, add a variety of interesting tastes to the subtle meat. None of these tastes is particularly strong, so I can taste them all. The kale is very crispy.
The pecorino cheese is slightly bitey, and the fruit paste is slightly tart. There's nothing wrong with this, but it doesn't qualify as fine cuisine. Some people like to order cheese at restaurants. I'm not one of them. The extra nutty bits don't make this more exciting.
The white chocolate buttermilk mousse is the only non-strawberry thing here. It's hard to work out what's going on in the rest of this dish, but it's a million kinda of strawberry. Every strawberry taste -real or artificial- you could imagine is here. There are crystallized, freeze-dried, and sorbeted strawberries. One component is just the pith of the strawberry.
There's also a light citrus tang here.
The only downside here is that each mouthful is a random distribution of strawberry flavours.
The sorbet has a strong dark chocolate flavour, and the more subtle purée underneath has a hint of the dates it's made from.
The sorbet is a large component of the dish, and it's slightly on the simple side. The bits of biscuity cocoa nib and salt add texture and flavour, but most of the taste of the dish is the sorbet. I wanted to taste the date purée more.
Freebie 'zerts!
Clockwise from top right:
Honeycomb. Less hard, crumbly and dusty than regular honeycomb. Otherwise the same.
Bonoffe pie. Mm. Banana and chewy caramel.
Peppermint dark chocolate. Smooth. Nothing outstanding otherwise.
Honey madamin. A little sugary, spongy cake.
Also, free choccies and picture book to take home. :)