Penfold's Magill Estate
Despite not being at the absolute top of my Scores page, this us probably the place I look forward to coming to most. It's definitely Adelaide's fanciest restaurant. It's the only place I've been to where degustation (many small courses) is the only menu option. It is also, unsurprisingly, the most expensive place I've been.
The staff greet me by name at the door. They even prepared a special menu just for me. (Their normal menu hadn't changed since I was last here, and I don't want to re-eat the same food.
Maybe I'm getting special service. :)
The little pork skin sandwich tastes very fried, but the nut emulsion and chick pea paste makes it taste like a little peanut butter sandwich.
The cabbage leaf and prawn roll is soft, but there's a hint of crunch left in the cabbage leaf. The whole thing has a very strong seafood flavour.
The beef tartare has a pleasant but indistinct salty vegetable taste between the two beetroot chips.
With chicken skin and celeriac.
This tastes like pumpkin soup, but with a hint of bacon. I'm not sure I can taste the chicken.
The flowers actually add a faint bitter taste, that doesn't fit the rest of the "soup".
The marron here has a nice firm texture, but is also soft and very juicy. It's only a tiny piece of meat, but it's full of prawny flavour.
The buckwheat underneath is rather unusual. It's still fairly solid, like slightly-cooked rice.
The trout has been cooked in a water bath, and has a very consistent texture and flavour. It's very pink, and has a delicate fishy flavour.
I'm not a big fan of the sea herbs. They add a variety of flavours that are a but too sour.
The dried fish skin is fairly unpleasant. It has a stark and unpleasant fishy taste, and the texture of paper.
The venison is amazingly soft. I could roll it into a ball and do some very inappropriate bowling.
It's juicy and tasty, but the pepper, salt (and probably chilli) garnish is just too strong.
The little slice of dark red pigeon breast is really quite odd. It has a semi-meat flavour and texture, but is also mostly overpowered by the aforementioned sauce.
The tiny turnip is just slightly cooked, and doesn't have much of a taste.
This looked slightly like my last course, but the taste is completely different.
The steak is unbelievably juicy and soft, and the mustard (hiding under the greenery) adds to the salty taste of the meat, without fighting with the salt.
This is probably the juiciest and tastiest piece of meat I've ever had. While the salt was just a touch too strong, this still rounds up to a ten. This is only the second time in the history of The Feed Report that I've given a score of ten for something. It still wasn't as good as Kenji's now-extinct walnut panna cotta, but better than everything I've given 9/10 to.
If it makes me smile when I eat it, I'll consider giving it a ten. :)
I'm not sure what that was about. The soft, slightly sweet beetroot was nice, but the faint tang of the chèvre (similar to fetta cheese) was the dominant flavour here.
I'm not sure what the dehydrated berries were doing. They were supposed to add sweetness, but they were so sparse they all they added was the occasional raspberry seed.
Under the berry paper is some white yoghurt, with a log of rhubarb, and what looks like two tiny Scotch Finger Biscuits.
This is a great combination of flavours. The yoghurt is nice and creamy, and the rhubarb adds flavour. The ginger biscuit adds a wholesome and filling texture, as well as the slight ginger tang.
This dessert is definitely more than the sum of its parts. When eating three things at once, they tend to become a new taste, unlike eating two, where you're aware of the two distinct flavours.
The aerated honey anglaise in the middle is sweet, and disappears when I eat it, leaving little very crunchy bits of barley crumble. It's a very strong and slightly unusual contrast of textures.
I've had the Madeleine and peppermint chocolate before, so I'll just rate the other two.
The ginger nut biscuit has a mild ginger taste, and a nice, soft texture, with a bit if crunch on the outside.
The brownie doesn't have a strong taste or texture. It's just a sort of mild chocolate goo. Not at all unpleasant though.