Magill Estate reopens
A proper vineyard in the suburbs is an odd idea. A restaurant like this in the suburbs is even odder. But Penfolds' Magill Estate requires thinking outside the square.
Closed nearly two years for remodelling, Magill emerged a very beautiful creature. Sitting above the vineyard, it glows in rich, warm reds and watermelons. Designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb has had a fine time specifying beautiful, modern things of fabric, cork, metal and timber. It is one sexy place to eat.
So what of this "Grange" of restaurants? An icon, with top-end wine matched to the long menu at $435. Per head. A restaurant driven like no other by a house wine agenda. Is this, for new chef Scott Huggins - Aussie wanderer returned from years in places like Britain, Spain and Japan - a poison chalice?
Designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb has had a fine time specifying the details of the restaurant's look.
Potentially. But he's all over it. With subtle Japanese ideas applied to the best produce Mr Penfold can buy, Huggins' light, delicate, progressive food reeks of contemporary thinking and technique in a place that once considered anything other than stock-based red wine sauces and turned vegetables unthinkable.
Huggins' young team does everything, from (sensational) bread and butter presented in calico cloths in vine-cutting baskets to toasting hay for infusing milk for ice-cream. Attention to detail? Everywhere.
Magill is a well-edited package. Look at those snacks - wafers of pressed, crisp chicken skin and nori-infused rice crackers with blood lime, mojama (cured tuna) and salmon roe on a gnarled walnut "platter".
Or a chilled oyster in swamp-green cucumber juice scattered with sour apple granita and spears of soursop. It's a great opening salvo.
A marron is teamed with Jerusalem artichoke three ways: puree, pickle and (too) sweet chips. Bitter small leaves finish it. Diced sashimi-grade Port Lincoln tuna belly (some raw, some "cured" with soy) comes together brilliantly with tiny smoked asparagus spears, puffed rice with kombu salt, an oil-poached yolk, black olive crumb and garlic flowers on top for, possibly, the evening's most bewitching dish.
There's more Japanese thinking in a pork belly dish with a sake and soy-infused macadamia and pine nut emulsion with lightly pickled, roasted cauliflower and a salad of celery, nuts and dandelion leaves.
Perfect ruby venison fillet comes with burnt onion sauce and almost-raw baby turnips. That's it. A piece of Wagyu - a hint of charcoal to its crust - is seasoned with soy and rosemary, served with a sesame emulsion, confit garlic chips, wild watercress and rosemary flowers. The balance is impressive.
You'll get a foamy custard of parmesan/gruyere with rye crumbs; a palate cleanser of lemon yoghurt sorbet with toasted poppyseed cake and lemon yoghurt croquant; and a baby apple and lemon myrtle souffle (in an egg cup) with vanilla ice-cream on a teaspoon. It is all superb.
Finally, you'll get that hay-smoked ice cream on a walnut "powder" with rather unusual coffee/linseed crisps. What wonderful flavour pairings.
Where Magill loses traction is on the floor; there's a regimented nature to the service that says "corporate entity". Which of course it is. Staff need to have a bit of fun and show some enthusiasm about working at one of Australia's great restaurants. Which Magill can be. No question.
Magill Estate,
78 Penfold Rd, Magill, Adelaide, (08) 8301 5551
Hours: Dinner Wed-Sat, lunch Sun
Typical prices: Set price five ($135) or eight course ($185); $265 or $435 with matched wines
Summary: Corporate restructure
Like this? Try ... Vasse Felix, WA; Royal Mail Hotel, Victoria
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: The Australian, 26 October 2013
