Luma | SA Weekend restaurant review

The restaurant in a CBD hotel has been given a stunning transformation, but its signature dish needs rethinking – and portion control isn’t the only issue.

The re-imagined interior of Luma restaurant and bar, Playford Hotel, Adelaide.

The morning after eating at city restaurant Luma, I have a massive hangover. I’m feeling billious and have a quacking headache. Yes, I’ve overindulged. On duck.

Honestly, it’s not my fault. The signature dish at this re-imagined space in the Playford Hotel is “Luma Canard – Made for Two”.

What arrives is a platter that looks like it might have been on the table of Camelot or Henry VIII. It’s all meat and potatoes (cooked in duck fat of course). A meal that could be, should be, easily feeding four. A choice, as it stands, between overeating and an awful waste of food.

A medieval feast won’t be on the radar when you walk into the Playford’s newly renovated ground floor. While the layout is the same, with bar and lounge to one side and a raised platform for dining at the other, the old gaudiness and glitz has been replaced with art-nouveau glamour.

Elegant panels sweep from walls to ceiling, their curves mirrored in the smartly upholstered banquettes and other seating. And overhead is a specially commissioned light sculpture, an elaborate design of softly glowing tubes that bend and twist across the length and breadth of the room like giant spaghetti strands.

It’s all quite beautiful and an emphatic statement from owners the Accor group that good times are ahead for a hotel that had been showing its age and, in the height of the pandemic, was used as a quarantine facility.

Luma canard (duck to share) at Luma restaurant and bar, Playford Hotel, Adelaide.

Roasted pumpkin, pears, pepitas at Luma restaurant and bar, Playford Hotel, Adelaide.

Less clear is how much of this investment has extended to staffing on the floor and in the kitchen, where executive chef Kevin Martel continues in the role that, for the past few years, must have been extremely difficult.

His first menu for Luma is marketed as a “love note to Europe”, a concept that translates into a fairly conservative collection of plates along the lines of steamed mussels and roasted chicken breast.

Choosing what to order is a challenge. The duck clearly stands out among the other mains in terms of interest but from its description (and price) is obviously a major undertaking.

Mindful of the coming meat-fest, we kick off with two vegie starters. Three small logs of golden crumbs break open with a pleasing crunch to release a molten filling of braised (Uraidla) leek that is a little lost in its white cheese sauce. Still, as naughty fried snacks go, it delivers on the essentials.

Next is a compilation of pumpkin and pear. The first of these features in multiple forms: wedges that need further roasting to be soft and fudgy; shavings from the raw veg; roasted seeds (pepitas); and a fabulous vinaigrette that brings it all together.

Now to the duck, a large dissected bird laid out on a cast iron skillet with potatoes, a buttery tart presumably made from any offcuts, a jug of foie gras jus and a decorative bunch of fresh rosemary and bay leaves.

Bombe alaska at Luma restaurant and bar, Playford Hotel, Adelaide.

Luma’s old gaudiness and glitz has been replaced with art-nouveau glamour.

It looks a bit like a family Christmas dinner.

Portion control isn’t the only issue.

The honey-glazed skin of the roasted breasts has the enticing gloss of French-polished furniture but is so ridiculously salty (even for a hardened salt fiend like myself) that it is inedible.

I can only think there has been an accident in the kitchen.

The legs, meanwhile, have been cooked confit-style which normally includes crisping in a pan before service but these ones are as flaccid as a supermarket chook that’s been in the bag since early morning.

After a short break to regroup, the arrival of a bombe alaska lifts the spirits, particularly when it is doused in brandy and ignited at the table.

The outer shell of meringue has been teased into soft flowing spikes that toast in the flame.

Inside is a ball of luscious maple syrup ice-cream that has a second surprise of molten chocolate at its core.

It’s a lovely piece of nostalgia that echoes the setting. Best of all, it’s the perfect size to share.