Magill Estate Kitchen revamp at Penfolds gets the tick of approval from locals and tourists alike | Simon Wilkinson

Travelling more than 1000km for a snag might seem excessive. But for a seafood sausage created in a kitchen in Adelaide? It must be good.

Scallop sausage in Taiwanese bread at Magill Estate Kitchen. Pictures MEK and Reinhardt Kennedy

Small place, Adelaide. We’ve just walked in for a late Sunday lunch at Magill Estate Kitchen and run into some relatives who have just finished. One, a Sydney-sider, says they always come here when in town, by which he must mean both the original and the newly revamped version of this more accessible restaurant option at the spiritual home of Penfolds.

Yes, MEK has changed. Owner Scott Huggins and his team have altered the fit-out and the format. Breakfast and brunch are no more. The focus now is squarely on lunches and Friday/Saturday dinners that better reflect the prestigious cellar door surroundings.

The result is a menu that, at first glimpse, has the wide-ranging, everyman appeal and pricing of an upper-crust pub bistro (with snacks that are reason enough to visit).

However, the ingredients and standard of the cooking elevate it from the ground floor to the penthouse.

Significant investment has been made in the dining room, most noticeable in the mobile curved ruby-red banquettes that could be arranged into a booth for larger groups or a love seat for couples.

The bar has been remodelled with marble surfaces and an elegant drinks display, while a live seafood station will plate oysters and other goodies in front of guests.

Obviously, the wine offering is a big attraction and a fair proportion of the clientele already will have been on a tour or completed a tasting.

Penfolds is one of the few brands that can hold up an entire list without leaving any gaps whatever the budget or style requirements. Some will come purely for the chance to drink Grange by the glass ($200) but it’s also worth considering the little-known Cellar Reserve bottles that includes a knockout 2018 Grenache.

Dining room at Magill Estate Kitchen. Picture: MEK and Reinhardt Kennedy

Bucatini with crab and prawns at Magill Estate Kitchen. Picture: MEK and Reinhardt Kennedy

On the food side, Huggins and his right-hand-man Rodrigo Silveira Dos Santos have oversight of the cooking at both MEK and the elite restaurant across the courtyard where the signature menu is $285 a person.

Take a look at the snack that is fast becoming a MEK signature. The scallop/lobster/fish mousse that is piped into sausages here was originally a filling for the stupendous stuffed chicken wings in the restaurant.

These seafood snags are stuffed into a roll of deep-fried Taiwanese bread and squirted with a soy/black vinegar mayo, creating a hotdog that reaffirms Huggins’ genius for small-scale surprises. It’s matched, some would say surpassed, by the “taco”, a flatbread loaded with a quivering block of braised beef short rib meat that is finished with ketchup, mustard, fried onion and pickle.

Higher-brow options include a tartare of lean lamb, cracked wheat and Middle Eastern spices spread across a hash-brown finger with a strip of whipped labna. The tuna tartare is given a Japanese treatment with nori cracker and a bonito/kombu (seaweed) dressing that needs a touch more acid to bring it to life.

Lamb tartare on hash brown at Magill Estate Kitchen. Picture: MEK and Reinhardt Kennedy

The menu has expanded to include a quartet of relatively affordable pastas made with a flash new extruding machine.

Pappardelle with a ragu sauce, for instance, is $38. Crab, prawn and poached mussel meat is tossed in a cream sauce flecked with dill for a Scandi-leaning revision of marinara, the use of heavier-gauge bucatini (rather than linguine/spaghetti) another point of difference.

Then there’s the gnocchi in smoked tomato and capsicum sauce. Oh goodness. These little pillows are unmatched in my experience for lightness.

Rump cap (picanha) has long been a favourite for its even spread of fat and big flavour but the extra marbling in Mayura Station’s Wagyu beef takes this perfectly grilled and rested piece to transcendental levels. A large jug of bearnaise barely gets a look in.

Desserts keep up the high standards, particularly a sublime crème brulee and the sticky date with butterscotch sauce.

Like much of the MEK playbook, these are nothing new. They haven’t been deconstructed or otherwise reinvented. The super power here is taking something familiar and finding a way to do it better. That’s what keeps people coming back.