Magill Estate Restaurant | SA Weekend restaurant review

It’s one of SA’s most expensive and prestigious restaurants. But even as living costs rise, this $220 tasting menu is still good value for money, writes Simon Wilkinson.

Snacks. That’s it. A single syllable at the top of the menu. What inadequate preparation it proves to be for Magill Estate’s opening salvo.

For a deboned chicken wing stuffed with lobster and scallop meat, to make a crisp-skinned “dumpling”. For a heavenly honey-brushed crumpet loaded with smoked trout butter and fluorescent pearls of roe. For a wine-infused macaron spread with chicken liver pate. And, above all, for the timber spoon holding a single mussel pouch filled with a wagyu tartare and surrounded in white koji butter. That single mouthful – its sensual textural interplay, the silly surprise of it all – won’t be quickly forgotten. Nor will watching the reaction of others at the table, including a hyperventilating teenager.

Friends, that is what dining at this level is all about. Memorable moments. Exhilaration. The optimal experience. The kind of thrills that others will get from fast cars, or travelling, or watching their team win a premiership.

Deboned chicken wing stuffed with lobster and scallop, a snack at Magill Estate Restaurant.

Magill Estate delivers fireworks of this kind at an imposing strike rate and with regular splashes of gastronomic bling (lobster, truffle, caviar), plus the extraordinary Penfolds wine selection, it is a package with few comparisons.

This is reflected in the price, of course, and at a time when financial pressures are making headlines, some will no doubt find it hard to reconcile the cost of a single meal that could more than cover the average household’s weekly shopping.

Chef Scott Huggins, however, clearly has faith in his customer base. After nine years in the Magill Estate kitchen, he has just taken over the lease and management of the restaurant from Penfolds.

Another dish at Magill Estate Restaurant. Picture: Supplied

Huggins has long-term plans for establishing ties with a farming property he has bought in the Adelaide Hills but, for now, sitting at our beechwood table by the window, looking out to the city lights, there are few noticeable differences.

The dining room fit-out has aged well and familiar faces are sprinkled among a waiting team that seems at ease in this environment. A young sommelier is particularly impressive as he talks about variations between St Henri and Magill shirazes of the 2005 vintage.

And the cooking, if anything, seems more carefree, more buoyant now Huggins is in charge. Fingers are used almost as often as forks through his single tasting menu, any messy digits wiped clean by clever little tablets that expand to wet towels at the table.

Poached mussel, wagyu tartare and koji butter, a snack at Magill Estate Restaurant

They come in handy after most of the snacks above as well as a potato bread taco, piled with grilled abalone, pork jowl and translucent slivers of marinated apple, that arrives unannounced midway through proceedings.

They’re back again for a sandwich of barbecued porcini and a frizz of fried leek between discs of brioche that seem equal parts bread and (truffle) butter. And even for the shell that is filled with chunks of lobster meat, abalone and burnt tomato served with roti to swipe through the ambrosial juices. So decadent, but so good.

Around now, the exponential wow curve flattens just a little. Roasted quail breast with lightly fermented cabbage is solid rather than spectacular and dolloping a spoonful of caviar on to the little bird’s southern-fried leg takes the indulgence game a step too far. A perfectly pink lamb cutlet is wrapped Wellington-style around the edge with prosciutto, mushroom duxelles and puff pastry that would ideally have cooked through a few minutes longer.

Carrot hummus at Magill Estate Restaurant

Two desserts have us flying again. Quince is transformed into an astounding sorbet that somehow offers the decadence of a frozen custard but is also deeply refreshing. It is shaped into a well that is filled with olive oil and a puree of the fruit brightened with lemongrass and ginger. The other – a block of rice pudding adorned with poached pear, honeycomb, raisin puree and flakes of milk skin – is comfort food of a rare calibre.

Days later, we are still talking about the experience, debating the favourite dish, reliving the wonder of the mussel. Not everyone will agree, but I reckon that makes Magill Estate pretty good value for money.