SA Weekend restaurant review — The Scenic Hotel

The Scenic Hotel has been revamped with a young, positive outlook in keeping with its location in the Hills, writes Simon Wilkinson.

The Scenic Hotel at Norton Summit.

‘Booking essential, bums on seats, no packet gravy, no pokies.’ In a world full of marketing over-reach and misappropriated catchphrases, the mission statement for the Scenic Hotel is refreshingly free of bulldust.

It tells you a bit about this landmark venue, positioned to make the most of the view from Norton Summit, and more particularly the attitude of the bunch of mates who have recently taken it over.

This is no big-budget, bells-and-whistles country pub makeover. The heritage and rough-at-the-edges spirit of this historic, two-storey bluestone building are still intact. Even the grumbliest of locals won’t find much to complain about.

The renovations have all been DIY, relying on hard work and a measure of creativity. Daggy wallpaper and carpets have been stripped and replaced with polished boards and fresh paint in twin shades of green. The kitchen and other facilities have been given a scrub. A pool table has been brought upstairs, where it is more accessible. A few personal treasures have been put on display. If you were to say it had the warm, unpolished feel of an early share house, I don’t think anyone would be offended.

Anchovy soldiers at the Scenic Hotel, Norton Summit

Out front, looking down the hill, what was the old road has been cleared of scrub to create a flat gravel terrace now filled with picnic tables, planter boxes and open fires. Still, it feels more like a big backyard than a flashy beer garden.

What the four owners lack in financial backing, they compensate for with a wealth of front-of-house and management experience, their combined CVs covering influential restaurants including Golden Boy, Osteria Oggi and the Summertown Aristologist, a short drive to the south.

Two of them, Alistair Wells and Matilda Bryson, oversee the day-to-day operations, the latter looking after our table with the ease and infectious enthusiasm she has used to light up many a dining room.

While issues such as sustainability and soil care are important to the Scenic, they are approached in a gentle, pragmatic manner. The drinks list, for instance, includes natural wines but also finds room for those made more conventionally, as long as the grapes used have been farmed organically.

Young chef Dylan Marshall (ex Marquis of Lorne, Melbourne) buys into this ethos with cooking that should keep the regulars on side, while also bringing a different crowd up the hill. There is still a schnitzel, still a roast and a burger.

He doesn’t mind a bit of fun either. Beef tartare is not only accompanied by that front bar staple Smith’s crisps but served in the torn-open packet – particularly ironic given the care that goes into sourcing flank steak from a 10-year-old ex-milker to make it more sustainable. The hand-cut meat is mixed with herbs, diced cornichons and capers that, for mine, add enough salt without the chips.

Roast chicken and bread sauce from the Scenic Hotel, Norton Summit. Picture: supplied

Beef tartare and Smith's chips.

Anchovy soldiers might be right on trend in the restaurant world but fit just as comfortably into a collection of pub snacks beside a freshly drawn beer. Crunchy fried toast loaded with green aioli, a fillet of salted fish and slither of lemon will make plenty of new friends.

Potato gnocchi and a mix of “fancy shrooms” including oyster and swiss brown are coated in a super-rich creamy blue cheese sauce to create a dish that, unless you’ve hiked all day to get here, you might want to consider sharing.

Kangaroo schnitzel, a carry-over from the previous regime, more than justifies inclusion with tender meat possessing enough flavour to shine through the coating, textbook mash and a cracking pepper sauce that sprinkles magic dust wherever it goes. Packet gravy this ain’t.

And it is the sauces again that elevate perfectly cooked but under-seasoned roast chook to something special. The one-two combination of bread sauce (remember that?) and a gravy that actually tastes of chicken is made with the kind of devotion that can easily bring back faded memories of special family dinners.

A lemon tart can’t have gone into the oven long before we walked in the door, the crackle of bruleed sugar on top of the custard an added bonus.

Looking out through a gap in the trees, the fuzzy expanse of metropolis below seems a world away, yet it is less than 10 minutes of winding descent before you hit suburbia. That is the great secret of the Scenic. I suggest you go before it gets out.