Adelaide Oval’s fine dining restaurant Hill of Grace savaged by The Australian food critic John Lethlean

OPERATORS of Adelaide Oval’s fine dining Hill of Grace Restaurant have called in the lawyers after one of the nation’s leading food critics gave it zero stars and labelled the food “mucoid gloop”.

17/6/15 A day in the life of chef Dennis Leslie at Hill of Grace Restaurant, Adelaide Oval. Picture Roger Wyman

• LETHLEAN’S SERVE: His zero-star review at The Australian
• OUR CRITIC’S VERDICT: Read an alternative view at The Source SA
• MORE RESTAURANT REVIEWS: Explore The Source SA

OPERATORS of Adelaide Oval’s fine dining Hill of Grace Restaurant have called in the lawyers after one of the nation’s leading food critics labelled the food “mucoid gloop”.

The Weekend Australian’s food critic John Lethlean gave the restaurant zero stars, saying he could not think of anyone to recommend it to and summed it up as “out for a duck”.

The sledging went further on social media where he posted: “Hill of Disgrace: HoG occupies some kind of sad, ill-informed contemporary fine dining void; it’s like the restaurant world doesn’t exist. I’m trying hard to think of someone I’d recommend it to. I just can’t. #nostars.”

Stadium Management Authority chief executive Andrew Daniels told the Sunday Mail the authority was planning legal action.

“We are consulting with our lawyers over the remarks Lethlean has made in relation to defamation — he has gone way beyond objective criticism,” Mr Daniels said.

“I think this review is so negative, so bad as to lack any credibility — I have never in my entire career read a review like it.

“We have had many other reviews to almost universal acclaim and have had thousands of satisfied customers. I question his motives in writing this and then carrying on with childish comments on social media.

“This overly negative, critical article clearly indicates the reviewer has his own agenda.”

Mr Lethlean’s devastating one-star review of celebrated chef Cheong Liew’s The Grange in 2008 helped trigger its closure.

His panning of Hill of Grace Restaurant is unlikely to boost demand for its offerings which include an eight-course degustation menu with matching wine for $295.

Stumped. Hill of Grace a restaurant that just can't be recommended. To anyone. @theauslife https://t.co/kR0HYrg9e5

— John Lethlean (@JohnLethlean) February 19, 2016

“Brown, mucoid gloop that passes for a pig liver sauce smothering duck sausage” was the tone of his review of the expensive restaurant overlooking the Oval.

“Bland, lifeless, beige-on-beige ... it’s like the function room your sister was married in 16 years ago,” is his description of the decor.

“Lingering empty plates and glasses, four waiters idling at the pass, glass and cutlery dropped on tiled floors” is his take on the service — and he was highly annoyed not to be farewelled on departure.

Even more so that a restaurant named in honour of the nation’s second most famous red wine did not have a sommelier to tell him what dessert wine to drink.

“No sommelier on duty (“A few of us here know a bit about wine — I’ll ask someone about the riesling for you,”) he sniffed about waiting staff in his full page review in the national newspaper’s food and wine section.

He didn’t like the cheese selection, the lack of Cooper’s beer, the $15 sides, the single fish choice, the hard bread roll, the soft butter, the “dated” crockery/cutlery, the “cheap synthetic napery”, the Filipino dishes without subtitles or the “undercooked shallot”.

He did like the view of the Oval while drinking a glass of Pewsey Vale at sunset, in a restaurant “which looks and acts like a business incubated in a catering company boardroom and feels like a day out in a corporate box at the stadium, which is pretty much what it is”.

Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said he had dined twice at Hill of Grace Restaurant and found it excellent, and he respected Mr Lethlean’s past reviews.

“He must have had a bad night,” he said.

Restaurant and Catering Australia deputy chief executive Sally Neville declined to comment directly on the review, saying: “Adelaide’s food scene is more exciting that it has ever been.”

The Advertiser food editor Simon Wilkinson reviewed the restaurant in 2014 and gave it 73/100, noting: “It feels at times like a scruffy kid squeezed into a tuxedo.”

A 2003 review of Sydney restaurant Coco Roco published in the Sydney Morning Herald resulted in more than $600,000 in damages and interest being awarded, while a 1984 review by Leo Schofield of Sydney restaurant Blue Angel published in the same newspaper saw more than $100,000 in damages and interest awarded.

HILL OF GRACE PRICES AND DISHES

Degustation

Friday lunch only three-course $85pp

Four-course $105pp

Eight-course degustation $175pp

Eight-course degustation with wines $295pp

Starters

Filipino BBQ chicken tails & leatherjacket cheeks, quince puree, sea urchin emulsion, salmon roe, desert limes

Ginataan quail, native succulents, salt bush

Kinilaw lobster, ginger, shallots, soy & cane vinegar, sweet red chili cracker

Entree

Roasted heirloom carrots, carrot mousse, carrot gel, goats curd, carrot jam, black dirt

Betamax, chocolate custard, shaved chocolate, bacon juice, crispy speck

Sinigang, Spencer Gulf prawns, native lemongrass, radish, rainforest cherry, native tamarind

Mains

Smoked rainbow trout, tinapa, crab, barley, fennel, sea parsley

Inasal duck, mushrooms, pork liver sauce

Kare Kare, kangaroo tail, okra, eggplant, greens, squid bagoong, peanut shards

Desserts

Caramel, vanilla & pineapple, camembert cheese, pickled podded radish

Tres leche cake, kumquat marmalade, calamansi curd, calamansi sorbet, crunchy mandarin

Deep, dark chocolate tart, native pepper berry ice-cream, mascarpone & salted caramel ice-cream