Food review: The Kitchen Door Restaurant, McLaren Vale
SUNDAY lunch starts quietly. Rest assured a good vibe builds as a mixed crowd eventually fills the large dining space adjacent to the Penny’s Hill cellar door.
SUNDAY lunch starts quietly. Rest assured a good vibe builds as a mixed crowd eventually fills the large dining space adjacent to the Penny’s Hill cellar door.
And, charm aplenty kicks in when curious dark-faced and footed sheep reliably wander into the frame of a large central picture window. Just ask the enchanted children, who are welcomed, as are groups who fit easily, indoors and out.
Some might see this restaurant, open daily for lunch, as a little tired, but the bucolic setting, place for the kids to run, and a spot for bocce-like games outside are great attractions to break a jaunt to wineryland.
These days, the concise menu seems aimed at gently pleasing all. The formula obviously works for the jumble of families, wine-tourists and small groups filling tables today. There’s a classic ricotta gnocchi with sage butter for vegos, small plates to share or bigger meaty meals, plus the option to sample it all in a four or six-course tasting, $60 or $80, plus matched wines if you like.
Stand-out starters are crunchy tempura eggplant batons, like the ultimate chips, trickled with a sweetie-to-faintly sour sauce, or, pickled sardines bedded on to rye toast with soft horseradish cream scattered with kitchen-garden herbs and ice plant. The liver parfait with onion jam is a bit ho-hum, and the pork fritters, quite dry, truly need their sauce gribiche (French-style egg and mayo).
Ample mains include beautifully cooked snapper lolling in silky oyster sauce. It’s in a strangely large and deep bowl for this sort of dish, so ask for a spoon to lap it up. Our meat lovers happily chomp through a splay of Black Angus strip loin, surely tipping the promised 300g, with a rustic tumble of confit baby onions and gremolata, plus a hearty side of fat chips.
Choose duck in a nice light curry, only if you like the floral flavour of lychees in the mix.
Retro bombe Alaska spikes carry a mod rosy sorbet, all very soft and sweet. There’s more texture in a dark gooey chocolate fondant, with creamy choc sorbet and honeycomb.
7/10
