Hill of Grace
HILL of Grace still draws a crowd to eat, drink and gaze over the stadium where their heroes play.
Adelaide Oval
(08) 8205 4777
THE restaurant that looks over Adelaide’s field of dreams has moved up the premiership table and, while not challenging for the flag, knows how to keep its fans happy.
Recent changes have seen the Filipino accent in the cooking, which was never in synch with the setting or the championing of Henschke wines, all but disappear.
Waiting staff have lightened up and show more personality (though the stewardship of wine, given both the prices and prestige of the collection, needs to sharpen up).
Hill of Grace promotes a degustation-style tasting menu at an eye-watering $140 but it doesn’t take a chartered accountant to work out that you might be better off making your own selection from the a la carte list.
Deboned chicken wings are stuffed with finely minced prawn and bathed in a viscous, brick-red fermented chilli butter.
SA octopus is best-on-ground, the segments of tentacle barely cooked so the meat has the luxurious, luminous quality of a mysterious shellfish, while a concentrated slick of eggplant underneath is somewhere between babaganoush and Vegemite.
Duck breast is also handled with aplomb, the skin crisp and glossy, fat properly rendered and rosy flesh tender, but a big blob of prune paste dominates. Variations on a fruity sweetness also underpin an adobo beef cheek (well cooked again) with oyster mushroom, muntries and quandong.
Dessert, then, seems a stretch but a pretty plate based on stout sourdough turned into both an ice cream and toasted croutons has its sugar in better balance.
- Hours: L Fri D Tues-Sat
- Bill: E $18-22 M $38-48 D $17-18. Six-course menu $140
- Wine: Wine list
- Chef: Nigel Munzberg
