The Terrace at Cobb’s Hill Estate | SA Weekend restaurant review

It might not be as well known as many other Adelaide Hills wineries, but Cobb’s Hill Estate is having a genuine crack at putting itself on the map.

Let’s play a guessing game. Consider the description “Herb pappardelle, prawn, cherry tomato” and take a moment to imagine what it would (should?) look like.

A bowl of pasta tossed with crustacean meat and tomato sauce. Maybe a few leaves of basil? Right? Not even close.

At The Terrace, a recently opened restaurant for Adelaide Hills winery Cobb’s Hill Estate, two supple ribbons of pasta inlaid with herbs are loosely folded at top and bottom of a ceramic plate.

A meaty prawn trunk, sprinkled with tomato dust, bisects them. The fried head is held upright by a mortar of spiced tomato jam, ready to crumble and use as a potent seasoning.

The herb pappardelle, prawn and cherry tomato dish at The Terrace restaurant at Cobb's Hill Estate, Adelaide Hills. Picture: Supplied

Charred segments of shallot and cherry tomato also feature, along with a bisque sauce that helps bring everything together.

It’s the sort of deconstructed, cheffy interpretation bound to infuriate a certain, easily infuriated segment of the population.

And I’m going to provoke them further by suggesting it was more than a little delicious.

At the very least, the dish is a statement of intent for the changes happening at a winery that doesn’t usually attract the kind of attention given to some of its higher profile regional neighbours.

Inside The Terrace restaurant at Cobb's Hill Estate in the Adelaide Hills. Picture: Supplied

While Cobb’s Hill Estate was established only six years ago, its setting, on a hillside midway between Uraidla and Woodside, is steeped in history.

The old homestead, now part of the cellar door, was built in the 1850s, while horses used to pull Cobb & Co stagecoaches would recover in the surrounding paddocks.

That land is now the domain of beef cattle and sheep, as well as extensive vineyards, while the original building has expanded in several stages, most recently the addition of The Terrace, a long room wrapped in half-length windows.

The view they present is quite something, looking down a grassed slope to a lake and stand of oak trees that provide plenty of shade for a series of picnic tables.

A selection of platters and flammekueche (a pizza-like flat bread) is available for eating outdoors.

Kingfish, japanese turnip, nori at The Terrace restaurant at Cobb's Hill Estate, Adelaide Hills. Picture: Supplied

Until a few months ago, that was pretty much the extent of food at Cobb’s Hill, but the opening of The Terrace and arrival of a new chef has introduced a more considered approach to what goes into and comes out of the kitchen.

South African-raised De Buys Nortier (ex-Lake House, Victoria) has big dreams for the property.

Vegetable patches have been established and livestock numbers will expand. Poultry and pigs are on the radar.

Within a few years, he hopes, most of the ingredients he uses will be raised or grown here.

Chicken ballotine at The Terrace restaurant at Cobb's Hill Estate, Adelaide Hills. Picture: Supplied

At this stage, the sense of place is only just taking shape in the four and six-course lunches the restaurant offers.

Still, the dishes we do see hold plenty of interest. That starts with an unexpected bonus of bite-sized appetisers, the best of them a Chinese pie-tee pastry shell filled with a mix of shredded mushrooms.

Raw kingfish is briefly cured and then pieced together into an intricate mosaic, with a coating of powdered nori delineating the individual “tiles”.

It is partnered by two pickles (Japanese turnip and fennel) and a riesling cream sauce where something cleaner might have worked better.

The prawn pasta comes next, then a slice of skilfully crafted ballotine of chicken, with both leg and breast meat rolled in the chook’s skin, poached and then finished on the grill.

A brilliant reduction sauce, Jerusalem artichokes and a mix of peas and edamame all contribute to the nostalgic, mum’s-roast-dinner flavours.

To finish, a dome of ruby chocolate is tapped, then smashed, until it breaks apart to reveal a white chocolate dulce filling with a berry compote at the centre.

A disc of red velvet cake forms the base, as well as the dried “croutons” that add some crunch.

Dulce mousse, red velvet, ruby chocolate at The Terrace restaurant at Cobb's Hill Estate, Adelaide Hills. Picture: Supplied

Fresh berries and tiny cubes of smoked strawberry and rose (wine) jelly help counter the richer elements.

Cobb’s Hill is another example of the investment and new talent pouring into the Adelaide Hills.

While its best is surely yet to come, The Terrace is definitely worth a visit. Even if you are easily infuriated.

Originally published as The Terrace at Cobb’s Hill Estate | SA Weekend restaurant review