Amanda Vanstone and Simon Wilkinson’s reviews of our finest restaurants

AN amateur and a professional review Adelaide’s three most prestigious restaurants — are they worth your money? SPECIAL FEATURE: SA’s top 100 food experiences

: Kangaroo Island marron with artichoke leaves at Magill Estate.

IT’S the stuff dreams are made of: for anyone with even a passing interest in dining, visiting South Australia’s three most prestigious restaurants, and all within a week, is almost too good to be true.

So it didn’t take too much arm-twisting to convince Amanda Vanstone, former politician, ambassador to Italy and indefatigable culinary explorer, to take part in The Advertiser’s “Expert and Amateur” judging.

The starting line-up — Hentley Farm, Magill Estate and Orana — are all relatively new but, based on our previous visits, represent the pinnacle of dining in SA.

Chef Jock Zonfrillo at his restaurant Orana on Rundle Street, Adelaide. Picture: Matt Turner.

Amanda hadn’t been to any of them before.

The rules were straightforward. We would visit the chosen restaurants under normal reviewing conditions, including an anonymous booking, and score using the existing 100 point system.

We would try to keep our opinions to ourselves, so the reviews and scores were completely independent. In the end, our verdicts were remarkably similar.

It was desperately close but congratulations to Orana, which came out on top for both of us.

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MAGILL ESTATE

Penfolds Rd, Magill; 8301 5551

Seven course with sommelier wine selection: $275; with Icon wines: $425

Reviewer: Simon Wilnkinson

EARLY in the night at Magill Estate, as we are blessed by the last moments of a brilliant sunset, Amanda and I set the rules for engagement.

This is our first dinner together and we agree not to discuss the meal so our verdicts are completely independent. But body language is another matter, so later, as she prods and pokes at a piece of lamb, I know exactly what she’s thinking.

The meat has been cooked slowly in a sous-vide bag and, without proper searing, tastes raw and unpleasantly sheepy. Not good. And to follow it up with a piece of beef (albeit high-end wagyu) cooked in similar fashion doesn’t help.

Magill Estate Restaurant.

This is my second visit to the new Magill, which reopened nine months ago with a modern and beautifully finished interior makeover, and a new kitchen team led by partners Scott Huggins and Emma McCaskill.

The first time around the cooking was fabulous — refined, natural and plain delicious. A marron with “shell’’ of Jerusalem artichoke, diced bluefin with asparagus and a barely set poached oyster in cucumber juice were some of the year’s high-points.

This dinner, while artfully plated and mostly meticulous in preparation, doesn’t have the same impact. A trembling piece of barely set ocean trout is sublime with a salad of diced potato and samphire but hardly groundbreaking. Pickled cucumber in fermented juice with a tomato ice is not going to set hearts racing. Pork crackle wafers sandwiching shredded meat is a fabulous snack but some of the others are just so-so. A dessert of rhubarb and yoghurt with a fabulous “cellophane” sheet of translucent beetroot is my favourite.

The new service brigade, while friendly enough and irreproachable in their professionalism, are a little stilted and formal. If thanking every waitress to deliver a plate is a management edict, it needs to be overturned. That leaves some heavy lifting to the setting, still Adelaide’s best, and the wine, which even on the second-tier package (no Grange or Great-Grandfather) shows the Penfold’s pedigree. On this night, in this context, it isn’t quite enough.

FOOD 32/40; STAFF 8/10; DRINK 8/10; VALUE 13/20; X FACTOR 17/20; TOTAL 78

Reviewer: Amanda Vanstone

One can’t help but feel anticipation on visiting Magill Estate. Max Schubert’s contribution to this state is long lasting.

The decor is trendy and we have hit the jackpot because the sun is enormous and incandescently orange.

The staff are exceptional. The guys all look like they have just stepped out of a Hugo Boss advertisement. The service is first rate.

Nonetheless, I found one aspect disconcerting. Just as a waitress places each plate on the table and before explaining details of the dish our waiter pointedly smiles and says “Thank you Mary”. It may be to convey a friendly atmosphere or indeed simply be her cue to buzz off but it seems a tad effected. I feel rude not joining in.

: Kangaroo Island marron with artichoke leaves at Magill Estate.

The first “snack” is a crisp golden piece of pressed chicken skin ... with a slick all over one side ... greasy fingers first up ... hmm. Another is mussels in a smoky batter. Delicate yes, but as uncouth as it might be to mention the two fritters just looked like dachshund doo doo. The others, including asparagus with sesame, pork skin and wagyu tartars are a real pleasure, but no surprises.

A simple but perfectly executed potato salad lifts a sous vide ocean trout to star status. Closely followed by the pork with macadamia and cauliflower. Rich but balanced.

The rare lamb falls very flat. Following it with another rare red meat was, well, unfortunate. Sous vide machines must come with a “use all the time” instruction.

The wines were all elegant as one might expect. The star of the night was the Yattarna chardonnay. It was exemplary, just stunning, an absolute stand out.

This is a seriously good restaurant in a delightful setting. Nonetheless I felt as though the kitchen’s first mission was to display their undoubted skills. It should be to surprise and delight diners.

FOOD 30/40; STAFF 8/10; DRINK 7/10; VALUE 15/20; X FACTOR 15/20; TOTAL 75

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ORANA

285 Rundle St, Adelaide; 8232 3444; www.restaurantorana.com

$155 food only; $295 food and wine

Reviewer: Simon Wilinson

Two months earlier, climbing the stairs to the landing outside Orana for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. The concept of a “native Australian” restaurant was as hazy as scrubland in the midday sun.

The dinner that night was both unexpected and thrilling, a dizzying sequence of new ingredients and flavours that came so fast it was difficult to keep up.

So minus this element of surprise, would it still have the same impact, especially without the commanding presence of owner-chef Jock Zonfrillo, who is overseas?

Dinner starts with “Alkoopina”, the opening salvo of finger-food that has more “wow” moments than most full meals: the tasting spoon of samphire and roo tail; the shaved pumpkin brushed in beef fat; the sprig of fried saltbush; the singular perfection of a smoked cockle or seared prawn.

There are new additions — a sprouted bunya nut, lamb’s tongue with bitter grass — but this time the procession of tiny tastes can be enjoyed rather than analysed.

Orana Restaurant.

A cleansing salad of peas, leaves and wild plums is the first chance to explore at length the underlying hum of astringency that is the calling card of many of these ingredients.

It paves the way to raw mulloway with “Neptunes pearls”, appealing little beads of seaweed; kangaroo with mountain pepper; and the out-and-out luxury of a marron tail with finger lime and myrtle leaves. The red meat dish is new and improved: a wonderful, full-flavoured piece of Suffolk lamb, the succulent plant karkalla and a small dumpling of “haggis”, a distant echo of the chef’s heritage.

The set buttermilk with strawberry and eucalyptus oil is again unspeakably good.

Wine matches are plucked from the broadest range of styles and locations and meet the challenge of these flavours well. Service is conducted with the type of efficiency and easy manner that sets up an enjoyable night.

So no great surprise this time. Just confirmation that this is the one restaurant in Adelaide where I would send anyone who cares about what they eat.

FOOD 37/40; STAFF 9/10; DRINK 8/10; VALUE 16/20; X FACTOR 16/20; TOTAL 86

Reviewer: Amanda Vanstone

The stairs in the side lane that lead up to Orana give no idea of the star quality one will find inside.

The decor is very subtle except for the carafes which are right out there and fabulous. The food is both exciting and absolutely delicious.

We are told the snacks will come first. It is a serious understatement to describe these clever, startling morsels with so much native produce as mere snacks. They are stunning. The seared prawn with Davidson plum, the marron and Geraldton wax, the roo tail with samphire risotto and the smoked Goolwa cockle, among 14 others, exemplify really clever cooking (perfection) with just delicious flavours. What you might think of as the plainest dish, beef and pumpkin, is packed with flavour and full of surprise.

Native produce gets a chance to shine at Orana. It is not some weird tasting accoutrement to otherwise good cooking. It is in itself new, fresh and delicious. It is in many ways the star. And a bright one.

Wild pea and muntries aalad at the Orana.

The salad with peas, muntries and cinnamon mytrle was so, so far from being another boring little salad. Of course the Coorong mulloway was local produce at its best and made better by delicious crisp balls of Neptune’s pearls which sounds nicer than seaweed but is right on the money. KI marron hardly need a lift but finger limes are a perfect pairing. The karkalla with the lamb looks remarkably like good old pig face but I am advised not to attempt such a substitution.

Orana has an advantage in that it does not showcase one brand of wine. That means you get to go around the world and Australia and try different and interesting wines. A great sommelier can take you places you have never been. I loved it. Perhaps it is my South Australian bias but I had never heard of Sorrenberg Gamay from Beechworth but I will get some. Ditto the Pressing Matters dessert wine from Tasmania.

The staff are right on top of their game. They are friendly without affectation. The food is stunning, the wines gorgeous ... go there.

FOOD 39/40; STAFF 8/10; DRINK 8/10; VALUE 17/20; X FACTOR 13/20; TOTAL 85

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HENTLEY FARM

Cnr Gerald Roberts and Jenke Rd, Seppeltsfield; 8562 8427; hentleyfarm.com.au

Reviewer: Simon Wilkinson

Hentley Farm is reigning Advertiser Restaurant of the Year, so the drive to the Barossa’s western ranges is accompanied by high expectations, as well as Amanda in the passenger seat. It’s her first visit and I want her to share the love.

We settle in the old stable, with its hefty timber bones and rugged stone, and clink glasses of fizz. With no menu to see, we’re in their hands for the next three or so hours.

It’s soon evident that the cooking of Lachlan Colwill is more convincing than ever before.

Hentley Farm at Seppeltsfield.

He is getting some serious Barossa dirt on those shiny city shoes, the trademark textural tricks and sophisticated flavours becoming more grounded, more connected to time and place.

Smoke-infused buttermilk (he leaves it in a cooling barbecue), strewed with pristine chunks of raw mulloway and poached mussels, has us both purring.

A velvet-textured slice of slow-cooked ox tongue, with brussels sprouts/blue cheese puree and mustard/apple sauce is divine. Pork and eggplant is the new lamb and parsnip. A kangaroo “carpaccio” with zucchini and kohlrabi is brave but doesn’t quite hit the same mark.

These and other dishes are finished at the table by chefs spooning sauces and broths from small copper pots. On this day, Lachlan is away, so two of his team handle the duties. If they are under pressure, it doesn’t show. Other duties are handled flawlessly by a waitress who, while quietly spoken, knows everything from how to make quinoa crackers to where a particular shiraz is grown.

Showcasing Hentley’s wines, after all, is what the experience is about. The portfolio of reds, equal measures of elegance and opulence, are matched to the meal with aplomb but only having a single white (the riesling) limits possibilities.

Still, from the just-picked rocket that opens the meal, to the final orange and raisin madeleine, it’s a memorable journey. In a state with many great regional dining destinations, Hentley is at the top of the heap.

FOOD 36/40; STAFF 8/10; DRINK 7/10; VALUE 16/20; X FACTOR 17/20; TOTAL 84

Reviewer: Amanda Vanstone

Wow! What a spectacular find. How had I not been here before?

A leisurely drive to Seppeltsfield and then we arrive at a somewhat architecturally demure Hentley farm. The restaurant decor is clean, clearly rural, elegant, modern and calm. No cutesy old fashioned rubbish here.

The staff are professional, proficient, relaxed and friendly. There is no better combo.

The pre degustation treats are exemplary. As it turns out, everything about Hentley Farm deserves that accolade. A quinoa cracker with salmon and a flicker of passionfruit cream sends stars through my brain. It’s an OMG moment. There’s a touch of Heston’s theatrics in the serving of the oysters and thankfully the child in me is still alive and is delighted.

The adult senses new flavours that match and while pure and simple are sublime. Delicious. Clever.

Mulloway crudo in smoked buttermilk at Hentley Farm.

When the main dishes commence a mulloway crudo in smoked buttermilk with crunchy puffed wild rice lifts my spirits to new heights. These people really know their stuff. All the other dishes confirm that I am in the hands of very clever people. Neither Kangaroo carpaccio nor ox tongue would normally be my choice. They were knockouts, absolutely delicious. I sense that this menu has been designed to tantalise and surprise the senses to the delight of the diner, not to show off the skills in the kitchen. It does both. Effortlessly.

The after dinner treats once more bring out the child ... I am delighted by them. At the end of a fantastic meal to still be on the edge is a good sign. I think they have stolen my football team’s mantra “never ever give up”. Hentley farm delights to the very end.

The matched wines are a real pleasure. They have a softness and elegance that suits my palate. Temptation overtakes and the boot carries some home.

You could bring a foodie from anywhere in the world to Hentley Farm and sit back to watch the pleasure burst over their face. Yes, you need a designated driver or a group in a mini bus. Sorry, heaven isn’t on your doorstep. But it’s not far away.

FOOD 39/40; STAFF 8/10; DRINK 7/10; VALUE 17/20; X FACTOR 13/20; TOTAL 84