The Kitchen Door
At Penny’s Hill and Mr Riggs Cellars
Main Road
McLaren Vale, South Australia 5171
w
www.pennyshill.com.au and
www.mrriggs.com.au
e showie@gwg.net.au – not for bookings
t
+61 8 8556 4000
f
+61 8 8556 4462
open
lunch seven days, other times by arrangement
gg top 20— included in Galaxy Guides since 2006
FOOD There is certainly something in the wine in McLaren Vale because more than any other region, they have restaurants you want to eat at more than once. It has to be said that the majority of regional South Australian dining offerings need to lift their standards by a very long way. McLaren Vale can boast, Fino second time winner of Australian Gourmet Travellers “best small wine list”, Russell’s Pizza the iconic wood oven pizza restaurant that has to be one of Australia’s quirkiest restaurants with its bush ballroom and all. It must be twenty years since I first ate Russell’s Moroccan pizza and whilst we’ve come close to replicating it, his original remains benchmark regardless of our efforts. Then up the hill a bit with a grand view of vineyards and the glorious Fleurieu hills there’s D’Arry’s Verandah Restaurant, which is a great example of what a cellar door restaurant should be, right down to the chooks wandering through the diners and taking absolutely no notice of anyone trying to shoo them off. We can lament the recent closure of Spice Bar just back from the Noarlunga jetty but what can we say, it was good while it lasted and we’ll track them down in Queensland somewhere!!
Down on the plains behind a two story house, that incidentally my great great grandfather Thomas Goss built, housed in sort of a posh tin shed is Penny’s Hill Kitchen Door restaurant. For our family it is a great pleasure to see the house so beautifully restored and the vile besser block wall knocked down and replaced by a far more appropriate fence. On the wild side these ancient rellies have more than one or two mentions in the local court records for making a positive nuisance of themselves.
We started with oysters, simply exquisite still wriggling at the application of lemon $18/$24 for six or twelve (none of that tens rubbish) oyster lovers know they come in dozens, some times several. A long–term fan of Ben Sommariva’s cooking his cuisine style has settled into something wonderfully balanced. He doesn’t find the need for fancy plating and yet some of his food is lovely to look at. A good example was a recent crisp skin pan–fried Coorong mullet, and whilst we don’t go for listing every ingredient, the long list held close the secret of this dish’s simplicity and beauty. The prettiness of the mullet skin with its silver grey reptilian stripes uppermost, and complexities and kaleidoscope of colour of the roughly cut Jerusalem artichoke, carrots, speck and cabbage were just gorgeous. The Samphire sadly had been deep–fried and given up its soul and normally wonderfully salty taste to the depths of the deep fryer. A small criticism for what was an excellent and very inexpensive dish, given the work, at just $28 and the Samphire was easily avoided. Fleurieu Calf’s Tongue braised with haricot beans and black olives $17.50 (a generous main course size) was rich and meaty but beautifully balanced with the haricot beans and the olives and the calves tongue was splendidly soft despite the fact that it hadn’t been skinned. Who can blame this generation for not understanding offal they just haven’t been brought up with perfectly peeled brains or skinned tongue or blanched and peeled melt–in–the–mouth sweetbreads but kiddies please go buy yourselves a Larousse Gastronomique it might be in its umpteenth print edition but it remains the clarification for anything in the European kitchen any chef doesn’t know.
Between mains and desserts we happily strolled in the sunshine and watched the bouncing fat little black Suffolk lambs romp around their corpulent bottomed parents in a field of luscious green and air fragrant with the perfume of almond blossom. It is a lovely setting, but we don’t get it that these plump parents aren’t for eating and everyone looks horror struck at the mention of a invitation to do just that.
Having opted for the dessert tasting plate $30 it contained generous portions of their almond liqueur soufflé, double chocolate praline tart, tiramisu and ice cream. The soufflé was disappointing and the chocolate tart lacked a thin crust and the filling was rather firm and lacked the velvet texture of the best chocolate tarts. The tiramisu was a little too wet but the ice cream delicious. So we’ve figured that next time it will be a dozen divine oysters each instead of six and not that we’re likely to still be hungry, but, if we are, we will choose from their extensive cheese selection rather than dessert.
Despite the fact that we love this restaurant and Sommariva’s cooking we do have to give Sommariva a bit of a roasting on two critical points. No, yes no, pepper mill in the entire restaurant (including the kitchen) and just on the day when I’d forgotten to pack my pepper mill and sea salt into my handbag. Sure there was a little dish of pepper, and it was freshly, if finely ground, but that is just not the same as oysters with freshly milled pepper. The other real disappointment was the almond soufflé that tasted more like scrambled eggs than a dessert soufflé. Either get the soufflé right or get it off the menu and make something gorgeous. So why do we give The Kitchen Door such a good wrap? Well it’s about 50% better than 80% of Adelaide/South Australian restaurants and to be further fair 99% of Adelaide’s restaurants can’t make desserts. This is a fact that mystifies me completely especially given that most good home cooks take a cookbook, follow the recipe and make a good dessert. I fail to understand why more kitchens can’t figure it out. Don’t they own a couple of decent cookbooks???
At The Kitchen Door, the prices are so modest the quality they deliver for the price is, in the main very good. Service under the direction of Sarah Howie is pitched just right and differently to every table according to their needs, savoury items are better than average and we think their tasting menu five courses with matched wines $70 is an absolute steal!
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WINE You have to admire the owners of cellar door restaurants who happily pitch their wines against classic old and comparative new world wines. At The Kitchen Door there is so much well–priced choice letting them choose seems the obvious solution, but suffice to say excellent wines, served in good glassware from $6–$10 and if that isn’t seductive enough for your they have an extensive list labeled “Imports and Friends Of” with a modestly priced list of imports and older vintages.
Restaurant and functions manager — Sarah Howie
Chef — Ben Sommariva
