D’Arry’s Verandah
Restaurant
Osborne Road
McLaren Vale South Australia 5171
w www.darenberg.com.au
e darrys@darenberg.com.au
t +61 8 8323 8710
f +61 8 8323 9862
OPEN Lunch 7 days from 12 noon till 2.30 pm reservations recommended.
FOOD Bliss! A perfect summer’s day, cloudless blue sky, view over the vineyards to the glorious Fleurieu Hills, just warm enough to have all the doors and windows open and superb food and wine. Everything coinciding in one fantastic package is wonderful and all too rare an experience. They even have salt and pepper on the table, not that we needed it as everything was perfectly seasoned. The restaurant has one of South Australia’s
most beautiful views; an ever-changing landscape, from the deep emerald
of winter, through to the golden purple hazes of high summer.
the stunning vineyards and Fleurieu Hills view
Mid–week and no booking we were lucky to get a table and at an advantageous
point we were able to see all of the dishes passing by. They all looked
wonderful. Restaurants can be judged by their bread and butter/oil
and $2.50 pp is incredibly modest. As for the crappy boiled down cheap
balsamic and sugar trying to disguise awful oil……spare us! There is none of that nonsense at d’Arry’s Verandah. Their house–made bread and fresh unsalted, salt–crusted
butter is par excellence, so good we had to resist ordering more and
spoiling our appetites. Three diners, two of us could not go past Lobster
medallion with Blue Swimmer crab ravioli and lobster bisque $25.00 and our third chose the classic House cured gravelax with potato salad and Buxton caviar $18.50. The lobster was brilliant, pared back, no unnecessary ingredients it came with a silken and velvety bisque flavoured sauce. Perfectly seasoned it required no embellishment from the diner and the only criticism (out and out nit picking) was that the bisque sauce had quite a strong tomato flavour. Two small (but very generous) medallions of lobster and a generous crab filled ravioli it was extremely good value for money. In fact, it seemed cheap in comparison to some other crab dishes tried in the last month and it came with lobster as well. The gravelax, now replaced with cured salmon was classically presented, looked absolutely beautiful and tasted better. The side of potatoes $7.00 were generous and came with lots of lemon and just the right amount of rosemary not to overpower the potatoes. Annoyingly one of my dining companions chose the Soft centred chocolate pudding with chocolate ice cream $12.00 to leave me with a second choice of Lychee dumplings with pineapple and lime and chilli sorbet $12.00. Despite the fact that the dumplings were fritters, it was good, but would have been fabulous if the sorbet had been three times larger and the amount of pineapple halved and riper. However, their chocolate dessert was just to die for. Coming with cream and ice cream the ice cream the pudding lived up to the promise of the menu.
Floor staff stay within the casual ambience but are efficient and knowledgeable without being invasive. To their credit they showed enormous good humour when an English dining companion tediously asked if the chocolate was Cadburys.
D’Arry’s Verandah Restaurant is highly recommended and
the worst that could happen to you is you might have to wait a few
minutes in their cellar door, which is right next-door, and sample
some of their brilliant wines. AO
WINE The d’Arenberg portfolio
is an endless source of excitement and wines at pretty much cellar
door prices with wines by the glass for as little as $4.50 is an indication
of commitment to their adoring public. We chose the 2005 Hermit Crab Marsanne Viognier $25.00
a light and luscious fruit driven wine, with a lean and clean long
palate that literally zinged with our Lobster medallion with Blue Swimmer
crab ravioli and lobster bisque. Very few restaurants in South Australia
offer flights, and none as interesting or as modestly priced as d’Arry’s
Verandah. Perhaps most commendable about their wine list is a selection
of iconic Italian, French and other world comparisons again with modest
mark-ups. This inclusion provides wonderful depth to their wine list
and shows complete confidence that their wines will be favourably compared.
OWNER — d’Arenberg Pty
Ltd
CHEFS — Peter Reschke and Nigel Rich
RESTAURANT MANAGER — Jo Reschke
