Black magic: The eye-catching squid ink risotto, adorned with seared squid.
Inn has hidden treats for visitors from near or far, writes Tim Lloyd.McLaren Vale's problem is deciding if it is a suburb of Adelaide or a wine tourism district. The Salopian Inn takes advantage of both sides of the coin.
It is the first and best referenced country restaurant south of Adelaide.
Kerry and Zannie Flanagan rescued it in the early 1980s, rebuilt it and employed Russell Jeavons to cook.
The threesome since has had much to do with the excellence of food in the Vales, as have subsequent owners, particularly The Salopian's long-serving Pip Forrester.
Since December, the latest owner, Adam Trippe-Smith, has been developing a vision that takes the Salopian further. As part of the McLaren Vale Beer Company, Adam is putting artisan beer on tap. This is a great move because everyone knows how much winemakers love to drink ale, and high-quality tailor-made ale at that. We tried the ale and found it excellent. The beer, wine and spirit experience at The Salopian is well outside the usual range.
The beer is a developing story, with the company still moving production from Sydney to the industrial park area of Willunga, just 5km from The Salopian.
Marco Fellegvari has passed up on the sommelier title and describes himself as the beverage manager. Marco decides on the selections in consultation with the Adelaide-based master of wine, David LeMire. None of this is much use if the food does not also challenge and entertain while also paying attention to local sources.
And that was the object of our mission. We wanted to see if The Salopian was a good deal for the influx of diners.
We started with the odd mixture of delicacies that is part of the background to visiting the restaurant.
There is a bar menu from $9 and it includes such food as the Clappis's exceptional locally made bread, local olives, olive oil, goat curd and roasted Willunga almonds.
It stretches out into soup, rillettes, fish, and good chips fried in duck fat.
We were eating off the main menu where most of the same items could be found, starting with tasty fingers of anchovies wrapped in pastry and a complex little dish with three balls of delicately flavoured, light-textured polenta deep-fried in a herb and beer batter.
There also was a contrasting selection of three tartlets, each little explosions of taste and texture. The warm, short pastry tartlets containing blue vein cheese provided a vivid flavour complemented by the caramelised garlic and tiny decorative chervil toppings.
We also tried the lamb and pea soup, which was very different from expectations. The soup was a subtle consomme with lumps of potato and fresh green peas. The mixture did not quite make sense until you undid the wonton parcel in the middle of the soup, which was full of delicate and wellcooked lamb and mint.
Another entree was a small risotto that was pitch black and sticky in squid ink, but sprinkled with brilliant white arms of delicate seared squid. The squid ink had given the risotto a glorious, deep warmth and the experience made us very well disposed to the restaurant, and the 2009 Battle of Bosworth dry rose, grown a few kilometres away.
We settled on drinking local wines, as they seemed more relevant to the idea of a restaurant in the Vales, but the international selection went past 60 wines, and there were plenty of interstate wines.
The entrees seemed to be where the action was, so my wife settled for a third entree as her main: a garfish, prawn and leek souffle with salmon roe and butter sauce. Again, it was terrific and stylish. The flourish was having the point of the garfish rakishly poking out of the top of souffle, with the head lurking inside.
I settled on a beef fillet, mainly because it came with a Yorkshire pudding I was keen to try. It was very nearly a Yorkshire souffle, light textured, and restrained enough to do a terrific job of sopping up the juices from the rare steak, which suffered, as some undercut fillet does, from being a bit tasteless.
Our guest had the boneless twice-roasted duck, topped with pink slices of duck breast, with witlof and beetroot, on a pomegranate sauce.
We were treated to the duck fat-fried slices of potato and steamed green beans in garlic - which arrived by mistake but were much appreciated - and a special side dish served in a small, hot pan of spinach cooked with persian feta, which was the accompaniment of our choice.
The desserts included a strawberry tart with delicious thick cream from Alexandrina, but the double-baked chocolate mousse caught my attention. The baking and extra cocoa give it an adult chocolate flavour and texture. It came on a biscotti of macadamia with a large blow-torched marshmallow on top.
By the end of the night, we had spent more money than intended, had several delicious surprises among the dishes and generally felt very pleased with ourselves.
The food: 15/20
The staff: 7/10
The drink: 4/5
The X-factor: 4/5
The value: 6/10
Total out of 50 - 36
Address: Cnr McMurtrie and Main roads, McLaren Vale; ph 8323 8769
Food: Regional, European
Drink: Licensed. Moving feast of McLaren Vale and international wines with good national representation as well
Hours: Lunch: Noon-2.30pm; Wed-Sun, and later on; Sundays
Dinner: 6pm-late; Thurs-Sat; Bar menu: From noon, Thurs-Fri
Head chef: Billy Dohnt
Owner: Adam Trippe-Smith
Parking: Outside, nearby, free
Prices: Bar menu: From $9; Entrees: $18; Mains: $32; Sides: $9; Desserts: $16-$24
Snapshot:
Fine dining with strong regional food and wine accents. Prime McLaren Vale location.
Information in this article is correct as of 13 October 2010
Taste.com.au - The Advertiser - October 2010
Tim Lloyd
No comments:
Post a Comment