Featuring: The Lane, Summertown Aristologist, Star House…
YOU don’t need to arrive by helicopter, but if you do you’ll have swooped in over cabernet sauvignon vineyards, rolling hills, gum trees, dams and grazing cows. If the view was the only good thing about The Lane, just 3km from Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, it would probably be enough. It has one of the best winery restaurant locations in South Australia, overlooking a landscape of neatly tended cabernet sauvignon vineyards, rolling hills, gum trees, dams and grazing cows.
But there’s more to this sleek combined restaurant-cellar door than that, with the recent introduction of a Chef’s Table indicative of the increasingly sophisticated cuisine now almost considered de rigeur at leading wineries. Executive chef James Brinklow, who has overseen a fine menu at The Lane for the past seven years, hasn’t let a change in ownership from winery founders John and Helen Edwards to the UK-based Vestey Group put him off track. Indeed, under general manager Martyn Edwards, John and Helen’s son, the drive towards finer dining has continued with even greater vigour – hence the Chef’s Table.
Available for up to eight guests, at a secluded end of the restaurant nearest the kitchen, an exclusive menu will be created by Brinklow on the day matched to wines specially selected to suit each dish. The number of courses will vary but expect at least five, plus a series of tiny tasting dishes at the start of the meal such as smoked trout with pickled ginger on a rice cracker.
Larger courses might include a gorgeous spring vegetable tart with brassica flowers or seared Coorong angas rump cap with buttered radishes and burnt turnips. A unique element will be tastings of available barrel samples matched either with current The Lane wines or a selection of high-end European wines. The Lane, Ravenswood Lane, Hahndorf. Open for lunch daily; phone (08) 8388 1250.
Still in the Adelaide Hills, yet another evolution of the cellar door restaurant that is a typically offbeat, yet exciting, spin-off from the fast expanding group of Basket Range winemakers.
It’s at Summertown, in what used to be a rather dowdy pizza joint, and it brings together the combined talents of winemakers Anton Van Klopper (Lucy Margaux) and Jasper Button (Commune of Buttons), floor manager Aaron Fenwick (ex Magill Estate, Orana) and chef Thomas Edwards (ex sous chef Magill Estate).
In a slightly cheeky nod to the past they’ve called it the Summertown Aristologist, raising memories, for those who’ve been around long enough to have them, of the much-lauded Uraidla Aristologist run by Michael Symons and Jennifer Hillier in the 1980s.
But this is not just a nod to the past – it’s a thoroughly contemporary version, drawing on the abundant produce available locally, served on hand-crafted plates, with bespoke handmade glasses and decanters to hold not just the local wines but interesting imports from where ever. The only constraint is that they’ll nearly all be natural, organic wines with low or minimal sulphur content “We’re focused on changing the way people think about wine,” Fenwick says.
From an open kitchen dominated by a gleaming red meat slicer, Edwards offers a compact but constantly changing menu, starting with simple plates of house-made saucisson or the best possible comte cheese, followed by modest-sized plates such as steamed mussels served with leeks and egg yolk, seared smoked lamb with beetroot and rhubarb or braised white beans in bone broth with kale – all just as adventurous and tasty as the wine. Summertown Aristologist, 1097 Greenhill Rd, Summertown. Open from 9am-9pm Friday-Sunday; phone 0477 410 105.
Meanwhile, back in the city, debate continues as to where you’ll find the best yum cha. Everyone has their favourites but two venerable establishments continue to stand out.
In a street littered with Chinese restaurants offering yum cha and all sorts of other temptations, the queues outside Ding Hao on a Sunday morning tell their own story.
Yum cha chef Leung may have something to do with it, having cooked in this kitchen (in its current and previous incarnations under other owners) since the mid-70s. His weekday list of around 50 yum cha dishes, not counting desserts, is expanded by at least 15 more on Sundays when he feeds up to 600 diners in four hours in a melee of families, children and steaming trolleys. Leung is a dumpling specialist – don’t miss his snow pea dumplings, but his shiu mai dim sum, chicken feet and BBQ pork buns are equally prized. Ding Hao, 26-28 Gouger St, Adelaide. Open for lunch and dinner daily; phone (08) 8211 7036.
Just across the road at Star House, Chinese culinary theatre is in full swing. There’s fierce competition here for the yum cha crown, and with more than 90 choices for lunch during the week, including noodles and congee, it’s little wonder that Star House is constantly packed.
Weekends feature three daily sittings and even more dishes served from steaming trolleys rolling around its packed dining room. The dumplings are ever popular – the king prawn dumplings are a must, but there’s also hot demand for spicy chicken feet, BBQ pork buns and fresh-baked custard tarts.
While Ding Hao radiates tradition and old world Chinese charm, Star House cuts a more contemporary path, fast, cheap and cheerful. Star House, 31 Gouger St, city. Open for lunch and dinner daily; phone (08) 8221 6303.