There’s newfound freshness to this elegant fine-dining space. The ripple of energy is largely attributed to 14 wooden service cabinets, each one crafted to enable chefs to finish dishes tableside. Like late-harvest tomato tea poured from a pot stuffed with mint and scarlet zinnia from executive chef and owner Scott Huggins’s Piccadilly Valley garden. The refreshing liquid forms part of nine welcome snacks, but the real drama comes later, in a drizzle of roasted walnut oil over a dahlia-like assembly of confit smoked beetroot. Or the flourish of vivid green lettuce velouté over braised Eyre Peninsula greenlip abalone and jamón Ibérico de bellota served in-shell. It’s part theatre, part insight into the technical nous going on in the kitchen. While flashes of “Penfolds red” continue to permeate the décor, wine pairings and winery setting, a refusal to rest on his laurels keeps this icon front and centre, a decade after opening.
Colin Page
