Restaurant Reviews

Mesa Lunga

- Alex Leave a comment

Mesa Lunga Chandelier
photo of Mesa Lunga’s chandelier by Theen Moy

date of visit: Wednesday 22 May 2013

It’s been just over a year since my last visit to Mesa Lunga and I actually had no intention of writing about this visit (so no photos), but, in retrospect, I also think it’s fair to update my opinion.

I popped into Mesa Lunga before the Loft launch party. My friend suggested it because it was somewhere she wanted to try and, fortuitously, it was right next door to Loft. I kept my mouth shut about my last visit and arrived with not only an open mind but a determination to avoid churros at all costs!

Being super early on a weekday, we had no problems being seated in the restaurant without a reservation. We started with glasses of The Lane Pinot Gris while making our decision about what, and how much, to order.

We decided to order a few small plates, as well as a carciofi pizza (I really love artichokes). I still think it’s weird for a venue which styles itself as Spanish/tapas to serve pizza, but the pizza was actually pretty good, with a crispy base and enough topping but not so much that everything sagged.

We also ordered the prawns with garlic, chilli and sherry vinegar, the pork belly with quince aioli and the patatas bravas. We might have ordered a bit too much …

For me, the pork belly with the quince aioli was easily the stand out dish. The crackling was really crackly and the quince aioli was amazing. I would have been quite happy to have some crusty bread and that by itself. It was a lovely combination of sharp and garlicky with a texture that was somewhere between thick mayonnaise and a sauce. The sharpness worked really well with the pork and made me wonder why we don’t see pork and quince as a more common combination.

The prawns, and in particular their sauce, got a big thumbs up from my friend and we both liked the patatas bravas, although the chilli heat of the tomato sauce seemed a little inconsistent. The potatoes themselves were super crispy and the aioli was suitably garlicky.

The bill came to $84 which, while we had ample to eat, I felt was a bit on the pricey side. As with my last visit, I also felt service was a bit uneven. It’s definitely something that needs tightening up, especially around the end of the meal. I think it’s reasonable to assume that people who are dining early (and who are all dressed up!) are probably on their way out to something else, so being sharp with both bringing the bill AND collecting it, is important.

The visit definitely improved my opinion of Mesa Lunga, but it’s still not somewhere I’d be suggesting as a destination venue.

Mesa Lunga on Urbanspoon

Au Pear, Willunga

- Alex 1 Comment

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date of visit: Friday 3 May 2013

For the record, I think Au Pear is up there with daft names for restaurants. It doesn’t beat a restaurant in Leeds that was called @Larocca (it no longer exists – it wasn’t very good in the food department) but it is still a bit confusing. Have they spelled something wrongly? Is it (as someone asked on twitter) a restaurant that will look after your children while you dine? What exactly are they trying to tell you?

Branding aside, I guess a lot of this doesn’t matter very much if your restaurant delivers and restaurants in the McLaren Vale/Willunga region have to do that because there’s a lot of excellent competition. Au Pear is on a tough patch because it’s located on the road from McLaren Vale to Willunga, and in between Fino and The Kitchen Door at Penny’s Hill.

As my parents are our chief babysitters their payment in kind is being taken out to lunch. I’m quite a long way behind with what I owe them but you have to catch up somewhere. We’d been planning on trying out Au Pear a while back but a sick toddler had curtailed that exercise, so it was a relief to actually get there on a lovely sunny day, complete with toddler and at least one Octonaut in tow.

Au Pear is smallish space, with a semi separate area for the bar and a dining area. It sits somewhere between café and restaurant and I’d describe it (ambience wise) as more casual than both Fino and Penny’s Hill.

Both the menu and the wine list are short and sweet. I always rate short when it comes to menus and, unsurprisingly, the wine list has a strongly local focus. We chose a La Curio Sangiovese and dad also had a Goodieson’s beer as apéritif.

The food is all simple and self explanatory, which leaves the kitchen very little room for mistakes, because it’s likely you’ll have quite definite expectations about what you’re going to receive.

For entrée (although this choice came from the ‘starter’ section of the menu, ‘entrées’ were listed separately) I chose the vine leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts and mint and served with labne. This was a generous portion, with two large rolls on the plate. I love the combination of mint and labne and I really enjoyed this dish. The vine leaf rolls were tender, juicy and the mint definitely came through and there was ample labne on the plate.

Dad ordered the polenta, fried and served with anchovies, blistered trussed tomatoes and basil and mum chose some cauliflower fritters.

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For a while now we’ve been sensing that sharing our food with the toddler leaves us hungry, so for him I ordered the game terrine with orange and fennel salad which lasted him almost the whole meal but definitely got the thumbs up (apart from the parsley).

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For main course I ordered house made gnocchi served with caprino fresco (soft, fresh goats cheese), marinated artichokes and black olive tapenade. While the gnocchi and artichokes were warm, the cheese and tapenade were cool so there was an interesting play of temperature rather than texture. I absolutely loved the fact that the three main components hadn’t been blended to form a sauce (not that that wouldn’t have tasted great): it was a very fun way of serving a very simple dish. And I’m pleased to report that the gnocchi were light too.

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Mum ordered a lamb dish (which I didn’t see any of!) and dad ordered the duck: crispy duck leg and duck breast, served with pickled cherries, salted orange, soused cabbage and pistachios. While this is one of the more expensive dishes on the menu it was a HUGE portion and got a very definite thumbs up from the other side of the table. The toddler, who turned his nose up at mum’s lamb, was quite keen on the duck breast part of dad’s dish too …

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We wrapped up with coffees and the obligatory babychino. Given that lunch had already lasted a couple of hours we thought that desserts might be pushing it – especially as mum was interested in a soufflé and the toddler was interested in running around the garden …

The service was really friendly and efficient and both the owner and our waitress were really considerate, thoughtful and friendly people who went out of their way to ensure that we were comfortable and well looked after.

I would not hesitate to return to Au Pear, or to recommend it. I think that both its ambience and style of food fit really well, in a complementary way, with its near neighbours. At present it is open every day for lunch and open on weekends for breakfasts.

And one final hint? Make sure you go to the loo while you’re there: it’s a stunning inside out set up!

Au Pear on Urbanspoon

Games Season at The Highway

- Alex Leave a comment

20130429_194909Crocodile skewers – beware the chilli sauce!

Disclaimer: I was a guest of The Highway at this sneak peek dinner.

date of visit: Monday 29 April 2013

Last year you may remember that I took my parents to The Highway for my mum’s birthday dinner. It happened to be Game Week, something about which I was quite excited, and then we all promptly ordered from the non-game menu.

This year Game Week is Game Season and The Highway invited along a few Adelaide bloggers, and their guests, to take a look at the menu. My friend, Rob, and I were joined by the guys from The Chopping Board and Xin and his wife, Tina, from Adelaide Foodies. Andy was left at home on baby sitting duties.

We started off in the Lounge Bar with a tasting selection of most of the dishes on the game menu. Nick Finn, the Highway’s head chef, talked us through the dishes and some of the thought processes behind putting the menu together. Nick was not only really friendly but did a great job of both explaining and selling the menu.

Things kicked off with the rabbit cacciatore. The idea behind this was to make part of the dish something with which people are really familiar and comfortable: that’s the cacciatore part. And as rabbit is perhaps one of the less obviously gamey meats, it acts as a good vehicle for carrying the cacciatore’s flavours. As rabbit is lean lots of sauce and slow cooking is a good thing.

Next out of the kitchen was a platter of kangaroo burger sliders. The kangaroo burger actually features as a main course dish, so these were to give us an idea of what the finished dish will be like. The kangaroo meat made a really good burger (I thought): quite dense but absolutely packed with flavour. The buns had bush chutney on one side and an aioli on the other – I thought that we could have done with even more aioli but that was my only criticism!

This was followed by crocodile skewers with shoestring chips. I think crocodile is such a pointless meat. It tastes of nothing. I’ve had it before and thought that, and I still think that. The skewers were served with a fearsomely hot chilli sauce. I am good with spicy food, and I wouldn’t have described it as too hot for me, but I really thought that for most people (including the ‘standard punter’ who the chef has to have in mind with any dish) this would have been too hot. Sing agreed – saying it was too hot for him. Nick acknowledged that everyone in the kitchen at the Highway is a bit of a chilli fiend so they may be slightly out of touch! I’m not sure if they’ll have been able to tone it down, so if you order the skewers, tread carefully with that chilli sauce!

20130429_195920Venison with gnocchi

We wrapped up the bar side tasting with the slow braised Denver venison, served with gnocchi. Super rich and warming, the perfect rib sticking meal for a cold winter’s night. And the gnocchi (which the Highway does buy in) were amazing.

At this point I was pretty full, but we all toddled off into the Bistro for our dinner. I ordered the venison and Rob chose the duck breast with lentils, tomato sugo and witlof. The duck breast was described as crispy skin and, unfortunately, it wasn’t. Also, both Rob and I thought that the duck breast was overcooked. However, on this point I am prepared to accept that it was probably cooked to the exact degree of doneness the kitchen was after, and how I like my duck cooked most people would describe as undercooked. Rob did rave about the lentil and tomato base (I didn’t get to try that, but trust me, Rob knows what he’s talking about).

The kitchen provided us with one last treat: a huge dessert tasting platter. Crema catalana served with blood orange sorbet and basil syrup (I loathe things orange but Rob really rated this very very highly), churros with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce (the caramel sauce was my favourite), a chocolate torte, a berry parfait and, probably the star of the platter for me, a beautifully light strawberry and moscato jelly, topped with a very light white chocolate mousse and Persian fairy floss.

20130429_214222Dessert tasting platter … no game!

Now I can tell you right now that if I saw that dish on a menu I would never ever order (I’m not a big fan of strawberries and generally moscato isn’t my thing and I loathe white chocolate) it but I absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately for you, these are all the summer desserts and they won’t be on the menu for much longer …

Drinks wise, I very much enjoyed the Fraser Gallop Chardonnay (available by the glass, and reason enough to go to the Highway!). We also had a bottle of the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir – a very red berry fruit forward approachable Pinot.

I think the menu does a great job of taking some potentially unfamiliar ingredients and making them very accessible. Which is what it’s all about: encouraging people to try something a little out of their comfort zone.

Game Season, an annual event, this year runs until 15 May in the Bistro at the Highway. Bookings recommended.