The kitchen gets to cuts loose each Wednesday night at Magill Estate Restaurant for its experimental Project nights. Chefs Scott Huggins and Emma McCaskill push the boundaries to present dishes that are very different to the restaurant’s usual dégustation. Diners can expect the unexpected – grilled King George whiting offset by dabs of sharp lemon curd or southern calamari with bone marrow and roasted onion, or a steamed pudding of pumpkin with black garlic ice-cream.
That goes for the matched wines, too: decades-old chardonnays accompany the seafood, a 1999 pinot noir with duck braised in cabbage, and not a muscular shiraz in sight when we visited. Still, each Wednesday changes, with chefs aiming to introduce such theatre as breaking and serving salt-crusted baked fish at the table. Once the restaurant reopens on 3 August, after its winter repose, a four-course Project night set menu with snacks will cost $100, with matched wines for an additional $70 (about 60 per cent less than the usual dégustation with matched wines).
Penfolds Magill Estate, 78 Penfold Rd, Magill, SA, (08) 8301 5551, magillestaterestaurant.com
