Hahndorf Hills Winery - Adelaide Hills

We were surprised that one of our friends were in Adelaide the same time we were. Not only that, we were also going to Adelaide Hills on the same day. As such, we decided to meet up at Hahndorf Hills Winery for a light nibble.

We decided to order a couple of platters to share - some cheeses, salmon pate, a meat pate, vine leaves, marinated squid, fig and the like. Everything was quite nibbly and quite nice. But it was just the lead up to the main event - their famous 'chocovino' tastings.

The 'chocovino' tastings is a delectable pairing between wines and world-class chocolates. It also came with the 'world's purest water' - water bottled in a place with the least amount of air polution ever! So did this water taste different? Psychologically, it was WOW amazingly pure. But realistically, our sparkling mineral water tasted like most other sparklings.

The chocolates? Pretty awesome. We all got different ones. To taste the chocolates, we were instructed to look at it, to smell it, to hear it snap and break, to place a tiny bit in on our tongues to melt it - and then to just savour the cocoa flavour. So complicated. But a fun experience :)

I had a pretty fun experience here :)  A tad pricey - but the experience was pretty cool! Dining in a room with floor to ceiling glass overlooking the winery - not something that happens every day :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8.5/10
Value for money - 6/10
Overall - 28.5/40

Hahndorf Hills Winery
38 Pains Road
Hahndorf, South Australia 5245
Tel: (08) 8388 7512

Maggie Beer Farm Shop- Barossa Valley

We were in the Barossa Valley so we couldn't resist a visit to Maggie Beer's farm. We must have picked a bad day coz they were PACKED OUT! Arriving around 1pm, there was almost no room to move. But we eventually managed to order and find a table in the corner.

We weren't too hungry and so, we ordered the Pheasant Farm Pate Picnic Basket to share. This came with a Maggie Beer Pheasant Farm Pate, a small dish of amazing caramelised onion, freekah salad, and warm and soft wood-ovened bread. It was pretty good!

Pheasant Farm Pate Picnic Basket

I also eyed their chocolate brownie ($2)... and hubby went straight away to get it for me :) This tiny little square was SOOO dense and SOOO rich... it was pretty crazy! Probably couldn't eat more than this tiny little square of this stuff.

chocolate brownie

cooking demo

After the meal, there's a cooking demonstration at 2pm. At this demo, we were told about all the virtues of verjuice and their vinocotto.... made pretty delicious caramelised onion and buttered mushies :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 28/40

Maggie Beer Farm Shop
50 Pheasant Farm Road
Nuriootpa, South Australia, 5355
Tel: (08) 8562 4477

Eden - Glenelg

What's in a name? In this case - nothing.
Glenelg is a popular beachside town, just around 20 mins away from Adelaide CBD. There's all these restaurants along their beachside marina ... but we chose Eden because it seemed to offer a bit of seafood (which SA seemed to be famous for), and because it was decently populated.

We sat down and ordered ... wanted oysters - sorry , out... wanted another entree - sorry, out.... and that went on for a bit until we settled on the fish of the day (whole roasted barramundi), and I went for their clam pasta, tossed with chilli and some sort of prawn bisque? We had also decided on potatoes with rocket and truffle to share.

Despite the awesomeness of the lemon-lime bitter, the rest of the meal was quite a disappointment.

lemon lime bitter

Every table got served bread, except us. We got served our side first.... and it was served as an entree???!?!?! and... rocket? where's the rocket? I believe that the green stuff is called chives.

potato with rocket .... rocket where?

The barramundi was pretty good - cooked well, the meat was juicy, and served with some cherry tomatoes.

fish of the day - whole roasted barramundi

But my pasta? ZOMG BAD!. The hand made pasta was way over cooked... a bit of a sloshy mess. The sauce was way too watery and lacked taste. The whole this was... just terrible. I could definitely cook better pasta than this~

clams with hand made pasta with chilli and prawn bisque

I couldn't wait to get out of here once we finished our meal.... poor service, not so great food... why bother really?

Ratings:
Food - 5/10
Service - 4/10
Ambiance - 5/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 19/40

Eden Dining Room and Bar
Shop 6, Lights Landing Holdfast Shores
Glenelg, South Australia, 5045
Tel: (08) 8376 7688

Mandoo - Adelaide

A Korean restaurant with Pete Evans' tick of approval? That's Mandoo - a dumpling restaurant in the city of Adelaide.Walking past it, we couldn't resist but to go in and test it out.

We couldn't really decide which dumplings we wanted - and so, we opted for a dumpling hot pot with a mix of chicken, pork, kimchi and vego dumplings (amongst a heap of other yummy ingredients). We were first served with several simple side dishes - pickles, kimchi, and seaweed. We were also presented with a mild chilli mixture ... a bit of gochujang, sesame and shallot? I have to say - this chilli mixture kind of saves the dumplings as the dumplings themselves don't seem to have too much taste.

side dishes

chilli sauce

Our dumpling pot came and it was amazing! Thin slices of beef, tofu, rice cake, udon, mushies, fishcake and dumplings. YUM!!!! also loved the broth (i think it was a beef broth?). Pretty awesome.

dumpling hot pot

All up, it was a pretty good feed. I'm not convinced that it's the bestest dumplings I've had, but the hot pot was enough to leave us both satisfied and happy :)

Ratings:
Food - 7/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 7/10
Value for money - 27/40

Mandoo
Shop 3, 26 Bank St
Adelaide, 
South Australia, 5000
Tel: (08) 8231 3303

Fish of Penneshaw - Kangaroo Island

We had a wonderful opportunity over the Xmas/New Year break to head to South Australia. As part of the trip, we had to visit the lovely Kangaroo Island - and island with very limited population but lots of nature stuff.

At Kangaroo Island, we were able to see many spectacular sights - sea lions just chilling on the beach, fur seals lying on rocks, koalas, and kangaroos.... But in terms of food - being an island, it's a bit limited.

Being the island of seafood, hubby and I decided to eat at "Fish of Penneshaw" - a gourmet fish and chips shop. At the shop, we ordered the king george whiting with salad and chips, as well as the marron with salad and chips. I have to say, it wasn't a cheap meal - but it was pretty tasty. It was the first time having the king george whiting and this was a white fish which was a bit more solid (compared to your barramundi and perch), but really quite flavoursome. The marron  - a fresh water crayfish - was really quite small but heaps tasty! I LOVE marron - wish I could eat it all the time :P
On top of that - we got a jumbo scallop each - perfectly cooked ...but not really that jumbo~

Fish of Penneshaw

marron with chips and salad

king george whiting with chips and salad

There was a sign outside this takeaway - claiming it to be worthy of a michelin star. I think that it was a pretty good meal... but.... michelin star worthy? hm...

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 5/10
Overall - 27/40

Fish of Penneshaw
North Terrace,
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
South Australia