By Amanda – On The Chopping Board
The Mayfair Hotel is a stunning five star boutique hotel which houses the charming Mayflower Restaurant and Bar at the base of the hotel. We were invited to celebrate their 1st birthday with a Chef’s Table Experience – AKA a delicious spread!
Head Chef, Bethany Finn, gave us an insight into the direction the restaurant has taken with the use of fresh, local and sustainable South Australian food and wine. Bethany has even installed two beehives on the rooftop of the hotel so she can farm fresh honey herself for use in the restaurant! How cool is that?!
The menu has an old-school traditional feel but with some modern twists to remind you that you haven’t completely travelled back in time.
To begin this special night we are provided with a selection of seafood and cured hams for the table to share. The seafood is presented in gorgeous crystal bowls and are atop of mounds of ice keeping the seafood fresh and cold.
We feast like royalty on SA King prawns, Pacific oysters, Alaskan King crab and a ceviche of storm clams. All the seafood was exquisitely fresh and shining all on their own with little work needed due to the good quality produce sourced.
The selection of cured hams included: San Jose, Dry Cured Ham, Adelaide Hills, Prosciutto, San Daniele Italy and Iberico Bellota, Spain.
The cured hams were served with fresh bread and zucchini pickles (my favourite!). Unfortunately no photos of these platters, as the freshly sliced hams were obviously smelling too good for anyone around the table to wait for this token food blogger to sneak a picture!
For main course we got to choose from 3 options: the salmon, the duck pie or the beef fillet.
I decide to keep on the seafood theme and go with the salt roasted salmon fillet with lemon, nori, pickled cucumber and sushi rice. It almost sounded like a deconstructed sushi roll – and it was delightful! I loved this dish — the salt from the nori, the citrus from the lemon, the tang from the pickling and the stickiness from the sushi were all great accompaniments to the full flavoured salmon fillet.
Our mains were also accompanied with some finger-licking side dish options! The triple cooked hand cut chips were oh my goodness, amazing!
For dessert, Head Chef Bethany rolls out the most impressive dessert trolley filled with a selection of glorious slices, tarts, chocolate mousse, creme caramel, sacher torte, creme brulee, tiramisu, orange and almond cake, sherry trifle and summer pudding.
How does one pick just one delight from the best invention ever, the dessert trolley!?
After a closer look and a lot of deliberation I decide on the Hazelnut and Salted Caramel cake. I’m pretty sure there was a more technical term for this “cake” but in my overwhelmed dessert-awed state all is forgotten apart from the words caramel and hazelnut!
And yes it tastes as amazing as it is beautifully and delicately presented. In this moment I decide I will definitely be returning for high tea one afternoon very soon.
I would like to extend a sincere thank you to The Mayfair Hotel and Adelady for the very kind invitation to share in the celebrations of the special first birthday of The Mayfair Hotel.
The service, food, wine and company made for an exquisite evening proving that this hotel and restaurant is serious in making its mark in Adelaide.
I appreciate the passion and dedication Head Chef Bethany Finn has delivered to every element of the restaurant and look forward to seeing how this evolves over time. Happy Birthday Mayfair Hotel… we wish you many happy returns.
Amanda xx
If you’re after a great brekky cafe, check out The Little Eastern in St Morris
