Scenic Hotel — Restaurant in Norton Summit

We booked to have lunch at The Scenic Hotel, we had driven past the pub on many occasions and often wondered whether it stacked up.

The short answer is NO, keep driving.

The staff were very pleasant and happily moved us from a drafty unused fireplace to a much better table nearer to a working fireplace. Sad really because we booked ahead and requested a table by the fire and arrived 10 min early.

We ordered a variety of dishes to get a feel for what you’d expect to be good pub food (chicken schnitzel) and also some finer dishes that we thought would be a good test of quality (the daily special Prawn Dish, and Steak Tartare). We also had 6 oysters, a samosa entree and a bowl of thin fries with our mains.

The oysters were fresh but sadly the size differential between them varied significantly. The chilli sauce that came with them was straight out of a bottle and was disappointing.

Let’s say thank god for the two slices of lemon.

My wife had the samosa and it was so dry you needed to drown it in the mint sauce to make it eatable.

The biggest let down of the meal was my wife’s Chicken Schnitzel, it was crusty almost burnt at the edges, dry and chewy. Wow we thought they can’t even get that right.

While the Schnitzel was a let down the maddest meal was the house speciality Steak Tartare - which we were told was served on a bed of smiths crisps (huh we thought that’s weird but we were up for it). My advice is don’t do it, they’ve taken a perfectly good piece of meat and put it through a mincer/blender and plonked it on top of a bag of chips. No shallots, no capers, not a hint of dressing or olive oil nope nada. But apparently folks travel miles for this dish - go figure.

That leaves us with our final dish the prawns, phew they were fresh and we ate them, but what was with the limp cabbage leaves they were sitting on. Just unappetising.

Hey the chips were perfect.

Btw, don’t order the Gaminot 2022 a $34 bottle of wine that you’ll pay $128 for and it was bordering...

For some punters buying a fine house is all about location, location, location. When dining out for me it is all about food, service, location. The Scenic Hotel on Norton Summit has to have one of the best dining locations in Adelaide with views from on high of the urban Adelaide plains. It screams relax! Previous visits to this leafy and shady oasis in the hills have shown that the Scenic has a consistently high quality menu standard. It changes frequently - so frequently that by the time I pre-selected my mains choice from the online menu it had been removed from the menu by the time I got there.

Not to worry, there were several equally appealing options. Not too many mind you that the chefs would be over-taxed, but top quality meat, fish and veggie options to meet most palates head on. No ‘specials’ menu just the nine key mains menu items to which culinary TLC is skilfully applied. We enjoy the ambiance first up. A choice of indoors wooden-cum-art, a balcony with the view, or a rustic garden under the trees. Choose according to the weather and season.

Our group opted for stuffed courgette flowers for hors d’oeuvres – delicate and cheesy. For mains we selected kangaroo steaks, oven baked barramundi and tender lamb shoulder. All dishes were presented with flair and panache and there was no annoying delivery delay to the table. The taste was, well … tops. Nothing left on our plates. A delicate Adelaide Hills Manyara sauvignon blanc. Coopers Ale for one co-diner and there’s lots of Coopers beers on tap.

Service was generally good if a little short on the peripheral vision side. I don’t really want to get up to order another bottle of wine. Small point but still room for a bit of quality tweaking.

Would we go back? Well, yes of course. The Scenic is hard to beat and the staff always have those all-important smiles gracing their faces. Bookings probably recommended on weekends, though mid-week you may be able to turn up on spec. Onyer! Scenic. Keep up...

WHY MAKE CHANGES FOR THE SAKE OF MAKING CHANGES, we haven't been for two years, loved the previous experience & came back to bask in a fire lit ol' world experience, BUT, renovations have taken place & destroyed their former rustic & a bygone era experience... the fires were not even lit until asked, but the new furnishing didn't work for us... even the menu left much to be desired, it was nothing special & not good value for money... my lamb & the basic whatever else they plied on the plate was less than a generous serving... service okay, but staff engaging with patrons costs nothing... we shall not return when there are much better options elsewhere, cheers.

A surprise & unexpected pleasure at this lovely old remnant of a bygone era. An old world setting, a little rustic, wonderful open fires, the requisite creak in the well worn wooden floors, a partial city view, added to the ambience & atmosphere. The negative reviews mostly appeared to revolve around some staff & the quality of service, but not today, none of this applied during our visit on a quiet Monday morning lunch when celebrating my partner's birthday. The service was outstanding in the guise of Jordan, friendly, good natured, extremely accommodating, where nothing was too much trouble. The wine list I thought could be improved upon with a wider choice. We enjoyed a crusty bread, oil & dukkah offering, asked for some balsamic which arrived at no fuss nor extra charge. The menu may not have been extensive, but we both enjoyed a lovely & delicious main meal. It wasn't cheap, but the quality ensured value for money & we had no qualms. Another test is the quality of their coffee which disappoints at most establishments, but not here, not today, the coffee was on a par with the service, excellent. I would easily recommend this hotel & will come again. Apparently Sundays are extremely busy, perhaps one should choose another day. My partner & I had a wonderful...