Muni – Introduction

There are some restaurants where the first thing we discuss on leaving the venue is how we can organise ourselves to return as soon as possible. Muni is such a restaurant!

What is it that makes us driven to return? Almost always it is the quality of the food, sometimes it is extraordinary service, sometimes it is the cleverness of the food and wine pairings and sometimes it is hard to describe – maybe it is just an appealing “vibe”.

In the case of Muni there are many reasons why we want to return as soon as possible. The passion of the owners is one reason. The quality of the food is another. The presentation of the food is another. The pairing of the food with the wines and sake offerings is another. And the service and the overall comfort of the venue is another. All these add up to making Muni a must-visit venue!

There were other reasons why we wanted to go to Muni in the first place. Many friends whose views we respect had recommended it and another reason was that we have known the sommelier, Travis Tausend, for many years and respect his views about wine, so we knew we would be able to drink whatever he recommended.

We parked outside the modern building and entered at the appointed time to a warm greeting. There is no menu as the food is a set menu, so we only had to negotiate the drinks. There is a drinks list and a display of other bottles just inside the door.

We were shown to seats at the counter to enable us to better see the action in the open kitchen and preparation area. The accents of grey on the walls give a relaxed ambience to the room.

They have a small section on the drinks list devoted to non-alcoholic drinks including the TINA 1.0 which is a sparkling drink made from Oolong Tea and Botanical Tea. This is a delightful drink which isn’t as sweet as many non-alcoholic drinks, so we chose that as a starter given the fact that we had to drive back to Adelaide after the meal.

But what caught our eye on the list was an absolute gem from France, namely the Alexandre Jouveaux, Le Mont Macon Chardonnay 2014. We have always admired this natural producer and to be able to drink one of his wines that is nearly 10 years old was too good an opportunity to pass up. And we were not disappointed, it was fresh and very energetic and tasted like it had just gone into the bottle. Amazing!

Now, Muni only opens for three services a week at present so we booked for Sunday lunch, which was very convenient for us. We should point out that the restaurant is in Willunga which is about an hour’s drive south of the Adelaide CBD. The drive is quite pleasant and helps to concentrate the mind on the pleasures that await.

We will now provide a visual tour of our meal which extended over approximately 15 dishes. Enjoy.

This dish was a very strong opening with leek and radish layered and sprinkled with beetroot powder.

Oyster that had been marinated in sake with pipis and black vinegar.

Delicate potato topped with salmon roe and sitting on a kombu crisp. The green sprinkles are kaffir lime.

This was an exemplary chawanmushi custard topped with takuan radish and 72 hour dashi.

Next was radish cake with an intense sauce.

This was a Taiwanese rice pudding served with fish floss – absolutely delicious and a nice contrast at this stage of the meal.

Two skewers of pork jowl that had been marinated in shio koji. Very tasty!

Continuing the clever switches in texture between courses this was a light dish of Southern calamari sprinkled with Thai basil.

The first of three lamb-based dishes, in this dish was some shoulder of lamb paired with fermented tofu and some Nan Ling celery. An excellent dish with great depth of flavour.

Next was an amazing dish – one of the best noodle dishes we have ever been served. The somen noodles had been “stretched” with lamb fat and served in angelica-flavoured rice wine.

The first of two desserts – this one was a young ginger and stringy bark honey ice cream topped sea salt and bathed in a rum syrup.

And the spectacular finish, consisting of smoked chocolate and milk chocolate. Amazing!

So that was the amazing line up we were presented with. At the finish we felt comfortably full, without being bloated. This was a very, very special meal.

You can book at Muni through their Web site here. We have also included Muni in our roundup of good places we ate at in Adelaide here.