The tourist town of Hahndorf is humming again. It’s Friday afternoon and traffic has slowed to a crawl in the main street. Car parks are elusive and footpaths full. Sellers of trinkets and oddments are doing good business.

The two big German-themed pubs have lines out the door, and the smell of boiled sausage, pork hock and sauerkraut hangs in the still autumn air. Each to their own. Personally, I’d rather have my pork in more considered surrounds up the road at Hahn & Hamlin.

This little restaurant doesn’t make much of an impact from the front, where steps lead up to a narrow veranda and a smattering of tables. Inside, the dining space is spread through a series of restored rooms with exposed stone walls and weathered floorboards, retaining much of the rustic charm of the original 1860s cottage.

While it might be small in size and limited in resources, Hahn & Hamlin has the telltale signs of a well-run operation. Vases are filled with freshly cut flora. Everything is spick-and-span. Service is prompt and across all the detail. This is particularly the case when the effervescent owner, Erica Rushbrook, makes her way to the table.

After a lifetime in hospitality roles, she succumbed to the dream of running her own business and, after hearing about a vacant cellar door space, opened Hahn & Hamlin in the middle of 2018. The original plan was for a wine bar with snacks but local demand pushed it into offering more substantial meals. That is where the restaurant’s less visible asset comes in. Hidden away in the kitchen at the back, chef Heydeon Young cooks with the surety you would expect from a veteran whose CV includes a host of well-credentialled venues across Sydney.

His pickled yellowfin tuna, for example, is something quite special. The fish has been cured in sugar and salt, then soaked in a red wine vinegar and spice mix. Once sliced, the pieces are still rosy pink and glossy. Other than the narrow surface layer where the pickle has penetrated, their texture in the mouth totally luxurious. With a dab of preserved lemon dressing and a shredded apple and dill salad, the dish is part gravlax, part ceviche and part imagination.

Corn bayonets are at the more rudimentary end of the snacking spectrum, the curled strips of fried kernels drenched in a five-spice butter for instant, finger-licking gratification. You know you shouldn’t have another, but…

Larger plates, unfortunately, all arrive together, even though we are sharing. Communications, it seems, have broken down somewhere. It isn’t ideal when they include fillets of garfish that can’t have spent more than a couple of minutes in the frypan, keeping the delicate flesh pure and sweet. They are draped over a mound of confit potato cubes and finished with a medley of multi-coloured tomatoes and fresh basil. Perfect for an Indian summer.

The fish needs to be finished before we can contemplate the pork, a dish built more for the cooler days of autumn. Pork scotch (neck) is cooked for more than three hours until all the seams of fat have seeped into the flesh, leaving it totally relaxed and ready for a long lie down on a bed of kale. A fine reduction sauce, fried swiss mushrooms and toasted walnuts all play along. Charred spears of broccolini in a mustard emulsion are scattered with panko crumbs and flakes of bonito (dried fish) that give an extra layer of umami flavour.

To finish, heavily grilled halves of fig, their pulp all jammy, sit on a block of lemon parfait with a limoncello syrup. The simple seasonal message comes through loud and clear.

Hahn & Hamlin has been strongly recommended by my partner in life, who dined there a few weeks earlier. Once again, I’m happy to report, her taste is impeccable.

Related review: Add this local gem to your Barossa bucket list