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Little Ying Thai, Victoria Park

Posted by  | Categories: Perth, Restaurants, Thai

It was Friday night and the boy phoned me say he had just finished work and was about to head home.   We had made dinner plans for in the city and it looked like he was right on schedule to get home in time for us to head straight in.  Excitedly I starting thinking that we may even have time to quickly stop in at the Greenhouse for a pre-dinner drink!  But as he made his way back to his car, he received a call informing him that the air conditioners in the server room were failing.  This meant he would need to wait back for someone to arrive to fix them.  What was even more annoying for him was that the repair men would be at least two hours away!  So by the time he eventually did get home, our plans to head into the city sounded like far too much like a mission for him, so we decided to go local and head to Little Ying Thai instead.

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We have visited this restaurant before and enjoyed its simple charm.  The quality of the dishes do not begin compare to some of my favourites venues such as Dusit Thai, but then neither do their prices and when you add in their BYO license it has all the makings of a cheap but tasty night out.  The service is very friendly and they are more than happy to accommodate for both gluten-free and fructose friendly requests.

"Pla Muk Yang" "Charcoal squid" "Little Ying Thai" "Victoria Park" "Thai restaurants Vic Park" Thai "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

Pla Muk Yang (Charcoal squid marinated served with sweet chilli and ground peanuts)

We started off with the Charcoal squid which we have ordered before on previous nights here.  It consisted of marinated strips of squid served with sweet chilli sauce and ground peanuts.  As she did previously, the waitress warned us this dish takes a little bit longer to prepare than other entrees, but to be honest we were not waiting for long at all.  The squid was surprisingly tender and although it appears minimally char-grilled it was still flavoursome presumably due to the marinade.  We also ordered chicken larb, a sure-fire favourite of mine.  Unfortunately with memories of the scrumptious duck larb we had at Dusit Thai still fresh in my mind, it was going to be a big ask to be able to impress my little taste buds.  Little Ying’s larb had a pretty decent kick in it and the addition of fresh mint and coriander made it feel a bit more traditional however the flavours were too subtle leaving it tasting a bit bland.

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Moo-yang: Charcoal grilled marinated pork with homemade chilli sauce

For mains we shared charcoal grilled pork.  I’m not quite sure why I went all out and ordered so much charcoal dishes!  In fact, I never really used to eat much pork until recently.  In Thailand pork is a very popular meat, and many Thai chefs will use nearly every part of the pig to make a variety of different dishes – including the intestines!  This pork dish was quite a standard fare, marinated nicely and the pork pieces were meaty and not fatty.  It was a reasonably large-sized serve considering the price (around $16).

"Pandan chicken" "Gai Haw Bai Toey" "Little Ying Thai" "Victoria Park" "Thai restaurants Vic Park" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

Gai Haw Bai Toey: Pandan chicken

When prepared and cooked correctly, Pandan chicken is a melt in your mouth treat.  Wrapping the chicken in the pandan leaf keeps all the juices of the chicken inside resulting in a very tender and succulent mouthful of deliciousness.  The leaf itself improves things further by adding a distinct sweet and floral like taste to the meat.  Unfortunately a number of my previous experiences of this dish have not been that pleasant due to poor preparation and overcooking resulting in dry and chewy chicken.  But after enjoying it cooked to perfection recently in Thailand, I thought we would give this another try.  Regrettably this time round the chicken was indeed quite stringy and had a strange aftertaste that made me wonder if we would regret our choice tomorrow.  (By the way in defence of Little Ying; there weren’t any further unpleasant outcomes the next day.)

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Chicken Larb

This simple but delicious classic Thai dish never fails to satisfy me.  I love all things eggie and I was happy to take the opportunity to sneak some into a dinner meal.  Coupled with minced chicken, fresh herbs and some hot chilli sauce, we devoured this one very quickly.

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Overall, for a cheap, local night out Little Ying Thai hits the spot.  The food is by no means amazing and will not blow you away, but nevertheless it’s still enjoyable and the staff are all super friendly and attentive.

Price:                     $$ (Entrée $7-10, Mains $10-21)
Food:                    3.5/5
Service:                3.5/5
Venue:                  3/5
Drinks:                 3.5/5      (BYO – my choice was a bottle of Jarrah Ridge Chardonnay that we picked up last time we were in the Swan Valley)
Total =                 13.5/20
 
Little Ying Thai
Shop 3, 895 Albany Highway, East Victoria Park 6101 | (08) 9362 3899
 

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Mexican Madness I A tale of two restaurants: Pancho's Mexican Villa

Posted by  | Categories: Mexican, Perth, Restaurants

Part One | Part Two

I have been keen to try the popular V Burger Bar for absolutely ages, so after creating much hype with the boy all day (including performing a little dance that he calls my Homer dance), we journeyed down to the Albany Highway café strip to give their burgers a shot.  To my extreme disappointment I was to find they had run out of gluten-free buns!  I was so devastated! I had been conjuring up images of sinking my teeth deep into a juicy burger for much of the day and nearly stamped my feet like a child in the middle of the restaurant due to my exasperation.

Walking out of the restaurant I could see the dismay on the boy’s face too.  I know how much he loves nachos, so I made what ended up being a very bad decision and suggested we stroll over to Pancho’s Mexican Villa instead.  We walked by all the tried and tested Thai and other Asian joints and walked down the dirty mall corridor into a packed and noisy restaurant.

Service started off a little slow leaving us sitting thirsty and peckish for long enough to notice.  As I perused the menu I was pleased to see there were plenty of gluten-free options and figured that all I needed to do was stay well away from any salsas to avoid the onion.  We started off with some strawberry daiquiris – this is the boy’s favourite drink when we were in Thailand.  Unfortunately none of our memories came flooding back to us when presented with this toxic looking beverage.  It came out a strange bright fluorescent red colour and was sickeningly sweet presumably with the A to Z of all things artificial.  Not exactly my kind of drink but with a half of a bottle of Cloudy Bay Chardonnay already in me I was willing to compromise and just go with the flow.

"Chilli con queso" "guacamole" "chilli con carne" "Pancho's Mexican Villa restaurant" Panchos Mexican "Victoria Park" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Corn chips" Dips

Trio dips: Chilli con queso, guacamole, chilli con carne

For entrées we ordered some dips with corn chips and some potato skins to share.  Our dips came out after a short delay without the accompanying potato skins entrée.  As we chatted and tapped our feet to the horrific mix of 80’s tunes playing, we ate our first half of our entrée and I began to wish we had stopped at Little Ying Thai instead.  The corn chips tasted commercially made and the dips were very oily and bland.  The guacamole was basically just mashed avocado with minimal lemon juice, tomato, spices or salt added.  The Queso dip tasted like the plastic cheese that you get in little cheese sticks for children’s lunch boxes but melted down into goop a bowl.  I avoided most of the chilli con carne dip as I figured it would most likely have some onion in it.  I had a very small taste of it which proved to be watery and as tasteless as the rest of the dips.

As we nibbled away and wondered where our skins were, a waiter zoomed past our table with a sizzling plate of hot food.  As he walked past us big spats of hot oil came showering over the top of me and left a couple of blisters on my neck.  I wasn’t sure if I was being a bit of a sook but it was stinging a fair bit!  The boy gave a quick glance at my neck in the dim light and could see little blisters starting to form on my skin!  I gestured to the waiter and explained to him what had happened.  He said he would talk to his manager however unfortunately that was all we heard from him all night.  No apology was forthcoming, nor was any discount or compensation offered.

Prawns "Cajun camerons" "Pancho's Mexican Villa restaurant" Panchos Mexican "Victoria Park" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

Cajun camarons

Slowly but surely we managed to work our way through our fairly dismal entrées.  We are normally fairly speedy eaters but these dips were by no means delicious.  Finally our mains were brought to our table however we were still without our second entrée.  We let the waiter know that we were expecting another entrée and we were informed that it was on the way.

I ordered the Cajun camarons – this was described on the menu as northwest sizzling prawns, dusted in spices, served with rice and vegetables.  I figured a meat dish with spices and no sauces would be an easy way to avoid onion as it was already marked on the menu as gluten-free.  The prawns came out sizzling in about half a cup of stale oil which drenched through the whole remainder of the dish.  The vegetables that accompanied the meal consisted of a soggy slop of cooked grated carrot, zucchini and capsicum with micro-heads of mushy broccoli.  It was so overcooked the vegetables had progressed in texture to become more of a stringy mash.  The oil from the prawns soaked right through the vegetables to give everything on the plate an unpleasant and nearly rancid aftertaste.  The rice was about the only thing edible on the plate and although that was a little overcooked; in my hunger I still ate it.

The boy ordered his beef nachos.  They were unmemorable and a bit soggy and he had very little to comment about them at all.

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Beef nachos

Once we had both finished our main meals our second entrée finally appeared.  At this point in time we had to laugh.  I was expecting some crisp skins, ones that you could eat with your fingers – a little like wedges but less meaty, with maybe some kind of sauce (we chose beef).  Nothing prepared me for the mountain of mush that was put in front of us.  We started to eat it but found all the oil, cheese and sour cream piled high on top of a barely existent poor potato skin proved as inedible as the rest of our meals.  I gestured to the waiter to take it away before I started to feel ill.

It has been nearly ten years since I have eaten Mexican – we ate it often when we lived in London as there were a couple of favourite places we used to visit.  I am reluctant to even eat it again after this experience but we are going to give it another shot and hit up another Mexican place in my next blog …. Stay tuned……

Price:           $$  ($10-16 Entrée, $17-27 Mains)
Food:           0.5/5  (near on revolting)
Service:       2/5  (service with a smile and a scar to make sure you never forget)
Ambience:  3/5  (a packed restaurant gives good vibe)
Drinks:        2/5  (too toxic and artificial for me but cheap)
 
Pancho’s Mexican Villa Restaurant
885 Albany Hwy, East Victoria Park 6101 | (08) 9361 2135 | www.panchos.com.au
 

Pancho's Mexican Villa Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Clarence's Bar, Mount Lawley

Posted by  | Categories: European, Featured, Perth, Restaurants, Tapas Bar, Wine Bar

I simply love the concept of wine bars.  Imagine a relaxing atmosphere without all the hype and pretention of a formal dining establishment, then add in a well thought out wine list plus some quality food and there you have it….the perfect relaxing quiet night out.  Establishments such as Must Wine Bar have mastered this idea to perfection – providing awesome food and service in the best locations and venues.  I know I can go to Must on any night of the week and be guaranteed a reliably fabulous night without disappointment.  I really wanted to add Clarence’s Bar to my list of wine bar favourites in Perth, especially in light of the recent poor experience we had at Five Bar.  In fact I really wanted to love it so much that at the start of our evening there I found myself almost starting to make excuses for all their shortcomings before the Chompchomp voice inside me screamed back “NO! Don’t do it!”

The night was a glut of mistakes and delays to the point that it became quite a comical conversation topic for the evening.  As per usual I had notified the kitchen well in advance of my no gluten and no onion requirements.  My sister also suffers from fructose malabsorption and I wanted to ensure that she could enjoy her time eating out in Perth as much as she does in her foodie hometown of Melbourne.

The night began with us being seated in one of their booths.  The design of these booths was quite curious and I’m not sure what unusually proportioned people they had in mind to sit in them.  They are meant to sit four people in them however realistically only four miniature people could successfully squeeze in and still be able to raise their arms up to eat their meals.  I felt so sorry for the boy as he really struggled to actually fit into the booth at all – he is a strong, broad shouldered man and stands at 6 feet 3 inches tall – certainly not a small person by anyone’s definition.  The poor love shuffled and wriggled in his failed attempts at getting comfortable.  Fortunately my sister, Mum and I have all have quite small frames so we managed to crowd in tightly around him.  But the bizarreness of the booths did not stop there.  The table is set as an oddly high level and the seats are very low – giving one the impression the table is like a bib.  It actually came up to the top of our chest.  Coupled with being jammed in like sardines it did not make for easy eating.

Our waitress was very well prepared to go through their menu with us and she knew all the dishes on the menu thoroughly.  She proceeded to read it out dish by dish, informing us that nearly every dish contained either gluten or onion.  There were a small handful of dishes that she explained the onion (or gluten) could be omitted by leaving out particular key ingredients such as the accompanying sauce or base.  I get frustrated when this happens – I feel like I’m punished because of my allergies with a more bland or tasteless version of a potentially great dish just because the chef won’t offer substitutions. It’s easy enough to leave an ingredient out – but a talented and creative chef can offer alternatives to ensure the dish flavours remain.  This is why I always notify the venue in advance to give the chef time to think and plan.

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Barbecued chermoula spiced squid tentacles, coriander, and lime.

For entree I ordered one of the few dishes that could be served unaltered which was the barbecued squid.  Unfortunately it had been barbecued a tad too long and although I don’t mind a little chargrilled flavour, squid does not do well once it ventures into the well-done and chewy side.  I felt the dish had so much potential if cooked correctly as the chermoula spices were uplifting however there is no coming back from tough tentacles.

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Seared scallops, cauliflower brulee pork crackle.

My mum ordered the seared scallops served on a creative cauliflower brulee with shavings of pork crackle.  The feeling of lost potential came through even more strongly with this dish as it was served meagrely lukewarm and on a cold plate. It left us with that sinking feeling of knowing we missed out of something amazing due to oversight and poor timing.

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Curried crab and sweet corn soup basil oil and spicy popcorn.

Following along the cold dish vibe, the boy’s soup was similarly served at a tepid temperature and I was unable to get any positive comment out of him about this dish.  Unlike pasta, no matter how great a soup is, if it’s meant to be hot, it is rarely enjoyable cold.  His bowl for the soup was also cold leaving us thinking someone must have forgotten to turn the heat lamps and plate warmers on.

Our dishes came out at haphazard times, so by the time I had finished my cold tough squid; my sister had only just received her order of the gnocchi.  On inspection they looked like the familiar soft and fluffy pillows you would expect, however on tasting the dish my sister questioned to us whether the peas contained in the dish tasted frozen.  Upon tasting a few of them I had to agree; there was no burst of flavour as I squeezed the pea between my teeth and they left a distinctive floury after-taste in my mouth.  Thank goodness the company was great because the food was heading down a one way street to nowhere!  To add to the errors of the evening, as we were sipping on our second glass of Chardonnay, I started wondering to myself why it tasted sweet.  Had all this mishmash of tasting and scrutinising everyone’s meals confused my palate?  Surely not!  Then my sister piped up:  “This doesn’t taste like the Chardonnay we ordered!  I think they have given us the wrong wine!”  We called our waitress over, informed her of our cold meals and asked about our strange tasting wine.  Off she quickly went to go and check with the bar staff from which she returned promptly with fresh glasses of Chardonnay in hand.

beetroot "Clarence's Bar" Highgate "wine bar" "house cured" venison "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

House cured venison radish beetroot and chocolate.

It was at this point in time, we desperately started wishing that sight of me taking photos of our dishes coupled with our polite complaints would ensure that the remainder of night would proceed with minimal more mistakes.  Our hopes were in vain as the next agglomeration of errors proceeded to pan out.  Our next round of meals were brought out at staggered times and once again on stone cold plates.  At the beginning of the night when she went through the menu in detail with us, she stipulated we couldn’t eat one of the side dishes of chickpeas because it had onion in it, so obviously we didn’t ordered this.  Instead we chose the green beans and some parmesan fries for our side dishes plus we each ordered a second entrée for our main dish.

Despite having a whole discussion with her about the chickpeas unsuitability for us, lo and behold some chickpeas get placed on our table.  We had to send these back only to have them replaced with a dish of undercooked, tough woody beans that were barely edible.  After some considerable wait, some of our meals followed along with the serve of fries.  All the fries were cold, yes cold fries.  Now honestly, cold fries amount to nothing but grossness.   There is no excuse for that surely.

Lucky for me for my second course I had ordered the house cured venison, a dish that was meant to be served cold!  It was the only dish that deserved any praise for the night.  The sweet beetroot sauce nearly got licked off my plate and softened the saltiness of the cured venison.

"Clarence's Bar" Highgate "wine bar" "pumpkin risotto" mascarpone "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

Pumpkin risotto, pinenuts, chives and mascarpone.

The boy ordered the risotto which was of course served on a cold plate.  It was at this point we called the waitress over once again and questioned her whether they had heat lamps in the kitchen.  She commented to us that they do.  We then delved further to explain to her that unfortunately all of our meals were served to us lukewarm.  She interjected this feedback by remarking to us that my dish was meant to be served cold, and then proceeded to gloss over the fact that the remainder of the table’s dishes were not.  She appeared to only listen to what she wanted to hear.  After my comment that the flavours of our dishes had so much potential if only they were served at the correct temperature, she latched onto this feedback as positive and as she cleared the table she nodded her head saying: “Oh well, that’s good, as long as the flavours were delicious!” Huh? It was hard to know if she was being serious with such a ridiculous response!

Over all it was a meal that could have been amazing.  The thought that was put behind the creation of the menu was inspiring but the execution was a complete failure.  Was the chef just having a bad day?  I’m not sure I want to find out and next time I’ll just head over the road to Must where I know I will walk away content.

Price:  $$$ (Entrée $19-23, Mains $23-38)
Food:  4/10
Service:  4/10
Venue:  2.5/5 (for the insane booths)
Total = 10.5/25
 
Clarence’s Bar
566 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley, WA 6050 | (08) 9228 9474 | clarences.com.au
 

Clarence's Bar on Urbanspoon

The George and our Engagement Party

Posted by  | Categories: Modern Australian, Perth, Pub, Restaurants, Wedding

What a blissful and sunny start to our day!  Starting off with a delicious brunch at the Greenhouse with my family and the boy, the morning got even better when Dad gave me a generously sized suitcase filled to the brim with beautiful Robert Robert and Diavolina shoes.  Most importantly, the suitcase contained some super-hot shoes for the party tonight!  I headed home with my love to spend the afternoon preparing ourselves to look our very best for the big party.  One of my bridesmaids, Amber was so kind to offer to go The George without me earlier in the afternoon so she could set up everything for the night.  This meant all I would have to do would be to arrive on time!  She is such an angel!

The afternoon flew by surprisingly quickly and before I knew it we only had a short time until things were due to kick off!!  I slipped on my shimmering Alannah Hill dress matched with the cutest flower headband, kicked on my most awesome shoes from Dad and jumped in the cab hand in hand with the boy!

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Upon our arrival my heart sunk for a brief second as I expected to walk into an ambient lit room and instead was nearly blinded by bright ugly fluoro lighting.  I subsequently found that some of Amber’s instructions she had carefully given to the staff about setting up the lighting, heating and visual equipment had not been followed through.  Consequently some further little instructions were given to the function staff and they slowly assisted us without an accompanying smile. Not that anything could take the wind out of our wings! Grabbing a quick round of pre-party G&T’s, we all felt our nerves settle ready to greet all the special people in our lives that would join us for our celebrations.

Amber is a very creative person – something my scientific brain is most definitely not – so when she suggested we have a lolly bar at the party I initially struggled to visualise what she actually meant.  We had shopped all around town together in the weeks prior to the party buying a collection of gorgeous vintage vases and bowls that she filled to the brim with lots of colourful sweets.  It looked fantastic!  The boy wasted no time getting stuck into the assortment, tossing handfuls of lollies into his mouth for a strong pre-party sugar kick.

Before guests had even started to arrive, the waitresses started bringing out plate upon plate of turkish bread with dips to scatter around the tables.  I rushed up to the waitresses and advised them stop them filling up two little cocktail tables with plates of food and to try and stagger them a bit with the arrival of our guests.  The food provided was delicious – a part of me wishes I had stopped talking and mingling among everyone for two seconds to be able to snap some photos, but it didn’t even cross my mind until the following day!  I guess us food bloggers should be allow a night off once in a while!  The selected canapés including freshly shucked oysters, spring onion aranchini, lamb koftas, sun-dried tomato and asparagus tarts and a variety of sushi rolls.  The special gluten-free options included five spiced duck pieces – amazingly succulent little cubes of meat marinated in a sweet chilli caramel sauce.  I’m sure I must have greedily gobbled a number of those!

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A major feature of the night was the amazing efforts of two of my guests (one of those being Amber) in joining forces together to bake enough cupcakes for seventy people with a third of the cupcakes gluten-free! They sparkled glamorously in the centre of the lolly bar and almost looked too good to eat!   Being able to enjoy devouring cupcakes with everyone else at the end of the night was such a treat although the way I stuffed the butter cream frosting into my mouth may not have been so nice!

The highlight of the night to me and my sister was surprisingly not food related.  My Mum and stepmum have not spoken words since over twenty years ago when Mum and Dad separated.  We have all accepted this and our family events have always been planned separately to accommodate for this.  So when I looked over and saw my Dad arm in arm with my dearest Mum on one side and his wife on the other my eyes started to burn hot.  My sister came running over to me in amazement and we shared watching this special moment together before flicking away our tears of joy.

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Toward the end of the night I wanted everyone to be able to have something more substantial than just the canapés so we arranged for some noodle boxes to come out with sticky pork with ginger, chilli and bok choy.  The pork was so scrumptiously juicy and the sticky marinade had nearly caramelised but not burnt.  This was the most popular food for the night and I’m sure I saw a few people go back for a second box!

As with all good parties, the night flew by at the speed of light and before I knew it we were standing under those hideous bright fluoros with the reality that it was over.  All those weeks of preparation and anticipation for a night that felt like it only lasted one hour!  I was extremely chuffed to see that our budgeted bar tab lasted for the whole night and no one had to dip into their pockets to pay for a drink.

After such a fabulous occasion, the events that followed on next totally took me by surprise.  Bear in mind that the venue was nearly empty in the main bar for the whole night so our party of 70 people would have been the only real income for the night for The George.  As we were all slowly drifting out of the function area and leaving through the main bar a couple of the bar staff got annoyed with us not leaving quickly enough for them.  As they walked past the bar, a number of my guests clearly overheard the staff retorting insults and foul language directed at us presumably because they wanted to us to hurry up so they could go home.  None of my guests were unpleasant or rude to any of the staff to call for this attack.

We all waited outside The George for what felt like hours all trying desperately to hail cabs. One of my friends had taken a bit of a stack on the pavement and had developed a very swollen ankle (she actually ended up in RPH early that following morning poor thing) so I wanted to get her home quickly.  I was also mindful that my dearest mother was keen to get home as she is not accustomed to standing up in her high heels for hours on end anymore.  I went back to the front door of the hotel and knocked to get someone’s attention.  All the staff were still inside closing up everything for the night.  I asked the bartender if he could kindly please arrange us some cabs for us as my friend was injured and many others were tired and ready to hit the sack.  He refused and told me to walk down the street to the closest hotel the Hilton where apparently I could find many taxis.  I explained to him my friend was injured and couldn’t walk, he then repeated that he wouldn’t call us cabs, and that was that! He closed the door in my face and locked the door!!

After spending thousands of dollars at their venue that night I was completely gobsmacked at such rudeness and appalling service.  Despite the actual night being such a wonderful success, it was so disappointing to end on such a sour and  unprofessional note.

Price:    $$$ (Entree $18-21, Mains $25-39)
Food:    7.6/10 
Service: 3/10 (for the rudeness!) 
Venue:  4/5
Total:   14.6/25 (58%)
 

Update:

Well, things have gone from bad to worse with the level of customer service that I have received from The George.  We left my old iPod touch there on the night of the party and since then I had attempted to contact the functions manager by phone and email to let her know that I would be popping back to collect it on my day off.  As I had received no reply, I figured that it’s not too complicated a request to fill so I went into town on my only day off to collect it.Upon arrival my bestie and I spoke to the bartender who explained to us in a curt manner that I needed to speak to her manager.  She got her bar manager who happened to be very same person who had bad mouthed to my friends and refused to call us cabs on the night.

I started to explain to him that I had left my iPod behind and had tried to contact the functions manager but had received no reply from her.  I purely just wanted to collect my iPod and that was it.  He fobbed us off saying that the functions manager was in a meeting and that she couldn’t be disturbed.  So I offered to go into the cupboard in the functions room myself to collect it upon which I was then told that she was having the meeting in there so this wasn’t possible.  He said to us:  “And that’s if you actually have left it here.”  If?!?!  He offered to call me in an hour when she would be finished her meeting but then uttered that she could be in there for hours so who knows how long she would really be.

My bestie and I popped down the road to the Sentinel for a drink (where the service by the way was very friendly – a total contrast).  During this time we received no phone calls from The George.  So after one hour we left and made our way back to The George.  On my way I called through and asked to be put through to the functions manager, consequently I was put through straight away implying that her meeting was over.  She then proceeded to tell me she had no time to walk to the cupboard where I left my iPod and retrieve it for me as she was far too busy!  I explained that it was my only day off, I had come into the city specifically and I was 50 metres away!  She repeated to me:  “I have absolutely no time to search for it, I am very busy and that’s provided you have actually left it here anyway!”  She said she would try and call me back by the end of business – it’s now been nearly a week and not a peep!

Final update:

So it’s been a number of months since all this happened and I thought I better give you dear readers a final report on the outcome with The George…..click to read my Epilogue.

 
The George
216 St Georges Terrace, London House, Perth 6000 | (08) 6161 6662 | www.thegeorgeperth.com.au/
  

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Fraser's Restaurant, King's Park

Posted by  | Categories: Degustation/Fine dining, Perth, Restaurants

My sister has never been known for her punctuality.  That’s not to say I’m an expert in such matters myself however she does tend to take it to the next level.  I guess I wasn’t considering this fact when I decided it was a great idea to book an elegant dinner at Fraser’s for the boy and myself, my sister, Dad and our stepmum for the very next day after our Engagement party.  We had spent the bulk of the day nursing sore heads and rumbling tummies and feeling the foggy effects of overindulgence and sleep deprivation.  So when I saw it was only thirty minutes before our departure time and that she still had not started to get ready for our special dinner I prepared myself again for a late arrival.  Surprisingly she managed to get beautified in a whirlwind of hair straighteners and outfit changes for us to arrive an acceptable 20 minutes late.  A record for us as a team I’m sure and it makes me wonder why it normally takes her three and a half hours to get ready?!?

My stepmum has never been to Perth before so I wanted to show her the fabulous view of the city at night from King’s Park.  Fraser’s offers spectacular views from the restaurant and it seemed like a logical choice.  If you exclude a couple of veterinary functions sponsored by drug companies I haven’t actually eaten here in the restaurant before.  Such events generally involve far too much wine and networking for the food to even make a mention.

When we arrived at the Duxton for a few pre-dinner drinks, I was relieved to see the little blue bag containing our shiny gift from Tiffany’s had made the journey from The George where it was initially given to us both as our engagement gift, then returned back to their hotel room for the night only to be handed over to us a second time but in a much more sober fashion.  As I pulled it out of its box I couldn’t help but admire its shininess.  It is a classic Tiffany’s style silver frame which we shall be placing one of the many gorgeous shots of us as a newly engaged couple from the memorable night.

For the duration of our evening, we were all blown away with the high quality of service.  Our waiter for the evening named Justin went above and beyond his call of duty to ensure that our every whim was accommodated for.  This flexibility and can-do attitude carried right through to the kitchen where the chef Chris Taylor and his team were more than happy to alter dishes and suggest alternative options for us rather than just omitting sauces or key ingredients and serving us half of the intended dish. (See my next review on Clarence’s for a comparison!)

House made Gluten free bread $14 a serve!!

Justin informed us that the chef makes his own gluten-free bread on the premises and recommended we try a couple of serves.  It was accompanied by some Baba ghanoush topped with a sprinkling of Dukkah and some fresh butter.   It was grainy bread with good texture – poorly made gluten-free bread can turn out very crumbly like cake or worse still very heavy and stodgy like a rock.  This bread had just the right balance of flours to create normal bread-like consistency and was matched well with the Baba ghanoush.  The only downside which we discovered at the end of the meal was it cost $14 per serve!  We got two serves!!

For entrée my sister and I ordered the Grilled WA rock lobster which was served the only way lobster should be; simply with lemon butter.  Lobster is one of my favourite seafood creatures to eat, and its unique sweet flavour is often spoilt by complex creamy sauces and heavy cheese.  This time round it was fresh and cooked just to perfection, the meat easily tearing delicately away out of its shell and into my mouth!

Sashimi of Tasmanian salmon, Bluefin tuna, hiramasa kingfish, soy pickled ginger wasabi

The boy is a huge sashimi and sushi fan.  He has been known to journey over to Kailis Bros Fish Market in Leederville, bypass all the little packets of pre-prepared sashimi cuts of fish and buy a big chunk of tuna and an even bigger chunk of salmon and proudly carve it up at home for us to eat.  The sashimi he ordered was brightly coloured and soft and the size of his serve was reasonable given the location and the price.  I did think the Fraser’s card on the top of the dish was a little touristy and tacky however.

Crispy fried Soft shelled crab with cumin salt and ginger dipping sauce

My Dad wanted the “Soft crab shell” as he called it (we were all still a little exhausted from the night of fun last night) which was only available as part of the tasting plate of the day.   Once again the kitchen was very accommodating and was happy to offer this separately as an entrée sized meal.  Such an easy task for a kitchen to do yet this is often something that is refused to customers as chefs allow themselves to become nothing more than a line cook preparing meals without alterations.  Having eaten his way around the world hundreds of times over the past years, my French-born father is a natural food critic.  He was impressed with the amount of meat on the crab and seemed to enjoy it thoroughly.

Chilled asparagus soup with manna crab and asparagus salad

My stepmum ordered the crab soup which was vibrantly coloured, thick and creamy.   Despite all of us commenting our appetites were a little depressed from the evening prior we all managed to gobble up our entrees without complaint ready for our mains.

Roast duck breast and confit sausage with brandy butter jus (normally served with pistachio beetroot jus)

For mains I ordered the duck which is originally served with a beetroot jus.  As with most jus, there was onion contained in the stock so it was not suitable for me or my sister.  To our delight this was no problem to our chef who created delicious gluten-free, onion-free brandy butter jus to pour over the duck instead.  Both my sister and the boy also ordered the duck and commented to me that a few of their pieces were a little overcooked and dry.  I must have been the lucky one at the table as every piece of my duck was juicy and scrumptious and I could not complain.

Rocket pear and parmesan salad with chardonnay vinegar dressing, Salt roast potatoes, Local new season white and green asparagus, rocket parmesan and pinenuts

Our side dishes were fairly standard and unexciting except for the salt roasted potatoes which looked a little bit like the eggs from the movie Aliens but they tasted absolutely divine.  As we watched the smoke from a bushfire roll in over the city like a blanket we all started to infect each other with our yawns.  We realised just how exhausted we all were and skipped ordering dessert to head home for some well-earned rest.

In my sleepy content state I foolishly left the little blue bag behind at the restaurant and didn’t realise this until the boy shouted as we drove off in the cab: “The Tiffany’s present!!!”  My heart literally jumped into my throat and I was completely awake in a second!  Before the boy had even managed to jump out of the cab; lo and behold we see Justin our waiter running toward us clutching our treasure in his hand.  This gesture just clinched the deal that I’m happy to say this is the best customer service we have received in Perth for a long time!  My opinions of Fraser’s have been completely turned around from previously feeling it may be a bit of an overpriced tourist trap to now understanding that you simply get what you pay for.  I look forward to our return; we just might have to save up for a while!

Score Food 8.7/10 Service 9.5/10 Venue 8.6/10

Fraser’s Restaurant
Fraser Avenue, King’s Park, Perth 6005 | (08) 9481 7100 | frasersrestaurant.com.au
 
 

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Greenhouse, Perth City

Posted by  | Categories: Breakfast/Brunch, Featured, Modern Australian, Perth, Restaurants

It is so exciting to have all my family over in Perth for our engagement party tonight.  My Mum and Dad have been divorced since I was a young teenager and so my sister and I have grown accustomed to dividing our time during any major holiday events between each of our parents and their loved ones.  Incredibly this party will not only be a first for us all to be together in Perth, but it also will be the first family event that both my parents have attended simultaneously since I was a little child.   Understandably I am thrilled to have them all here!

Dad and his wife arrived late the night before so we planned to catch up on the morning of the party for a light brunch and chatter at the Greenhouse.   The Greenhouse seems to be a restaurant you either love or you hate.  I have eaten here a number of times and have never been disappointed with the food or the service.  The bizarre interiors are all made from recycled materials which gives it a real bohemian greenie vibe.  Even the light fittings – which look quite spectacular – are actually just made from wound up barbed wire fencing.  The meals are served in quirky pieces such as old milk bottles and terracotta plant pots.  It definitely is not for everyone, but I love it more and more with each visit.

Last time I came here for breakfast I had wild mushrooms with slow cooked eggs served on my own gluten free bread – it’s such a shame they do not have any gluten free bread available.  The mushroom dish was very memorable and I was eager to see if something similar remained on their ever changing seasonal menu.  To my exquisite excitement a new version of this dish was on the menu accompanied by their amazingly gooey slow cooked eggs and some grilled polenta.  I wasn’t going to need my BYO gluten free bread after all.  Everyone at the table except for Dad ordered the mushrooms and none of us were disappointed with our choices.  The eggs were perfectly soft and I’m sure there must have been at least four different types of mushrooms in there.  As we sat in the fabulous Perth sunshine basking in its therapeutic glow I felt proud to call this city my hometown.

My Dad is a fashion designer for his own shoe label and spends a lot of his time for work in and out of China.  So when he saw there was crab congee on the menu it was no surprise to us all when he ordered it for himself.  I am yet to decide how I feel about congee; I think it’s my love of eggs for breakfast that always sways me away from choosing to eat it and I always end up opting for ordering a dish with googs instead.  I had a little taste of his congee and found the saltiness and texture of the crab gave it that perfect lift, turning it from a potential bland baby food into a filling and delicious meal.  Despite this deliciousness, my mushroom addiction overrode any regrets as I quickly devoured my own amazing breakfast and was left wishing the serve was a touch bigger!

After breakfast, I walked back to the car hand in hand with the boy as we both enjoyed the glorious warmth of the sun I could feel it energise me and give me increasing bounce in my stride.  We chatted animatedly about our wedding plans for Phuket.   By the time we got back to the car I was feeling a little on the ditsy side and I ended up leaving our parking ticket on the boot of the car as we drove off towards the exit.   Unable to find the ticket when at the exit, I started to wonder if this beautiful morning was too good to be true and that the party day was destined to be filled with mishaps.  We drove back to our original location and the boy started scanning the ground while I rummage through my handbag hastily.  But to my surprise and relief there was the paper ticket still sitting there innocently on top of the car boot!  We exited the car park without any further drama and made our way back to my Dad’s hotel room where I was spoilt rotten with a whole suitcase of Robert Robert and Diavolina shoes!

Score:  Service 7.9/10 Food 9/10 Venue 8.5/10

Greenhouse
100 St Georges Terrace, Perth 6000 | (08) 9481 8333 | greenhouseperth.com
 

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Dusit Thai, Northbridge

Posted by  | Categories: Featured, Perth, Restaurants, Thai

The excitement for the upcoming engagement party is escalating.  The bubbling began at work with our girlie chitter chatter of our personal shopping expeditions for outfits of which some of us had success in our searches but for others it was still a work in progress.  As team work is such a vital element of a well-run veterinary practice we are all quite close friends and any social outing sparks a lot of enthusiasm and animated conversations among us all.  This level of excitement has further risen up a notch with the arrival of my darling mother early this week.  My Mum is the type of person you will immediately love from the first moment you meet her – even my beauty therapists go on about what a gorgeous person she is!  With the early arrival of my sister tomorrow, the three of us decided to pop out for a light meal and the perfect cuisine to fit the bill for this was some delicious Thai!

Dusit Thai is something of an institution in Perth and has been open since 1988.  The atmosphere in the restaurant is effortless and comfortable, and its spacious size means it’s never hard to get a table.  Having eaten here many times on business dinners I figured it would be a sure-fire way to have an enjoyable and quick meal with my love and my Mum. This would allow us to enjoy our last quiet evening together before the festivities really start to kick in.

Dusit Thai is not the cheapest of Thai restaurants in Perth but I have found they reliably serve delicious meals no matter what I choose to order.  They are very flexible with adapting their dishes and have always ensured to make an effort to avoid specific ingredients for me which reveals to me just how fresh each meal that is served is.  Prior to our travels to Thailand I created an eating card with my special dietary requirements for gluten-free and fructose friendly written clearly in Thai on one side of the card and in English on the other side.  Every time we dined out in Thailand I would show this cute little card to our waitress where it would then proceed to do the round trip from my hand via several waitresses to the kitchen and back to the table.  Often it would actually make two trips as all the staff would eagerly want to make sure that I have no problems with my meal.  Unfortunately I have to admit that back in Australia; even in Thai restaurants this well-travelled little card hasn’t received such glorified attention.  Consequently, it was to my delight that on this night I was reminded of its tour of duty in Thailand as it was escorted on a similar round trip around the restaurant to the kitchen before returning back to me.

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Tom Yum Goong (with mixed seafood)

The waitresses were genuinely helpful in discussing our choice of dishes for the evening and the chef appeared very flexible in attempting to accommodate my requests whenever he could.  We started with my latest Thai favourite; some mixed seafood Tom Yum.  This delicious clear spicy and sour soup is such a refreshing way to begin a meal, and if you’re not actually that hungry is enough for a light meal on its own.  To my great disappointment, prior to the soup being served our lovely waitress came back to inform me that there actually is a lot of onion used in the stock for the soup.   I was recommended to order chicken satay instead.   I cannot deny my internal reaction to this was “how boring” but seeing as they had already gone to such great lengths to help me order the rest of the evening’s meals I decided I didn’t want to make any more fuss and just went along with her recommendation.

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Chicken satay with cucumber relish

The Tom Yum was requested to be served mild because both the boy and Mum have delicate palates when it comes to hot and spicy food.  Despite this request they both found the soup to be too spicy, so for those who do not like heat in their food I recommend that you make sure to emphasize to your waitress that you want your soup very mild.  I had a little taste of the seafood contained in the boy’s soup.  As I watched him struggle through the spiciness I became quite jealous as I really enjoyed its tangy sourness and wished I could finish it off for them both.   I did notice the soup lacked the rich colour I would expect for Tom Yum however the seafood was soft and not chewy or overcooked.   The satay was a delicious surprise.  The chicken was juicy and tender, the peanut sauce thick and creamy and the ajat (cucumber relish) took me back to Thailand!  Many restaurants here in Perth don’t serve their satay dishes with this traditional yet elegant condiment made from palm sauce, cucumber and coriander.  Yum!

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Larb ped (minced roast duck mixed with chilli powder, lemon juice and grounded herbs & roasted rice served with fresh vegetables

The duck larb was a tasty alternative to the more commonly served chicken and fortunately for me the kitchen had no issues omitting onion out of this dish.  The little pocket rockets of baby chillies packed a fierce punch, but if omitted they allowed this dish to be eaten by my two companions with comfort.  I must admit accidentally shovelling two of the crispy numbers into my mouth at once did temporarily take me out of my comfort range!

The stuffed squid is a dish I have eaten here before, unfortunately on this night I felt this wasn’t the dish served at its best.  There wasn’t anything overtly wrong with it, it was present beautifully, and the squid was not rubbery but the stuffing just didn’t quite have the flavour I recall enjoying so much in the past.

"Basil beef" "Phat ka-pow" "chilli beef basil" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Dusit Thai" Northbridge Thai

Phat ka-pow (chilli beef basil)

The beef basil was cooked medium rare leaving the meat tender and succulent.   It also contained large pieces of chillies meaning it could be spiced up or down depending on your preference.  I double dosed on these babies without much trouble.  The stir fried vegetables were the most uninteresting of the dishes and were cooked simply with some oyster sauce. The generous addition of enoki mushrooms saved this dish as some of the other vegetables were slightly undercooked.  I enjoy crunchy vegies but not quite that crunchy.

"Phat pak" "green vegetable" "enoki mushrooms" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Dusit Thai" Northbridge Thai

Phat pak (Stir fried mixed green vegetables with enoki mushrooms)

Overall, I never walk away from Dusit Thai disappointed and I know I’ll be back.

Score:  Food 7.8/10  Service 8.5/10  Venue 7/10

Dusit Thai
249 James Street, Northbridge, 6003 | (08) 9328 7647 | http://dusitthai.com.au/

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Phu Pho Vietnamese Rice and Noodle House, Victoria Park

Posted by  | Categories: Perth, Restaurants, Vietnamese

It’s only one week until our engagement party!  And even better still nearly everyone is coming!  My Mum is travelling over from Adelaide and my sister is flying in from Melbourne.   I am actually originally from the Eastern states but I have lived over here for seventeen years with a few years also in London.  During my time in sunny Perth my Dad and Step mum have not been able to attend any of my little life milestones – not my 18th, my 21st, my University graduation or even my 30th birthday.  So you can imagine my delight when they told me without hesitation that they are both flying over for our engagement party!  To top it all off; my estranged best friend who has lived up in Dongara for far too long has decided to take the plunge and move down to Perth to live with her boyfriend.  This means two of my gorgeous bridesmaids will both be in Perth for all the wedding planning and festivities!

To celebrate her arrival in Perth and also to celebrate her birthday which was earlier in the week, we all decided to have a little night out down on the local strip in Vic Park.  Unfortunately for me I had a busy day planned at work the next day so it wasn’t going to be a crazy night.  It was such a beautiful evening so the boy and I decided we would walk down instead of driving.  I work in a very busy Veterinary Hospital and I was still really wound up from an absolutely insane day.  The day had been a stressful yet very rewarding as we were flooded with a string of critical emergencies cases all of which we managed to save!  This left me on a bit of a giddy high so we held hands, talked and strolled in the setting sunlight down to Albany Highway.

We all met at The Publican for few pre-dinner drinks.  The crowd was a bit older than we normally expect to see on a Friday night and there was a one man band playing music that would have been better suited on the Love Boat.  Good company has a way of improving things so despite the horrendous tunes we stayed for a few rounds and chatted away about how she is settling into the city lifestyle and about the upcoming engagement party outfits.

We moved on from The Publican and started walking down Albany Highway looking for somewhere to eat.  We were drawn into the Vietnamese restaurant Phu Pho which unlike the other neighbouring bare and brightly lit Asian restaurants had inviting soft lighting and modern interiors.  Although my last visit to the Park was also for Vietnamese I figured maybe this may be a way to do a bit of a comparison of the popular To To’s versus Phu Pho.

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Beef fresh rice paper rolls

We were greeted with lots of smiles from all the staff – they were all lovely and very polite. I remember similar treatment when we ordered some take out from here recently.  Service was prompt although it took a little explaining for them to understand what gluten was which always makes me a little nervous.  We started with the obligatory Vietnamese fresh rice paper rolls.  I cannot imagine a Vietnamese meal without them.  We ordered grilled beef rolls and the combination rolls with prawn, pork and omelette.  The rolls were presented on their own on the plate – no fuss and no garnish.  They were made filled to capacity and were so fat it was nearly a struggle to open my mouth wide enough to fit them in.  The combination rolls were fairly standard fare, and I also felt the dipping sauce was a little too mild and bland.  The beef rolls were tastier than the combination rolls; the beef tasted like it had some marinade to improve flavour.

For mains we ordered four dishes all to share.  Learning from my bestie’s boyfriend that crispy duck is actually flourless therefore hopefully gluten-free, we ordered some duck accompanied with Chinese mushrooms.  The duck was very meaty and not covered in fat, but it wasn’t served hot enough and could do with some extra crisp in the skin.  The mushrooms were a delicious addition to the dish which would have been less enjoyable without them.

"Phu Pho" "Victoria Park" Vietnamese "sizzling beef" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption"

Sizzling Mongolian Beef

The sizzling Mongolian beef was quite tasty although once again I forgot to ask for no onions.  There was much less onions to negotiate compared to To To’s so it wasn’t really a problem for me.  Better still the dish wasn’t just meat and onions (like To To’s) and actually had a range of other crunchy vegetables included.  Again I felt this dish could have been made spicier – in hindsight I should have asked for some extra chilli on the side as the boy can’t tolerate too much chilli.

prawn tamarind "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Phu Pho" Vietnamese "Victoria Park"

Tamarind King Prawn

The Tamarind king prawn was the best dish of the evening.  You are probably thinking I’m turning into a tamarind addict and you may very well be right.  I blame Thailand and all her delicious tamarind dishes we have enjoyed for creating this new obsession to add to my growing list.

Finally to add some green to our meal we had the Sambal with garlic and oyster sauce.  Although this dish was served with a lot of garlic, it wasn’t overpowering and made the perfect light addition to the rest of our more heavy dishes.

Overall in comparison to the other week at To To’s, I feel the food here was much more flavoursome.  I also preferred that their meat dishes included some vegetables other than just onions.  Only the rice paper rolls were not quite as good.  Nevertheless if I had to pick between the two restaurants I think would return to Phu Pho.

Food 7/10 Service 7.5/10 Venue 7/10

Phu Pho Vietnamese Rice and Noodle House
800 Albany Highway, East Victoria Park | (08) 9361 2139

 

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Five Bar, Mount Lawley

Posted by  | Categories: Featured, Perth, Pub, Restaurants, Tapas Bar, Wine Bar

Spontaneity is an uncommon occurrence for me.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, in fact quite the contrary it’s just that I can’t help but plan and organise things.  I hate the thought that an element of enjoyment is missed out due to lack of foresight.   But as I was running to my car during the heaviest part of the down pouring rain I got this burning desire to go out for the evening.  We both work long hours and often have hectic busy days so most weeknights tend to be a sombre experience of crashing on the couch, eating dinner and watching television.   I sat in my car drenched right through to the skin in my work clothes and phoned the boy who was still at work, half expecting him to decline the offer with protests of exhaustion and lack of motivation.  His immediate response was yes! Wa-toot!

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On the previous weekend, a group of us had a pub crawl up Beaufort Street and on our way to the Flying Scotsman we all dropped into Five Bar for a refreshing beverage to quench us for the uphill stagger to the Scotto.   I remember making a mental note to return to try their tapas and so we did.

As you walk into Five Bar you almost feel like you are in someone’s oversized living room. There is a mismatched collection of lounge chairs, ottomans and crates to relax on and the interior is decorated with a similarly eclectic collection of lamps and oddities.  As I sipped on my Hendricks and tonic, I felt all the tensions of my day smoothly melt away.

The menu is quite small with the majority of the dishes designed to be shared tapas-style.  After requesting to our waitress for suitable gluten-free and onion free options, this menu unfortunately further narrowed down to a smaller handful of dishes.

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Marinated olives

The marinated olives contained a crowd pleaser selection of pitted and non-pitted, black and green, and in all sizes from jumbo through to the teeny-weeny Arbequina olives.  They were all of excellent quality and very moreish.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Five Bar" "Mount Lawley" tapas "Mount Hawthorn" "Beaufort Street" "Beef carpaccio" "goats curd" pinenuts

Gingin Beef carpaccio with goat’s curd, pinenuts, EVOO and fresh herbs

The beef Carpaccio was dressed with cornichons, goat’s curd and capers, pine nuts, some fresh herbs and EVOO. The beef was sliced perfectly paper-thin but was a bit dry and lacked a little flavour.  This was somewhat compensated for by the tarty goat’s curd however that shouldn’t really be the aim of this dish.  A few extra lashings of olive oil may have improved this dish.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Five Bar" "Mount Lawley" tapas "Mount Hawthorn" "Beaufort Street" chorizo

Grilled chorizo with lemon

We were informed after ordering the chorizo that it may contain onions so I gave this a miss and let the boy munch his way through the generous sized serve.  It seemed to be quite tender and juicy and disappeared with no complaints.

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Slow roasted mushrooms with Danish fetta, balsamic and chives

The slow-roasted mushrooms with Danish fetta, balsamic and chives were definitely one of the better dishes.  I am a bit of a self-confessed mushroom addict.  I really love their rich savoury flavour; in fact it would be safe to say I eat them daily.  These mushrooms were roasted wonderfully.  The chef has managed to capture and enhance all that delicious mushroomness I enjoy and the subtle tang of the balsamic gently cut through these flavours to then be followed by the more lingering creaminess of the fetta.  We ended up ordering seconds!

The final tapas dish we ordered were the sweet potato frites served with a Moroccan spiced mayonnaise.  These were very tasty albeit also a tad oily.  Nevertheless I could have eaten more of them if I could fit them in!

We ended the evening with a duo of macarons – vanilla and coffee.  After overindulging on some amazing macarons from Choux earlier in the week, unfortunately these ones were a bit of a disappointment.  I enjoy the contrast of the crispy outer shell with the chewy nearly gooey centre.  These ones were consistently chewy all the way through and showed none of the contrast in textures macarons are meant to have.

Given the popularity of tapas in Perth at the moment we are spoilt for choice.  I walked away from Five Bar thinking there are better quality options for the price we paid and probably wouldn’t go out of my way to return there.

Venue 8.5/10  Service 7.8/10  Food 7/10

Five Bar
560 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley | 0467 534 267

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To To Vietnamese, Victoria Park

Posted by  | Categories: Perth, Restaurants, Vietnamese

Oh my goodness!  What bliss it has been this week to finally return back to my gluten free diet!  I know it will take me a few weeks for my skin to heal and a few more weeks to maybe months on top of that for my gut to settle down……but my mood?  It is astonishing how avoiding eating just one seemingly harmless little protein can alter my mind so dramatically.  For the past six weeks I have carried a whinging, negative dark presence in my mind that was constantly criticising and complaining about everything and anything, and made dealing with all the other physical effects of eating gluten so much more difficult.  I was oblivious to the presence of this monkey on my back until now when I can see he has left!  My energy and excitement for life is returning and my sense of humour is lifted!

One of my bridesmaids suggested we go out for a casual meal to kick off the CHOGM long weekend. As we both had later shifts at work that day we opted for an easy peasy local night out on the strip in Vic Park. To To’s was packed full of customers and only had a couple of spare tables.  This is always a good sign.  After enquiring about gluten free dishes, we were promptly assigned a very flamboyant waiter who was bubbling to help us.  He pondered expressively on options for us and was keen to ensure that we chose a good range of dishes. For Vietnamese starters, I can never go past fresh rice paper rolls.  Unfortunately they only offered prawn rolls which meant my bridesmaid couldn’t try any as she doesn’t eat seafood.  I would have liked there to be a pork or chicken option for those who don’t eat prawns.  Nevertheless, the rolls were fresh and neatly rolled and the dipping sauce was not too overly sweet.

Chicken Satay

The sang choy bow was made with chicken and pork mince.  The meat was very moist and seasoned perfectly, however silly me forgot to ask for the shallots to be omitted and I had to pick them out.  We also ordered chicken satay for my bridesmaids children but unfortunately they contained gluten so I did not try.  They gave us a generous serve of these and I was informed they were finger licking good.

Stir fried chicken with chilli and lemongrass

For mains we were recommended to order the stir fried chicken with chilli and lemongrass, Vietnamese style beef, chilli and pepper spare ribs and stir fried vegetables with garlic and oyster sauce.  Both the chicken and the beef dishes contained copious amounts of onions which I had once again completely forgotten to request omission.   I guess after six weeks of foodie freedom it will take a bit for me to remember to ask for all the finite details of the fructose malabsorption part of my diet.  Thankfully fructose ingestion doesn’t mess with me to the extent that gluten does.  The onion was in big strips so it was pretty easy to pick it all out.  By the end of the night I had a cute little pile of onion next to my plate.

Vietnamese beef (with chicken satay garnish!)

Despite having to negotiate my chopsticks around the presence of so much onion I really enjoyed the lemongrass chicken.  The beef on the other hand was quite dry and bland and I wouldn’t recommend it.  Unfortunately when the ribs were brought out to our table we noted that they were covered in batter and called our exuberant waiter over to double check that this wasn’t wheat flour batter.  He was very apologetic and offered to replace the dish.  This wasn’t before one of the kids managed to quickly nab a pork rib to try! According to his palate it tasted like KFC so he renamed the dish VFC! (Vietnamese Fried Chicken).  As a replacement we were offered a dish that wasn’t on their menu – some roast pork.  This dish was definitely the best of the mains – the pork was deliciously tender and marinated to perfection and enjoyed by all at the table.  With our bellies comfortably full we all skipped over the road to Baskin and Robbins for an ice-cream fix to end our chilled out evening and we were very satisfied and ready for our long weekend!

Food 6/10 Venue 6.5/10 Service 7/10

 

To To Vietnamese
875 Albany Hwy, East Victoria Park | (08) 9355 2388
 
 

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Modo Mio Cucina Italiana, Burswood

Posted by  | Categories: Italian, Perth, Restaurants

I’m on the final lap of my six and half weeks of this gluten induced ride through hell. My life has now been taken over by constant reminders of how poisoning this stuff is to my body. My previously clear skin is breaking out all over in unsightly eruptions of blotchy red sores and random areas of flakiness and I struggle to fall asleep at night as I’m so itchy all the time waking up repeatedly to start scratching. I am crossing my fingers that my skin can recover in time for our engagement party in 5 weeks or I may be investing in a big paper bag for my head! Aside from these hideous skin issues, my gut is crying out for a break having also endured way too much.

Italian cuisine is nearly impossible to enjoy gluten free so before I return to my GF way of life, I figured we should fit in night at Modo Mio Cucina Italiana, one of Burswood Casino’s new additions to their recently improved restaurant collection.

Giampaolo Maffini, the Head Chef at Modo Mio was head hunted from Milan and has over 20 years’ experience in the industry working all around the world including North America, Asia, Middle East and over ten countries in Europe at top-end restaurants such as the Raffles in Singapore and the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Bahrain. He is passionate about Italian food, using fresh, preferably locally sourced ingredients and changing the menu monthly. I was impressed to see his dedication to his job as halfway through the dinner service he was out and about in the dining area talking to the customers. Not something I’ve seen at high profile restaurants in Perth very often.

The interior design of the restaurant felt very opulent yet not overly pretentious with leather table tops, matching seats and elegant chandeliers giving the anticipation of something amazing about to come.

The service was friendly and cheerful albeit a little under-attentive, there were a number of brief but noticeable delays that I wouldn’t expect in such a high caliber restaurant such as the waiting to place our orders, and wine and water glasses remaining empty. Don’t get me wrong – the waits weren’t horrendous, but they were significant.

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Modo Mio Garlic bread AKA Garlic Cheesy Puffs

We started off with ordering some garlic bread. Upon placing our order our waitress informed us that garlic bread at Modo Mio is not your traditional type of garlic bread but went on to describe what can only be reiterated as a garlic cheese puff. Out comes these crunchy “puffs” of crunchy but hollow buns with some gooey cheesy garlic inside. They were quite tasty … but a bit odd for fine dining. I’m not sure if I would recommend it.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Modo Mio" Italian "Burswood Casino" "Victoria Park" Burswood "beef carpaccio" "cipriani sauce" rocket parmesan

Beef Carpaccio, Cipriani sauce, rocket salad and Parmesan

For our starters we shared two dishes. The first dish was the beef Carpaccio served with Cipriani sauce, rocket salad and Parmesan – a simple but delicious dish if executed correctly. The beef was sliced paper thin and was delicately flavoured with the traditional Tuscan style sauce. I think a few more lashings of olive oil and/or sauce would have perfected this dish as it was a little bland. Our second entrée was the roasted veal in tuna caper sauce with a celery salad, quail egg, and black truffle. The presentation of the dish was excellent. The tuna sauce was very overpowering and lingered on the palate too heavily to taste the truffle properly. Nevertheless it was still an enjoyable dish.

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Roasted veal, tuna caper sauce,celery salad, quail egg, black truffle

Next we shared a pasta dish so we could both squeeze in mains and dessert. The boy chose for us the homemade cannelloni filled with veal, pork & ricotta, spinach sauce, smoked pancetta and beetroot. I was really excited about this dish as it sounded like it was going to be the bomb! Unfortunately I found this dish to be very salty and over-seasoned and was disappointed to see only one tiny piece of pancetta dressing the dish.

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Homemade cannelloni filled with veal, pork & ricotta, spinach sauce, smoked pancetta, beetroot

Our mains were definitely the highlight of the evening. I ordered the red wine marinated Angus beef tenderloin with pan fried foie gras, polenta & taleggio ravioli and Pommery mustard marmalade. Despite ordering a rare fillet it was served medium rare. Normally this would be a call for me to complain and send the dish back but I have to be honest – it was so absolutely amazing regardless and I didn’t have the heart to do it. The foie gras and the nutty Pommery marmalade gave incredible depth to the octave of flavours rocking around in my mouth and when you added in the tangy cheesiness of the Taleggio ravioli – it was a taste sensation. I can highly recommend this dish!

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Red wine marinated Angus beef tenderloin, pan fried foie gras, polenta & taleggio ravioli, pommery mustard marmalade

The boy ordered the oven baked lamb rack with a macadamia crust, thyme jus and butternut pumpkin flan. This was also a stand out dish for him shown by the fact I didn’t even get a taste! He said it was fantastic and made up for the other disappointing dishes.

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Modo Mio" Italian "Burswood Casino" "Victoria Park" Burswood "lamb rack" macadamia thyme pumpkin

Oven baked lamb rack, macadamia crust, thyme jus; butternut pumpkin flan

The meals are were all a bit on the smaller side which I didn’t really mind as it meant we could fit all these courses in – but it is something to note if you like your plate heaped high with food. For dessert I thought I would plant another nail in the gluten coffin and try another chocolate fondant. After the disappointment of my previous fondant experience at Jezabelle’s I was determined to chase that experience for one last time while I could. Alas this fondant had no gooey centre either but I still managed to demolish the lot so can’t have been that bad! The boy is obsessed by anything that screams ice-cream, he is not really a dessert kind of guy so I wasn’t surprised to see him order the gelati…ho hum boring!

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Gelati

Overall we had an enjoyable night but I’m surely paying for it today tenfold. Suffice to say I won’t be overdosing on gluten and having Italian again in a hurry, but if I did I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Modo Mio to give another pasta dish a go……..

"Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" Chompchomp "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Modo Mio" Italian "Burswood Casino" "Victoria Park" Burswood "chocolate fondant" dessert

Chocolate fondant

Service 6/10 Food 8.8/10 Venue 9/10

Modo Mio Cucina Italiana
Burswood Entertainment Complex, Great Eastern Hwy, Burswood, 6100 | (08) 9362 7551 | http://www.burswood.com.au/Restaurants/Modo-Mio/
 

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Andara Resort & Villas, Phuket & choosing our Wedding Venue

Posted by  | Categories: Accommodation, Featured, Hotels, Luxury, Resorts, Restaurants, Thai, Thailand, Travel, Wedding

I cannot believe we are back in Thailand already!  It was only about three months ago we arrived in Phuket for the first time to celebrate our dear friend’s wedding and yet here we are again.  But better still this time we are here to start planning our own wedding!  So exciting!  We were both so amped to start the hunt for our venue and after our interesting culinary experiences at the Patong night markets last night we were also pretty keen to enjoy some more traditional Thai food!

I am a bit of an organisational freak – I gain great pleasure in planning things down to the finite detail. So in my preparation for our wedding venue search I had spent hour upon hour back home in Perth trawling over the internet to ensuring we would to check out every perceivable suitable wedding location in Phuket.  After numerous emails I managed to whittle my ridiculously long list down to a much more manageable eight resorts.

Our first stop was Andara Resort in Kamala.  I was really attracted to the idea of staying in Kamala as there are a lot of little restaurants and bars all within walking distance from each other.  A full spectrum of accommodation options can be found ranging from the exquisite Andara Resort and Villas to the much more economical and family orientated Courtyard Marriott Resort that we were staying in this time round.  In addition to this it is much more family friendly than the madness of Patong and a fair bit cleaner as well!

Andara Resort sits up on the hillside towards the southern end of Kamala beach overlooking the blue expanse of the Andaman Sea.  Immediately upon entering their luxurious lobby we both felt a really good vibe and looking about the place it just felt very “us” which was very good start. We were promptly greeted by the resort wedding planner Mod.  She initially sat us down to show us some photos of a few weddings set up around the resort pool and also in their spectacular villas. Having seen many of these stunning photos previously in her emails I was impatient to view the property and was hoping that it wasn’t going to disappoint.

In some ways, it was kind of shame that we both fell in love with the very first venue that we looked at as over the course of the next week we found the majority of other locations we visited just simply didn’t compare.  Not even close!  There were only two other locations we saw that could begin to match up to Andara’s beauty – Trisara in the far north of the island, and the very expensive Amanpuri.

Andata Resort and Villas – photo courtesy of Mod at Andara

The villa that Mod recommended as her favourite for us to have our wedding ceremony sits high on the edge of the cliff and is built over three levels giving every room incredible views of the sea. No detail is left untouched throughout the villa with exquisitely appointed interior design using natural dark wood and warm Thai silks to create a beautiful wow factor throughout. She said they could arrange a platform to be placed in the infinity pool allowing us to say our vows with uninterrupted views of the bay as our backdrop!  Imagine that!  Saying our vows with views like this will be breathtaking!

Mod’s beaming pride as she watched us appreciate the beauty of the resort shone through as she took us on a detailed tour of the whole resort, showing us their world class, icy cool air-conditioned gym (which rivals my university gym back at home) and the enormous and elegantly appointed spa which included a whole level of rooms for the bridal party to beautify.  We then ended the tour in their popular restaurant Silk overlooking their spacious pool deck.

Tasting plate: fish cakes, prawns in noodle, chicken in pandanus leaves and fresh spring roll

After our detailed tour, we were then treated to a complimentary four course Thai lunch where the chef’s had carefully prepared Thai dishes taking into consideration both my fructose malabsorption and gluten intolerance. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of this lovely meal as Mod, the boy and I were busy engaged in lengthy conversation talking about further details in which Andara could provide us with an amazing wedding. Highlights of our lunch included Goong cinnamon (Cinnamon prawn – to die for!), Tom yam soup and absolutely huge Tiger prawns cooked in garlic and pepper and presented gorgeously.

To help us to make our decision we headed back to Andara for dinner on one of our final nights in Phuket. I thought seeing as I’m actually able to punish myself with gluten while on the prescribed gluten challenge I wouldn’t be quite so restrictive and let loose a little on the menu. For entrée we ordered a started platter which had some fish cakes, chicken wrapped Pandanus leaves and prawns. The chicken was soft and fell apart in the mouth and was sweetly scented with the Pandanus. The prawns were wrapped in noodles – similar to what we ate at Old Cathay, but less oily and easier to eat. After memories of our enjoyable meal at Old Cathay returning to my mind, I also ordered some satay tofu. This was not silky smooth this time round and definitely didn’t excite either of us.

Tamarind duck, soft shelled crab and stir-fried morning glory

To keep the boy happy for mains we ordered some soft shelled crab, one of his favourites, which were deliciously meaty and crispy, some tamarind duck and stir fried Morning Glory. Morning Glory is considered a weed in Australia however is very popular in a lot of parts of South-east Asia where it is often called “water spinach”. It is quite sweet in flavour, not bitter at all, and was cooked very simply with oyster sauce and garlic.

After all this delicious Thai food, I can’t help but wonder….I do hope all our wedding guests are happy to eat Thai at our reception? I just don’t feel right going to a country that has such wonderful culinary culture and eating “Western food”.

For more about our trips to Thailand click here

Patong night markets, Phuket

Posted by  | Categories: Markets, Thai, Thailand, Travel, Wedding

We were so lucky to be part of a friend’s wedding in Phuket earlier this year as it has sparked the beginning of our love affair with Thailand. After a week of wedding celebrations in Phuket, we then flew over to the Eastern coast of Thailand to stay for another week on the island of Koh Samui. It was during this memorable and fun filled holiday that my love proposed to me. He dropped the question during the most amazing private dining experience at Six Sense’s Dining on the Rocks which he had all pre-arranged before we left Australia. A single stunning table was decorated lavishly with roses and orchids and placed romantically isolated on a wide expanse of wooden decking on the cliff face overlooking the distant neighbouring islands and fishing boats. We had our own two butlers serve us a seven course degustation while we sipped our way through bottles of Verve. It was an experience I will never forget.

Subsequently it was a bit of a no-brainer that we both envisioned returning to Thailand for our wedding vows. Choosing a venue for such an occasion wasn’t really a decision we wanted to make via photos and email so this provided us with a great excuse for an impromptu holiday. I planned a busy week for us sashaying around Phuket touring resorts and dining on their food.

To get ourselves in the mood, our first night we decided to brave it into the bedlam of Patong to go the night markets. The boy has a strange and burning desire to eat unusual foods; this is actually something we used to share in common before all my allergies came to light and I starting being more wary of ingredients. Uninhibited and giddy on the street vendors rocket fuelled cocktails (80 Baht/$2.50) AUD), we dived into one of the many night markets and found ourselves surrounded by interesting smells. There was a lot of familiar fare, such as roast pork, chicken and duck but lo and behold we found the piece de la resistance……intestines?? Now you must be thinking we have gone a little mad, but there it was all snake like and coiled neatly in its mesenteric fat like a distorted grotesque fan.

 

Before I knew it the boy had ordered us a dish and was eagerly watching them dice it up for us into smaller more bite size pieces. I cautiously ate one, and to be honest with all the soy and chargrilling it didn’t taste too bad. There was none of the unpleasant smells you would have expected. However after a few morsels I began to remember my public health lectures at University and stopped myself before I worked myself into a nauseous state. I fell asleep that night dreaming of hydatid cysts in my brain and vowed not to be swayed to such a dark side again!

For more about our trips to Thailand click here

Travelling to Thailand?  Be sure to checkout the Lonely Planet Thailand Travel Guide before you go!

Chapter One Brasserie, Subiaco

Posted by  | Categories: European, French, Perth, Restaurants

I have a penchant for excesses. A friend once coined a term to describe me as “all or nothing”. It is the source of both extreme happiness and great trouble in my life. Currently my focus is on surviving this gluten challenge whilst trying to avoid going overboard. Easier said than done. The Doctors recommendation has been to eat a meagre two to three slices of wheaty wheatyness daily for six weeks. This all started out very well, but the all or nothing has quickly taken over and despite it making me so ill, when I’m out for a wonderful dinner I go out of control.

In a manner of pre-empting the evening eating excesses, I thought I’d get my bloated self out into the glorious sunshine and run around like a freak around the river with the concept that the more calories I burned the more I could eat that night. Unfortunately the whole dietary indiscretion thing is not very conducive to my running efforts, and it was more so a rather pathetic jog where numerous non-poisoned runners zoomed past me totally in their zone. I’m so jealous. Only three more weeks to go. Hey at least I can eat real food! After nearly six weeks of enjoying his long service leave payout, my love has decided to return to the workforce and has successfully passed through a rigorous interview process to be accepted for a job he is really keen to have. With hopes for a even brighter future what better way for us to celebrate than with good food and some bubbles!

After flipping through the Entertainment Book we booked a table at Chapter One Brasserie in Subiaco. Chapter One is a relaxed and unpretentious restaurant run by a husband and wife team; Hayley and Jason Walker. Hayley has extensive experience in the hospitality industry and this became apparent as throughout the night she confidently flitted from table to table ensuring everyone was enjoying themselves and their meals. We both immediately warmed to her bubbly personality and her pride in her restaurants success. The chef Jason trained at the London Hilton before going to work with a number of Europe’s famous chefs including Marco Pierre White. This European influence comes through strongly on his menu with some hearty dishes including rabbit pie and duck with foie gras.

We started our evening with a baguette and butter. The baguette had a wonderful crunchy exterior with fluffy lightness inside, something one really misses out on when on a gluten free diet. It would have enhanced my whole experience if the bread wasn’t cold.  Or the butter for that matter. Cold butter does not make for very elegant eating.

 

We moved on to our next course to share the Tasting plate. This contained four shot glasses of pea and ham soup, some grilled polenta with a tomato salsa, some vol-u-vents, chorizo and some asparagus spears. The soup was served hot and was a much needed hit of warmth in my belly after the disappointment of the cold baguette. It was thick and creamy and the ham was meaty with minimal fat. It was a tad quirky that the spoons served with the soup didn’t fit into the little glasses. The polenta was soft on the inside but grilled to a flavoursome brown and was the most enjoyable item on the plate next to the soup. The chorizo was good but nothing special. The vol-u-vents were disappointing as they were luke warm and the puff pastry had no crunch to it.

 

After reading some others reviews on the net raving about Chapter One’s Blue manna crab angel hair pasta, we decided to once again make pigs of ourselves and order a second entree. Well the Italians do it don’t they? And aren’t we meant to be celebrating? Memories of cold dishes slipped into the back of our minds as we slurped our way through this amazing dish. I highly recommend. It truly shows looks can be deceiving as the strong crab flavours worked their magic over our palate. Hayley claims their secret is in the sauce and she is most definitely not mistaken there. Oh boy, I was really going to pay for all this glutenness tomorrow!

 

For mains we both ordered the braised rabbit & wild mushroom pie, with parsnip puree and a sage jus. I can understand why this dish remains on his ever changing menu as it was executed perfectly. This time round the pastry was buttery and feather light (and hot), and the rabbit was tender and succulent. We also ordered the warm beetroot and goats cheese salad. I felt there was an excess on onion in this dish, not really necessary given the abundance of strong tart taste of the goats cheese.

 

Unsurprisingly I was convinced we had room for dessert. That doesn’t actually mean there was room in my stomach but refer to my original point I made at the beginning of this blog. All or nothing. I wouldn’t (couldn’t?) have it any other way! I ordered the berry and creme fraiche tart and the boy ordered some sort of butterscotch cheesecake.

The berry tart was well balanced with both sour and sweet flavours however the pastry base was very hard and half of my dessert went flying across the table when I tried cutting into it. The boy found it quite entertaining as once again you could easily see my place at the table as in front of me was a collage of colours ranging from the pale green of the pea soup to the brilliant ruby red of the berries. Apparently he thinks this is a regular occurrence. Overall the evening was very enjoyable and I will dream of the crab pasta well into my gluten free days.

Venue 7.5/10 Service 9/10 Food 8/10

Chapter One Brasserie
292 Hay St, Subiaco, 6008 | (08) 9388 1323 | www.chapteronebrasserie.com.au

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Fuse Bar @ Hotel Northbridge

Posted by  | Categories: Perth, Pub, Restaurants

As high as a kite on French champagne and with Rochelle Adonis‘s exquisite high tea delicacies still swimming around on my palate, my friends and I skipped over the road from her studio to the Hotel Northbridge to extend our celebratory mood a little further into the afternoon. After leaving the bright and clean environment of Rochelle’s, the grimy stark reality of the empty pub was initially a little off putting but good company has a way of distracting your attention from these details and we soon sat to continue our chatter and giggling. Of course we wanted to continue drinking champagne and therefore we were all a tad disappointed to read the drinks menu only contained Australian bubbles. For an exorbitant $68 we got a bottle of Chandon Brut and ordered a tasting plate, salt and pepper squid, and fries.

The food arrived fairly quickly, but we were left totally confused as to how to ration four serviettes, three forks, four knives and one plate amongst the six of us. Odd.  I would have also liked to have been informed when I placed my order for the food that the salt and pepper squid actually came on a bed of fries as we didn’t really need the second bowl. Needless to say one can see from the photo that the salt and pepper squid wasn’t really such. Deep fried battered squid would be a more appropriate description as the dusting was nearly thicker than the squid itself. The added touch of MasterFoods squeeze-on packets of sweet chilli, tartare and tomato sauces didn’t raise the appeal much either. If you want to charge me $17.50 for such a dish then you had better make an effort on presentation or at least increase the size of your serves to make it good value – this dish had only twelve small pieces of calamari!

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Moving onto the tasting plate we were preparing ourselves for the worst. Seriously, what were we thinking coming from High tea to this? If only Rochelle let us have another course! The tasting plate contained a paltry four thin strips of Turkish bread, some tasteless cubes of fetta, two small bowls of watery inedible dips, a handful of jarred olives, a pile of  chorizo, about one teaspoon of very scary looking sun-dried tomatoes and some olive oil. The chorizo was the low- light and no one could eat it.  It had an unusual taste that wasn’t pleasant.

Disappointed with such poor quality food, a rebellious streak started to emerge from our little group.  By this time our over-priced bottle of average sparkling was well and truly empty so we decided it would be a fabulous decision to sneakily pop open our remaining bottle of Cattier from high tea. Anyone tried to open champagne sneakily? After a delayed and unsuccessful attempt at smothering that wonderful popping sound with laughter and coughing, the bartender scurried over to inform us we cannot drink our own bottle.  We offered to pay corkage but she wasn’t willing to bend the rules. Fair enough. One of my girlfriends surprisingly managed to squeeze the cork back into the bottle, only for it to pop out later at an impromptu time during our drive home whilst traveling on the back seat. Needless to say the car still smells like celebrations!

Service 5/10 venue 4/10 food 3/10

Fuse Bar @ Hotel Northbridge
Cnr Brisbane and Lake St, Northbridge, 6003 |   (08) 9328 5254 | www.hotelnorthbridge.com.au/bar.php
 

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High Tea at Rochelle Adonis

Posted by  | Categories: Desserts, High Tea, Perth, Restaurants, Wedding

For months I have been bursting out of my skin to get myself to Rochelle Adonis for her acclaimed high tea! So when my love and I attended a boutique little wedding expo at Mosmans recently I was attracted to her stall like a moth to a flame. Her passion and gentle nature increased her appeal to me even more and I immediately decided I wanted to have one of her exquisite cakes for our upcoming engagement party. This provided me with the perfect excuse to organise a girly afternoon out with some friends for the purpose of “engagement cake tasting”.

For us foodies in the know, we are all very thankful to have such a world class pastry chef of this calibre residing here in little Perth. Rochelle grew up in the French Canadian city of Montreal before moving to Sydney to train as a pastry chef.  She then moved to London where she worked in an exclusive wedding cake boutique making cakes for the rich and famous including both the British and Saudi Royal families before she moved onto to Vienna to work in the prestigious Hotel Sacher.

Returning to Australia, she was acting head pastry chef at Forty One in Sydney before joining Matt Moran’s at Moran’s and then once he opened Aria as the head pastry chef there. She moved to WA in 2001 with the ambition of starting her own business and has grown from a small scale home kitchen beginning to the highly acclaimed boutique she has today.

Upon entering her studio, you will be distracted by all the eye catching photos decorating the walls with examples of her handy work.  Each cake is prepared with upmost attention and care and they almost look like they couldn’t be real. The two long communal marble tables fill much of the room giving the feeling you are sitting in someone’s kitchen rather than a café. We all came very prepared with enough champagne to sink a ship and with high expectations to have our tastebuds buzzing. We most certainly were not disappointed. Our only complaint was it all ended way too soon! We could have easily done with another few courses!

We all came very prepared with enough champagne to sink a ship and with high expectations to have our tastebuds buzzing. We most certainly were not disappointed. Our only complaint was it all ended way too soon! We could have easily done with another few courses!

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The first course was savoury. After my recent enforced gluten indulgences, I thought it best that I stick with her gluten free options – I was after all actually taste testing for a party that will occur once I’m back on the straight and narrow gluten free. My plate contained a cup of creamed corn soup, a vegetable frittata, a cube of pork terrine and a falafel with some harissa. The soup was hot and seasoned perfectly warming us all up as we waited for our champagne to take over the job. The pork terrine had a dollop of horseradish and Dijon mayonnaise. The short sharp heat of the horseradish blended harmoniously with the lingering flavours of the terrine and was the highlight of the four.

"Pork terrine" "goats cheese gallettes" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

The girls also had the pork terrine and the soup on their plates. Their gluten-filled options included a vegetable galette with goat’s cheese and Rochelle’s famous cucumber sandwiches using entirely homemade ingredients including her own handmade butter. The sandwiches looked so cute all cut up in perfect little rectangles sitting in a row.

"cucumber sandwich" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

Our second course was desert. My plate contained mint ice cream with Valrhona chocolate, raspberry jelly, meringue with lemon curd, blueberries and violet, and a blood orange salad on top of a moist butter cake with gooey brulee style custard. The ice cream was not overly sweet or sickly, nor was it too creamy. It had the perfect balance with a fresh minty aftertaste leaving a clean fresh feeling on the palate. My first glancing impressions of the raspberry jelly reminded me of Turkish Delight. Not being the biggest fan of this I was pleased to find an absence of Turkish’s signature delicate rose flavours replaced with a much preferred and rather strong tarty berriness. For those who know Chompchomp well – you will be aware I am a huge fan of all things berry. Well, berries generally come shaped in little balls – and I’m a sucker for food in little balls.  The meringue was one of my favourites. It contained all the elements of a well-made meringue: crunchy, chewy and soft, and the accompaniment of sharp tangy lemon curd moved seamlessly into the gentle after notes of the more subtle violet and blueberries.

"dessert" "Mint ice cream" "Valrhona chocolate" "raspberry jelly" "meringue" "blueberries" "lemon curd" "violet" "blood orange salad" "butter cake" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

The blood orange salad tasted like Rochelle had successful managed to capture Spring in a cup! Seeing as our one week teaser of Spring weather has turned viciously back to wet winter windiness I was so thankful to be reminded glorious Perth Spring was just around the corner. Buried deep below the array of sweet blood orange and delicate petals was a layer of brulee and dense orange butter cake. I nearly stuck my fingers into the bottom of the bowl to clean out the last remnants.

"Blood orange salad" "Butter cake" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

By this point we had polished off a bottle of Moet, a bottle of Cattier and a bottle of G.H. Mumm champagne and we were all in very fine form. We really didn’t want our experience to end and thus were determined to carry on with our celebrations. After pondering for some time at the counter, a number of us bought more little cakes, nougat and other delights to take home to share with our loved ones who missed out on the delightful experience. We then all skipped over the road to the Hotel Northbridge to continue our festivities. Oh boy what a contrast in standards of customer service, ambiance and food would we find there!

"meringue" "blueberries" "lemon curd" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Rochelle Adonis" "High Tea" "Perth High Tea" "Champagne" "Desserts" "Northbridge"

Venue 8/10 Food 9.2/10 Service 7.7/10

Rochelle Adonis
193 Brisbane St, Northbridge, 6003 | (08) 9227 0007
www.rochelleadonis.com

 

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The Lounge Room, Guildford

Posted by  | Categories: Breakfast/Brunch, Perth, Restaurants

As I dragged myself out of my warm cosy bed at 6am on my day off I thought about the long drive ahead of me in the pouring rain for a partners meeting and wondered if I was a little too dedicated to my business. We normally go to the Dome café in Midland of which I am not the biggest fan after numerous past disappointments.  After such as lovely experience at Jezebelle in Guildford I suggested we try a change in scenery and go to The Lounge Room which is just a short way down James Street.

Despite a table booked for 7 am and the fact they open at 7am we were left waiting outside the front of the cafe in the cold morning weather.  You would think that they could have made the effort to be ready with open doors to greet customers when they had tables pre-booked?  We were to soon find out this was just the first in many incidents caused by a lack of preparation and attention to customer service.

Upon gazing at the chalkboard menu one could not help but be distracted by the multiple pieces of paper stuck onto several of menu items that were not available. This looked quite untidy and I would recommend getting a proper chalkboard and handwriting items if things regularly go out of stock.  Perhaps maybe doing this in addition to ensuring you have adequate stock to start a new week are just like opening on time…. too much effort for a Monday morning to bother with?

I ordered the breakfast Panini without onion. I was then informed this would not be possible as the Panini were already made up – I wondered if it was really too difficult to make a fresh one?  They certainly weren’t that busy.  Instead I ordered scrambled eggs on toast with mushroom and tomato… unfortunately I was then informed there were no mushrooms left.   Really?  First thing on a Monday morning and you have no mushroom to go with your breakfast menu?  I thought I would take a gamble and ask for avocado instead – nope, none of that available either!  I reluctantly opted for bacon as my second addition.

I also ordered a short macchiato. I should have thought to describe what a short mac is before ordering as the ratio of milk to coffee was way too high for me.  The meal itself reminded me of food you would get from a “diner” style restaurant, not a cafe marketing itself as upmarket.  I got one piece of toast, a pile of unseasoned flavourless scrambled eggs, some pale tepid tomatoes and some bacon.  Not a lot of value for the price which was a pricey $20!

It was certainly edible but not much more than that.  We continued our meeting while our empty plates remained on our tables as the wait staff pretended that neither us nor our empty plates were even there.  Not once did we get asked if we would like more coffees, desserts or anything of the like.   Surprising as we stayed for another two hours while they ignored us and lost the business opportunity our seats should have been providing.  Oh well, they won’t have to worry about that happening again!

Service 2/10, food 4/10, venue 5/10

The Lounge Room

187 James Street, Guildford, 6055 | (08) 9379 3791

Old Cathay, Victoria Park

Posted by  | Categories: Chinese, Malaysian, Perth, Restaurants

I decided to buy a Scoopon to Old Cathay Restaurant to give to my beloved as a small token gift to further lengthen our post-engagement celebrations.  I’m currently on Doctors orders to punish my body with six weeks of gluten hell in order to determine for once and for all whether I am actually coeliac or just have fructose malabsorption. I am still trying to continue to convince myself that this is a time to embrace this character building experience as an opportunity to have total freedom in ordering whatever I like and just grit and bear the consequences.

Chinese food is not one that can be gluten/onion free very easily so it was exciting to order the tasty dishes we wanted instead of the select few adjustable ones. Old Cathay has a warm and inviting interior and was full of customers on a Thursday night. The staffs were very welcoming despite us being Scoopon customers (something not all restaurants do!). Upon being seated we were quickly informed our Cathay tasting plate was being prepared and our bottle of wine was brought to the table. We had choice of white or red – we chose the white (Rothbury Estate SSB). We requested to order an additional entree to the coupon offer which was no problem.

"Tasting plate" "prawn" "spring roll" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Old Cathay" "Victoria park" "albany highway" "Chinese" "Malaysian" "Scoopon"

Old Cathay Tasting Plate

The platter contained 2 Golden Vegetarian Spring Rolls, two Prawn Twisters, one bowl of Chicken Kerabu Salad and two Crunchy Prawn Kataifi. The spring rolls were fresh and hot. The two prawn dishes were both fried and looked like heart attack central. I’m not the hugest fan of deep fried food; however these were actually very crispy and light and didn’t leave my mouth feeling full of oil. In addition to the platter we ordered the boy’s favourite: Soft shelled crab. This was not the tastiest soft shelled crab I’ve had – it felt like it was missing a dipping sauce? Nevertheless it also was crispy and not soggy at all.

"Old Cathay Gui Fei Tofu" "tofu" "vegetarian" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Old Cathay" "Victoria park" "albany highway" "Chinese" "Malaysian" "Scoopon"

Old Cathay Gui Fei Tofu

For mains our Scoopon included two mains so we ordered the Old Cathay Gui Fei Tofu and the Kung Po Squid. Being food obsessed, we always both tend to want to order more food than is humanly possible to eat so we ordered an extra main of the sweet and sour pork. I’m not usually a big tofu fan, I don’t hate it, but I never think to order it. But Old Cathay tofu is something not to be missed. They make their own tofu and it was wonderfully soft as silk in my mouth. It was accompanied with shredded chicken, mushroom & carrots. The Kung Po squid was stir fried with dried whole chillies and cashew nuts. The sauce with this dish was scrumptious. Unfortunately this dish was a little lukewarm and ideally should have been served at a hotter temperature. The sweet and sour pork had decent sized pieces of meat with a light batter cover that maintained its crispiness and hadn’t gone soggy in the sauce – fresh! The sauce was tangy and gingery and not overpoweringly sweet. A winner for sure.

"Sweet and sour pork" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Old Cathay" "Victoria park" "albany highway" "Chinese" "Malaysian" "Scoopon"

Sweet and sour pork

To end our overindulgent evening, our coupon included a desert each. I was so excited to see red bean pancake on the menu – a Chinese delight I have been deprived of for many years! Imagine my disappointment when they told me there wasn’t any left! Boo! Instead we ordered the Taro Ice Cream and the Sago Gula Melaka served with Ice Cream. These were fairly standard dishes although I like the extra touch of shaved crispy coconut pieces on the top.
I am already planning our return before my gluten clock runs out – to be continued……

Venue 8/10 Service 8/10 Food 7.8/10

Old Cathay | 59 Albany Hwy, Victoria Park 6100 | (08) 9361 1881 | www.oldcathay.com.au

Jezebelle, Guildford

Posted by  | Categories: European, Perth, Restaurants, Tapas Bar

We dined here with my business partners last night and had a fabulous evening. The staff were all very enthusiastic and cheerful without being overbearing, and assisted us to select some of their delicious tapas style dishes. Unfortunately for me, my doctor’s orders are to subject me to the unpleasantness of a gluten challenge prior to coeliac testing. I tend to be a glass half full type so I have embraced this harrowing experience as a way to enjoy what I used to miss out on. This led us to sample “two of each” of the breads on the menu. There was a toasted ciabatta with truffle mascarpone, the ciabatta was light and crunchy and had a lovely buttery after taste. The house flat bread provided a contrasting texture and was heavy and tangy like sourdough. It came with marinated olives.

"Jamon" "buffalo mozzarella" "slow-roasted tomato" "basil oil" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Jamon, buffalo mozzarella, slow-roasted tomato, basil oil

For our first “round” we tried the Jamon, the sweet potato skordolia and the duck. The jamon was delicately sliced and quite sweet to taste. It was accompanied by buffalo mozzarella, slow-roasted tomato and a drizzling of basil oil. The sweet potato skordolia didn’t look like much but was very flavoursome and the sweetness complimented the jamon. It was accompanied by char-grilled broccolini, pine nuts and goat’s cheese. The duck was the least favourite of this course; it was a little dry and lacked the strong flavours of the other dishes.

"Khatta-style pork ribs" "pork ribs" "Kombu pickle" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Khatta-style pork ribs, Kombu pickle

For our second course we had the Khatta-style pork ribs, the scallops, and the lamb. The pork ribs were to die for and came with some kombu pickle. They were cooked perfectly, and contained mainly meat not fat. One of the highlights of the night. The Seared scallops with jamón crumb served with potato crisps were tender and juicy however the scallops had some variability with size meaning some guests got tiny scallops. Despite this, this dish was also one of my favs. The Sumac lamb with pomegranate came with baba ganoush on the side. The lamb was seasoned well but slightly overcooked.

To accommodate for the vegetarians at the table we also ordered the Balsamic beetroot with char-grilled asparagus, the crispy polenta and the potatas bravas. I didn’t try the beetroot but others commented it was a great dish. The Crispy polenta with Gorgonzola cream, hazelnuts and portobellos was really tasty. I could have ordered more of it. The Potatas bravas weren’t the best I’ve had – they lacked the crispiness that highlights this dish.

"doughnuts" "desserts" "Cinnamon ricotta doughnuts" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Cinnamon ricotta doughnuts

For desserts we continued in the vein of the bread ordering and ordered “two of each”! The White-chocolate mousse with lemon custard and shortbread was the perfect texture and not too sickly sweet. Being used to the restrictions of a GF diet for years, I felt very naughty indulging in the Cinnamon ricotta doughnuts but loved every moment! I didn’t get to try the Balsamic strawberry cheesecake as it was demolished by others quickly – I’m guessing this is a good sign. The least enjoyable two dishes were the Melting chocolate fondant and the Persian orange macadamia cake.

"Chocolate fondant" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Chocolate fondant

The fondant was mean to be filled with oozing chocolate goo but when we cut into it, it was dry. The waiter promptly noticed this and said he would remove it off the bill. The Persian orange cake was dry and had minimal zest to it – I definitely think the recipe needs a revise as it is the only GF option on the dessert menu.

"Chocolate fondant" "dessert" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Oooops! No gooo!

"Cheese" "Brillat Savarin" "Pecorino Romano" "Gorgonzola" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "food photos" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Guildford" "Jezebelle" "tapas"

Three cheeses: Brillat Savarin, Pecorino Romano, Gorgonzola

The cheese platter was a perfect comination of soft French Brillat Savarin, hard sheep’s Pecorino Romano and a Gorgonzola. I wish I had more room to fit these in!

All in all it was a wonderful experience, great food, awesome service – and we all look forward to returning!

Food 8.1/10, service 8.5/10, venue 8/10

For more photos check out my Flickr account

Jezebelle

127 james street
Guildford, 6055
www.jezebelle.com.au

P'tite Ardoise Bistro, Highgate

Posted by  | Categories: Bistro, French, Perth, Restaurants

To assist the chef in planning for my meal alterations and adjustments, I always try to ensure to inform the kitchen of my allergy requirements in advance when I book the table. Unfortunately despite giving the restaurant 3 days’ notice about this, when I was trying to order my entrees I was informed by the wait staff that all the sauces in all the dishes contained onions. Despite our lovely waiter Sebastian going out of his way to help me, going back and forth from the kitchen with options, the response from the chef was a resounding “no” for even the slightest alteration. Not even melting some garlic butter was possible. Maybe I’ve been spoilt recently eating out – but this reinforces to me how I appreciate a good chef is one that can accommodate and adjust dishes rather than churn out the standard meals.

I also question whether the reason the meals cannot be altered because they are already pre-prepared? So despite all the entrees looking delectable, the only dish I was able to have was the Asparagus, cherry tomato and radicchio salad with Ravigote dressing. This was a small portion, dressed nicely but not satisfying when you look at the rest of our table’s meals!

"Asparagus" "cherry tomato" "radicchio salad" "Ravigote dressing" "vegetarian" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "P'tite Ardoise Bistro" "Highgate" "Mount Lawley" "Beaufort Street" "French" "bistro"

Asparagus, cherry tomato and radicchio salad with Ravigote dressing - no gluten and no onion!

Others ordered the Escargot a ma façon (Snails cooked my way), Pan fried duck liver with pea puree and Scallop and truffle filo torte with fennel salad and balsamic dressing. Thankfully the rest of the meals were able to be ordered without a hitch.

"Escargot" "snails" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "P'tite Ardoise Bistro" "Highgate" "Mount Lawley" "Beaufort Street" "French" "bistro"

Escargot a ma façon (Snails cooked my way)

"Pan fried duck liver" "pea puree" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "P'tite Ardoise Bistro" "Highgate" "Mount Lawley" "Beaufort Street" "French" "bistro"

Pan fried duck liver with pea puree

For mains I had the Tournedo Rossini: WA Beef tenderloin, foie gras, mushroom duxelle, served on mashed potato (without the jus). The cut of meat was of reasonable quality and cooked correctly. I did however notice that my portion of foie gras was twice as generous when compared my non-allergic partner’s so perhaps this was the chef’s way of making it up to us!

"Tournedo Rossini" "Beef tenderloin" mash "foie gras" "Perth Restaurant Reviews" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "food photos" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "P'tite Ardoise Bistro" "Highgate" "Mount Lawley" "Beaufort Street" "French" "bistro"

Tournedo Rossini with foie gras

Another ordered the Margaret River Wagyu Beef Rump served with mash potato and green peppercorn sauce. The Wagyu was soft and delicate as it should be although cooked slightly under the request of rare. Another ordered the Pork trotter stuffed with chicken and wild mushroom, mash potato and a Shiraz jus. For desserts we shared the Ile Flottante and again we were given a larger serve – we asked for one to share and they brought us out two and said it was an extra sized single portion. We were only charged for one. Once again a big thumbs up to the wait staff who really tried to make it up to us for the problem with the entrees. Overall it was an enjoyable night and we all walked away with satisfied full bellies.

Service 9/10 Food 7.5/10 Venue 7/10

P’tite Ardoise Bistro
283 Beaufort St, Highgate, 6003 | (08) 9228 2008
www.ptiteardoisebistro.com.au

 

In continuation of my previous review I would like to let my readers know that the chef has contacted me regarding our meal last night. We accidently left one of our bottles of wine at the restaurant and he wanted to let me know so that I could return to collect it. He also apologised that our dining experience was not up to scratch and extended an invitation for a repeat visit with advance notice of my menu choices so he could be better prepared with appropriate stocks and sauces. He mentioned he did not know of my dietary requests until the day and therefore did not have time to discuss with me prior. I have to say in receiving the call; I was very impressed to see such passion and dedication to customer service and a true effort to redeem a reputation. I shall most definitely be returning …. watch this space….