April | 2020 | Truly Scrumptious

It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for April, 2020

Clancy’s Fish Pub, City Beach

Clancy’s is a busy quirky bar and restaurant right on the beach at City Beach. Family and pet friendly, and quite lively, there are many tables overlooking the beach and ocean.
Clancy’s don’t take bookings, but we were seated fairly quickly on a Friday night, at a window table with high seats.

We chose a glass of Margaret River sauvignon blanc to start – nice, but a bit more acidic than my favourite Marlborough sauvs.

The menu contains fish of course, snapper, barramundi, trout, salmon, and sefood
favourites including oysters, squid, fish tacos, mussels and paella. You can order smaller dishes to share or larger dishes for a traditional main course.
My companion chose the pulled pork burger. It was nicely flavoured but not great value considering that it did not contain much pork.

I chose the grilled barramundi and chips with mayo and slaw. It was lovely, fresh, there was plenty of it, and the combination was really well matched.

We didn’t have room for dessert, so left it at that. The meal was nice but not outstanding, and it was quite expensive for what we had. I would go back because it’s a great location, but I am not sure that I will be a regular.

Visit Date – November 2017

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Choux, Swanbourne

Choux is famous for its macarons, and used to be managed by the celebrated French chef Emannuel Mollois before his sad passing from bone cancer in 2017. It had been a while since our last visit and we decided to pop in for some takeaway afternoon tea following a brunch at the beach.
As we arrived, the pastry chef was just transporting a huge and very delicious looking gateau to a client’s car – it looked amazingly good.
The cabinet was full of those signature macarons, but our eyes were drawn to the
wonderful perfect cakes.

They also have savouries and croissants.

After much deliberation we opted for the blueberry and lemon ‘Iris’. A wonderful slice with layers of zingy lemon curd and rich blueberry compote.

We also chose a Gianduja – hazelnut, chocolate and feuillantine (which adds a wafery crunch).

Both slices were beautifully presented, not overly sweet, thoughtfully constructed and textured, and an example of some of the best patisserie in Perth.
This place is highly recommended, if you choose to dine in, the atmosphere is a French country kitchen. Very nice and in a beautiful area.

Visit Date – August 2018

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Bread In Common, Fremantle

I have been wanting to try Bread In Common for ages, and a Sunday morning seemed like the perfect opportunity, so we popped down there for brunch. It’s a large airy restaurant, possibly a converted warehouse, on Pakenham Street. The kitchen is open and run in a very calm manner. The tables are long benches, and there’s a hubbub of activity with customers chatting, coffee being made, fruits being juiced, and the takeaway counter selling bread, pies, pastries and cakes.

We started with a coffee while we perused the menu and were presented with a Brazilian single origin from West Perth’s Mano a Mano. Very nice rich coffee.

The menu is jam packed full of yummy options and everything sounds appetising. I was
very tempted by the sweet options of plum compote and yoghurt, fruit salad with coconut yoghurt, french fruit toast with peaches and cream cheese, and waffles with banana, cream cheese and maple. Savoury options were equally good with veggie options of mushrooms and parmesan, corn and jalapeno and I eventually narrowed it down to choice between pork meatballs with fried eggs and hot sauce, and beef brisket benedict. The benedict won, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Wonderfully chunky but fall-apart brisket with a hunk of fresh bread, poached eggs,
hollandaise and sauerkraut – every mouthful was a joy.
Looking around, Bread In Common makes its own pickles and conserves as well as the
bread that it is famous for.

We left with very full bellies, and an additional half loaf of fruit bread. It’s one of those
places that you have to keep going back to so that you can try everything.

Visit Date – April 2018

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Blue Duck, Cottesloe

The Blue Duck on Marine Parade is a restaurant with one of the best views in Cottesloe. With Rottnest lingering in the distance and the beautiful blue green waters of Cottesloe Beach, it’s a fairly iconic location.

We stopped by for brunch on Easter Monday and felt fortunate to get a table. We started with coffee which was delicious, a nice caramel flavour made with freshly roasted beans.

For my brekkie I chose the breakfast board – a triple combo of orange juice, muesli with berry compote and yoghurt, and ham benedict on a rosti. The benedict was lovely, great hollandaise with a nice acidity to it, a really tasty rosti, and a good fresh egg dribbling over the quality slices of ham. Yum. The muesli was nice and had a slightly floral aromatic flavour to it, topped with berries, a slice of poached pear and some thick yoghurt. My only issue was that the chunk of pear was too big to slice with the little spoon, so I had no choice but to pick it up with my fingers. The orange juice was fresh and tasty.

My partner chose the surfer’s brekkie. Bacon, sausage, tomato, hash brown and eggs with some sourdough. He said it was nice but the eggs were just lukewarm, and got cold very quickly. All the elements were good quality.

I like the Blue Duck, it’s a great location and the food is always tasty. Definitely one of the good restaurants in Cottesloe.

Visit Date – April 2018

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Blacksmith, Highgate

Blacksmith, on Beaufort Street is deceptively large. It looks like a single shop front but spreads back quite a way and is family friendly with a children’s play area out back.
We stopped by for Sunday brunch and were impressed by the menu options. Coffee is supplied by Locale, and the blend was quite good but not as smooth as other beans I have tried.

Menu offerings include a breakfast board, smashed avo, brioche hotdog, lamb benny and eggs on fire.
My partner chose the tuscan beans – beans, Italian sausage, basil, poached eggs and sourdough. He really enjoyed it – a large portion of food with good rich flavours and nice bread.

I chose the brisket benedict – beef brisket hash, poached eggs, sourdough and tarragon hollandaise. This was problematic. If the hollandaise had been served on the side, I wouldn’t have had it – it was sour, overly vinegary, and really not very nice, but unfortunately the whole dish was covered in it. The brisket hash patties were crumbed and deep fried but unfortunately they had taken on the flavour of whatever was last cooked in the oil, and they had an odd taint to them as well as being underseasoned. The bread was very nice, but I really didn’t eat much of the eggs because of the all-pervasive hollandaise. It was a shame because this could have been an excellent dish.

On the whole, two very different plates, and we probably won’t go back – there are better brunch venues nearby.

Visit Date – July 2019

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Bunn Mee, Leederville

Bunn Mee is a little cafe on the main Leederville Oxford Street strip selling Vietnamese street food. Run by Masterchef’s Jenny and her family, it is busy, bustling and friendly, with Jenny working hard to ensure that everybody has what they need.

The main item is bahn mi, the Vietnamese-French fusion baguette rolls with choices of pate, chicken, pork and vegetarian fillings. The cafe also serves Vietnamese favourites such as bun, pho, broken rice, shaking beef, noodle salads and Vietnamese pancake.
We started off with a serve of spring rolls to share, and they were the most perfect spring rolls that I have ever tasted, beautifully crisp with a nice meaty pork filling and sublime dipping sauce. A very nice introduction to the meal.

Juices and drinks are freshly made, my partner chose a fresh pressed orange juice and I chose a young coconut juice. Both were full of flavour.

For main course, my partner chose a bun broth with pork and beef, which was wonderful and very very flavoursome. Accompanied with condiments like beansprouts, lemon, mint, and chilli, he finished every last drop. Jenny’s dad explained the mashed chilli condiment – it’s a special dried chilli mashed with oil, and a particular accompaniment to the bun.

Intrigued by the pancake, I chose it to see how it compared with my homemade Saigon pancakes, and realised that I’ve been doing it wrong. The waiter explained that I need to tear off pieces of the pancake, lay them on a lettuce leaf, add some pickles and mint, and roll them up, dip them in sauce and eat. The lettuce leaves were some kind of wasabi derivative with a lovely mild wasabi flavour that really added to the dish. The turmeric pancake was full to bursting with beansprouts, prawn and pork and it was a nice size too. Absolutely yum.

Artwork and decor around the cafe is the work of Jenny’s dad – Minh Nguyen.

Bunn Mee is definitely the best Vietnamese food for miles, well worth the visit.

Last Visit Date – October 2020.

Other dishes include this amazing lace spring roll salad (vegan) – the spring rolls contain yam and shiitake mushrooms – they are incredibly good.

Crispy chicken:

Banh mi of course:

Amazing vegetarian banh mee with tofu:

bm 20

Click here to find out more.

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

La Vida Urbana, Leederville

Urbana is a sister restaurant to El Publico in Mount Lawley, and is situated in Carr Place, Leederville, quite close to Sayers and Duende. The food is authentic Mexican, and if you love Tequila, Mescal and Agave spirits, this is definitely the place for you.

We started off with a Hibiscus soda and a glass of Riesling. Both nice drinks while we perused the menu.

Most of the starters are tacos of differing types, but they also serve nachos, black bean dip and chicharron (puffed pork crackling). We opted for a few tacos – the carnitas taco with salsa roja, pineapple and chicharron, and the battered fish taco with cucumber, avocado, and charred lemon. They arrived with two tortillas, but both tortillas were underneath a heap of filling. It would have been easier to share if each tortilla had filling on top, but we worked it out and divided them up.

We also received some chilli jam and hot green sauce.

Both tacos were really tasty, but the hot green sauce (which was very hot) and the chilli jam were the stars – wow such lovely beautifully put together condiments. We also chose street corn which was amazing. If you are wondering how good corn can be, well this is the dish to prove that it can be incredibly good. Perfectly cooked and charred corn with queso fresco on top. Absolutely yum. (Unfortunately dairy doesn’t agree with me and I did suffer a bit the next day due to the queso fresco, and if they could prepare this dish with vegan cheese, I would be in heaven).

Next came the kingfish crudo. with orange, habanero, mezcal, hibiscus and tostadas. The waiter helpfully showed us how to dip the crispy tostadas (crispy tacos) into the sauce to wet them before loading up with the fish. This dish was sublime and I loved every mouthful. My only bugbear is that they gave us just 3 tostadas. We could have had two each really, and a bit of care from the waitstaff and kitchen would have made this much easier to share. I didn’t touch the sliced habaneros – I’ve had those sneaky little chillies before and unless your chilli game is really strong, they will leave you with a long lasting mouth tingle.

Our last dish was the chicken mole as recommended by the waitress. Beautifully tender and moist chicken breast (I think it had been cooked sous-vide and then pan fried), with a mole sauce, red arroz and tortillas. The mole sauce was bittersweet and a good contrast to the rest of the ingredients.

This was a very good meal. I wish there were more cheeseless dishes on the menu, or options to removed the dairy so that I could have tried a wider ranger of dishes. A few of the dishes are vegan, but they only form a minority of the menu, so this is more of a restaurant for meat eaters. I would happily return for another feast – lovely yummy Mexican food.

Visit Date – Jan 2019

Click here to find out more.

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Bivouac, Northbridge

Bivouac, in the heart of Northbridge on William Street offers a variety of Middle Eastern and Meditteranean fare. The food is designed for sharing, including small plates and larger plates.
We started with a mocktail – a citrus based fruity delight with a hint of sourness.

From the small plate section we chose the Israeli duck liver pate with mustard kasundi, pickles and matzah crackers. This was such a beautiful dish, really rich and flavourful. The pickled radishes were incredibly good.

For larger dishes we chose the 9 spice Palestinian Chicken Musakhan, again a wonderful combination of flavours with fennel, toasted buckwheat and smoked garlic yoghurt.

Mint and chilli eggplant was exquisite. Perfectly cooked eggplant with chickpea msabaha, herbed vegan yoghurt, fermented paprika, and crispy shallot.

We also chose a Syrian potato salad with fennel, almond, chilli, lemon and herbs – probably the best potato salad I have eaten.

Bivouac really does deliver a feast of flavours, and it’s nice to try dishes from different regions of the middle east – there really is a shortage of restaurants delivering this type of cuisine in Perth. I really couldn’t fault any dish and I will definitely return for more.

Visit Date – Mar 2019

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Blackbird, East Perth

I hadn’t heard of Blackbird before, but decided to give it a try and take advantage of a 50% discount offer – I was quite impressed with the Urbanspoon rating so thought it would be above average.
We went on a Sunday lunchtime, and the restaurant is in a lovely setting right on the river just behind Royal Street.

The interior of the restaurant was casual and cosy, and the waitresses were cheery and welcoming. I liked that the drinks list offered some mocktails, and decided to opt for a nojito, an alcohol free mojito, which was very good.

The menu options were fairly limited (4 choices for each course) but all sounded
appetising. We chose to have some bread, and the waitress was very helpful in allowing me to have olive oil with balsamic vinegar rather than the usual Parisian butter. The bread was fresh and crusty – good quality. We decided to share a tasting plate starter.

This consisted of a slice of beef with blue cheese on bread, tomato and mushroom crostini, polenta with a capsicum sauce, and an arancini ball with pumpkin puree. They were all tasty and good quality – very enjoyable.
For main course I chose the fish of the day which was snapper in a light batter with chips, tartare sauce and a fennel and orange salad:

The chips were excellent, crispy and tasty, the salad was also very good and complemented the fish well. The snapper was good quality and fresh.
My companion chose beef medallions with sugar snap peas, roast potatoes, pumpkin
puree, balsamic onions and mushroom duxelle:

The beef was cooked perfectly, all of the elements worked well and the textures
complemented each other well. For dessert I chose chocolate pudding with cherries and coffee ice cream:

It was a huge portion of chocolate pudding and quite rich, but very very good. I would have liked another scoop of ice cream – it was home made and had a really rich coffee flavour. My companion chose chocolate truffles and coffee.

So will I go back to Blackbird ? Yes I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and felt pleasantly full afterwards. It is a nice environment, good quality food and friendly service. The only thing that let them down slightly was serving a chipped plate, but I think that the food made up for that faux pas.
Visit Date – July 2013

We haven’t been to Blackbird for quite a few years and decided to go on a Saturday night to try their Chef’s Choice menu. Quite good value at $50 per head for 3 starters, 2 mains and a dessert.
The restaurant is right on the river at East Perth, a beautiful and chilled setting with seating inside and outside. It’s quite intimate and as evening falls, it really comes into it’s own with candle lighting around the windows and on the tables.

Our waitress was very friendly and helpful and seemed quite enthusiastic that we had chosen the chef’s choice menu. We ordered drinks and snacked on a small bowl of warm popcorn, seasoned with their homemade salt mixture. We chose a chardonnay from South Australia.

The first starter was prosciutto et croutes, a small piece of crispy bread with apple, prosciutto and goats cheese, drizzled with a little truffle oil. It was nice, and just a small mouthful to get us started.

After this came a plate of vegetable croquettes with some capsicum and thyme
mayonnaise. They were quite filling, mainly consisting of pumpkin, and we enjoyed eating them.

The next starter was a bowl of garlic and butter clams, probably something that we would not usually order. The clams were fresh although some of the shells were closed which seemed a bit of a waste, and the sauce was nice. We mopped up the sauce with some bread, but it would have been nice to have more bread to do this.

The first of the mains was a ravioli of rocket and parmesan with blue cheese cream and spinach. This was the best dish of the night, the sauce really brought the pasta to life and I would have been very happy to have this as an a la carte dish.

The second main was sous vide chicken with orange jus, Israeli couscous, corn, spinach and chorizo. The Israeli couscous are quite large pearls of couscous. I expected the chicken to be more orange-flavoured, considering that it had been cooked with the orange and that the jus was made with the meat juices and orange. It hadn’t really intensified that much and I would have liked it to penetrate the whole piece of chicken.

Finally, the dessert was served. A small piece of brownie, a small panna cotta, and a caramel ice cream. Each element was nice, but not outstanding. I think that the portions could have been slightly bigger.

We had a nice meal in a beautiful setting, and it was certainly good value for $50 each. I left feeling that they could do so much better though. Everything was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary, and if this menu is showcasing the main menu, then it didn’t wow me. It wasn’t bad either, everything was perfectly edible, but I didn’t feel that I need to rush back to try other items on the menu. The setting is amazing though, it’s a great place for an intimate date.
Visit Date – Mar 2018

Click here to find out more about Blackbird

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Scents of Siam, Joondalup

There are regular Thai restuarants, and then there’s Scents of Siam. This local gem is a labour of love for its owners. Dan, who manages front of house, is Singaporean Chinese, and his wife Yui – who is the Thai-Chinese brainchild behind the dishes, manages the kitchen.
They strive to present a fusion of old and new dishes crossing the boundaries of Thai and Chinese and covering the whole geography of Thailand from north to south.
Generally, I don’t like pan-asian restaurants that try to serve more than one cuisine in order to please everybody, and thankfully Scents of Siam doesn’t do this – it brings us a very special insight into the food that the Thai-Chinese communities eat, and if the recipe isn’t perfect then chef doesn’t put it on the menu.
Dan explains the menu to his customers in detail and he talks about the origin of the dishes, and the stories behind their names, often testing out new dishes with his regular clients.

One of the specialities if a drink called butterfly pea flower iced tea. When presented, it is blue and tastes quite floral:

Then you add a shot of lime juice, and some theatre happens ! It turns purple and tastes much more fruity:

For our starters we chose mixed mushroom rice paper rolls. Containing button, enoki, shiitake and oyster mushrooms they were very juicy and tasty. A wonderful start to the meal:

Update – since this visit the mushroom rolls are now presented as crispy spring rolls.

A favourite starter is Son In Law Eggs:

Wonderfully oozy with a crispy coating and a delicious chilli tamarind sauce, Dan told us the two stories of how they were named. Story 1 tells that a father wanted to know if his daughter loved him more than her husband, so he challenged his son-in-law to a competition where they would cook eggs for her to see which eggs she preferred. He was convinced that his daughter would choose his version, but sadly for him, she chose her husband’s eggs and they became known as son-in-law eggs. Story 2 tells how a lady was cooking at the bottom of her house, which was a house on stilts (built for the monsoon).
She accidentally dropped an egg into hot oil but when she scooped it out, she realised that it was very tasty, cooked quickly with a firm white and a soft yolk. She was thinking about what to call this egg recipe when she looked up, and through the gaps in the floorboards she saw her son-in-law walking above, wearing nothing but a sarong, and she rather cheekily got the inspiration to call them son-in-law eggs !

We ordered 3 dishes for the main and first up was a delicious chicken penang curry. This dish had such a wonderful depth of flavour, that I could eat it again in a heartbeat. Complete with thai holy basil leaves, the brightness of kaffir lime, plenty of good quality chicken, and a rich smooth coconut sauce, it was an absolute pleasure to eat.

We also ordered roti, wonderfully light and crispy and perfect for dipping in the curry.

Pad Thai was served with extra chilli in case of need, and was a wonderful mix of noodles, beansprouts, chicken, tofu and prawns, perfectly balanced and absolutely delicious.