It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for June, 2020

Vans, Cottesloe

I’ve been meaning to try Vans for a long while, and it’s definitely a popular location, situated in Napoleon Street behind Boatshed Markets. I immediately loved the vibe of the cafe – friendly staff, a great looking cake cabinet, jazzy music and nice decor, and it had quite a buzz about it but wasn’t so loud that you needed to shout. I chose fresh orange to start which was good and vibrant – great flavour.

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My partner chose a decaf soy flat white which was smooth and little thin maybe because of the soy.

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It was difficult to choose a main – there were way too many delicious options, but in the end I plumped for the potato cake with smoked salmon, spinach and poached egg. It usually comes with lemon butter, but I asked for that to be left off because of my dairy allergy. This dish was perfection on a plate – the potato cake tasty with a bit of crunch, the egg perfectly gooey, and the smoked salmon was good quality fare – not the usual gelatinous packet bought version.

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My partner chose the cheesy jalapeno cornbread with bacon, poached eggs, smashed avocado and a black bean and corn salsa. The poached eggs were perfect, the cornbread very tasty and the bacon – like my salmon – was good quality and yummy. There was a nice zingy lime backdrop to the avocado smash.

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The cake cabinet looked very tempting but we decided to save that for another day. The raspberry brownies looked particularly good.

Vans is definitely worth a try – one of Cottesloe’s jewels.

Last Visit Date – August 2022

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Extra pics from another visit:

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Pink grapefruit and rosemary soda – so yummy:

Pulled pork chimichurri – top dish :

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Korean beef tacos:

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Category:

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

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Portofinos, Mindarie

Portofinos is a large restaurant at the Quinn’s end of Mindarie, and it has the advantage of overlooking the ocean. We went there on a Friday evening and it was quite busy and noisy with lots of families dining.
We were directed to a table fairly close to the large windows with a panoramic view of the ocean. The waitress seated us, but it was quite a while before we were offered some drinks.

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The menu includes tapas style plates as well as larger mains. We decided to choose some tapas to share. We also chose a glass of Jim Barry Lavender Hill Riesling each, which was okay, but not the best Riesling that I have sampled.
We started with a sharing plate of chicken wings, halloumi, arancini, smoked sausage, mixed pickles, vegetable frittata, olives, dip and flatbread. The bread was nicely made and cooked, and the wings were quite tasty. The halloumi was overly salty and not pleasant to eat and the chorizo was very strongly spiced. In contrast, the frittata needed some seasoning and the other items were okay. The dip was quite nice.

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We also chose whitebait – nice standard fare, quite tasty.

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Next came a duck spring roll and this was definitely the best dish of the meal, but a bit pricey at $12 for one roll which was cut into 3 pieces (sorry I ate one before taking the pic).

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Lastly a chicken pate with pear chutney and turkish bread. The pear chutney really didn’t add anything to the plate. The pate was quite nice though.

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So what was the verdict on Portofinos ? It certainly has a great view, and if you have a family it is very child-friendly. It’s not a great place for a date though, because it is noisy and brash. The food was okay, but expensive considering that it wasn’t amazing. The duck spring roll was very nice, but everything else was pretty average.

Visit Date – October 2017

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Restaurant review

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Pixel Coffee, Leederville

Pixel is a cafe that sits on Oxford Street about halfway down, away from the main Leederville hubbub and close to Bourke Street.
There are tables inside and out, but not a lot of them. We started off seated at the coffee bar and the moved to a table as one became available.

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The menu is quite varied with healthy bowls, chia pudding, and brunch options and Pixel are famous for their array of milks. If you don’t drink dairy, they have pretty much every other option you could need. I chose the banana smoothie with coconut milk, a lovely thick banana honey smoothie with cinnamon – absolutely yum.

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My partner chose a decaf soy coffee, a Colombian blend which was rich and smooth, you couldn’t tell it was decaf by the flavour.

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I chose the Pix Plate to eat – a potato and herb hash with poached eggs, prosciutto, peas, sprouts, parmesan and lemon oil. What a lovely combination. The oozy eggs soaked over the potato hash, the parmesan added a salty piquant hit as did the prosciutto. Posh bacon and eggs with a twist.

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My partner chose the Mushroom Ragu, rich braised mushrooms with tomato and fennel, on two pieces of Mary St Bakery sourdough, with fried eggs, peas shoots, crushed walnuts and smashed avocado. He really enjoyed it.

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The staff were nice and really enjoyed serving the customers, and the cold take away cabinet looked very appealing. There was a steady stream of take away customers. I’d definitely go back to Pixel, it’s good honest healthy food, well prepared and nicely seasoned. There are good vegan options too.

Last Visit Date – January 2019

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Category:

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Kitsch, Leederville

Kitsch is an Asian style bar and restaurant on Oxford Street, but a bit north of the main strip – close to the Re-store, Pappagallo, Pixel and the Bourke Street community. We had an early Friday evening booking and were seated at a comfortable table for two. The menu is quite varied with lots of good-sounding options. We chose the lotus chips with wasabi mayo to start. Unfortunately there was no wasabi mayo (we were too early for chef to make it), so we had sriracha chilli mayo, which was nice, but a shame because I was really looking forward to the wasabi, and it would have been nice for them to tell us before delivering the dish.

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We chose several plates to share and the first to arrive was a plate of eggplant sambal. The eggplant was well cooked, soft, but not squishy, however the whole dish needed more seasoning.

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The next plate contained Korean sweet and salty chicken wings. They were simply delicious – definitely the best dish of the evening. They came with a spicy mayo and were nice plump and meaty with a gorgeous sticky coating. We were also given some wet towels to wipe our sticky fingers.

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Next to arrive was a bowl of spicy mince with green beans – similar to a larb salad. This was tasty and had some nice gravy at the bottom. We didn’t eat it all though – it was good to start but the flavours didn’t carry through for the whole meal and we became a bit bored of it.

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Then came crispy skin pork belly in a red thai curry broth with lychees and pineapple. This was another star dish that we really enjoyed. We also had rice to soak up the lovely sauce.

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So Kitsch – is it a winner? They definitely have some fabulous dishes, but they also have some mediocre dishes too and it’s not cheap to eat there. The staff were friendly but I found it a bit strange that in an empty restaurant they chose to seat a table of three right next to us when there was plenty of other seating available. It also seems to be a venue where you go for a drink and cocktails, and I heard the lady on the next table singing the praises of the gin. Maybe we’ll give Kitsch another go, but there’s a lot of competition in Perth, so watch this space..

Last Visit Date – March 2019

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Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

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Pavilion, Joondalup

Pavilion is a restaurant located at the West Coast Institute in Joondalup. It is a restaurant where hospitality staff are trained, so it’s best to bear this in mind when attending. Sometimes everything runs perfectly smoothly, and sometimes not so, but everybody has to train somewhere, and this aspect is reflected in the price of the food. I went there for lunch with work colleagues, and the floor was full of eager beaver trainee wait staff who served us admirably, especially young Bella who was assigned to our table.
The menu does not have a massive choice and there is usually only one vegetarian option. The regular choices are 3-4 entrees, mains and desserts. It’s not particularly inventive or masterchef-like, but then again, the objective here is to train wait staff, and to have an over complicated menu would add an extra dimension of difficulty to proceedings. That said, all the food here is very tasty and well prepared.
We ate a set menu for a special staff function. Our starter was a pumpkin and coconut soup. Lovely and smooth, with a bit of a spice kick to it, and perfectly prepared croutons, I enjoyed this very much.

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Then we had a ‘go up and serve yourself’ carvery with a choice of pork or lamb. I chose the pork, and the chef served up a slightly clumsily carved thick slice of pork, when a few smaller slices would have been preferable. This was served with apple sauce, potatoes dauphinoise, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, crispy roast potato cubes and gravy. I really enjoyed the food, despite having to cut large chunks off of my ginormous slice of pork. The veggies were a little underdone, but this is probably intentional as carvery vegetable sit around on the heaters for a while (and probably eventually become overdone).

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Dessert was a lemon tart or an orange chocolate mousse. The orange chocolate mousse was luscious and very moreish with some wonderful candied nuts on top. The lemon tart was nicely made and served with fruit.

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We were offered tea and coffee and the meal was complete. There were a few ‘accidents’ in the dining room, a few dropped glasses, and some service mistakes here and there, but generally it was a very pleasant meal and the staff tried very hard to ensure that we had everything that we needed.
If you are happy to be served by young trainees, and don’t mind that the service is a little slow and deliberate at times, you will end up having quite a good value delicious meal. The trainees are really enthusiastic and pleasant to chat to. If you are looking for silver service and perfection, then look elsewhere. I liked it, and would be happy to return.

Visit Date – March 2018

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Restaurant review

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Mia Cucina, Hillarys

We stopped by Mia Cucina for a Sunday brunch with family. It’s an Italian restaurant on the North side of Hillarys marina with great window views across the boat harbour.
The waitress was friendly and provided table water promptly. The brunch menu is not huge, and includes favourites like eggs benny, breakfast croissant, pancakes, as well as a full brekkie (Eggs with benefits) where you get given eggs (your choice of style) on toast and then you choose your other items from a table of sides e.g. bacon, sausage, mushrooms, hash browns, beans.
The coffee was very good, I had a soy cappuccino. The beans are prepared by local Perth roasters Karvan, and I was quite impressed with the house blend.

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I chose Eggs Benny with ham which came with spinach, cress and hollandaise. The portions were quite variable – mine had a few slices of ham whereas others in the group had much more ham than me. The eggs were cooked well, nice and gooey in the middle and the ham was okay but not particularly tasty. It was shaved ham, and I think that a nice slice of thick premium leg ham (as stated in the menu!) would have added more to the dish.
The bread was disappointing – everybody on the table found it hard to get through the sourdough bread, and most of us ended up leaving a considerable amount of it. I would have preferred a good old English muffin.

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One companion chose the Eggs with benefits, and enjoyed the meal but was disappointed to note that there were no beans on the buffet table. Hmm Mia Cucina should really provide the items as stated in the menu ! My companion had to ask for another portion of butter, as the amount provided was not sufficient for the large slices of bread. The items on the plate were good and tasty and the eggs cooked well.

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Another member of our party ordered the ‘breakfast schetta’, a bruschetta with tomatoes, onion, basil, bacon and poached egg. It was nice, but again the bread proved to be a problem, hard to carve through, and difficult to get to the soft middle part.

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All in all, we enjoyed the meal, but I think that Mia Cucina should reconsider their bread choices. It seems that sourdough was the only option and it would be nice to have a choice. The menu clearly states that items on the breakfast dishes cannot be changed, so it seems that they organise breakfast to be easier for the kitchen rather than suited to the diner. It is definitely one of the better eateries at Hillarys, but I also feel that with a bit more care they could do so much better.

Visit Date – January 2018

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Restaurant review

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Mister Walker, South Perth

You couldn’t wish for a better location. Right on the Swan River on Mends Street Jetty with views of the city and King’s Park, sits Mister Walker, a restaurant with tables inside and out. On our Sunday brunch visit we were fortunate enough to be seated by the window.

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The menu has some attractive options and I really liked the idea of the grilled peaches and dosa. Other options include eggs, waffles, benny, beans and corn bread. The waitress took our order and didn’t write anything down. Our coffees arrived okay, but she had to come back to confirm the brunch dishes.

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The coffees were a bit weak for our liking which was a shame because they were nicely presented.
I ordered the grilled peaches but was disappointed to find out that they were off the menu so I chose the potato gems, egg and pickles instead. When the dish arrived the waitress asked if I would like a plate as the dish was served on a little skillet. I didn’t want to trouble her so I declined, but on second thoughts I should have transferred the whole dish to a plate. The skillet was quite warm and wilted the leaves, overcooked the eggs which had dribbled down, and generally it was a bit awkward to eat from.

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The first few potato gems were nice, but after a while I had that ‘fried food overload’ and felt that there were too many of them compared to the pickles and eggs. This is a dish that could have benefited from a rasher of bacon or prosciutto. There was a small amount of chorizo crumble, but not enough to make a big impact.
My partner chose the uncle benny on a charcoal brioche. The brioche was very nice and not too crispy like other charcoal breads. The menu had advertised sriracha hollandaise, but there was no sriracha in sight, and it all seemed a little bland.

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This is a restaurant that could do really great things especially with a location to die for, but sadly it was all a little lacklustre.

Visit Date – February 2019

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Restaurant review

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