It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for the ‘Fun thing to do’ Category

Hiyori, Manning

Nestled in amongst the Manning community and shopping centre, Hiyori first came to my attention when I found out that they serve a Teishoku Japanese lunch. Great value, for around $30-38 depending on your protein, you get a tray with rice, protein, pickles, tamagoyaki (egg), soup, dessert (usually mochi), and a serve of tea – choose from hojicha, sencha, matcha, and genmaicha. Proteins include miso cod, koji salmon, sashimi, wagyu, and yakitori, and the whole meal is a wonderful experience.
While you decide, you get a small bowl of beans to snack on.

On our first visit we chose the miso cod. Great good quality cod with a delicious miso sauce. The soup had a chewy dumpling which made for an interesting texture, the egg was smooth and tasty and the pickles wonderful. Mochi dessert was green tea, which had a slightly bitter coating and a slightly sweet soft jelly texture. The sencha tea was first class.

On the second visit I chose the wagyu roast which came with a soy dip. Again, top quality protein and the mochi was a mango flavour which I preferred to the green tea version.

My partner chose the Koji salmon, again a lovely good quality protein.

On our next visit we decided to try dinner and it was an absolute treat. Everything we had was good. We started with a kingfish crudo, probably my favourite dish.

Then tuna tataki with a lovely chilli oil ponzu sauce and grated radish.

Next came the shio teba chicken wings with yuzu koshu, umeboshi paste and mayo – so moorish and addictive.

Next the sticky belly pork chashu with miso and red onion salad. A little fatty for my tastes but the lean meat tasted amazing.

Then last the okonomiyaki stack – japanese pancake with bacon and cabbage

Dinner didn’t disappoint. Bookings are recommended, Hiyori gets busy and there’s a good reason why.

Last Visit October 2025
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Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King, Perth CBD

Do you ever get a craving for a ramen, and wonder where to go to get a quality bowl? Well look no further than Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King, nestled at the bottom of the Melbourne Hotel in Perth CBD. There is an art to a good ramen, and it’s all about the stock. If you can find a ramen outlet that take care over the stock then you are on to a winner.

RKTK is a small restaurant, and we were ushered to a table for two. You are given a supply of hard boiled eggs to snack on, and a small pestle and mortar with black and white sesame seeds. We worked out that you grind the sesame seeds and then dip your eggs into the powder, which adds a superb flavour to the eggs. The eggs seem to be unlimited – if you finish your basket of eggs, the waitress brings more.

For drinks we chose a fabulous large mug of oolong tea and a quirky Japanese soda (where opening the bottle is part of the fun).

The menu gives you a choice of ramen with different toppings. I recommend going for the ‘special’ with all of the toppings, then all you have to choose is whether you want the spicy red chilli sauce or the peppery spicy black sauce. I chose the red chilli on this occasion and wasn’t disappointed.

The ramen comes with lovely noodles, a huge piece of seaweed, cloud ear mushrooms, pork chasyu, spring onions, and flavoured egg. You can order extra of your favourite items or extra noodles if you wish. There is also a tub of pickled beansprouts on the table, which adds another level of flavour if that’s your thing.

The broth is thick and delicious, and the whole bowl creates mouthful after mouthful of umami, as well as a warming nourishing meal that will keep you going for most of the day. It’s a popular place and there seems to be a constant queue of hungry customers outside. I know why – they serve amazing ramen, which is possibly the best in Perth.

Last Visit – August 2023

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Vung Tau, Girrawheen

This is just a short post to tell you about the best bahn mi. In my opinion Bahn Mi is the perfect Vietnamese/French fusion food, and an ideal amount for lunch. It’s a french baguette, with pate, and then meats which are sometimes marinated, some sauces – generally hoisin and nuoc mam based, and cucumber, chilli, pickled carrots and coriander.

I’ve tried a lot of bahn mi, but my favourite go-to is Vung Tau in Girrawheen. They only do a pork bahn mi – in two styles, either traditional or roast pork. The roast pork version has lovely chunks of crackling and melting roast pork, while the traditional roll is an assortment of sliced pork meats, all very tasty and slightly different. They just call it ‘Pork roll’, because that’s what they do, and they do it extremely well.

There are also choices of vietnamese drinks and desserts (there tends to be more at the weekend), but the pork roll is the star, and I am happy to drive to Newpark Shopping Centre every time I get a craving (which is pretty often).

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Fun thing to do, Store review

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Marumo, Nedlands

Marumo is a restaurant that is incredibly hard to get a booking for. Open just 4 days per week, Tuesday to Friday, one sitting and only 24 covers. I have been trying for three years, logging in at 10am when the bookings open, and paging through the calendar, hoping to get a reservation – usually they are all gone in 2 minutes. Luckily though, I finally managed to get a table for two on my partner’s birthday, and could not wait to try this mystery establishment. There’s even an urban myth that it’s not real, but it certainly is real, and sits right on Stirling Highway in the Chelsea Village complex. There’s plentiful parking at the back, and as you walk in you realise that this is a stylish intimate space, and something truly special.

It’s BYO, but as my partner has been very unwell lately we decided to skip the alcohol and sample the bottomless green tea that is supplied with the meal. He still wasn’t feeling anywhere near his best, but managed to last the three hour sitting, mainly encouraged by the delicious selection of dishes and the fact that it was his birthday. The menu is a 7 course omakase which means that the dishes are selected by the chef, and currently $85 per head which is good value for the quality.

We started with an amuse bouche of marinated squid salad, which was fresh and tender and a perfect option to tickle the tastebuds.

Next came edamame with fish roe. If you have had edamame before you would probably be expecting the whole beans where you bite them to squeeze the beans out of the pod, and leave the pod behind. This was completely different – the beans were mashed into croquettes and fried with a crispy lace topping and fish roe – again perfectly executed.

Followed by Fremantle octopus ochazuke, a wonderful octopus and slaw mini salad accompanied by rice and corn in a superbly rich and fragrant green tea broth. We were advised to eat the octopus first and the rice and broth second.

After this we were served Margaret River Yearling beef – excellent quality beef with sweet potato noodles and lotus root.

Then the chef’s selection of sashimi, coral trout, salmon and hamachi – fresh, great quality, excellent wasabi. A very enjoyable trio of fish.

Next came one of the standout dishes (they were all amazing – so this was a superbly amazing dish) – the chef’s sushi – prawn inside the roll, and salmon and tobiko on top. I love the way the tobiko pops and adds a real level of umami to the whole dish. We were advised to eat each piece whole rather than bite it, which we did, and all of the flavours together were just perfect.

Then we had a palate cleanser. I would not have expected to say that a palate cleanser was a standout dish, but this was incredible. Yuzu and orange gave it a sherbety zinginess that I have never experienced before – wow I could have happily had a few more portions of this magic.

Then another standout dish, duck with mushroom, truffled carrot and pickled cucumber. The duck skin was beautifully crispy, the mushroom incredibly rich, and the carrot divine. I am not usually a big truffle fan but the truffle wasn’t too much and brought an earthiness to the whole dish.

Then all too soon, the last dish arrived nashi pear with shio koji ice cream and a pear meringue. The ice cream had a caramel flavour, the pear was sweet and perfumed, and the meringue just beautifully made. A memorable end to a memorable meal.

It didn’t feel like we were there for three hours, the servings were very well paced, and the sizes of the portions were just right. The hostess asked us which dishes we liked the best which was a nice touch and she said that she was looking forward to seeing us again. I will definitely be online again as soon as the next bookings are released, because I can’t wait to return. Marumo is a very special experience, and if you get the chance, you should definitely go.

Last Visit – August 2022

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Fun thing to do, Restaurant review

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Silks (Afternoon Tea), Crown, Burswood

Silks is a restaurant that I have been wanting to try for some time, and when I saw that they serve a unique Cantonese style afternoon tea on Saturdays, I couldn’t resist giving it a try.

There is a choice of cocktails and mocktails, and I chose a refreshing Lime and lemongrass cooler from the mocktail range.

The afternoon tea menu also includes Butterfly flower tea which changes colour from vivid blue to vivid purple with a touch of acid such as lemon.

The meal was served in a bamboo steaming basket which was quirky, colourful and very appealing. I couldn’t wait to tuck in, and the centrepiece – a bao bun with cumin lamb – was a triumph, a very well crafted bun, and I would happily have eaten two of them.

The wok fried king prawn with chilli sea salt was equally magnificent, and again a whole basket of these would have gone down a treat. How do they get those chilli strings so fine?

Next came a sesame ball with black sesame and beetroot, not really savoury but not really sweet either, but tasted nice. Quite typical of the non-sweet Asian desserts.

I then tried the green tea choux. Adorned with green tea chocolate and filled to the brim with sweetened green tea cream, it was surprisingly good and incredibly light.

The blueberry and lime sphere looked beautiful and tasted equally good with intense flavours of blueberry and the bright element of lime complementing it superbly.

The next basket was the raspberry, coconut and lemongrass roulade and wow it was incredible. The intense raspberry flavour was so good, I think this was my favourite sweet.

I finished up with the mandarin macaron, choc full of mandarin flavour and a really good macaron – macaron perfection.

This was certainly an unusual and surprising afternoon tea. It wasn’t particularly filling though, and I would have liked a ‘go large’ option, maybe three extra dishes with a few more savouries. I can’t fault any of the dishes, flavours were intense, the appearance of the meal was appealing, and the dining room is beautifully decorated with open tables and private booths. I would happily dine here again, maybe for dinner next time.

Last visit date – March 2022

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My House Dumpling, Leederville

We stumbled across this Taiwanese venue when looking for somewhere to eat on a Friday after work. Most venues were not quite open yet, but My House was already buzzing with plenty of reserved tables. It stands on Oxford Street on the site where Low Key Chow House used to be. The lovely gentleman in charge of front of house found us a table and explained the dumpling serving sizes and the technology to order them. They give you a tablet device to peruse the menu and order which is fun and a good way to make sure that you get the order right.

The range of dumplings is extensive, and you can choose from various fillings. We chose the famous xiao long bao – juicy pork soup dumplings and were advised to dip them in the vinegar sauce that is provided on the table. They tasted amazing and we were helpfully given a spoon to help with eating them.

We also chose spicy kimchi and beef boiled dumplings. Again delicious.

We chose a few non-dumpling dishes – a fried kueh teow with chicken, very authentic with the lovely smoky wok flavour running through it.

Then some spring rolls with crab and prawn, which were served with a sweet chilli sauce – very moreish.

We left feeling very satisfied and as we paid the man gestured towards the owner who was busy hand making all of the dumplings. The dumplings may not be as perfectly uniform as the restaurants where they buy them in (probably frozen), but they are certainly very tasty and you can tell the difference in the freshness. This restaurant is well worth a visit for the tastiest dumplings in town and the friendliest service.

Last Visit date – May 2021

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Sandalford Estate, Caversham

Sandalford is one of the best known Swan Valley vineyards, with quite an impressive land area and a lovely cellar door and restaurant area.

The menu is modern Australian, and the drinks menu contains every drink that you could imagine along with the selection of Sandalford wines of course. As it was lunchtime and several of us were driving, we didn’t go for a full wine tasting on this occasion.

Everything on the menu looked appetising and it was hard to choose, but eventually I went for the Exmouth tiger prawns salad with orzo pasta. This was absolutely delicious, great quality fresh prawns and really good flavours throughout.

My partner chose the pork belly with watermelon, radish and sherry vinegar. The pork was nicely cooked and the sweet melon offset the vinegar. A great plate.

We shared some sides of salad leaves and fried royal blue potatoes – all very tasty.

One of our friends chose the lamb shank with roasted eggplant, carrot, feta and date relish, and soft herbs. He loved the texture and flavours, and said that he would choose it again.

Another friend chose the pizza with prawns, nduja (pork sausage spread), zucchini and mozzarella. All pizzas are hand made fresh in a dedicated pizza oven and this one was as delicious as it looked.

Another winning dish consisted of figs with orange, heirloom carrots and caramelised nuts (entree size).

Desserts were spectacular and included a chocolate cube with tonka bean gelato:

A bomboloni Italian doughnut with coffee Frangelico semi freddo, macadamia and white chocolate:

A cassata of raspberry, coconut and mango:

A coconut gelato with berries and melon:

Everything we ate at Sandalford was delicious, the setting was great and it was a very relaxed lunch. Will definitely return.

Last visit date April 2021

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High Tea at the C Restaurant, Perth CBD

We have dined at the C before and had high tea there before but never a vegan high tea, and on a lovely Easter Sunday, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to try one of the few vegan high teas available in Perth. To be honest, it didn’t really have to be vegan, but it did have to be dairy free, so sometimes with a dairy heavy option like high tea, it’s easier to go vegan. If you don’t already know, The C is on the 33rd floor of St Martin’s Tower on St George’s Terrace, and it revolves, so you get a full view of the Swan, King’s Park and beyond as you rotate around at the top of the CBD.

We were seated by the window and given water, but it was some time before we were offered tea. My partner chose to have coffee instead, wanting a soy decaf flat white, and we were quickly told that this ‘wasn’t included in the high tea package’, only percolated coffee was included and we would have to pay extra. At the end of the meal we found out that this was a full price coffee, not the difference in price between percolated and other coffees, which seemed a bit mean of them. Anyhow, I chose a green sencha tea which was very good.

When the three tier stand arrived, we anticipated a lovely tea.

The savouries consisted of rice paper rolls, spring rolls and sliders. The first one we tried was a slider with vegan cheese and tomato. The roll was nice but the filling was under-seasoned and a little bland. The spring rolls were filled with mainly cabbage but some other vegetables, but again seasoning was lacking and we sought out a salt pot to help. The rice paper rolls contained tofu, noodles, carrot, onion and cabbage, and came with a dipping sauce, but again they were bland. The fourth item was a roll with avocado and grated carrot. I didn’t try this but my partner said that the roll was tasty and the avocado nicely ripe.

Scones were good, with a choice or fruit or plain, served with jam and coconut cream. The coconut cream was quite runny, but the scones were nice and I enjoyed them.

The desserts were a bit of a mixed bag. Fruit kebabs were simple but nice. The cashew cheesecake was grainy and not really pleasant to eat. The chocolate caramel slice was sweet and heavy.

So what was the verdict? It was nice but not special, and to be honest a bit of a lazy menu. They really could have made a few minor tweaks to make it a great menu. Instead of vegan cheese and tomato in a roll, how about a vegan tart with caramelised onions, vegan cheddar and tomato. How about a slice of crispy tofu bahn mi – that would have been so tasty! A finger sandwich with vegan pesto and roasted veggies would have been superb. Some tasty mushrooms in the spring roll and some more seasoning would have elevated it to another level.

Instead of dense vegan cakes, we could have had a little vegan lemon meringue, the fruits could have been arranged on a little vegan flan, the cheesecake could have been whipped strawberries and coconut cream. Vegan isn’t all about grated carrot and dense nutty desserts!

Will we go back? I doubt it, unless they lift their vegan game.

Last visit date – April 2021

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Fun thing to do, Restaurant review

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Miki’s Open Kitchen, Margaret River

When I booked Miki’s Open Kitchen, I didn’t really know what to expect as I hadn’t heard anything about it before. I assumed that it might be a Japanese Teppenyaki bar, or something similar.

The restaurant do two evening sittings, and we were booked into the 8:30 sitting. Beforehand we let them know our dietary requirements (no meat, no dairy), which they were happy to accommodate.

It’s set back a bit, on the Bussell Highway, in amongst the main Margaret River town shopping strip. As we walked in, we noticed that there were tables around the room and some seating around the kitchen. It wasn’t a teppenyaki bar, but as the name states, an open kitchen where you can see the team cooking and preparing your food.

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Menu’s are degustation style, with the choice of Miki’s Trust, Miki’s Complete, Hanami (sake discovery), and a children’s degustation menu. You can also choose wine matching with Miki’s Trust or Miki’s Complete, and they are all similar prices.

We decided to go for the Miki’s Trust without wine matching (as we didn’t fancy too much alcohol on this occasion), but we did choose a glass of WA Great Southern chardonnay to start. This was crisp and apple-y, but softened as it came to room temperature – a very nice local drop.

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Our first course – the Amuse – consisted of wasabi Nannup pear, tempura vegan halloumi, and pumpkin and roast sesame soup. Every element was superb and we knew that we had chosen a good venue to dine.

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Next came the cold entree: umami cured kabu (turnip), shira ae Geraldton kingfish, kimpira kohlrabi, and cuttlefish with grated daikon. Again all four elements tasted amazing – the kingfish was the best of the quartet, but that’s not taking anything away from the superb flavours of the other three. Kohlrabi was a delight, a vegetable that I don’t have very often.

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The warm entree consisted of tempura –  fillets of King George whiting,  ajishio (flavoured pepper), Albany celeriac, ume (plum sauce), and Abrolhos Island scallop. I love scallop and this did not disappoint, beautifully soft and delicate, but the King George whiting was amazing, fresh and flavoursome – a third plate of sublime food.

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For the main we chose the Kalbarri goldband snapper with surinagashi (a seasonal vegetable soup) and saltbush (lovely Aussie herb). Again, a marvellously well executed dish.

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When the waitress asked if we wanted to try Miki’s creation as an additional dish, we simply couldn’t refuse. The opportunity to have another amazing dish just couldn’t be turned down. The dish was miso cured scallop with rice and fermented and pickled daikon. The scallops, as ever were superb, but that little disc of daikon took the dish to another level.

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The last hot dish (known as shime in Japan) was a ramen broth with charcoal noodles and nori. Our non-meat version had some aburi salmon on top. Ramen is Miki’s favourite dish ever, but also notoriously difficult to perfect, and during the lockdown, he put it on the menu as a now-or-never option. The ramen was a roaring success and helped to get the restaurant through the lockdown crisis. It’s easy to see why. The whole dish was perfectly executed and tasted like no ramen I have ever tasted before – umami and then some.

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Dessert consisted of yuzu rice pudding, rhubarb and sake compote, and soba no mi (buckwheat). It was warm and delicious. I tasted each element individually before mixing them all together to get the multi-level effect.

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Miki is somebody who clearly cares very deeply about the food he serves, and with his team, he made this a meal that I will be talking about for years to come. Everything was perfection. If you don’t go anywhere else in Margaret River, make Miki’s your ‘must do’ restaurant.

mik 6

Last visit date – July 2020

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Bumplings, Fremantle

I have been wanting to try Bumplings for a while. This is the outlet run by Brendan Pang, an Australian Masterchef contestant known for his skills at making dumplings and noodles.

bump 1

The outlet is situated in Sunshine Harvester Works, just opposite the Fremantle  cruise passenger terminal on the corner of James Street and Beach Street. Open for just three days a week, we arrived early on a Saturday to make sure that we got fed before the supplies ran out. They open at 5pm, so we arrived at 5:20pm, using the large car park just along Beach Street, and already a long queue had formed.

We joined the end of the queue, and there was quite a lot of queue-jumping happening – people saving a place in the queue for 6 of their friends to arrive later and join them! So even though we joined the queue fairly early on, the number of people in front of us seemed to increase fairly often, and we didn’t get to the front of the van to be served until we had queued for an hour.

Getting seated was another mission. Bumplings is not the only outlet in this venue, and it seemed that several families had arrived early and grabbed all of the large tables. There is quite a lot of seating, but every seat was occupied and it was some time before a table became vacant.

The Bumplings menu is fairly brief, but what you would expect for a food truck.  Small dishes are Smacked cucumber salad, pang pang chicken, and mauritian pork and prawn spring roll. Dumplings on offer are Sichuan chicken wontons, veg dumplings in mushroom broth, and crispy pork wontons. Noodle dishes consist of cold shiitake mushroom noodle salad, spicy pork dan dan noodles, and bbq pork spring onion noodles. They also had a ‘special’ of crispy pork crackling.

Although we would have preferred just veggie dishes, we chose to go omnivore for the night and try a variety of the dishes – after all, we’d come all this way to eat food cooked by the Masterchef dumpling master.

Once we had ordered and paid, we were told that it would be another 40 minutes before we received our food, which was a little disappointing, and we were glad that we had put 3 hours on our parking ticket.

Fifty minutes later, the first dish to arrive was spicy pork dan dan noodles. The flavour was great, nice and spicy, slightly al dente noodles, but it was just lukewarm and would have been better if it were hotter.

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Next came the Mauritian pork and prawn spring roll which was really nice and hot, but very heavy on the pork, I couldn’t detect any prawn. The dipping sauce was really cold as if it had been refrigerated, whereas room temperature dip would have been fine. The filling was generous and this was probably the best value dish. The accompanying veg pickles were great.

bump 4

Lastly we tried the veg dumplings in the mushroom broth. Excellent broth with a really nice depth of flavour, but the dumplings were a little disappointing. The pastry was quite thick and the filling didn’t deliver on flavour, also the whole dish was lukewarm.

bump 5Thinking about it, the warmth of the dishes is probably dependent on how long the waiter walks around looking for your table, and I did notice that some waiters walked around several large circuits before finding where to deliver the food.

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So would I go back? Probably not. The whole venue could do with some better seating and queue organisation. It was great to experience Brendan’s food, but the 45 minute drive to get there, the hour in the queue and then the 50 minute wait for the food just made it all seem too hard. The food was good – the highlights were the mushroom broth and the chunky spring roll – but it wasn’t blow-me-away amazing, well, not enough to make me want to do it all again. I am pleased that Brendan’s business is booming – he was a great contestant and clearly loves making dumplings.

Last visit date – July 2020

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Fun thing to do, Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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