Truly Scrumptious

Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Gordon Street Garage, West Perth

25 05 20

We paid Gordon Street Garage a revisit and were blown away by the quality of the food that we received. The coffees were great from Mano a Mano coffee roasters – a lovely Brazilian blend.
For our brunch we chose a blue swimmer crab omelette which was delicious and packed with crab meat filling from end to end. The salad accompaniment was also lovely – a great minty chilli leafy heap and the sriracha sauce was a winning touch. If nothing else, come here for the crab omelette.

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Last Visit Date – December 2018

Previous review from November 2013:
In need of some brekkie/brunch on a Saturday morning, I decided to go to Gordon St Garage, having heard a lot of comments about this place. It is almost opposite Watertown, so if there’s no parking nearby, there’s always the Watertown car park.
It is a large place, quite quirky, with an emphasis on coffee and all the different ways that you can make it, and there is lots of coffee paraphernalia for sale. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a table.

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The menu contained a lot of vegetarian options, and looking around it looked like the most popular items were the baked beans with poached eggs and the scrambled eggs with herbs and sourdough.
If you are looking for a traditional fry up, this is not the place for you, no sausages or bacon on the menu.

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We went with the majority and ordered the beans and the scrambled eggs, accompanied by a coffee and a fresh orange juice.

Fresh baked beans, pimento, pancetta, poached eggs:
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Scrambled eggs, rocket, soft herbs, sourdough:
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So what was the verdict ? Both dishes were very nice, but could have done with some extra seasoning. There was no salt or pepper on the tables. The coffee was nice, but only came with one size option – a ‘large’ option would be good.
The beans were a nice mixture of haricot and kidney, with plenty of bread to mop up the sauce and egg. The scrambled eggs were tasty, the herbs and rocket added a nice dimension to it and it looked like a 4-egg portion, so quite substantial.

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Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

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Good Things Cafe, Mosman Park

25 05 20

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Good Things is a cafe set in a parade of shops on leafy Wellington Street in Mosman Park. We arrived for breakfast on a Sunday morning and felt that the cafe had a really good vibe with seating inside and out. It’s big, clean and airy, and pet friendly – they happily provide a bowl of water for dogs.
We started with a coffee while perusing the menu. Wow the coffee is really good, with beans from Micrology coffee roasters. I chose an iced soy coffee and my partner had a soy flat white – both delicious.

The menu has a slight Korean influence with items like Kimchi and sweet potato fritters, as well as some breakfast favourites such as muesli, hotcakes, eggs and some really healthy looking bowls – The Hulk contains avocado, peas, mint, pickles red onion, whipped feta, seeds and sourdough.
Eventually I plumped for the Chilli scrambled eggs with Korean sambal, soy caramel bacon, crispy shallots and roti. This was a very tasty plate of food. On it’s own the bacon was a bit sweet for my tastes, but combined with the eggs and roti, it was really good. I also had a side of kale.

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My partner chose the Weekend Waffles with southern fried chicken, bacon, chilli,
butterscotch and waffle. Again, he felt that the butterscotch was sweet, but including all of the elements in each mouthful tasted really nice and it was a dish that got better and better as he ate it.

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There was a board of lunch specials which looked really tempting:

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We really liked Good Things. The staff are lovely, the coffee amazing, the food quirky and tasty, and the environment clean and bright. They play some pretty good chilled music too. I loved everything about this cafe.

Visit Date – October 2018

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Ha-Lu, Mount Hawthorn

25 05 20

Everybody who knows me knows how much I love Ha-Lu. It is one of my top Perth restaurants. The menu changes from time to time and the new dishes are always exciting. Here is a photo diary of one of our visits.

This is a drink called a chu-high which contains some Shochu. They also do ume plum and yuzu flavours which contain tiny jelly pieces. All three are lovely:
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The sashimi is always really high quality – this is scallops, salmon and kingfish. The wasabi provided is nice and hot – as it should be.
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Tuna and watermelon is a new dish on the menu – lovely fresh raw tuna on slices of succulent watermelon. With different toppings, mustard mayo, spring onion, radish and wasabi.
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This is a dish which I always order at Ha-Lu. A salad with root vegetables such as potato, sweet potato, carrot, lotus root, with soy mustard dressing and a perfectly poached Onsen style egg in a crispy wanton basket. The whole dish is a delight.
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This is another new dish – soft succulent chicken tempura served with ponzu dipping sauce, plum mayo, and hiding underneath the pile of chicken is some pickled turnip. Very very good quality dish:
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I don’t know the secret ingredient, but Ha-Lu miso soup always tastes particularly delicious:
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Another favourite – lovely plump scallops on a crispy lotus root with radish, chilli flakes and black caviar.
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This is a signature dish of Ha-Lu. Tender duck breast with slices of perfectly cooked aubergine and different dipping sauces – madeira, mustard, wholegrain – always a favourite.

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No room for dessert. If you haven’t tried Ha-Lu yet, please do, it is a tapas style approach to Japanese food – if you think Japanese food is all about raw fish and sushi, think again.

Last Visit Date – March 2019

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Blueberry and Lemon Scones

24 05 20

I made these scones this morning when my friend Sarah came to visit. They taste incredibly good. If you treat the dough really gently, the blueberries keep their shape and they burst in your mouth as you eat the scone. you can also make them with raspberries and strawberries and you can add chunks of white chocolate if you want to be a bit decadent, but I found them sweet enough with just the lemon glaze.

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Ingredients:
2 cups (approx 250g) self raising flour – (if you only have plain flour, you can use plain and add 2 teaspoons baking powder)
half a teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (even though it is self raising flour, I added a little extra boost)
5 tablespoons (70g) butter or non-dairy spread
1 cup of blueberries (this is approx one small 150g punnet) washed and patted dry with kitchen roll
1 cup (250ml) of double cream (or approx 100ml of premium coconut cream if you are dairy free/vegan, this also works with coconut yoghurt)
For the glaze – approx 1 cup (140g) of icing sugar and half a fresh lemon

Method:
1. Heat the oven to 200 deg C and line a baking tray with some baking parchment.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl or food processor i.e. the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Either rub in the butter/dairy free spread, or use the food processor to blend it in until it is like fine breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the blueberries.
5. Add the cream and very gently fold it in without crushing the blueberries, then pat the mixture together to form a soft dough. Treat it very gently, it does not have to be perfectly smooth. (If using coconut cream, just add 50ml to start and then add more as you need it – you shouldn’t need more than 150ml in total but it depends on the consistency of the coconut cream. I also added a teaspoon of lemon juice when I used coconut cream, because regular milk has an acid in it and I think you need a little acid to help with rising. A little
cream of tartar would also work)
6. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle approx 12 inches by 3 inches. It will be quite a thick layer of dough (1-2 inches thick) Cut this in half, then cut each piece in half again so that you have four pieces approx 3 inches square. Cut each piece diagonally so that you have 8 scones.
7. Brush each scone with some cream (or milk) and place on baking tray. Bake for approx 25 minutes. If brushing with coconut cream, bear in mind that they will not brown like milk basted scones, so touch them gently to test if they are done. If they are a little blonde, it doesn’t matter, because the top will have icing on it.
8. To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Wash the lemon, then grate the zest from the lemon – add this to the icing sugar. Halve the lemon and squeeze the juice. Add the juice to the icing mixture a little at a time until you get a soft glaze which isn’t too runny. You want it to flow, but not run off the scones.
9. Spread the glaze over the top of each scone. You can use a piping bag if you like, or just use the back of a spoon like I did.
10. Enjoy with tea, coffee and friends.

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Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Viet Hoa, Northbridge

24 05 20

Viet Hoa is a bit of a Perth institution and we have visited several times. It does Vietnamese food, cafe style, and it does this very well.
The menu is enormous, really enormous, and you will dither over the array of goodies. They also have specials which are on the board above the kitchen hatch.
Some of my favourite entrees are the rice paper rolls, and the vietnamese grilled beef skewers with wine. The omelettes are also pretty good. The choice of soups is amazing, pho and bun, rice noodles, vermicelli noodles, then there’s chow mein, duck and rice, chicken curry, laksa, sweet and sour, satays, stir fries. There really is something for everybody.
Today we were there for lunch and fancied a traditional soup. I had the Hu tieu tom thit – pork meat and prawn hofan soup. This comes with a beautiful crispy prawn wanton, and a plentiful supply of pork, prawn and veggies. I added shredded mint and beansprouts and some chilli. The soup broth was really flavoursome and I enjoyed it right up until the last spoonful.

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My partner chose the mi bo kho – stewed beef and egg noodle soup. This was thick and luscious with a warm spicy rich broth (with a star anise background flavour), carrot, and tender well cooked meat. He really loved it.

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Viet Hoa is definitely a favourite Northbridge cafe – it always delivers.

Last Visit Date – September 2017

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The Beehive, Horringer, Suffolk, UK

24 05 20

The Beehive is a typical English country pub in Horringer, Suffolk. It’s a very pretty location, very chocolate box-worthy.

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We visited for lunch on a lovely sunny day and enjoyed the old pub atmosphere and the warm welcome.
I chose thai style chicken which came with egg fried rice. It was nice but a little heavy on the salt.

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My partner chose lamb shank with mustard mash. This was absolutely delicious, and probably the best meal of the three.

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Our auntie chose a seafood linguine, which was good, but very hands on, with lots of seafood in the shell. She enjoyed it but found it quite messy to negotiate and it would have been good if the menu had mentioned that the seafood was shell-on.

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For dessert the chef made me a dairy free ice cream sundae with berries which was very good.

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My partner chose the sticky date pudding which he thoroughly enjoyed.

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The Beehive is a great location for an English pub lunch, and the food is prepared with love.

Visit Date – September 2019

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Sun Kwong, Whitfords

24 05 20

Sun Kwong is a shopping mall food counter that I have been happy to use for over ten years. I tend not to have the pre-cooked dishes that are kept warm, I like to order the ‘made-to-order’ dishes such as the noodle soups and the char kway teow. You pay for them in advance and get a numbered ticket, and within ten minutes you will be given a most delicious meal.

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I would say that the char kway teow is authentic, and the wanton noodle soup delicious and nourishing. The char kway teow is certainly as good as any that I have tasted in Malaysia and Singapore.

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This the wanton noodle soup – great value – lots of wantons and noodles and a delicious broth full of veggies:

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They also provide chilli oil in a little pot if you prefer things a little hotter. The staff are friendly and helpful, and the fridge has a plentiful supply of soft drinks.

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There is always a plentiful supply of dumplings, spring rolls and dishes ready to take away.

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I definitely recommend Sun Kwong for your lunch while you are shopping at Whitfords and your ‘go to’ place for your northern suburbs char kway teow fix.

Last Visit – February 2020

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Sayers Sister, Northbridge

24 05 20

I have heard a lot about Sayers Sister, so decided to give it a try for Sunday breakfast. It is in Northbridge at the Bulwer St end of Lake St. I haven’t been to this area before and was quite surprised to stumble across some other places that I have heard of such as Tarts and The Dizzy Witch.
Sayers Sister was the only of these restaurants with a queue, so we persevered and queued up. The restaurant is not quite as chaotic as Sayers in Leederville, the whole layout is better, and the staff allocate tables, so it is a much fairer system.
We were seated at the long central communal table, which has lots of sweet treats in the middle that you can graze on while you are waiting – you just put your payment in the little jars on the table. I think it’s nice that you can do this in Perth – you wouldn’t be able to get away with it in London – those coin jars would disappear on the first day!
I chose the potato rosti with bacon, poached eggs, rocket, spinach, parmesan and bramley apple/thyme chutney.
Every mouthful was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You could really taste the quality of the ingredients.

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I also had a white peach and passion fruit lemonade to accompany it.
My companion had a coffee – which was really delicious and smooth with a caramel richness. He also had a full breakfast which was equally enjoyable – lots of nice quality ingredients, and a lovely cumin mousse/sorbet on the beans which was unusual and tasty. It consisted of home made beans, crusty bread, eggs, bacon, bubble and squeak, mushroom and pesto.

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Sayers Sister also has a very attractive selection of home made cakes – if I were not on my January diet, I would have tried one (or two).
I will definitely be returning to Sayers Sister. I think it is slightly better than Sayers, but they are both good quality restaurants that I will always be happy to dine in.

This is another blog post a few years later:

I haven’t been to Sayers Sister for a few years now and wondered if it was as good as before. It is affiliated with Sayers in Leederville – a cafe that consistently serves great food and a brunch stalwart in Perth.

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When we arrived there was a queue and we were told that the wait time was 15-20 minutes. They very kindly gave us a lovely chocolate and strawberry muffin to eat while we waited. Once we got seated we ordered coffee which was a lovely smooth rich blend.

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The menu was full of delicious sounding options like baked apple waffles, zucchini and tomato bread with minted ricotta and zucchini flowers, leek and parmesan croquettes, but I chose my favourite potato rosti with poached eggs, bacon, spinach, rocket, parmesan, mustard, and apple/thyme chutney.

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This was such a perfect brunch dish, and every ingredient added value. Quality oozy eggs, perfectly cooked bacon and the oh so yummy rosti with a little piquancy from the mustard – this was everything that I wanted on that chilly morning.
My partner chose the coriander and cumin beans tagine with babaganoush, walnut pesto, poached egg and toasted linseed. There were a variety of beans which made it interesting, the linseed bread was tasty and wholesome, the egg was nicely cooked and the babaganoush sublime. He loved every mouthful.

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Sayers Sister is still delivering one of the best brunches in Perth – no wonder there’s a queue. Consistent quality and beautiful ingredients is a surefire winner here.

Unfortunately our last visit was not so great, it felt as if everything had changed and the service and quality had deteriorated. We haven’t been back in recent times.

Last Visit Date – July 2018

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

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Red Opium, Perth CBD

24 05 20

This restaurant is not right on Hay Street, it is just slightly in Hill Street, and you would probably walk past it if you didn’t know it was there. Inside it is buzzing, the colour scheme is black and red with simple clean lines and pictures of opium smoking characters on the wall. It is not licensed so you can bring your own wine.

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The menu is set out into sections where you can have smaller tapas style plates or large main course size plates. There are also some set meals, but we chose to have 6 tapas style plates and a salad.
The first dish to arrive was Kataifi King Prawns. King prawns wrapped in a shredded pastry with a tamarind and chilli jam dip. These were really delicious, cooked perfectly and the dip went really well with the prawns.

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Next up was spring rolls. These were thin and long, nice but nothing spectacular.

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Then came the star dish of the evening – spicy scallops – seared sashimi grade
scallops with tamarind and chilli. I could have eaten a whole plate of these, they were so good.

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The som tum with soft shell crab was really really nice, spicy, and quite lip tingling. The soft shell crabs were crispy and a nice contrast to the soft salad which was jam packed with papaya shreds, chilli, peanuts, onion and tomato.

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Tod Man was minced fish with thai chilli paste, herbs and minced prawns, served with a salsa.

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The salmon ceviche was really refreshing with caviar, onions, chillies, truffle oil and lemon.

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The satay was lovely, served with authentic rice cakes, cucumber relish and satay sauce.

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For dessert we chose mango with sticky rice which was thoroughly delicious.

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The food at Red Opium was really high quality, well presented, very tasty, cheffy, authentic and served by friendly staff. You couldn’t ask for more from a restaurant and I will certainly be returning.

Update – Unfortunately our second visit wasn’t as good, we found the food quite lacklustre and disappointing.

Last Visit Date – October 2017

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