Truly Scrumptious

Andly Private Kitchen, West Leederville

Andly Private Kitchen is in West Leederville, a bit away from the main eating and drinking areas of Leederville and Subiaco, but quite close to a few local breweries. Parking is fairly easy, but it’s not a place that you can just drop in. you have to book in advance, convey your dietary requirements and pay a deposit as well as choosing a price per head starting at $100 and increasing in $50 increments.

When you arrive it really is like walking into a treasure trove of a room, rich with artworks, oriental furniture and ornaments, it has a cosy feel like dining in somebody’s home lounge. We were seated on a long shared table sitting opposite each other, but far away enough from the next couple to maintain intimacy. We chose the $150 per head menu and looking around the room as dishes arrived it seemed that most had chosen either $100 or $150. We also asked for ours to be dairy free and minimal meat. The restaurant is ‘bring your own;’ for a small corkage charge, but we chose to stick with water on this occasion.

The kitchen is fairly open and you can see chef preparing everything. He clearly loves what he does, and when we arrived he was making the most perfect looking dumplings.

Our first dish to arrive was a scallop in crispy thin noodles with an apple salad. The scallop was perfectly cooked and nice and thick (not a half scallop that some chefs slice horizontally). The apple salad delicate and crisp with some tiny tomatoes and corn. This was a great start to the feast.

The next dish is where the dumplings came into play. Patagonian toothfish dumplings in a chicken broth – excellent intense broth, beautifully soft dumplings. Another really excellent dish, I just needed a tiny bread roll to scoop out the remnants of the broth from the bowl.

If you know me you will know that crispy aromatic duck is one of my favourite meals. In Australia, it tends to be Peking duck which is similar, but the duck is roast and not deep fried. We watched chef roll the pancakes, and they arrived in a perfect bamboo basket with a wonderful portion of sliced duck breast, some hoisin sauce and mango, cucumber and spring onion. To prepare the pancake you just put a little of everything in the pancake, roll it up and eat. This didn’t disappoint, and every item was perfectly prepared.

Fourth was probably my favourite dish (although finding a particular favourite among such a high standard was hard) – pork spare ribs with vinegar sauce, fig and pineapple. I can’t remember better ribs than this, soft and sticky and cooked just right.

Next came a whole lobster cooked in crispy floss with herbs and we were given some disposable gloves so that we could eat the lobster without getting messy fingers. I noticed that some other diners had prawns rather then lobster, so maybe this was one of the differences with the price point of the menu. The lobster was beautifully fresh and we really enjoyed the dish bit were beginning to feel quite full.

Finally dessert was fresh fruits with mango sorbet, again perfectly presented, and really refreshing. We noticed that other diners (the ones eating dairy) received a luscious looking slice of cake type dessert, and so this was the only course where I felt a little short-changed. Although the fruit was lovely, it was very simple and I know it’s not difficult to make a dairy free cake. Anyhow, the mango sorbet was intense and soft, and I did enjoy the jewel like appearance of the dessert.

So what did we think? Yes it was an amazing meal, where the ingredients were the star. Nothing seemed overly fussy, it was all simple food, well constructed and presented. The chef has an eye for menu creation and he certainly has access to some good produce. I wouldn’t be visiting Andly every week, but it is definitely a good venue for a special treat and a unique experience.

Last Visit Date – March 2021

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