Spaghi Restaurant

What’s with so many restaurants in Perth being closed on Tuesday nights? Why Tuesday? What’s wrong with Monday? Or Sunday?

Two of us drove around North Perth and Northbridge for a while looking for a place to have dinner at 7 on Tuesday night. It really shouldn’t be that hard.
We ended up in South Perth at Spaghi. Was full. Couldn’t leave – nowhere else to go. Waited 20 minutes.

Ordered bruschetta as the waitress was pulling out our seats – hungry. Cracked a bottle of red from bottle shop next door. Bruschetta arrived shortly after. I haven’t been to Italy, but this is by far the best bruschetta I’ve ever had. I’m not sure how authentic it is, but don’t care. Thick pizza base with soft crust and light on the inside, topped with tomato, basil, garlic and olive oil.

Spaghi’s signature dish is marinated char grilled half chicken with salad. I don’t know how that could possibly be exciting, but lots of people around us were into it. Haven’t tried it because never can get past the two pages of pasta choices.

Chooky ordered the spaghetti marinara – not as good as Funtastico marinara-in-a-bag, but pretty tasty. Less tomato, more olive oil. And just over half the price – $24.50.

I had cuori di mascarpone. Homemade heart shaped pasta filled with ricotta, mascarpone and walnuts, topped with pancetta, in a creamy tomato sauce. This is awesome. $24.50 as well.

The signature pasta dishes are all incredible and have been on the menu forever. Try the stella ripiene. Star shaped squid ink pasta filled with prawns and scallops served with olive oil, garlic, chilli, fresh tomato, basil, mussels, clams and crab meat. Has plenty of seafood, just about every critter from the sea, and so tasty. $27.50.

The meals are all so big that I have never had dessert, but the coppa spaghi seems pretty popular and looks awesome. Vanilla icecream, homemade chocolate sauce and crushed nougat, and what looks like some Baci chocolates on the top. They do dessert pizza as well.

Speaking of dessert pizza, Little Caesars in Mundaring has opened a store in Leederville where Retro Betty’s used to be. Same menu, just as good. Shall review properly soon.

Shop 5, 35 Mends Street, South Perth. Open Tuesday to Sunday dinner and Friday lunch.
BYO wine and beer.

Sushi Station Fuji Japanese Restaurant

So I've been away for a while, stacking on weight with gross American food; now I'm back; hungry.

I wanted Japanese but I haven't come across too many places in Perth with good, reasonably priced, Japanese food. Shimizu in Floreat is awesome and all you can eat for about $40 a head. But instead we went to Fuji in Victoria Park, and it seems that I forgot that this was not an all you can eat..

We started with sashimi of scallop, kingfish, salmon and tuna. 11 pieces all up, really fresh, but if I was being fussy I would say that they were sliced a bit too thickly. I think they could have turned the 11 pieces into 15 if they'd been sliced better (except the scallops, right, yeah that's kinda obvious).

Next was beef tataki - thinly sliced, seared beef - basically raw cow, serviced with a sesame and spring onion dipping sauce. Really good, but, again, being fussy, we had actually ordered a variation of this that was served with raw egg. Don't think our waitress got that bit. But we forgave her cos she was cool. No joke, she was a Japanese version of Beyonce.

After raw cow without raw egg we had gyoza. Minced pork and vegetables in a lightly fried dumpling. Can't really go wrong with these. But my random thought on the gyoza is that they always seem to serve five pieces. Wherever you go, I bet if you order gyoza, you'll get five pieces. I don't know why. Yeah that was a pretty random thought, huh?

Next was tempura prawns with a bit of tempura fish and vegetables. Some of the best tempura I've had. Yummy big prawns and crispy batter where the oil didn't spurt over your face when you bit into it.

I know we've already had four entrees but just one more. Chicken karage. Japanese KFC. Good stuff.

Finally the main - unagi don. Grilled eel on a bed of rice. Always been a big fan of eel, but usually the portions are small. Here it was about $15 and served in this pretty lunch box thing with lots of rice and two big fillets of eel.

We still had wine left so we had to have another course. Cold soba. This is my favourite Japanese dish that I've ever had, even though it's pretty basic. A big pile of soba noodles with a side thing of some sauce that I have no idea what's in it; lots of spring onion; and lots of wasabi.

By the way, there were two of us. I always wonder why my friends are horrified when they see how much I eat. I guess last night's all I could eat affair kinda explains it.

All up it was $80-ish. It's licensed or BYO; service is good; you can sit at the sushi bar or at one of the traditional Japanese tables. Often a queue to get in, so best to book.

233 Albany Highway, Vic Park. Open Wednesday to Sunday dinner, Wednesday to Friday lunch.

Cupcakes

If you know me (all but one of my current followers), I'm guessing you would have heard me talking about cupcakes at least once - the cupcake I just had, the best cupcake I ever had, the next cupcake I'm going to have - etc etc. So I've dedicated a blog post to cupcakes in Perth (yeah, I think that's pretty clear by reading the titles).

Unfortunately there aren't too many retail cupcake shops in Perth; most just sell wholesale or for catering. If you want to go to a shop and buy a cupcake you've got three main places to choose from - Little Miss Cupcake, Sherbet, or Sweet on Cupcakes.

Sherbet Cake and Bake Shop opened in Maylands a couple of months ago. It was inspired by the place that put me on to cupcakes - Magnolia Bakery in New York, made famous by Sex and the City. On that point, if you ever have the chance to go to New York, do not come back without have tried a vanilla cupcake from Magnolia Bakery or Buttercup Cake Shop (owners of Magnolia had a fight and one ran off with the recipes and opened Buttercup and Magnolia sued blah blah).

Okay back to Sherbet - Sherbet is a gorgeous little place with sandwiches that are made and presented as they would be in America; a lot of whole cakes to choose from; reasonable coffee; and of course, cupcakes. There are seven simple flavours to choose from. They are $4 each. They are...good...but they're not exciting. They are small, don't have much icing, and could be better presented. The best thing about Sherbet is that there is plenty of room to sit and have a coffee with your cupcake. But the cupcakes themselves can't compare with their New York inspiration.

If you want bigger and more beautifully presented cupcakes, Little Miss Cupcake is definitely worth a try. Little Miss Cupcake is the kind of place that makes me feel like a little girl again. It's tiny, everything's pink, and there's lots of pretty cupcake merchandise to buy. There are about 10 cupcakes to choose from, ranging from $3.25 to $5.50. In terms of presentation, these are the best I've tried. They are moist and decadent and writing about it now is making my mouth water. The lemon meringue and the rasberry and coconut are especially good. Downsides - there are only two little tables and they are both outside, they don't sell any food other than cupcakes (not really an issue for me), and they are only open Thursday to Saturday. And it's in Kalamunda, but for me it's worth the drive from the city.

Saving the best for last - Sweet on Cupcakes. These guys make over 30 flavours and are around $3-4 each. I cannot describe how good these cupcakes are. Vanilla is the best I've tried so far. They are perfect size, decorated with lots of pastel coloured icing, lollies or chocolates and sometimes edible glitter stuff. These have a LOT of icing. If you're a sook you'll have to take some off.

They are so good that if I close my eyes to little old Perth and take a bite I can pretend I'm in New York. Speaking of little old Perth, I often get messages from my Melbourne friend saying how much she craves one of these cupcakes, and I'm pretty sure she's tasted all of the well-known Melbourne cupcake places. That is how good they are. Every bite of one of these cupcakes is just so exciting. The only downside is that it's a tiny store with nowhere to sit. But that is totally redeemed by the taste.

Each of the three places also do wholesale and catering. If you're looking to make a large order for birthday or wedding cupcakes, Sweet as Sugar is also worth a try. These are on par with Little Miss Cupcake and just as beautifully presented.

Sherbet Cake and Bake Shop - 206B Whatley Cres, Maylands. Open Tuesday to Friday 7.30-5, weekends 8-4, closed Mondays and public holidays.
Little Miss Cupcake - 3 Haynes St, Kalamunda. Open Thursday and Friday 9.30-4.30, Saturday 9.30-2.30 (+ half hour either side on first Saturday of every month for Kalamunda markets).
Sweet on Cupcakes - 103 Waratah Ave, Dalkeith. Open weekdays 8.30-4.30, Saturday 9-12.30.
Sweet as Sugar - http://sweetassugar.com.au/

Il Lido

Since I was so impressed with the Sensations recommendation from my Melbourne friend and was unashamedly hungry again three hours after the sunny spring Sunday morning breakfast, I tried another one of her recommendations in the same day. In Gossip Girl style, we will call Melbourne friend ‘J’.

Il Lido in Cottesloe, directly opposite Indiana, was supposed to have some delicious rhubarb and white chocolate muffins and great coffee. I needed more than just coffee though. My favourite drinking buddy Chooky chose a bottle of Masi Pinot Grigio, a verduzzo white, to start with. For me it’s always love at first sight when I see a place with communal tables or Riedel glasses. Il Lido had both.

The menu had a lot to choose from. Almost too much. 18 different tapas, or 13 mains, plus specials. We needed an excuse to try a bottle of red after the white, so we went for tapas. We couldn’t decide between seafood and meat, so we decided on both. The freshly shucked oysters with chardonnay vinaigrette were good but couldn’t compare with the Mussel Bar ones. The vinaigrette tasted a bit like raspberry dipping sauce, and I’m pretty sure I tasted some sand in there. The carpaccio of kingfish with fennel seed and blood orange was delicious. Sashimi of kingfish is always good, and the orange complimented it perfectly. The smoked eel with horseradish and celery was the best non-Japanese style eel I’ve ever had. (J – I can imagine your face screwing up as you are reading what we ate when we were supposed to be eating rhubarb and white chocolate muffins – wait til you hear about the meats.)

The tapas were bigger than your average tapas and I could have stopped there. But we really wanted to try one of the Italian red wines so we hit round two. We asked for a recommendation on the wine and, as he had done with the white, the waiter immediately recommended the most expensive on the menu and launched into a rant about what he does and doesn’t like in a wine. He redeemed himself by brining us a ‘plush and elegant’ shiraz pinot noir with more Riedel glasses. By this stage I didn’t really know what I was drinking, but I think I liked it.

Tapas to go with the red were olives, sformato of porcini mushroom with toast, and a selection of salumi. These are apparently not spelling mistakes. The ‘sformato’ was a chicken and mushroom pate served in a pot that weighed a ton. Really good stuff and we ordered some more of the toast so we could eat every last bit. The salumi plate was not far behind. It had bresola fried salted beef, homemade chicken and shitake mousse rolled in poached pigs trotter, calabrese salami and proscuitto san daniele.

We forgot to eat dessert but the frangelico affogato and the ricotta fritters with limoncello syrup and mascarpone sound worth going back for. So I was doubly lucky with J’s suggestions and can’t wait to try this muffin.

88 Marine Parade, Cottesloe. Open weekdays except Tuesday 6.30pm til late, Weekends 8am til late. Closed Tuesday.

Sensations en Ardross

I ventured south to eat again yesterday. But there were two good reasons for it. Firstly, the friend I was meeting lives south. We'll call her F for friend. Secondly, my best friend has been nagging me to try this place for months. And she's a Melbourne girl so she automatically has my food-standards-respect.

So if you read my C15 entry you will note that I don't like to eat south of the river. Despite respect for said Melbournian, my expectations of Sensations were pretty low.

10am on a sunny spring Sunday and Sensations had a few too many spare seats (absolutely no alliteration intented there). I found out during my breakfast with well-travelled F that in Spain a restaurant is meant to be good if the floor is covered in napkins and other rubbish. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I think it's safe to say that it's a good sign if you at least have to do a lap of a place to find an empty table.

That being said, F and I found a seat in the sunshine straight away. We chatted for a good few minutes before piling up the last customers' plates, hoping that someone would get the hint. Another few minutes passed before I went to the counter to get menus and F followed with the dirty plates. A dumbfounded but friendly enough waitress took the offending plates and I found some menus.

Our Sensations experience could only get better. And it did. The menu had a lot to choose from. The homemade walnut muesli, a plate of three different types of toast, the french toast with berries and a build your own breakfast with all the usual suspects sounded good.

Being the non-health freak that I am, I went for the fruit and nut loaf with vanilla yoghurt and assorted self-serve preserves. To add a healthy touch, I asked for a side of seasonal poached fruit which appeared all over the rest of the menu (including, much to our disgust, in a smoothie). The fruit toast was thick and hot and included big chunks of fig...and pinenuts. Pinenuts in fruit toast? I'm not so sure what the fruit-toast-baker was thinking. Pinenuts aside (literally), I covered one slice with poached pear and rhubarb and the vanilla yoghurt. I covered the other slice with half passionfruit curd and half rasberry jam, both from the self-serve thing, until I had made some sort of mulligrubs creation that tasted pretty...umm - Sensational.

F went for something far less childish. A bagel with poached eggs. This was perfectly presented, with two halves of bagel neatly stacked underneath two eggs and some greens. Apparently it tasted as good as it looked. And the bagel was apparently Kosher. Good thing she decided against a side of bacon.

Being a vegetarian-gone-wrong, old habits come back every now and then and I notice whether a place has enough vegetarian options. Sensations not only had a range of veg options, but there were a lot more gluten free options than I usually see. I didn't take much notice, because I don't even know what gluten is, but there was a gluten free muesli, and...umm, other gluten free things that sounded edible enough.

The food was all delicious, and while the service didn't redeem itself, the coffee did arrive at exactly the same time as the food. This sends my Sensations service rating through the roof. But it could have been a coincidence or a very slow coffee maker.

43a Ardross St, Applecross. Open 7.30am-4.30pm 7 days.

Sayers

From the former owners of Tarts in Northbridge came Sayers, tucked away in Carr Place just up from the not so charming Leederville Hotel.

Lunch at Sayers is very good. The style of the menu has changed quite a bit since the café opened in late 2007. Now you can enjoy tapas or homemade tarts with a glass of wine (unlicensed, BYO wine only), or enjoy some of the awesome cakes that Tarts was known for.

But the best thing about Sayers is no doubt their breakfasts. I have never had more unusual breakfasts in Perth as what I have had at Sayers.

A year or so ago the potato rosti with crispy bacon, poached eggs, wilted spinach, rocket, parmesan and lemon featured in the 50 things you must eat in Perth in the STM. It deserved that wrap. The claypot eggs are not far behind the potato rosti, and the Turkish bread crostini is worth a try. The menu has mostly unique savoury creations to choose from, but there is no shortage of breakfasts for a sweet tooth like myself either. The ricotta and white chocolate hotcakes with pear, double cream and maple syrup are definitely up there with some of the best pancakes I’ve had outside of America. The banana and chocolate bread is pretty awesome if you’re not too worried about having a healthy start to the day. There is a cinnamon and vanilla porridge with apple and sultana compote on the menu now, which seems to have replaced the toasted muesli with poached pears – not too happy about this, but the porridge looks good if you like porridge. On yesterday’s trip to Sayers I needed to soak up a bit of alcohol from a big Friday night, but couldn’t face the big breakfast. My very happy medium was crunchy thinly sliced toasted ciabatta drizzled with EVOO, poached eggs, sea salt, cracked pepper and some herbs that I had no chance of identifying. And a big mug of coffee that was pretty good.

The service is good. The staff are not dopey and they don’t seem to mess up the orders. It’s very cosy inside and reminds me a lot of Sydney cafes. It has a communal table, big vases of flowers, and big piles of cushions on the booth seats. Finding a table isn’t always easy on weekends, and the outside area is not nearly as nice as the inside. It might be grasping at straws but the one minor problem with Sayers is the toilet situation. If you’ve been following my blogs you might have noticed that I’m pretty picky about toilets. They can be a real downfall – if the bathroom is dirty I don’t want to know what the kitchen is like. Here it’s clean enough but there’s only one cubicle inside each and you basically need a GPS to find it. And – okay this is showing my craziness – I don’t understand why one basin would have a separate tap spout thing for hot and cold. I want warm water. I don’t want to burn my hands and then freeze them. This is Perth, not Japan. Alright I’ll try to make this the last time I resort to reviewing a toilet at a café. It’s enough to say that Sayers is lovely and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Shop 1, 224 Carr Place, Leederville. Open 7am to 4pm 7 days.

C15 Espresso

A few years back I got so sick of driving at least half an hour for a decent meal that my mum and I upped and moved from south of the river to north. We have always been willing to drive a long way for good food but it was getting ridiculous and we just moved. Yep, solely because of food.

South of the river arguably hasn't improved all that much since then. There's a few good newish cafes and restaurants but they're few and far between. So when my Southie friend (we'll call him Typo Psycho) wanted to go for lunch and I assumed that he would not be as crazily keen as I am to drive great distances good food, I reluctantly chose C15 in Applecross.

It's one of those places that is good by south of the river standards, but you just wish you'd gone to Mt Lawley or North Perth.

The menu is pretty standard - caesar salad, panino, burger and chips - that kind of thing. Not really sold on any of those, TP and I went for something on the all day breakfast specials menu.

My poached eggs, wilted spinach, New Norcia toast, hommus and dukkah dish was a good mix but I can't say I'd rush back for it. As for TP's dish, basically steak and eggs on toast with a paddock of whole roma tomatoes, it tasted how you would expect it to taste. TP asked for his steak medium-rare, but the piece of meat was very much well done it. Not to mention that it looked as if it should be cut with a machete. TP was not as critical of his lunch as I was, but I don't really know how much I can take from a person who orders a latte with his steak. Both of our coffees were good by south of the river standards.

My only other complaint was that the silly little round tables are just too silly and little. So little, in fact, that as TP was hacking into his slab of overcooked steak, he knocked his plate into mine and I ended up with a lap full of eggs, hommus, spinach and an upside down plate.

The service was nothing to complain about. The staff were all friendly and switched on. The atmosphere is good and there were a few people enjoying wine with their Friday lunch. The meals were a bit overpriced for what they were, at about $20 each. Really the whole thing reminded me of why I eat north.

15 Risely St, Applecross. Open 7 days 7am to 11pm (although often it's closed way before 11)..Good luck!