The list: Perth’s best restaurants and bars of 2023

Perth’s most authoritative restaurant critic and dining writer, Rob Broadfield, has had a busy year. Here, he reveals his top new venues and bars of 2023.

Add them to your “must-visit” list and secure a booking – if you can.

Bar Vino is a reminder of why we love dining out.

Bar Vino, Mount Lawley

A vibrant, noisy celebration of everything Italian, Bar Vino is an aria to great Italian dishes and the bustling vibe of inner-city Milan. Walking into Bar Vino in Mount Lawley is a tonic. It’s noisy, the tables are close, European bistro close. Staff weave expertly through the restaurant with plates and glassware. The energy crackles. It’s full pace, but not rushed or abrupt.

It’s at once friendly and professional. Try the stracciatella with citrus, chilli and pistachio; risotto alla Milanese with beef cheek; and their large cotoletta. The wine list is a serious document, expansive, well selected and purposefully constructed around the food and experience.

Welsh rarebit with anchovies at Bertie.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Bertie, Bassendean

Bertie is legendary barman James Connolly’s first hit out in his own right and he’s nailed it with a low-key British vibe and perhaps the best Scotch egg in town: creamy egg yolk and a light pork mince carapace make it an ambrosial bar snack. Mushroom parfait is a corker and a vegan’s dream come true. Bertie’s Welsh rarebit takes a British gastropub favourite and gives it a twist with an anchovy on top.

Waldorf salad and grilled striploin also hit the spot. The bar is the prime pozzie to perch for dinner and, of course, Connolly being Connolly, the mixed drinks are sublime. His classics – old fashioned, sazerac, etc – are memorable.

Lums, Subiaco

Lums Winebar’s food is worth checking out.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Lums, in a shopfront in Hay Street, heaves with fun-loving humanity; young, smartly dressed and cheerful humanity. It’s like Cheers for the 21st century. It pulsates with the noise of the Friday drinks crowd chowing down on grilled chorizo and pork jowl with pickled Korean pear and a gold-standard gnocchi, pillowy and light with a tensile chew.

No overcooked sludge here. Cauliflower steak will keep the vegos happy. The staff are the cheerful ring masters of this three-ring circus of fun and good vibes. Sit at the bar. There are just a couple of bar stools, but they are prime real estate.

Testun, Mount Lawley

Our first outing at Tustun was a delightful surprise. We didn’t expect such a well-crafted menu in this small shopfront in nowheresville Mount Lawley. The staff is the usual collection of the young and enthusiastic in an array of vintage clothing, hair colours and lace-up boots. But there’s no hauteur, no sly “bloody Baby Boomer” eye-rolling. They were interested. Their pork chop was the finest we ate in 2023. We wrote at the time that it was “tender, moist, porky, juicy and 100 per cent exquisite”.

Testun in Mount Lawley.

Baccala and potato crochetta was noticeable for large chunks of baccala, dried cod, and its chunky generosity. Testun is as Italian as Fiat and bunga bunga, and nowhere is that more evident than in spaghetti with “gran ragu”, a meaty, silky braise of veal and pork. Buonissima.

Subiaco Continental, Subiaco

Pubs have changed. A lot. The minimal, Scando décor of this massive venue is as far removed from the classic rubbity-dubs of old as you can get.

Subiaco Continental is a meeting place, a let’s-catch-up-after-work-and-drink-some-wine place, a family place. What its white walls and beige tones lack in embellishment it compensates for with great staff and tasty, easy-peasy bar snacks and light meals. Smoked pork hock croquettes, “house gilda”, a two-bite vinegary pintxos on a skewer, and, our fave, pickled mussel toast.

Subiaco Continental: Pubs have changed.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Subiaco Continental is another creation from serial bar and restaurant owner Miles Hull and brings his seriously stylish vernacular to downtown Subi.

Republic of Fremantle, Fremantle

Republic has been around for a while, but in 2023 the bosses put their hands in their pockets and realised their dream of a dining room out back and a brilliant new kitchen inside the old brick, repurposed Fremantle warehouse.

It is the home to Republic of Fremantle’s gin and vodka stills. Previously they offered just bar snacks, except there’s no “just” about them. They were noticeable in a town where bar snacks all seem to come from the same cookie cutter.

Republic of Fremantle is another drawcard for the tourist town.

We’re happy to note their house-made crumpet with smoked roe, crème fraiche and tomato is still on the new, enlarged menu, along with newbies beef intercostals with brandy cream peppercorn sauce, Wagin duck crown with prunes and honey (my God!), and bugs with nduja. Oh, if you want to make an event of it, grab your mates and enrol in Gin School. Too much fun.

Vin Populi, Fremantle

Just one word. “Cool”. This latest creation by the “it” couple of hospitality, Dan Morris and Emma Ferguson (Balthazar, No Mafia), is a love letter to Italian eating. Their sliced meats are perfect antipasti.

Vin Populi’s Dan Morris and Emma Ferguson.

Tagliatelle osso buco is dressed with a braise of young beef shanks amped up with the typical trifecta of aromatic vegetables, carrots, onions and celery. The fresh, house-made pasta is silky and al dente. A thick slice of perfectly salty porchetta managed both shatteringly crisp crackling on the outside and tender, sweet, moist meat in the middle. The belly had been rolled around sage leaves and black pepper before roasting. Vin Populi has people flocking to its beautiful, tasteful, paired back and warm rooms at the Round House end of High Street.

The Italian wine list is expansive and well priced. Oh, and there’s a designated “naughty corner” for those who behave a little too well.

Edward and Ida’s, Northbridge

Edward and Ida’s has breathed new life into Northbridge since it opened in August 2023. It is the latest creation from Dimitri Rtshiladze (Nieuw Ruin, Foxtrot Unicorn) and brings a local pub style offer to the mean streets of Northbridge.

There are a small roster of bar snacks, all of them good and stunningly rendered by chef Blaze Young. It is filled with pub bric-a-brac: taxidermy, displays of old pub mirrors, gramophones and pub signage from days gone by.

Edward and Ida’s.

E&I’s is a no-nonsense local with great beers, snappy bar service and a small wine list. It has a large garden out the back made for sunny days and a cosy bar space up front.

Al Lupo, North Fremantle

What more could you want in life? Is Al Lupo perhaps the most perfectly formed bar in Perth? It’s beautifully designed and welcoming, it encourages you to sit at the bar and eat, if that’s your thing, and the cocktails, made by the cheerful and ebullient Lucky (yes, he has just one name, like Madonnna) are masterfully shaken and stirred down.

In summer, its proximity to Leighton Beach makes it a haunt for spritz drinkers and the snacking multitudes in linen and mules. In cooler months, it’s a cosseting, embracing place to hunker down over one of Lucky’s creations and enjoy a salad of warm, charred cucumber with puffed rice and ricotta, spicy lamb hot dog, and a generous beef rump cap with the right amount of smoky char from the grill.

Al Lupo: A beautiful bar and restaurant design gives a great feel to the space.Credit: Rob Broadfield

Bear in mind, the menu changes regularly, so these delights might not be there when you go, but you can’t go wrong with anything on their short menu.

La Lune, East Fremantle

When La Lune opened, we were beside ourselves. Seriously. It was like an answer to all our bistro dreams. La Lune ticks every French bistro box with aplomb.

Eight entrees, 12 mains – six of them from the char grill – and four desserts including crème brulee and mille feuille. There’s duck, of course. Very French. You can dine at the bar – our recommendation – on the footpath or inside the beautiful series of rooms. The wine list is perky and lust-worthy with a 70/30 split of Australian and old-world wines.

La Lune’s bavette served with bearnaise and frites; perhaps the most bistro-ish bistro dish of all time.Credit: Natasja Kremers

Nothing says French bistro like bavette with bearnaise and frites. La Lune’s is exceptional. Ditto roast chicken, which comes with a sherry broad bean fricassee. Nicely brined and roasted. Yes, there’s pomme Dauphinoise, naturally, moules frites and seared duck breast on lentils. It’s properly French but without cliché. The wine list is stunning. One of the loveliest dining rooms in the city.

Lantern, Elizabeth Quay

It’s brand spanking new and well situated beneath one of Elizabeth Quay’s office towers. It’s very trad Cantonese. Yes, it has deep-fried ice cream. It’s also welcome because traditional, posh Cantonese went out of fashion years ago and it’s nice to see it back in central Perth.

The fitout is luscious and with lots of lanterns and red and gold trimmings, naturally. Some of the tables are tucked away in corners where one can meet clandestinely for business or, even, love. The mixed drinks are good.

Lantern executive chef Ricky Howl, owner Karen Wong, and Turin Dhami.

The menu is blessedly short by Chinese restaurant standards (although there’s no shortage of choice). Royal Peking Duck is juicy, crackly and well fatty. Cold octopus slices are brilliant. The lobster comes direct from the tank to your plate, via the wok. One of the best we’ve ever enjoyed. There’s well-crafted sizzling hot plates of squid and a zingy, numbing mapo tofu. The deep-fried ice cream is good too. Put Lantern on your list.

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