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Reports of the death of fine dining are, to paraphrase the great writer Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.

Sure, one could argue that fine dining’s vitals might not be as strong as they were pre-COVID, but you could also argue that this has as much to do with increases to the cost of living and doing business than (just) diners losing interest in fillet mignon and live pianists.

As long as chefs and restaurateurs have ambition and humans continue to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and keep asking others to marry them, there will always be a need for fancy places to eat and drink.

George Kailis – the impresario behind the Kailis Hospitality Group – clearly believes this, too.

So much so that he spent 2½ years bringing his grandiose vision for a world-class restaurant and bar by the sea to life. I can only imagine how many well-meaning “fine dining is dead” pep talks he would have fielded from those around during that time.

Good thing he paid any naysayers zero heed. Because if he did, Perth would have missed out on Gibney, one of the most ambitious openings the city has seen in some time.

From top to bottom and the outside-in, this 200-seater awash with country club and casino dining room brio is a masterclass in sweating the details. Some of these are throwbacks to yesteryear fine dining: the double-dressed tables. The pure linen napkins. The timeless white jackets and skinny black ties worn by the platoon of poised waitstaff that patrol this special occasion-ready room. (The competition among laundry houses for the restaurant’s linen contract, I assume, is fierce.)

Other design choices, however, are pure Gibney and reflect the restaurant’s tenets of quality, understated luxury, and a commitment to craft. Chandeliers fashioned out of recycled plastic hang over the bar. A smart lighting system in the ceiling subtly controls lighting levels based on the time of day. Bartenders push custom-made bar trolleys from table to table, asking guests if they’d like aperitifs and digestifs. (Say yes.)

Yet as good-looking as Gibney might be, (most) guests aren’t here to take photos for design and architecture blogs. Rather, couples and groups come to this 200-person clubhouse to celebrate. To admire those Indian Ocean vistas. To see and be seen. And to be comforted by a menu of time-honoured brasserie and steakhouse hits cooked by one of the city’s most promising new talents.

A graduate of high-calibre kitchens in both Perth (Restaurant Amuse, Le Rebelle) and Melbourne (Lume, Omnia Bistro), James Cole Bowen uses assured technique and wit to recast these classics in new lights without robbing them of their essence. Tufts of tempura-fried eggplant add interest to the ubiquitous raw kingfish ($32). A charcoal-flavoured mayo bumps up the beefy savour of steak tartare ($32). A whisper of gochujang puts a Korean spin on oysters Kilpatrick ($8.50 each) and is one of many Asian ingredients the kitchen keeps on hand to help re-energise the familiar.

Thin pennies of Broome pearl meat – the adductor muscle of the pearl oyster – star in a bold “ceviche” ($24) made with a zippy smoked macadamia milk fortified with Thai aromatics and spice. Perhaps you remember it from Cole Bowen’s time at Corner Dairy: our man’s first head chef gig, as well as a promising sign of things to come.

Crunchy tempura-fried oyster mushrooms ($22) with an oyster emulsion – served in an oyster shell, no less – is clever, clever, clever. So is slipping some seaweed into the craggy egg spaghetti that anchors the clam pasta ($45). The dish’s uncredited MVP, however, is the rousing dashi made using fish frames hung over the wood-burning grill until smoky and wonderful.

That same hearth also helps a bit of bavette steak ($66) be its finest, medium-rare self, although the accompanying sweet barbecue sauce lookalike made with black garlic plays a part too. Grilled rock lobster ($68) feels like the sort of dish one should order in a room as glam as this.

I would also suggest you eat dessert too. Not just because Gibney demands it, but because pastry chef Richard Dormer (formerly of COMO The Treasury) is preparing some of the finest classic desserts one can order in the city. Chocolate cake ($26) is baked twice to create two densities of the good stuff. A five-layer delice ($28) finished with a chocolate mirror glaze eats like the planet’s fanciest Ferrero Rocher.

Suffice to say, cossetted wining and dining like this isn’t cheap, especially for those low on willpower. Caviar starts from $65. The cellar is booby-trapped with unicorn bottles of wine sporting four-figure price tags that may alert your credit card’s security team when it’s time to pay the bill.

While you don’t need to go into hock to enjoy yourself here, you should probably brace your credit card for impact. Maybe consider following the lead of my colleague Callan Boys at the Sydney Morning Herald, who once ate instant noodles for two weeks to offset an especially pricey meal out.

While it’s not my place to tell anyone how and where to spend their money, I will say this much: Gibney is one of the bravest, most impressive debutants Perth has seen for some time. And while surrendering yourself to its charms for a night will come at a cost, I can’t think of a better address to celebrate an occasion at than this corner of Marine Parade.

Best of all, Gibney is just warm up. And despite being just six months old, it already shows the sort of promise that suggests it might one day be Perth’s finest restaurants. Fine dining, it would seem, isn’t going anywhere.