Where to eat in Western Australia

Western Australia’s restaurants may be short on staff, but they boast unlimited talent

Dining at Fleur at The Royal in Perth

Australia’s largest state is doing very nicely, thank you, on the back of continued demand for its iron ore. It has a trickle-down effect and as a result, Western Australians are eating out in their droves. More so, in fact, than the industry can support.

Staff shortages in hospitality are as acute, if not more so, as in the east. Nevertheless, relatively fewer WA restaurants failed due to Covid-19 than on the east coast; its impact on the state has been relatively minor compared to Victoria and NSW. And so restaurants continue to proliferate; unfortunately, staffing them sometimes seems like a bridge operators think about crossing only when they get to it.

Here’s a selection in the city and down south we think you can rely on.

PERTH

Lulu La Delizia

Lunch at Lulu La Delizia

Lulu is not an Italian restaurant; rather, an Australian restaurant with Italian food. It’s neither contemporary nor traditional; it just happens to be one of the best restaurants in Australia. Why? Oh, so many reasons… Chef/owner Joel Valvasori works so very hard to keep the relationship alive with an ever-changing menu that celebrates hand-made pasta teamed with local WA produce – particularly seafood. You will eat pasta at Lulu you’ve had nowhere else – say corzetti with bug meat, tarragon and lemon butter, or fazzoletti with marron and a herb butter – but Lulu doesn’t get enough credit for non-pasta dishes like the smoked beef carpaccio or Shark Bay scallop crudo with nashi and colatura or, indeed, superb salads. The kitchen knows exactly when to stop. Then, the service here is super professional, the wine list mostly Italian-ish and the vibe… electric, fraternal. An uncompromised experience.
lululadelizia.com.au

Fleur at The Royal

Fleur restaurant at The Royal in Perth

If The Royal were in Sydney, Merivale’s Justin Hemmes would have already bought it. Maybe it didn’t have enough pokies? But emerging Perth restaurateur John Parker did, back in 2018, and a thorough restoration/reinvigoration has seen it emerge as a CBD pub that got the glam but didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. On the ground floor is Fleur, a small, moody, feminine space where chef Chase Webber has license to let his creative good times roll. He puts WA ingredients through a faintly Japanese filter and throws in – judiciously – a little indigenous produce. It works extremely well, his restraint a hallmark of his maturity. A perfect example would be the “drunken akoya” – baby pearl oysters dressed with ginger, garlic chives and samphire. Or a tartlet of Skull Island prawn with green apple and Geraldton wax. It is delicate, precise, “I’m going out for a special dinner” food, and Fleur backs it up with proper service, all the extras and a great little side bar to boot.
theroyalhotelperth.com.au

La Cabana
Australia’s Mexican Wave came and went and… What a pity fashion and food dance together so often. Many years later, new Mexico-inspired places open occasionally with slightly more conviction than the inspiration of a two-week holiday in Tulum and La Cabana – essentially a taqueria – is one of them. Relying on vast quantities of real, nixtamalised corn tortillas made nearby in Fremantle, La Cabana is somewhere between a seaside beer garden and a Mexican street taberna. What underpins it is the quality and authenticity of the food and the way the place is run, because it is immensely popular and without good systems, chaos might prevail. So grab a beer, or a rare mezcal if you can afford it, and order coconut-battered WA fish with black chipotle mayo and pickled cabbage, all wrapped in a real tortilla. Or a plate of Shark Bay tiger prawns, tequila compressed watermelon, fermented chilli and popcorn dust. These are not your “greatest hits”; and La Cabana is way too much fun, way too good, to be a passing fad.
lacabana.com.au

Le Rebelle

Bistro style at Le Rebelle

Le Rebelle is a welcome reminder of how good that old formula of husband in the kitchen (Liam Atkinson) and wife out front (Sarah Atkinson) can be. (Or, for that matter, genders and roles reversed.) A first restaurant for the pair, the two-level space – street and mezzanine – has simplicity, intimacy and classic design cues that look and feel pre-loved, even if the bistro ids barley two years old: timber and dark leather, lots of winey stuff on the shelves, full moon pendant light, bentwood chairs, mottled walls, a barrelled ceiling. It’s something you don’t see too often in Perth: a bistro that looks like Hemingway took pastis in the corner with his Moleskines and pencils. The food is familiar classics with a bit of a twist, executed well. The wine list tends toward youthful styles but there’s something for everyone, nonetheless, and the place does function as a wine bar as much as a restaurant. And the service exactly what you want: attentive, friendly, professional but relaxed. It’s the sort of joint every neighbourhood needs, but rarely gets.
lerebelle.com.au

Santini Bar & Grill

Interior of the Santini Bar and Grill

Good hotels should have restaurants with personality; it rarely happens. QT proved it could be done in Sydney with Gowings and then doubled down with their brassy Santini Bar & Grill in the heart of Perth’s CBD, a sort of Australian take on a New York take on a Roman ristorante. Santini has swank and sophistication, but more importantly, it has excellent, uncomplicated food and a menu with there flexibility to work both at lunch – it’s a city restaurant after all – and dinner. We like the local seafood here – things like Abrolhos octopus with chickpeas and ‘nduja, or local snapper, raw with blood orange – but the char grill for beef cuts with quality condiments is what Big City dining is all about, an QT nails it. The wine list is a beauty - not too parochial, international in both its outlook and varietal offerings – and the prices, for this style of restaurant, completely within expectation. A proper night out.
santinibarandgrill.com.au

Coogee Common
An oasis in suburbia - and Perth’s suburbia stretches north and south in a considerable elongated sprawl - Coogee Common is a rare thing: a substantial block given over mostly to a highly productive market garden. Now mature, the garden provides both bucolic respite and great kitchen produce, and clever contemporary architecture, welded to the historic original pub, takes great advantage of it. Coogee Common really is something special, even before you sit down in one of the restaurant’s many breezy, stylish zones. We have found the kitchen a little inconsistent here, but on song, the Mediterranean flavours matched to local gear such as Fremantle sardines and octopus, for example, make for a spending lunch. Worth the drive.
coogeecommon.com.au

Wildflower

Wildlfower restaurant in Perth

It’s only fitting that Perth’s best hotel, Como, has one of its best restaurants. High above the elegant Treasury building, with exceptional views to the Swan, Wildflower’s mission statement is to reflect the vast state of WA in everything it does and fundamentally, food and wine. It does so with a creative, modern culinary approach that has moved more to the centre of the creative spectrum since chef Mathew Sartori took over from original chef Jed Gerard in 2019. That’s probably a wise call. The menus are set - two, four or six course - and dishes tend to accent hero ingredients such as marron or duck with off-piste indigenous flavours such as those off native lemongrass, rosella or dessert lime, for example. It’s a great way to introduce visitors to the state to unique Western wild-harvest produce. The dining room itself is super stylish - a proper grown-up dining experience - and the wine list suitably fine, reflecting great in-house wine curation talent.
wildflowerperth.com.au

‘Australia’s largest state is doing very nicely, thank you, and as a result West Australians are eating out in droves’

DOWN SOUTH

Vasse Felix

Because of its massive wine industry, and the tourism/money coming into the area as a result, the Capes region – widely known by the rest of the nation as “Margaret River” – supports some pretty impressive restaurants, but none more so than that at Paul Holmes a Court’s Vasse Felix estate. Vasse Felix is the complete package, set as it is in a stylishly designed first-floor dining room overlooking the vineyards and sculpture garden here in Wilyabrup. Superb food; check. Excellent wine; check again. Great staff and service… Chef Brendan Pratt’s mission is to create highly contemporary food with a WA accent that works to the Vasse Felix wine portfolio, and he nails it time and time again. Subtle Japanese inflections pervade Pratt’s dishes; a little wakame here for texture; a little dashi there for umami and mouthfeel in a broth. But using locally sourced fruit, vegetables, fish and beef wherever possible, Pratt conjures the most extraordinary flavours from his produce to create dishes all his own. Unique, yet recognisable food that plays to the strength of a Heytesbury chardonnay or Filius cabernet. To eat here is such a pleasure and, to our way of thinking, a relative bargain.
vassefelix.com.au

Lady Lola
Urban in its approach yet country in its laid-back hospitality, LL is a wine bar with lovely, approachable food. Or a cute little restaurant with a strong, well-informed wine game. Your call. But in an area with limited night-time options save for the well-liked Yarri restaurant next door, LL has struck a nerve by putting the power back in the hands of the guest. You want a glass of something? Fine. You want a snack with it? Good. You want a full on meal with a bottle or two? Settle in. The ladies behind Lola have plenty of big city experience: they know what sort of bistro food works, how to do it well, and serve it with a smile and a chat.
facebook.com/ladylolabar/

Wills Domain

Wills Domain restaurant in Yallingup

Set on a ridge in the Yallingup Hills among the chardonnay vines, Wills Domain has an unfair advantage over most restaurants: that site. Wow. The wines are pretty good too, although far less known – in the east – than many of the bigger names in this region. The other unfair advantage is a kitchen team, led by long-term head chef Seth James – that has both the talent and license – from owners the Haunold family – to do things seriously. James is one of the most creative, skilled chefs in the state, a fact recognised many times with local restaurant awards. Like his college Brendan Pratt at Vasse Felix, a few Japanese – and Korean – ideas infuse James’ intensely creative food. Expect a series of small dishes that might see lobster with shiitake or striploin marinated in soy, pear, sesame and garlic grilled over over coals served with vegetables cooked in shio koji. The bonus: dishes here always look superb. One the state’s best tables.
willsdomain.com.au

Chow’s Table

Meal’s up at Chows Table

So, a young Malaysian Chinese chef, who’s worked in some pretty smart kitchens around the country, comes to Margaret River and says: yep, this will do me. Does he open yet another contemporary or Mediterranean-leaning dining room or… Look to his heritage, a gap in the market, and say: what this region needs is a smart, modern Asian joint. Mal Chow chose the smart option and his restaurant, allied to the House of Cards cellar door in Yallingup, has been packing ‘em in ever since. It’s a lovely rural setting, the architecture and design spot on, the hospitality warm and the food particularly good. Fancy, down here, being able to go out for stir fried rice cakes with squid, bok choy and sambal belachan or Malay-style curry of beef cheeks or Chow’s excellent sweet and sour pork with dried chillies? And have a glass of very fairly priced wine to boot? Needless to say, Chow’s is particularly popular with the local wine fraternity. Deservedly so. One day, we hope, they’ll reintroduce Sunday yum cha. Selfish request.
chowstable.com.au