Jessie’s Curry Kitchen
Posted in Eating Out, Review
Finally back to the business of eating in Perth. I have long been missing the love of a good honest curry. Since the fateful closing of Suraj last year, there’s been a curry shaped void in my life that no amount of franchised Indian restaurants could fill.
Enter the charming Jessie and her curry kitchen.
Situated in a barely recognisable corner of Inglewood on the Beaufort St strip that holds so much potential for both greatness and disaster for potential dinner goers, you probably wouldn’t know it was there. If you did happen to walk past it, you’d more than likely assume it was just a dull little suburban Indian takeaway store and continue on your way to get a dodgy kebab… but then you’d be wrong.
What Jessie’s Curry Kitchen lacks in style, it makes up for abundantly in substance. Jessie works the kitchen, and her husband Jeya works the floor. Everything is made from scratch in the kitchen and the curries have a special quality to them that can only be construed as “love”.
The menu is a mixture of Indian and Malaysian dishes. There’s dosai, chapati, roti paratha, and selection of basic curries described succinctly as “chicken butter curry”, “chicken curry”, “fish curry”, “lamb curry”. No need for superfluous explanations or derivations as the flavours stand for themselves. The fish curry we had consisted of mackeral and had a texture so meaty I could have sworn it was chicken if I closed my eyes. I’m not sure if that’s a great compliment but for something so unassuming to completely surprise me is a rare and special thing. The lamb curry brims with clove and star anise, but doesn’t attack the senses. In fact all the dishes are quite reserved in the Johnny Cash (Ring of fire) sense.
Being from Sri Lanka originally before moving to Malaysia, there is also the added bonus of String Hoppers served up on weekends. They’re little bundles of rice noodles woven together into flat circles, and make a fantastic way to mop up dahl and curry.
On my most recent visit to Jessies with my dining entourage the meal started off with samosas, then moved on to every different type of curry, dahl, chicken biryani, hoppers, and roti. There was 6 of us, and I think the total bill came to around $114. Which was plainly ridiculous given the amount of gorging we’d all just done. Add to the fact that I don’t think Jeya charges anything for corkage, so the 3 or 4 bottles of wine consumed over the course of an hour or two were well and truly worth it. On a side note, I’m still to find a great wine to pair with curry, although a glass of Charles Melton “Rose of Virginia” donated by Mr Wino-sapien & family was perhaps a better choice than my Chalk Hill Barbera, which on it’s own is quite stunning, but with curry just seems to confuse things.
All romanticism aside, the place is small, pokey, hard to find if you aren’t looking, and has about as much atmosphere as a dentists waiting room, but once the food arrives it all just makes sense. Each time I’ve been there I’ve had strange moments where I catch the eyes of other diners and we share a look that somehow indicates we’re in the know. It’s a nod of the head and a sly smile (which could just indicate I’m about to get lucky) that says somehow we’re onto something here that no one else recognises, somehow we’ve come to find something quite special. And I completely agree.
Jessie’s Curry Kitchen & Cafe
869 Beaufort Street
Inglewood
Opening hours:
Wed to Sun: 11:00am to 2:30pm
5:30pm to 8:30pm
Mon: 11am to 2:30pm
Ph: 9271 8528
Print This Post
All Posts
Your food photos are always amazing! Do you take an SLR to restaurants? I’d feel too self-conscious to do that.
“…somehow we’re onto something here that no one else recognises…”
Except for your friends that dragged you along kicking and screaming to this place a couple of months back. ;)
Great review and photos as usual, except not enough time was spent telling everyone how good those samosas and curry puffs are. Completely different league IMO to anything else I’ve tried.
Matt C: I am never without my SLR. I made a conscious decision a while back that if I was going to take food photos they were going to do the food justice. Be that in a restaurant or at home. I haven’t had any problems so far, so If you’ve got one, I’d say go for it. Especially at Jessie’s, who love a bit of attention :)
Brad: I was waiting for a Gogo comment from you. Disappointing. But I don’t remember any kicking or screaming, pretty sure I left that til after we got lucky.
You’re right though, the curry puffs and samosas are formidable. I’ll update with a bit more about them.
Matt,
My son is still convinced you are Matt Giteau from the Wallabies!
It was a very pleasant surprise to cross paths again, I’m glad the Charlie Melton was not wasted.
Best wishes,
Edward, there’s no need to shatter that illusion… I’m happy to be a Matt Giteau stand-in should you ever
need birthday party entertainment, or nintendo competition :) I even used to play rugby…
It was nice to run into you as well, your impeccable taste has cemented that Jessie’s is definitely a great spot.
*smiling and nodding*
the wine/curry match sounds like a challenge… perhaps we can do a feature if you’re up for it?
I like to drink a cheap cab sav with curry. I don’t want to waste anything too good on all the confusing flavors happening and I want something powerful enough to cut through and be tasteable. (Is that a word? I’m sure there is a real word that means the same thing.) At the moment we have a case or two of drinkable cleanskins that do the job nicely.
Went to Jessie’s for dinner tonight, it is the best curry I’ve had for ages, meat samosas were brilliant, lamb and chicken curries amazing, thanks for the tipoff Matt!!
Gotta try it – after a WOEFUL meal at Cinnamon on the Park last night, we’re keen to look further afield for a decent curry.
That’s a great price for the six of you! I love Indian food, but as I don’t live in Perth it’s unlikely I’ll get to try this restaurant :(
oh dear… thinking of picking up (“getting lucky”) even whilst you’re in a dodgey, pokey indian place. standards man!
Matt,
We went to Jessie’s last night on your recommendation. Really enjoyed it. Samosas, roti, and butter chicken were really good. Fish curry was a bit of a let down, but overall we had a great meal. Both Jaya and Jessie were very friendly.
Given my proximity to this place, I really should get myself down there. Thanks for pointing it out!
String Hoppers! I used to live next door to a Sri Lankan family and they used to take pity on my and invite me for dinner – these were my absolute favourite. Thanks for the heads-up. Perhaps we could have a barista champ planning meeting there?
I keep looking at the pics and drooling. Man,… I love curry. Have to try it out.
Wine and curry – go sweet, like an auslese riesling
Just had my first Jessie experience….IT’S SOOOOO GOOD!!
Agree – this place is AWESOME! Not only is it one of the very few places in Perth that you can get a proper roti paratha (i.e. flaky outside, fluffy inside, freshly made – not some dodgy frozen flat bread), but Jessie and Jeya are so friendly. It might have been months since my last visit, but they still remember me!
Good blog btw – nice to have someone doing the leg work of finding good places to eat in Perth ;)
went tonite with 3 others. a bit of a let down unfortunately, and I don’t mean the decor as I was amply warned. the food was just, well, very ordinary. have had better curry elsewhere in perth. perhaps it was a quiet “off” nite?
matt, i gave it a go!
Then you’ve done all you can Pei :)
I would rate Jessies samosa’s and roti as some of the best in Perth, and the curry has all been great each time I’ve been. The lamb curry and fish curry esp. Perhaps I didn’t adequately manage your expectations ?
Where would you say you’ve had better ?
I have been to Jessies Curry Kitchen only once and that will be the last as well. I bought a Nasi Goreng (it was called that in the menu) and that was the worst ever “Nasi Goreng” I have ever had in my entire life. Portion sizes are crap. We tried to eat this so called Nasi Goreng and couldn’t eat it so we had to cook some food at home for dinner. This place is absolute crap and I will not recommend anyone to go there unless you really want to get ripped-off. When you see the menu you might think the food is cheap, but that quality, you can buy anywhere for less than half the price or you can make a better meal at home.
Maybe you should change your name to food hater… You order one dish one time and make an opinion based on that ? Ridiculous. If you can buy all the ingredients and take the time to cook the meal for less than $10, then congratulations, maybe you should have stayed home to start with.
well Matt, you seem like a very loyal customer of Jessie or are you the owner of the shop acting like a customer. so u went to the extent of checking the price of Nasi Goreng and identifying what ingredients goes into that before writting this comment. either you are the owner of this shop or you have some side benefit from this food joint. mate, its true that i tried only one dish but that dish has to be what its supposed to be. if you cant produce a quality output for that price either you have to increase the price or you have to remove that item from your menu. you cant rip off people like this. first impression is what matters. after i tasted the so called “Nasi Goreng” or whatever that box of rice was, i think Jessie’s lost few customers. so the owner (if it’s not u) has to make sure they do the right thing or give up.
How about having a look at the rest of my blog and what I do before making comments that make you sound like even more of an idiot.
I don’t know what the exact price of the Nasi Goreng is, but I know it’s cheap… and if you had bothered to make your complaints to them at the time, rather than running online to whinge, you’d have found them to be understanding and open.
The reason I defend Jessie’s is because I love the place. I’ve been many times and had pretty much everything on the menu and I think it’s all great value. Fortunately so do a great number of other loyal followers and people who aren’t quite so close minded as you.
Perhaps, in the guise of being constructive, you’d like to share your ideal Nasi Goreng recipe and where you’ve had a great one ?
Ok food_lover99, before we turn Matt’s blog into an online archive of your stupidity, how about you address one of the statements you’ve made?
food_lover99 says – “When you see the menu you might think the food is cheap, but that quality, you can buy anywhere for less than half the price or you can make a better meal at home.”
Anywhere for half the price? Really? Please name some places as I’d be happy to try them out. Also, I look forward to your recipe (including all costs) for your ‘better meal at home’.
I was there last Saturday night along with my partner and two friends, plus their 2 year old. The bill came to $73 and we certainly didn’t go hungry. Now, using your logic, we could have gone anywhere and fed 4 adults (plus a kid) for $36.50. Again, please name these places.
By the way, Chicken Treat doesn’t count.
looking at the day and time of comments, you people seem to be visiting the blog more often than Jessie’s kitchen. my very first comment was at 7.33 pm on January 29th and Matt responded at 8.13 pm on the same day (in 40mins.) my second comment (feb 5th at 8.02am) was answered by Matt at 9.13 a.m the same day (this time one hour and 11 mins) and Brad same day 10.36 am (2 hours and 34 mins). seems like you people are jobless. gusy i’ve got more important things to do than answering your stupid questions. Brad u are such a stupid a** to think its actually half price (73/2 = 36.50 sooo funny)when i say half price. wise people use these type of comments in their conversations. dont take them as true to the last decimal place. i think its time to give up cos its easier to argue with 100 wise men than 1 stupid a** like u. enjoy Jessie’s tastelss currys.
Thanks, we will.
You enjoy your Patak’s.