restaurant – Page 4 – Abstract Gourmet

First & Last Night at Il Pasto

A week or two ago, late on a Sunday night in Perth (about 8pm), Sharon and I were doing our usual trick of finding restaurants to be turned away from due to the kitchen being closed. Having not been turned away from many restaurants in Mt Hawthorn recently, we thought we’d try there for a change.

So cruising down to the end of the ubiquitously named Oxford St, we happened across a little pizza bar called Il Pasto. Finding out that yes indeed it was still open, we headed inside for a pizza, and possibly the strangest experience I’ve had in a restaurant for a while.

Arriving at the counter, we were slightly suprised to see the chef sitting out in the restaurant eating a pizza, while people were packing boxes around him. He quickly explained that this was actually the last night that Il Pasto was going to be in operation. They had recently sold the business to another operator, who was going to be opening up a Japanese restaurant at the site. He also explained that we were welcome to stay as long as we didn’t mind people packing boxes around us, and that there was only one pizza left. I took that to mean that there was only one type of pizza left, because they’d packed all the ingredients away…but soon realised it meant that there was literally one piece of pizza dough left from which it they could make us a pizza. So we literally had the last pizza ever in that restaurant.

So straight away the atmosphere was strange. Instead of customers we felt like we were friends who had somehow been roped into helping someone move. In part because they were so friendly. Carlo (the chef) and Sandra (his girlfriend) chatted away to us like we were old mates. We ordered a quattro with cacciatore sausage, sun dried tomatoes, mushroom, and artichoke, and bought a bottle of Pizzini Sangiovese, which was a steal at $20 (which is very likely cheaper than retail).

That was the other thing… everything was for sale… and cheap. The chairs, the tables, the book case, the olive oil, the wine, all of it. Carlo’s Dad was chatting to Sharon about how we was a bit sad the restaurant was closing… “but ahh these Japanesey” he said… “they makea good offer”. He was pottering around the store, packing things into boxes, at one point showing me into the store room to ask me if i’d like to buy any of the white wine or champagne in there.

So our pizza came, in amongst chatting, and we wandered around the shop picking things up, asking prices of this and that, drinking amazingly good and extremely cheap wine, and basically acting like we weren’t customers who had just walked off the street.

So in the end, we ended up getting the pizza, a salad, the wine, some extra virgin olive oil, some chilli infused olive oil, some truffle extract flavoured oil, and another 3 bottles of excellent wine (including a Montepulciano d’Abrusso). It was like a closing down sale meets restaurant in a Red Dot “everything must go!” extravaganza.

As for the food, it was nice. The pizza was tasty, the garden salad was as tasty as a garden salad can be, and the wine was phenominal. It’s only a shame that the first time we managed to get to the place, it just happened to be the very night it was closing down for good.

Still, I gave Carlo my email and said to be sure to let me know if he starts another restaurant up in the future, because if they can make people feel so welcome when they are in the middle of closing for good, then I would love to see them at the height of service. That kind of genuine friendly attitude and love of food is something that you just can’t buy, and you can’t fake, so hopefully Perth hasn’t seen the last of these guys yet.

Il Pasto *was* located at:
401 Oxford St,
Mount Hawthorn
http://ilpasto.com.au

Cafe Banca

I make perhaps the worst restaurant reviewer in history. That is unless anyone wants to read a bunch of reviews about which restaurants are the best places to go to on a complete whim shortly before they close and still hope to get a decent meal.

It was a Thursday night, we’d been out shopping, leaving it too late as we always do, by the time the shopping was done (read: I got hungry and cranky), it was around 9pm. Now to most of you reading this post from the Eastern States or overseas, this might not be such a problem. If you’re in Perth however, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that the situation was dire. On a Thursday night, at 9pm, you’ve got a slim chance of finding anywhere to eat that isn’t a) Closed b) About to close c) McDonalds, or d) Primarily inhabited by drug addicts.

So it was a lovely surprise when we wandered into Cafe Banca at 9:15pm, and (after a quick consultation with the kitchen) were given a seat. Noted, we did have to order within 5 minutes, and asked to only order certain things because most of the stuff had been put away already… but we were so overjoyed at getting to eat at all it didn’t seem to matter.

Cafe Banca is a well appointed restaurant on Wanneroo Rd in Tuart Hill. It could be my local if I was one of those people who have locals, but I’m not, so it isn’t. It’s almost a little too funky for the spot that it’s in, which has lead me to question just how well they do there, but from the looks on the faces of the diners that were there (not being the kind of people who leave it too late to go out for dinner) it’s doing just fine.

We were initially seated next to the kitchen, but then moved to a comfy booth in the middle of the restaurant, one of the few booths i’ve been in that are actually comfortable and practical (I’m a big booth fan, but not when it means you’re sliding off the seat and have trouble reaching the plate because you’re slouched backwards in a highly trendy but utterly impractical way).

So, not wanting to overstep the mark of the already lovely service and hospitality we were shown, I promptly ordered the black and white prawn linguini, and Sharon picked the lamb shanks with mash potato, which I immediately wished I had ordered for myself. We also decided on a bottle of cheap wine to wash it all down, $15 for a bottle of Murphy’s Lore Shiraz Cabernet, crazy cheap, and a nice quaffing wine.

The meals arrived fast… a little too fast, but not surprisingly fast, if that makes any sense. By the time we got in and had ordered, the rest of the people in the place were ordering coffees or finishing off what was left in their glasses of wine before slinking back off into the night to their beds (like all good Perthites should). So there was nary an order coming into the kitchen except ours.

My meal was great, prawns were tasty and fresh, and the linguini had a chilli through it that gave it a nice kick. Sharon’s lamb shanks were so tender they fell of the bones before she could get to it herself (which I’m hoping was because they’d been slow cooked all day up until that point). The wine flowed freely and went down easily, to the point where we suitably rosey by the end.

At the end the owner was there to ask our how the meal was and generally made us feel like he was really happy we had decided to stop by, which was great. So you never know, it may just end up becoming my local after all.

Cafe Banca
75 Wanneroo Road, Tuart Hill
Phone: 9344 7007
http://www.bancacafe.com.au/

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Wagamama – Positive Eating ?

See how I put the question mark at the end of title… ? That’s called setting the tone.

I don’t really want to spend a lot of time talking about Wagamama, and I think in future I’ll be spending even less time in their restaurants. It was plainly one of the most dismal experiences I have had in a long time.

Now granted I have an issue with chain restaurants and franchises to begin with. I personally think they degrade the entire nature of hospitality, and do not allow for any kind of individuality or creativity. My concept of restaurant perfection is a place that has the freedom to do what they want with the local produce they can source, who have a commitment to quality service and a genuine love of making excellent food. The idea that you can wrap all of that up into a little ball and slap one down wherever you want and have it work, just doesn’t sit well with me.

So Sharon and I headed into Wagamama last Tuesday evening, more because we heard it had opened and wanted to know what all the fuss was about than anything else. We probably should have gone in when the hype was still going on in February when it first opened…. but I’m slow like that.

First off I ordered the duck gyoza. It was dry and crusty, and what was inside could barely be distinguished as duck after dipping it in the hoisin sauce, which completely obliterated any flavour by enveloping it in an overpowering salty tang. Not good.

Sharon ordered the Chilli Beed Ramen… in her opinion, the beef was tough and the soup tasted like chilli flavoured water. Bland and disappointing for a place that compares itself to traditional establishments that have such pride in their food.

The final straw was my teryaki steak soba. A “favourite” according to the menu. It was $17, and whilst mildly tasty, took about 3 minutes in total for me to consume, even though I was consciously pacing myself to try and not finish too soon before Sharon, who was struggling to get through the ramen.

Add to that the fact that it the wine list was a joke (the best wine on their was a Stony Peak Shiraz Cabernet that I have had the pleasure of sampling at many a cheapskate companies “social” function. In a word, nasty), and the water I requested came in a bottle I was charged for without telling me so.

I seriously think it took longer for us to get out of the place, than it did to eat our meal. We were waiting for about 15 minutes while the assorted waiters/waitresses ran around with confused looks on their faces trying to process one groups bill. I was then escorted out to back to another cash register tucked into the hall way between the kitchen and the dining room, surrounded by bins, boxes, and other assorted crap.

So all in all, an unenjoyable experience. For me, Wagamama is what a place would look like if Richard Branson decided to go into the restaurant business. Lots of funky looking people and funky looking menu’s and amicable sounding values about keeping it real and bring you value, and absolutely bugger all content.

Sorry for straying away from my normal style of posting only positive sounding reviews, but really… places like this just get to me… If you like the place, good for you, I guess some people will have better experiences than I did, but if you’re looking for value for money and quality food, this is not the place to go.

Over and out.

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Italy Home Made

At a recent Perth blogger meetup I ran into Kay, who raved in a nonchalant but cooly excited way about Italy Home Made, a little pasta bar on Charles St in North Perth.

I know the place pretty well, although in its former incantation… Poppies. Poppies is a cute little cafe tucked into a small group of shops, along Charles St in North Perth, a few streets before you get to Scarborough Beach Rd. We used to duck in there for late breakfasts and early lunches on the way back from the city on a Sunday afternoon or morning, and always managed to find a decent coffee and tasty meal.

Well Poppies is still there, but they have now extended the shop out to twice the size, and turned one half of the place into “Italy Home Made”. Basically a DIY pasta bar whose main angle is that all the pasta is made fresh on the premises daily.

So one afternoon last week I happened to be driving by and thought… I must just try this new place that Kay was raving about. Never one to turn down a good recommendation (until the day someone recommended Fasta Pasta to me that is), I decided to head in and check it out again.

So basically you choose the size of the pasta you want. Small, Medium, Large, Jumbo

The you choose the type of pasta you want. Fusili, Linguini, Fettucini, Spaghetti, etc

Then you choose what you want to have on it. I chose Atlantic, which was a creamy sauce mixed with smoked salmon and capers.

Then the dude goes away and collects all the bits he needs, drops the pasta into some water and puts the sauce and toppings into a pan, and then combines it together. Toasts some little bread rolls for you and puts some grated parmesan into a little cup.

It was pretty quiet when I went in, and I had my meal (which was a large, and there was a lot in there) in around 10 minutes, which is pretty good for food of that quality. The pasta was nice, the sauces complimented well, and the fillings were very tasty.

I’d still like to know who decided that smoked salmon and capers were the perfect combination for each other though. I’m imagining some big conference where all the foods get together and have some kind of speed dating face off to work out who should is right for one another… Salt and Pepper clearly hit it off, Olive oil and balsamic vinegar were drawn together by their differences, and poor little Anchovy sat alone in the corner, in a pile of his own salty tears.

But I digress…

Italy Home Made is a great cafe with top food that will serve you well for a quick lunch, easy dinner (they are open in the evenings til quite late and are BYO wine with no corkage), or “I can’t be stuffed cooking but don’t want some crappy fried chicken type meal” takeaway solution. Check em out.

Italy Home Made
Shop 1 & 2, 299 Charles St
North Perth
(08) 9328 6350

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Must Wine Bar

Saturday night in the big city of Perth. What to do, what to do…

Sharon and I had decided it was time to head out and do something for once, rather than sitting at home in the safe little bubble that is my world of supposedly gourmet cooking. The interesting thing about running a food blog, is that when you want to look for a place to go and eat, you invariablely get sent back to your own website for more information. At which point you also get a chance to go over just how funny you were the first time you wrote whatever you happened to write (or possibly cringe at how lame you sounded).

So after a little checking and a few phone calls, it was decided. Must Wine Bar. Home of one of Perth’s best wine lists, some of the trendiest waiters in town, and some very tasty food to go with it.

I’ve been to Must many times before, although mainly to drink. It was the scene of a rather boistrous birthday party a couple of years ago where I think I over stayed my welcome after shattering 3 wine glasses. Good times.

Must is a funky place. It’s in Mt Lawley, which makes it funky by default…but it doesn’t rest on its funky laurels… It steps its game up big time. The place is always full of young sexy people (and old sexy people, and a few people who are neither young nor sexy, but who dress well enough to get past the bouncer).

We rolled in at around 9pm, only to be told by the funky host waiter that the place was fully booked, and they wouldn’t be able to seat us. Having a quick look into the restaurant part, I could tell that was blatantly false, and I was also quite happy to have a wine or two at the bar while waiting for a table, so I says to him… i says (in a cockney accent) “Can you go and check if there are any tables coming free soon…”. So he wanders off down the back and has a look around, has a quiet word in the ear of a few of the other funky waiters, and then comes back and tells me… “Well, maybe we can fit you in if you can be out by 10:15pm”. Now some people would be terribly put off by such time limits… Not me… I like a challenge. Firstly it means I’m going to get fast service, and it also means I can test my speed eating skills out… in case the world of competitive eating ever comes knocking on my door.

So we are seated, get some menus, and quickly get down to choosing the wine and mains we’re going to have. Making sure that we are ready in time so as not to cause them any strife due to double booking. 15 minutes later however, with all of our decisions made… no sign of any waiters. No-one hovering over us tentatively, waiting to rush off to the kitchen post haste with our express post delivery. What’s more strange is that now the restaurant is half empty, and looks extremely unlikely to fill back up to capacity. So why the waiter felt the need to tell us there was no room in the first place is a mystery to me… but whatever… we were in.

I ordered the Beef Cheek Ravioli in a Wild Mushroom Jus, and Sharon ordered the Steak and Chips (it wasn’t called steak and chips on the menu, but I forget it’s fancy name… and it was basically steak and chips anyway). I also ordered some minted beans as a side, and a bottle of Prunotto 2003 Barbera D’Alba (which was a delicious big fruity well rounded red wine).

The meals came out soon enough and I have to say mine was delicious. The beef cheek ravioli was melt in your mouth texture, and the wild mushroom sauce over it was a great earthy compliment. The Barbera went really well with this too. Sharon’s steak dish was less exciting. It came with the option of either bernaise or poivrade sauce, she chose poivrade, which was tangy, but not particularly nice. The steak itself was well cooked, but really, it was just a steak, some frites, and a small bowl of the sauce. Not exactly worth the $30+ dollars.

Then on to dessert and I chose a sticky fig pudding with vanilla bean ice cream, while Sharon had a chocolate tart with orange ice cream (?) I think. mine was really nice, and Sharon’s not so nice. The orange infusion ice cream didn’t really work for me, and the rest of the dessert was kind of mediocre. Perhaps we’re just more easily pleased with the traditional sweet styles of dessert.

By this time we were done. The bottle of wine was fully polished off and the offer of Vittoria coffee (shudder) politely turned down.

There are a lot of things to like about Must, but it’s not for everyone. It’s reasonably expensive. Most mains are in the $25 – $35 range, and with side dishes, dessert, and wine, it adds up to quite a substantial bill, which is perhaps belied by the fact that it’s essentially attached to a bar. It’s also quite loud due to the bar section right next to the restaurant section, and if you aren’t into being surrounded by lots of trendy people dressed up for a night out, then it might not be your kind of place.

I personally love the atmosphere and the food, and the wine list makes me salivate every time I look over it. The waiters (when they aren’t turning people away from a half full dining room), are very knowledgeable about the wines and will provide you with a sommelier service if you ask for suggestions. The food in most cases is excellent, but I’d choose your meal carefully so as not to be disappointed by something that sounds fancier than it actually is.

It was great for us though… a chance to get out and do some people watching, and also add a couple of new dishes to my “I think i could make this better at home” list… which is growing just as fast as my ego is :)

All in all though a great night, and we will no doubt be back many times in the future.

Must Winebar
519 Beaufort Street
Highgate
Tel: (08) 9328 8255
Fax: (08) 9328 8355
Email: must@iinet.net.au

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Sandcastle Organic

A lazy Sunday afternoon in Perth. They’re all lazy afternoons when I’m involved. I have a natural aversion to waking up before noon on the weekend, and today was no different. Wandering around the house in a barely awake haze, I was too lazy to even eat breakfast or (shock horror) make coffee.

So after a mild case of cabin fever, the eventual decision came… Let go out. Where ? Fremantle !

Now I don’t like to regionalist when it cames to where I eat. A lot of people in Perth get caught up in the whole North of the River vs South of the River thing… Not to mention the Western Suburbs vs Hills people. Personally I really don’t care where I am as long as the food is good and the weather is nice. Having said that however, I live a good 45 minutes drive from Fremantle (home of many a good restaurant and an occasionally decent football team), so it’s not like I pop down every day.

Sundays, therefore, are the day to conquer the distance and let the tastebuds soak up the quasi meditteranean vibes that Fremantle always seems to have on offer.

Restaurant of choice today was Sandcastle Organic on South Terrace in South Fremantle. I’d been told good things about the organic beef there and they were also given a write up in the most recent edition of Spice Magazine. I have to admit, I’m sometimes skeptical of organic food. Not because I don’t think it’s legitimate, or inherently good, but mainly because I see the term “organic” as a catch phrase bandied around by marketers with flagrant disregard for what it actually means. Most accurately illustrated by a type of “organic” flavoured yoghurt I was recently asked to try. In the end it’s my stomach (and initially tastebuds) that make up my mind about a place, and so it was with that in mind that we decided to go.

So after finally getting ready and making it down there it was 3pm, and we were the only people in the place. Lucky for us the kitchen was still open and we had our pick of the tables. We chose alfresco. The warm autumn sun is just about all my complexion can handle… So I make the effort when I can.

After not having breakfast and it now being the late afternoon, we were pretty hungry. Sharon got a curry puff and I ordered some bread and olive oil. I think i subconsciously judge a place by the quality of it’s olive oil. Luckily they use some very nice organic stuff that was quite peppery and managed to hold its own against the balsamic vinegar.

On to the mains. I couldn’t go past the centre cut fillet of beef on oak smoked mushrooms… The decision was made and a glass of Grenache Shiraz Cabernet to go with it. The beef was excellent, although sadly, not cooked the way I asked. I asked for medium rare and it came out a most definite medium. Still tender, but scarcely pink as far as my eyes could tell in the glaring 4pm autumn sunlight. It was already late enough though, and it was still very edible, so I waived the offer to recook it, and instead was offered my drinks for free… a lovely compromise.

Sharon ordered the smoked tofu and roast tomato en croute (on cru), with cumin potatoes, which was also particularly tasty.

Overall the food was great. Rich earthy flavours and complimenting textures from each dish we tried. Definitely a place to try if you’re looking for a healthy change or a tasty distraction from the sterile masses. The owners are very friendly people too, good service is always a delight.

Sand Castle Organic
11/396 South Terrace
South Fremantle
(08) 9335 2445

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Hippo Creek African Grill

Lions Kill @ Hippo Creek

This is a semi review, mostly rambling, dramatic re-enactment of a visit I took to Hippo Creek Restaurant in Scarborough quite a while ago. It was previously on another blog that has since ceased to exist, and so it now gets rebirthed into a hopefully more appropriate environment.

Hippo Creek is an African themed restaurant on West Coast Hwy in Scarborough, that is run by some South African people. They have some really interesting meat on the menu, like Ostrich, Buffalo, Crocodile and a whole range of other african inspired dishes, and apparently some of the best steak in town. So being a self confessed meat lover and part time carnivore, I had to check it out.

So Dtm, Mabes, Sharon and I headed down there to see what we could see…

Once we got there I happened to find out that there was a 1Kg T-Bone steak on the menu, and that if I finished it all I would get my photo taken and put on the wall. This is the first restaurant I’d been to where they do that kind of thing (which I thought was normally reserved for Texan Steakhouses with an over supply of beef and no space in the freezer). My competitive instincts kick in, as never one to pass up the chance to show how manly I am by eating large quantities of flesh, I thought… why the hell not…

While ordering the 1kg T-bone, you are strongly advised to order it medium rare, or rare… If you want to be eating it that night. I have no idea how long it would take to cook something that size to well done, but it would be just wrong anyway. I chose medium rare.

In the meantime, Dtm and Sharon ordered this crazy dish called the Hunters Assaghai. Which was basically a huge metal stake with five (count em) fist sized chunks of meat stuck to it suspended over a plate of chips with garlic sauce dripping down it. This was definitely shaping up to be my kind of restaurant.

So the steak arrived and took up basically the entire plate, and was about 2-3 inches thick… It was served with chips that were tasty but uninspired, and salad that didn’t exactly rock my world either. Basically this restaurant is all about the meat. If you don’t like meat, then don’t bother going, because you’re really not going to get your moneys worth. My steak was huge… and I tore into it with all the fervency of a malnourished grisly bear who got left behind at hibernation. Unfortunately however… it wasn’t really a challenge worthy of my ability, and i flew through it… and managed to get through a bit of Sharon’s as well… I also made sure I ate all of my chips and the salad, because I didn’t want to miss out on getting my photo taken on a technicality.

The steak was good. On the outside it was perfectly medium rare, although when i got right into the middle it was very much on the rare side. People who order their steak well done might also be best to avoid this place, it’s not exactly designed for people who get squeemish at the first sign of pinkness.

All in all it was a good night, and although feeling massively bloated, we left feeling very satisfied… I left a “There’s nothing finer than being in your diner…” Seinfeld reference on my photo, which hopefully stay there for a while to come :)

I’ve been back a couple of times since, and it has always been a great night. Definitely one to check out. Take a bottle of big red wine (like a Cab Sav, or a spicy Shiraz), and you’ll be set for a carnivorous experience few restaurants in Perth can rival.

Hippo Creek
251 West Coast Highway
Scarborough, 6019
Tel: (08) 9245 8004

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