June 7, 2016 by The Chef, his Wife and their PERTH-fect life

Hey Griller – Vic Park

A new restaurant has hit the Albany Highway strip in Vic Park. Hey Griller serves up some tasty and interesting Asian fusion food.

I headed along to a bloggers dinner at Hey Griller last month. I am always keen to try a new spot and till I received an invite from Hey Griller, I hadn’t heard of them. I don’t visit Vic Park very often and they’d completely flown under my radar. We were treated to an epic three course dinner, share plates for entrée, then my choice of main and dessert. There was so. much. food. Here’s my best dish picks from the night…

It was difficult to choose which share plates to try, many of them sounded absolutely mouth watering! We ordered tasty chicken wings, pork skewers, prawn toast, pork belly mini wraps, grilled squid and chicken karima – a crisp pastry which looked like a toasted sandwich.

For me, the pork skewers, $14, were the stand out of the entrees. The morsels of meat were so tender, nicely seasoned and came with a big cumin flavour hit!

I also loved the grilled squid, $9.50, served smothered in an Asian plum sauce. The delicate squid melted in my mouth.

For main, I was really temped by Hey Griller’s signature flaming steaks. On the menu they are described as being served medium well to well done, which I have to admit put me off ordering it. I’m a medium-rare kinda gal. Instead, I opted for the Salmon, $26. It was a perfectly cooked piece of salmon, on top of sautéed veg and cauliflower puree, finished with a sprinkling of pistachios.

Next to me, Vanessa from Perth Foodie Girls did choose a flaming wagyu tenderloin, $39. I did get rather a lot of food envy when the flaming tenderloin, arrived. Straight away I could see by the pink meat it was not cooked well done, or even medium. The waitress poured the “HG house made flaming sauce” over the sliced tenderloin and whoosh – it was a flaming steak! I loved the theatre of it.

I was getting very full, but also interested to see what Hey Grillers twist on dessert would be. I devoured the simply stunning chocolate and hazelnut fudge, $12, which was hands down the best dessert of the night! Served in a fairly unassuming cup was a layer of ooey gooey melted marshmallow, when I dug a little deeper I found a rich chocolate and hazelnut fudge and a layer of cake in the base. It was a decadent dessert and worth every calorie!

Hey Griller is a great little venue and not knowing what to expect, I was impressed with the food. The staff were friendly and helpful. Though I didn’t pay for my meal, I did take note that the prices are reasonable too. Thanks to Owner Hans and his team for a terrific meal.

April 21, 2015 by The Chef, his Wife and their PERTH-fect life

Bravo’s – Vic Park

When I was fresh out of high school, my buddies and I would go out to dinner on the Vic Park café strip – usually at Bella Rosa, Christina’s, Sebastian’s or any other cheap n cheerful Italian restaurant we could find. In the 15 years since, I’ve graduated from that kind of Italian and without wanting to sound like a total food snob *cringe* I do want more from my restaurants these days. For me, Bravo’s ticks all the boxes. An inviting, modern dining room. Friendly service – our waiter was a hoot and very helpful. And food that’s about QUALITY over quantity.

On this night, my old high school mates were getting together for a girls dinner – most of us enjoying a quiet night out away from our kids (and partners!). Bravo’s is a busy restaurant and hugely popular, so it has a very lively and loud atmosphere. Hearing someone at the other end of the table was difficult.

We decided to bypass filling entrées and go straight to mains…

Myl enjoyed a Pescatora Plate ($42.50). The whopping plate was brimming with tender salt and pepper calamari, grilled barramundi, sizzling garlic prawns, bread and a side salad. It was expensive, but Myl justified the extra cost, as she’s no longer drinking wine, since she has a baby on the way 🙂 🙂

I absolutely adored my pork belly dish ($38.50) The confit pork belly was so tender I hardly even needed a knife. The spinach was fresh and the mash potato wonderfully creamy. It was finished with a maple butter, apple and my favourite – perfectly crispy crackling! Fab dish.

Ren had the Fettuchine marinara ($29.50). She enjoyed the dish – commenting there was a BIG kick of chilli and the napoletana sauce was really tasty. There could have been a bit more of the locally sourced seafood in the dish though.

Alysia had the BBQ pollo pizza ($25.50). It was topped with chicken, bacon, mushroom, red onion, mozzarella and bbq sauce and smelled very tasty!

Sure some of the dishes might be on the pricy side, but when it’s good food, I don’t begrudge paying a little extra. I think there’s enough range on the menu to cover all budgets. The general consensus was that we all enjoyed our first trip to Bravo’s and that another girls dinner is on the cards soon.

*Bravo’s is also in the 2014/15 entertainment book*

January 22, 2015 by The Chef, his Wife and their PERTH-fect life

The Precinct – Vic Park

The Precinct has been on my “to eat at” list for far too long. You have to bear in mind that the list is in fact an excel spreadsheet – so it’s taking us quite some time to visit everywhere! I was lunching with the lovely Kez n Kim – who between them are Gluten Free, Dairy Free and both pregnant! I was lucky we came to a restaurant that is so friendly towards dietary requirements. They also cater well for vegetarians.

The laid back spot on Albany Highway is a casual café by day and by night it takes on more of a late night wine bar vibe. We sat towards the back, by the open kitchen, where many scrumptious smells were wafting out – making us very hungry indeed! Our waitress was friendly and helpful with the details of the dishes.

We sipped on freshly squeezed juices and a particularly good drop of homemade traditional lemonade, as we looked over the share food menu.

We started our lunch nibbling on a bowl of pork crackling (gf), $6.50. It’s hard to find anyone that’s not a little addicted to these salty morsels of porkiness. Soon to follow were the zucchini fritters (gf/v), $18. We relished dipping the crunchy fritters into the stripes of beetroot puree and minted yoghurt.

Next to the table was a big bowl of greens -broccoli, snow peas, kale, green beans (gf/v/vegan), $15. The veg was seasoned well and lightly cooked. Admittedly, It wasn’t my most favourite dish of the day – but I do like my veg and did feel super healthy for having well over my daily quota of chlorophyll!

The green pepper meatballs were delicious! Usually they are served medium rare, but for my preggo friends, the chefs were happy to make sure they were fully cooked. The plump meatballs sat upon a bed of a rich tomato sugo and a coriander salsa (gf), $18.

My favourite of all the share plates was the barramundi. It was cooked to perfection and served with snow peas, warm orange and cider vinaigrette (gf), $34.

To finish we had something sweet – the girls loved their dessert, though the menu has changed since our visit – so unfortunately I can’t tell you exactly what it is.

I had a peanut butter cheesecake, scattered with chocolate crackles and a berry sauce! Take it from me it was a tasty as it looks.

All in all we enjoyed The Precinct. The food was good and well presented. The service was spot on and we liked the vibe. Share food is always a winner for me and I have no doubt that I’ll be back – just when I get through a few more places on my list!

October 11, 2014 by The Chef, his Wife and their PERTH-fect life

Harvest Espresso – Vic Park

I have wanted to try Harvest Espresso for a long time. One thing or another has kept me away – it felt like I’d never get there. Finally though I did! I met K, one of my high school mates there. He’s a chef too, so I was interested to see what he thought of this super popular Vic Park cafe.

We found the little café next to the Vic Park Hotel. The teeny tiny room was very busy for a weekday lunch – though I doubt it could seat more than 30 covers. We were happy to wait a few minutes for a table and in no time we were seated in the window.

I looked over the menu, all the food seemed to fit into the all day brunch category – so it was right up my alley! I spied a great looking mushroom dish on the next table. I figured it must be good, as all six people on the table were eating it! We ordered at the counter.

I’m a bit partial to a chai latte. I picked an iced choc chai from the extensive coffee list. It was pretty dam good.

There was a warm atmosphere in the small café – the only thing I could fault was the constant tap, tap, tap of the chef’s knives chopping away in the kitchen. But given the size of the place, it couldn’t be helped. A plus to the kitchen only being meters away was that all the amazing cooking smalls wafted our way!

They say you eat with your eyes first, well things were looking very tasty indeed!! The plating for both dishes was pretty as a picture.

Chef K was very pleased with his choice of salt cod fritters ($22.50). They sat on a bed of fluffy scrambled eggs garnished with an apple witlof salad, nori, fennel, sour crème. And since it’s such an attractive dish, here’s another pic…

I chose the gourmet mixed mushrooms ($19.50). Two slow poached eggs oozed through the mushrooms sautéed in a tarragon sauce, crunchy croutons and pea shoots. Toasted rye was on the side – perfect for soaking up the delicious creamy sauce. The scrumptious dish was garnished with nasturtiums – edible flowers.