Chronicles

This week. Do stuff with your mum.

Love just-plucked-from-the-earth produce but can’t be bothered getting your hands dirty? We have the restaurant for you. Co-Op serves 100 per cent gathered and foraged local produce, prepared in-house as innovative degustation menus. Dinner at Co-Op Dining doesn’t come cheap. But once you come to terms with the fact that the prices are a reflection of the time and care spent collecting and preparing the best-of-the-west ingredients, you can appreciate what Co-Op is all about: delicious, local food that Western Australians can call their own.

Jonathan Holloway is artistic Director at the Perth International Arts Festival, so it goes without say that he’s a little bit quirky. We asked him what his top five hidden bars were, and he decided to respond in imperfect haikus, as one does. Jonathan has been to hidden bars all over the world, and says that Perth has some of the best. But why the haikus? “Partly to maintain an air of mystery - an adult treasure-hunt if you will.” Without further ado, here are Jonathan’s top five hidden bars, in haiku.

Perth has gone loco for all things Mexican. And we’ve gone a little loco for Mexican films. From 15-21 November, Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge will be screening the Hola Mexico Film Festival.Director Itzel Rosas – who moved to Perth from Mexico City gives us the low down on where to find this city’s most authentic Mexican food. There’s more to Mexico than chimichangas and Corona.

You always knew fusion food could be good. But it can be hard to find fusion food that’s not a heap of confusion. Well we have news for you. On trend Japanese fusion, minus fine dining prices yet oozing with style? Why, welcome to Vic Park’s newest izakaya, Kuza.

The tiny black and white tiles that line Bistro Guillaume’s entrance give hint to what is waiting inside. Within, the restaurant’s fit out, from the green wishbone chairs to the uber-stylish antler chandeliers is absolutely gorgeous. No detail in the decor has been left unturned and if a meal is meant to be an escape, Bistro Guillaume has done it. It’s a bistro that, at least for a meal, is as good as a ticket to Paris. Even the waiters have French accents!

A three to four cups a day coffee drinker, Sarah Hembrow is indeed a coffee lover. With all that caffeine fuelled energy it makes sense she is the restaurant manager at the relatively new Il Pasto, where you’ll find her buzzing around the floor most nights.

We’re pretty sure we’ve found the city’s best Vietnamese restaurant and – best of all – the furniture is large enough to accommodate anyone whose booty is larger than a toddler’s. Hallelujah!

Miss Egg and Miss L are the engineering duo behind one of Perth’s most popular food blogs the Perth Food Engineers. The blog is all about sharing dining experiences and discovering hidden places with fantastic food. So you've got a hot date coming up? Don't fret Miss Egg has given us her top five places to go.

Fashion designer turned queen of sourdough; Yoke Mardewi’s eclectic life led her back to her first love, baking with sourdough. Through word of mouth, she started teaching sourdough classes in her home kitchen. Since then Yoke has published two cookbooks, regularly travels interstate to teach and has added more and more lessons to Wild Sourdough’s schedule. Besides pastry, flatbread and doughnut classes, she’s now teaching gluten free wholegrain and sourdough Thermomix classes. When she’s not imparting sourdough wisdom, what Yoke loves best of all is to eat well.

Chef Guillaume Brahimi's second Bistro Guillaume opened a couple of weeks ago at the rebadged Crown Perth. Bright and airy within, the bistro’s menu is inspired by the neighbourhood eateries of Paris. Linger over a dinner of mussel Marinieres, duck confit or dive into a wagyu rib eye for two, finished off with a chocolate soufflé. Get booking.

Attention Perth collectors and hipsters. Head to the Go Go Retro vintage fair at the State Theatre. Ultra rare collectables, retro furniture, and numerous vinyl dealers. Need we say more? It's going to be 27 and sunny this Sunday. So after you've had your vintage and vinyl fix we suggest you head on down to Clarences for a little cider session. A pint of Westons Stowford Press cider will set you back $6 plus there's a bunch of local and imported cider specials. No better way to spend a Sunday.

The Tenth State opened this week. It's a high-quality gift and coffee shop of awesomeness. Pop in for a delicious coffee and cupcake then browse the cool gifts and nicknacks from jewellery to tea-towels to leather wallets and antique teacups. We heart it.

Picking up where the iconic Leederville cafe Oxford 130 left off, is newbie Foam Coffee Bar. But while the former café was shabby and run down, owner Nicholas Bond has given the café a sleek new look with a Scandinavian feel. Think pastel walls, deer head mounts (don’t worry, Hank the buck is ceramic) and blonde wood detailing on the light fixtures, cabinets and furniture. Hooray for progress.

Something new – Have you visited the Fremantle Markets lately? You should. Even if just to visit Honey Strings. Watch as the stall boys demonstrate this Korean candy by taking a single hunk of honey and within a minute stretching it out into 16,000 miniscule strings, which are then cut and rolled with peanuts or almonds. As entertaining as it is delicious.

The Kiosk is to The Rise in Maylands what Monogram Caffe is to The Grove in Cottesloe: a gorgeous little café tucked inside a community rec centre. Both are in unlikely locations. Both are absolutely delicious. But while Monogram is a place to sit for hours with a coffee and a good book, The Kiosk is a place to eat – and eat well. We’re sorry to say that your book will go ignored.

It's the end of the working week, head out of town. It doesn’t have to be far. Somewhere in the Perth hills where food or drink is involved, is the perfect escape if only for a few hours. Somewhere like Core Cider.

We have booked an early sitting at Claremont hot-spot Beluga and it’s quiet in the main dining room, so our party-of-six are ushered to a booth in a cozy alcove at the back. However the restaurant fills up fast with well-heeled and hungry patrons as we peruse the wine list and nibble on pre-seasoned New Norcia Flat Bread with Olive Oil, Garlic, Rosemary and Salt and marinated Regan’s Ridge Olives.

New: Angry Moose has got all its bases covered. The BYO burger bar’s menu includes burgers of mainstream proteins (no moose, but there are two vegetarian choices), a daily snack plate, and even ‘The Kitchen Sink’ for man-sized appetites. Old: A trip to Corica means one thing - apple strudel. Layers of crisp pastry with clouds of cream and stewed apples, these strudels are so famously good they’re often flown out of the country as gifts. Do & See: It’s back for 2012 and this time it’s bigger and better than ever. The Beaufort Street Festival now has over 100 stalls and a micro food and wine festival to boot. Plus: You know summer’s almost here when the smell of hawker fare wafts through the heart of the city. Small bites of Indonesian satay, Columbian empanadas, Turkish gozleme, Spanish pintxos and Moroccan tagine await you at tonight’s first Twilight Hawker Markets for the season. You know summer’s almost here when the smell of hawker fare wafts through the heart of the city. Small bites of Indonesian satay, Columbian empanadas, Turkish gozleme, Spanish pintxos and Moroccan tagine await you at tonight’s first Twilight Hawker Markets for the season. Out of Town: Avenue Q is a sassy puppet musical about Princeton, a wide eyed college graduate who moves to New York into an apartment on Avenue Q. Rude, funny and full of adult themes, including puppets ‘doing it’, you’ll be guaranteed a laugh at this coming of age story.

If you’ve been to Europe, you probably ate everything in sight. Then you spent the whole flight home cursing your new ‘souvenir’ muffin-tops. Well we've discovered a way to visit Italy without busting the seam in your jeans. L’Enoteca is a new Italian restaurant in Victoria Park oozing authenticity. Just repeat after us: ‘I will not eat there every day. I will not eat there every day. I will not eat there every day.’ Good.

In Italy, the alimentari are more than just delis, they’re sanctuaries: cool places to escape the heat, stock up on quality produce, enjoy some friendly conversation and – most importantly – find a solution to the frequent what-the-hell-do-I-make-for-dinner conundrum.

Charlie’s is simply one of those places that are known from word of mouth. (Good thing you have us to tell you.) A one stop shop for continental goods, the main attraction at Charlie’s is the 30 metre long deli counter, every speck of it filled with delicious continental foods.

Move over, Momofuku Ko, Mossie Park’s new shoebox-sized Japanese restaurant has not only borrowed your booking system, it’s also striving to be your west coast equivalent.

With what seems like a new bar or restaurant popping up Perth on a weekly basis, Perth’s dining and drinking scene has become a lot more interesting of late. But newbies like the Mechanics Institute, Print Hall and Lalla Rookh are offering more than just novelty – we reckon that the increased competition in the market has had another welcome result: better service. Hey, finally!

Yes you read right, there’s a coffee roastery in Northbridge! Ristretto’s finally migrated north of the Horseshoe Bridge, bunking down, coffee roaster, beans, espresso machine and all, in a nook off Aberdeen Street, opposite Central TAFE.

The Merrywell, the newest addition to Crown Perth oozes masculinity. Raw concrete, dark wood and the beer garden are a bit posh but practical enough to call it a pub. Decor aside, it’s the menu that will have every man (and woman) rushing in. People, forget Mexican food - the next food craze in Perth is dude food.

Recalling the experience of any Nobu restaurant worldwide seems to be a trending topic at dinner parties, and the verdict is consistently impressive. So when I make a reservation at this year’s Perth addition to the Nobu family, I prepare my unrealistically high expectations to be quashed.

If you see a queue on Pier Street, follow suit and line up. It’s to get into Took Be Gi, a hole in the wall that’s serves some of Perth’s best Korean food. Every meal comes with banchan, a traditional set of side dishes. These vary seasonally and can include braised lotus root or bean sprouts doused in sesame oil. However, you can always bet there’s kimchi on the table. Every week, Took Be Gi ferments one hundred chinese cabbages into kimchi that’s sharp, a little bit spicy but great for beginners.

The fact that our visit to Tenth State was in the middle of a hailstorm made the contrast between outside and in especially striking. Crawley’s newest gift-cum-coffee shop was like a warm, cosy den… but after a look around, we’re pretty convinced it’s like that in any weather.

As Bobby von Baker puts it, he's “an early-twenties artist/loser” who still lives at home with his mother in Perth. He likes to cook food for people, from home kitchens in Ireland to tiny nooks in Perth. His Basic Needs pop up at The Bird (finishing tomorrow night!) has been a massive hit and he plans on taking it around Australia and Europe in 2013. Bobby give us his top places in Perth that your mum forgot to tell you about.

We’ve found a reason to give the Swan Valley a second look: cheese. Or rather, a “cheese café”, and the very first one in the Swan Valley. Sitting on the grounds Olive Farm Wines (established in 1829), and overlooking the Susanna Brook is the Cheese Barrel, a place to happily wile away a Sunday afternoon and ignore the approach of Monday.

Imagine a specialty biscuit maker whose repertoire doesn’t include a single chocolate chip cookie. Lisa Walsh, Perth local and owner of Cookie Dough Biscuits is all about doing things differently.

At the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder there’s a slice of Hong Kong hidden away. Yes, it’s an odd location for a Chinese restaurant but finding Canton Bay is part of the fun. A luxe, intimate restaurant lies within and best of all, serves top notch Cantonese fare. The menu has both familiar favourites and (if you dare) interesting specialties. Slip into a dark wooden booth, prepare yourself for great service and try these top three dishes.

For anyone who has ever stared blankly inside a packed fridge and felt totally uninspired. For anyone who spends weeknights shuffling zombie-like through the aisles of the supermarket convinced there’s seriously nothing to make for dinner. For anyone who’d rather watch invention tests than feel like they’re competing in one…. Your nightly agony is over. And it’s all thanks to an ingenious new Perth venture called Dinner Twist.

The bustling atmosphere and noise practically knock you over when you enter New Moon. But chaos, overflowing tables and sloshing tea pots are exactly what you want to see at a dim sum restaurant.

New: Co-op Dining opens tonight from the guys who brought you the Swan Valley Dear Friends restaurant. It's focused on foraged, organic and locally sourced food. Oldie: Rochelle Adonis Cakes & Confections should be on your must visit list.Whether for the almost legendary high teas, dessert degustation or cooking classes, Rochelle Adonis is a sweet tooth’s heaven. To Do: Halloween is not quite over in Northbridge, as Carnival Macabre continues into this weekend with spooky (and free!) events. Out of Town: Geographe Crush 2012 is on in Bunbury this Sunday and it's your ticket to taste wines from over 40 different vendors from the Geographe region.

Ok, it may be much smaller and less scenic than its older sibling on Trigg Beach, but the new Yelo Kitchen on Oxford Street has other things going for it: proximity to the city, great homemade food and a blessed respite from the sea of white wedding dresses that its neighbours' shop windows are stuffed full of. Head there early to nab one of the eight seats.

Fans of Emma’s in Victoria Park will be glad to know a second outpost has opened in Northbridge. Cafe Delight offers pretty much the same menu but in a bright and spacious restaurant. It’s also open early on the weekends, for those who fancy dim sum for breakfast. Our top picks are the chicken pie (it’s extremely buttery and both sweet and savoury), steamed pork ribs and deep fried squid.

Apple Daily Bar & Eating House opens at the Print Hall, Alfred's Kitchen, MOSAIC, Lavazza Italian Film Festival, Octoberfest at Elmar's in the Valley.

New: Flipside Burgers - A new addition to the quickly growing William Street precinct, Flipside's third outpost is minimalistic, stylish and all about the burgers. Oldie: The South Perth foreshore would not be the same without the catamaran sails flapping in the wind. Ready to be sailed by novices, the cats are a fun way to experience the Swan River and look up to the city's skyscrapers from the water. To Do : A one day only event, this pop up boutique will showcase some of Western Australia’s finest handmade goods. Check out the sugary treats from Sweet Addition, Kookery’s (cute name!) cool tea towels and Patricia Fernandes’ ceramics.

New: One of the newest bars in town, Lalla Rookh is both a bar and eating house, serving modern Italian made with a lot of West Aussie ingredients. Oldie: Head down to Must Winebar for a very classy, very French take on the Sunday session. Soul music, guest artists and a handpicked selection of cocktails, wines and spirits at retro prices await your Sunday evening. Do & See: Perth Roller Derby Grand Final - Watch tactics like ‘passing the star’, ‘the whip’ and ‘ending the jam’ as two all-girl teams go head to head. The Precinct’s next Long Table Dinner has a distinctly German theme – think beef roulade, pork shank, sauerkraut, spaetzle and apple strudel.

Uncle Joe's Mess Hall, Mondo Mini Saturday Spring Markets, Russian Resurrection Cinema Paradiso, Perth Upmarket, Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta 2012, Studio Bomba's Heart Knitting lessons

Exposed brick work, urban murals and a pressed metal ceiling works wonders in the rather bleak east end of Perth. Sporting an industrial chic interior, the brand spanking new Burger Bistro East Perth is a cut above the dime-a-dozen burger bars all over the city.

Perth’s dining scene is on the rise again. Once the bustling headquarters of the The West Australian newspaper, the heritage-listed Newspaper House on St Georges Terrace has been transformed into Print Hall: a beautiful multi-story bar and restaurant.

Mechanics’ Institute is the brainchild of Perthites Hamish Fleming and Siobhan Blumann, owners of small bar Mrs Brown – a gorgeous North Fremantle small bar that welcomes patrons to bring in take-away burgers from the neighbouring Flipside (yep, Hamish and Siobhan own this too) as they sip a libation or two.

Sidney LOVES Audrey is a new gift/coffee shop in West Perth. The shop is the brainchild of Sian Hanrahan – a lover of baking, antique furniture and homemade knickknacks, three passions well represented at the four-week-old shop

uTaste is a decadent subscription for $29 per month. It’s quite simply a delicious collection of gourmet treats in one box. Instead of just talking about the food we’ve decided to deliver it to you direct. Each month we select the most amazing treats we can find, box them up and ship them to you in the last week of every month.

When Swallow Bar opened its doors on Thursday, it already had over 1400 likes on Facebook and dozens of articles in the media spanning the last few months.

When you visit El Compa – and you must – ask to speak to co-owner Israel Cocha. The conversation will invariably turn to the days of his youth in Puerta Vallarta, when a beach, umbrella, good food and an esky were enough to make the perfect day with friends. You’re picturing a Corona ad right now, aren’t you?