Wildflower Perth

I was very excited when I heard that Wildflower was opening because it seemed like my kind of restaurant. However, I ended up putting off visiting, mainly because I am constantly trying to save money these days, plus my recent Sydney adventure took priority.Of course, me being me, decided to spontaneously book a table one day. It's quite a nice place with that lovely gum tree wallpaper/painting, and looks out towards Swan River (though the lightining meant that I couldn't get a shot that didn't look horrid) with the Bell Tower in view.They didn't have a large non alcoholic selection, and they offered a sweet or sour mocktail. Most places seem to offer the sweet/sour flavours, though I was told I could order any flavour I wanted. I was so tempted to be silly and ask for an umami cocktail, but thought that'd be just a tad too silly. Instead I went sour, and got this lovely drink.I chose their five course degustation, which started with a selection of snacks.Beetroot marshmallow wrapped in beetroot. Quite delicious and light!Prawn cracker with ceviche, finger lime and other condiments. This was so tasty, but that's also because you can never go wrong with prawn crackers.The macaron thing at the back was a chicken liver macaron with cherry, however that wasn't particularly standout for me.Bread was served pretty early on, with hand churned butter with shaved macadamia. That butter was so good!The first course - raw Shark Bay saucer scallops with native basil and dashi cream, fennel fronds, apple and horseradish granita. I love scallops. These ones were incredibly sweet and had a lovely texture! I found that the granita was a tad too cold, but hey, it is granita. I tried to be smart here when I noticed that there were little light balls above the apple jelly layer, and so I asked one of the chefs if it was puffed amaranth. He replied saying it wasn't - instead it was some Japanese seaweed and rice sprinkle. I felt that it was a little bit of cheating to achieve umami addictiveness, but it was so tasty that I didn't really mind. Yet.This one was an extra course that wasn't listed on the menu. It was a beetroot and goat cheese dish, a classic. It reminded me a little of the textures of beetroot dish from my second visit to Celcius in Adelaide (which I never posted). Basically, it was a whole lot of beetroot and goat cheese. It's great, but a really boring combination for me. There was salt baked beetroot which was delicious, pickled beetroot and fresh beetroot accompanied with raspberries and goat cheese foam.Marron! Yay marron. But it looks a little odd, right? As soon as this dish was presented to me, I noticed something lacking... the weird sticky out bits towards the head, like the one from Orana. However, I was pleased when I saw where the rest of the marron was - the sticky out bits were actually under the saltbush pile! There was also some lemon myrtle jam which was absolutely delicious. The marron by itself was very plain, but went well with the brown butter. Far from my favourite marron dish though (Noma wins this right now).Up next was kangaroo with blueberries. Smoked kangaroo, blueberry, bitter chocolate, onion, seaweed. That smoked kangaroo was amazing, but it was wrapped in a seaweed crust that tasted a bit too similar to the one used in the scallop dish. It's weird, usually I happily accept seaweed since I love it so much, but here it felt a little bit like cheating since it automatically makes the food taste so much better? At least Automata made a very different seaweed dish from what I was used to. The blueberry sauce was great, but the blueberry sago-like stuff seemed unnecessary? There was too much chocolate and forcing myself to accompany it with the kangaroo only got me halfway through the quenelle.Arkady lamb - with warrigal greens, black sesame, sheep's yoghurt, dried olive. Now this one was tasty! That lamb was full of flavour, and the greens here tasted great too. I always love dried olive as the flavour of it is just amazing. So much more cohesive than the kangaroo dish!Bahen & Co chocolate mousse, baked banana sorbet, milk chocolate tuile, wattleseed. A really nice mousse log, though I was getting full at this stage. I believe the mousse was either super dark or had some alcohol in it, because it wasn't a chocolatey chocolate mousse. That banana ice cream was delicious with such a real banana flavour. Wattleseed made an appearance here with its crunchy coffeeness.And some petit fours. Look at that mini canele! Plus a cakey thing and a chocolate. Quite a nice end to the meal.I feel like I've been spoilt with the amount of amazing food I've had recently, and so this was an average restaurant for me. Perhaps it was just my timing, however the waitstaff were explaining to some customers that people tend to be hesitant in consuming kangaroo. There was also a couple that got full and couldn't finish their food (though I don't think they opted for the degustation), and the waitstaff were commenting on how they were impressed that I could finish all that food. Actually, now that I think about it, there have been a few restaurants (such as Hartsyard) where my fellow diners and I have been "complimented" on our ability to eat a lot of food.... Anyway, it just seemed like they don't get a lot of foodies and were catering more for wealthy people who wanted a meal (considering how classy Como the Treasury is).I should stop fine dining for a while, my budget requires recovery time. Plus I have more Sydney adventures planned already!

Another Sydney coffee crawl

Since my Sydney visit was a pure foodie adventure, it was important that I drank lots of coffee, this time without almost dying from caffeine overdose. It was a combination of old and new!Elbow Room espresso. Mecca's Blackforest blend and a Pedro Moreno (Santa Barbara, Honduras) on filter. Chapter Five espresso. A single origin from Peru, which was quite nice. I actually passed this on my way to Eveleigh Markets, wondering whether or not I should go in. On the way back, the barista said hi, and so I decided I may as well. He was suggesting iced coffee, when I mentioned I drank espresso. I guess I don't look like an espresso drinker!Some Gumption yeeah.Steam Tank. Mitch is a very talkative guy. Knowledgeable too! He likes his La Marzocco Strada very much because of the real time information it provides! I also learned what a quaker was from him, because apparently there was one in my coffee and I had no idea.Good old Single Origin Roasters. Never fails to impress - after everyone I knew from years ago had all moved on, they are still serving up tasty food and coffee. It's my old stalwart, especially if I need a good breakfast after landing!Handcraft Specialty Coffee. Serving up a lot of Proud Mary.Skittle Lane, a cute, minimalist little place.And good old Artificer. I have no idea what those things on the floor are. I took a photo of this bench because it hasn't been in that spot on every other visit. I love it because it's crooked but actually straight due to the sloping of the actual ground. Dan explained that it's the outside bench. I totally hadn't noticed!Their plant. I want to call it Wilty because it's a little less alive than when I first saw it, but would he get offended?Dan the hand model.YAY coffee

Sydney photography

Now that I have two lenses, I take them everywhere. So here are some shots where I happened to be carrying my 60mm.

Sokyo Omakase

Oh hello again Sokyo, I've missed you! Last time it was the a la carte, this time it was the omakase. Previously I've only had omakase at the Tsukiji fish markets, so I was excited to have one in Sydney! And here is Sano-san! The omakase is limited to a few spots every night, and tonight, he was serving four people. The angle I had wasn't great for taking pictures of the cabinet or his work area, but I did get a view of some of the other chefs while they worked!First up, there was a lot of tasting of the sauce before Sano mixed this up and presented it to us. Toro tartare with caviar. Super lovely delicious flavour!This was a type of clam, not sure what kind, and was scored and marinated. That little dollop of black was its liver, and was oh so tasty! I love the texture of molluscs, this one was great and crunchy, just the way I like it.Wagyu shortrib with assorted condiments was next. I can't remember what each of those little dollops were, but there was probably wasabi, yuzu garlic, radish, sesame seed and other tastiness. That's probably a rosemary leaf on there too! It was nice, but I like my seafood more.Seared scallop muscle. They were pretty big pieces, so they must have come from some massive scallops. I love the flavour of scallops!And now onto the nigiri. I managed to get mostly decent shots of each fish so I get to post them all instead of mashing or missing some. First up, New Zealand snapper. I only like super fresh snapper, most of the times in normal sushi trains it's not that great. The texture of this one great - slightly firm - and I would happily eat more!Alfonsino was the next one up, possibly taken from the belly because it was much softer than the snapper.An0ther clam thing! The first clam thing was tastier. I think there's a pattern here where I like firm/crunchy rather than soft!A tuna trio! From top to bottom, yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, Japanese toro. All three were quite delicious, and the toro was just as tasty as the first time. However in terms of flavour and texture, the bluefin tuna was my favourite. There was something about it that was just nicer than the rest. The only unfortunate thing is that bluefin is endangered.Next up, kohada! This one had been marinated in vinegar and was almost too sharp, but towards the end of eating this one, it wasn't so bad. Would have preferred the vinegar to be toned down just a tad.Tempura spanner crab. Spanner crab must be in season right now; it's everywhere! The batter was light and crunchy, this was far better and tastier than the tempura bug tails we had last time from the a la carte.Back onto the nigiri. Salmon belly with a seaweed type dab on top. I seem to have gotten bored of salmon sushi since there are so many other fish to try, but it tasted good nonetheless - kind of familiar in a way!Now that's what I'm talking about. Mackerel that Sano cut (from fillet, not prepping the whole fish) before scoring it on both sides right in front of us. That was cool to watch! Since it's a fatty white fish, you could definitely taste the fishiness, but I was loving it!A break from nigiri, and we end up with grilled kingfish, enoki mushrroms, asparagus and daikon. Very simple, but delicous!This was a gorgeous piece of scampi that had been seasoned, then flamethrowered quite intensely! Yet it came out beautifully, and was so tasty!Shio kombu squid. Nicely presented, but it turns out I'm still not a fan of squid. I love octopus, but squid still has a slightly too soft and slimy texture for me.Rice in a scallop in a seaweed boat! My first reaction when seeing this was calling it a scallop sandwich taco!Seared kingfish belly.Seared salmon belly. Nice to end the nigiris on these two classic fish!Then there was the hand roll with tuna mince in it. It was quite substantial and filled me up. Mine had a burst of wasabi that made me cry, but that was part of the fun! It must have just not been spread out properly.And the final course, tamago!! Aren't they so cute! My brother and I received rice with ours, where as the ladies sitting next to us received only the egg. When we asked why, Sano explained it was because we were young, so this would help us grow. I loved that! And this wasn't any kind of tamago I was used to, instead of being like a "Japanese sweet omelette" this was more like a light, fluffy egg cake. Amazing and mind blowing!After a satisfying dinner, we were then presented with a tasting plate of their desserts. I love that they still have the strawberry milkshake ice cream mochi! It's totally my favourite, and it was nice to sample the other dishes as well.It was a great night and didn't take too long - it was about a couple of hours all up. Funny thing though, is that had I not been taking 2-3 pictures of each dish, it would have taken about half as much time. It's amazing how photography increases the dining time by so much - I always knew it would, but it's so noticeable when consuming sushi because each nigiri represents a single bite.Luckily the other diners were also taking their time, so we all pretty much kept the same pace (one tiny bit in the middle where my brother and I were a course ahead), which was cool to see as well. Omakase chefs have to be so attentive!He also has very shiny knives, so much so that I had to take a picture of them! I had never been interested in mirror finish knives because I thought they looked gimmicky, but in action, they were amazing to watch. Every flash of reflected light caught my attention and I couldn't stop staring.It was a fun dinner and at the end Sano even gave us his number so that if we ever had questions or needed a booking, we could contact him directly and he would book on our behalf, which was a nice gesture! I was kind of sad we didn't have any rare ingredients, but winter's probably a better time for that. It also meant that the dinner came out cheaper than advertised too, which I was thankful for.I think I've been so spoilt by good food in Sydney that now that I'm back in Perth, I can't eat most ordinary things anymore...

Kensington Street Social

First was Commune Social. Then, City Social. And the tidbit of gossip I got from there was that there was going to be a Jason Atherton establishment in Australia. And here it is, Kensington Street Social. A very hip place with a pun-filled cocktail menu and tapas style dining - the same concept as Commune Social (and probably his other Social restaurants). I went here for both dinner and breakfast on separate occasions, and quite liked it!First off, dinner. As always, we ordered everything that we wanted. The waitstaff recommended six to seven dishes between three people, and we ordered accordingly.

Squid ink crackers, trout roe, cucumber

You can't ever go wrong with prawn crackers, they're so airy and addictive! I found that we ended up with too much sauce - the trout roe went well with the crackers but I found I didn't need too much of the actual sauce.

Hipster breakfast - Banana bread infused Pampero rum, cold drip coffee, salt butter, Fernet Branca

Yes I'm hipster (perhaps just on the inside), so I had to forego every other item on the drinks menu (including non alcoholic... I'm not great at consuming more than a single beverage when dining, unless it's a beverage pairing) just to get this. Isn't it cute! It looked and tasted quite coffee-like! I loved the tag that came with it, too!

English breakfast tea and toast - wild mushroom tea , gentleman’s relish, bone marrow toast

What a cute display! I'm a fan of theatric/hands on/unusual interpretations of food, it makes the dining experience so much fun and much more memorable. Presented as the toast/jam/cream/tea combination, this was a pot of wild mushroom tea that could be poured into teacups of parmesan foam. Creamy white bone marrow and a tangy, jammy relish topped some toast which, with some effort, could be dipped into the tea. The toast was so-so for me mainly because I like chunks of actual marrow (which I need to try at Salaryman!) rather than a tiny dollop. The tea on the other hand, was absolutely amazing, fragrant and hearty! I could drink that all winter!

Vine tomato, Vannella burrata, 25 year aged balsamic vinegar, tomato seasoning

There's always an interpretation of caprese salad on the menu. This one is also featured at Marina Social in Dubai. The outside picture is all you get, I didn't bother taking an inside picture because I figured it wouldn't look very nice. Basically, it's tomato on the outside, and burrata on the inside! Not the creamiest burrata as it looks like they scoop only some of it in, so the gooeyness was a little lacking, but the flavours overall were great.

Grass fed veal tartar, egg yolk jam, radish salad, sourdough

I always have to taste the tartare if I can. The veal was roughly chopped which was a nice change from oggling at the knifework from Fix St James, and the egg yolk jam was pretty trippy! The bread was a little on the holey side so it couldn't scoop up the tartare all that well. Tasty, but not one of my favourites.

Queensland Spanner crab, frozen cucumber gazpacho, rhubarb

A nicely presented spanner crab salad where the gazpacho granita was sprinkled at the table. The flavours were alright, however nothing particularly stood out. Possibly because the granita was super cold and there was a mound of it, and as it melted kind of watered down the rest of the dish.

Roast marron tail, curry butter, burnt lime, leaf salad

 Now this is a dish that shows off a super fine crustacean! Marron is seriously my favourite crustacen, plus it's adorable. The curry butter was delicious and a great change from plain butter. In my excitement, I didn't realise just how much this dish cost (though to be honest, I generally don't look at price...). It was worth it, though!

Sea urchin rice, Moreton Bay bug tail, sea blight, bisque

I didn't like this dish. It sounded great on the menu, but it's not really all that shareable, especially since there was only a very small tongue of sea urchin there. The bug tail was nice and I liked the flavour of the bisque, but the rice curse continues! I pretty much always avoid risotto, not only because it's very hit and miss, but also because I don't like rice in general (except in well made sushi). Ours was undercooked, with a hardness and slight chalkiness. I kind of which we received the marron dish last (everything else was pretty much served in menu order).

Then it was onto desserts.

Yoghurt mousse, lemon curd, malt meringue, basil 

I chose this unassuming looking dish for the reason that basil was featured. Ever since Commune Social's basil sorbet, I have been chasing basil desserts. However the style of the dessert meant that basil wasn't the prominent flavour. This was all about the yoghurt mousse and lemon curd and offset nicely by a delicate basil aroma. It ended up being my brother's favourite dessert out of the ones we ordered.

Buffalo ricotta, lemon thyme peaches, honeycomb

The second dessert that I ordered (we had four desserts between three people) wasn't that spectacular. The ricotta was nice, though I generally don't like ricotta in desserts. The honeycomb tuile was so thin and light! The peach sorbet was delicious too.

East Rydge Grove arbequina olive oil cake, coconut sorbet, spiced mango, passion fruit ice

This was the dish my brother ordered, and the one I loved the most. I've always thought butter was unbeatable, but that olive oil was so fragrant! And the texture of the cake was great too. I was seriously impressed with this as everything went so well together and the coconut sorbet was delicious. I now need to learn how to make olive oil cake myself!

Baked caramelised apple puff pastry, cider vinegar ice cream and pickled apple

I believe this was a picture my brother took because I had a hard time making it look nice. I had a small sample of this and the puff pastry was very good. This was a dish my friend ordered and she loved it!

So all up, we shared seven savoury plates and three dessert plates. Usually the food is adequate, however, in this case my brother and I were both still a tad hungry. The bill was also less than what I was used to (but that's because I have a tendency to spend extravagantly), so it would have been nice to order a couple more savoury plates.

Perhaps it was due to dining on a Friday night, perhaps it's just their policy - it was the two hour dining limit that was the real restriction. We'd arrived fifteen minutes early (for a 6:30PM booking) and finished at 8:15. However, it was a little alarming that during the dessert ordering, we were advised we only had our seats until 8PM, so I had to ask for clarification that we were allocated two hours.

Mindful of this time limit, we asked for the bill as soon as we were done... and then waited until after 8:30, and still no bill. So we had to ask again. This was possibly a teething issue since the restaurant was only about a month old on this visit, and no one actually came to kick us off our barside bench, so I wasn't even sure if our seats were really booked for 8:30. Minor issue though, I wouldn't think much of it unless it became consistent.

Since I also managed a breakfast visit, I'll tack on a short summary of that here as well.

This was the "wrong island iced tea" - earl grey, apple, lemon, lapsang souchonog. This was a great tasting tea, not overly sweet and with a good dose of tea. I also loved this shot for all the lights in the background.

While this wasn't much of a looker, it's a classic that was very, very tasty. House cured bacon? Guess what, it's similar to the Tommy Prosser style house cured bacon! Only slightly pink, this was delicious! I was very happy to have the house stuff since it's so much tastier than any packet stuff. The black pudding was also very flavourful (especially in contrast to some disappointing stuff I bought from a butcher recently) so I loved that too! The toast crust was slightly on the hard side, but nothing my well practised knife and fork skills couldn't handle, though it would be tricky for most (my friend struggled to cut her toast).

The marinated watermelon salad with mint, raspberries, creme fraiche. While it's a very pretty looking dish, it wasn't too spectular. The creme fraiche was provided as a foam in a separate bowl, but since we were still eating our toast, the foam started collapsing before we had a chance to move onto the salad!

Perhaps it's the newness, perhaps it's the high volume of high calibre restaurants in Sydney. It didn't stand out too much (but I had a superstar list of restaurants lined up this time as well) but very solid nonetheless. If I ever needed a casual spot, this would be a place I'd be happy to come back to.

Now I just have to visit all his other restaurants!