Sayers

A few friends of mine caught up for what was supposed to brunch turned to lunch as a few of us had prior appointments. I was told that seeing as I was a foodie I would enjoy Sayers' famous breakfasts, unfortunately I was unable to try that so instead I tried their other famous meal time - lunch. We decided that we will have tapas style lunch seeing as that would mean we get to taste a bit of everything.

Let me introduce Sayers, Sayers is one of local favourites, situated in Leederville just behind the main busy Oxford street. It uses quality local produce, makes their own blend of coffee (which by the way is absolutely AMAZING! I haven't had good coffee like that in a long while!) made by 5 senses (which should tell you that it will be amazing) and of course like all good things the place cannot be booked and is a rather small shop so make sure you get there early or you be waiting for your table (which will probably be a while seeing as it's such a cosy place to sit and talk for a few hours - like we managed to do!).

To start any old day, especially a Saturday there is coffee to be ordered. I had their honeycomb coffee affogato - it was just heavenly, exactly what I needed! The coffee was extracted to perfection, the honeycomb from a crunchie added in and the vanilla ice-cream at the bottom to boot. It was pure heaven!

From the coffee we couldn't wait to dug into our food choices.

There was the carbohydrate requirement which came in the form of the fresh ciabatta bread, 3 pillar olive oil & balsamic syrup - the olive oil and balsamic syrup was exqusite, so much so that one of the girls couldn't stop dipping it in almost everything.

A tapas menu is never complete without spicy cacciatore sausage with grilled lemon & balsamic aka chirozo!

The chirozo was fantastic but I wish they put the balsamic in a separate bowl to dip. I found that some of the pieces were soaked through and others had none.

There was the exquisite chickpea batter prawns, chicken sausage, avocado & chilli relish - the chickpea was amazing and the whole thing just melts in your mouth. Someone had nick one of the pieces before I even had the chance to take the photo.

Then there was the duck rillette, sour cherries, watercress & olive oil toasted ciabatta which was rather different from what we thought it was going to be. We all thought that the duck rillette was in texture too much like canned tuna.

We also had the black belly pig, parmesan & wilted spinach croquettes which were just delicious!

It was so good that I couldn't even focus my camera properly because I was salivating at the though of having the one that was on my plate!

Then there was the grilled octopus, pepperinata which unfortunately I couldn't try because I'm allergic to octopus/squid and the likes of those, which is a pity because I used to love squid as a child.

Apprantly though it was fantastic and not rubbery (which means it's cooked right!)

And of course to even out all the meaty dishes we had the herb & goats cheese crusted field mushrooms. You can't really go wrong with this plate. It was just delicious and they used good quality goats cheese and hey mushrooms are awesome.

In addition to their menu selection they have an extensive range of cakes and pasteries which looks absolutely yummy. Will have to come back for that and the breakfast!

And if not for the food definitely for the coffee and the nice ambience and cosiness of the place.

Mezza Tapas Bar

This post is long over due. In fact, to be honest, at least 3 months over due. A couple of my girlfriends and I had a catch up dinner at Mezza Tapas in early September, a month after it opened, just because it's new, it's tapas and it's in Mount Lawley, central to all of us. The decoration and the interior design of this place is a little awkward with the stairs right in the centre of the building, which happens to lead to the bar. This just calls for a little OHS and a lot of potential drunken incidences. Apart from that the seats were comfortable, granted we were on the massive couch, service was friendly, knowledgable and helpful. The wine list wasn't extensive but we did discover a beautiful spanish red wine.

Between the 3 of us we opted for over-indulgence and full face-stuffing resulting in ordering 5 delicious tapas, one bread, and 2 desserts. All of which were pretty good. Although the highlight of the evening is most definately the pork belly, very well cooked, the crackling was well crackled, the pork tender and juicy. And the dessert? the creme brulee had real vanilla beans through it and the huge slab of chocolate was frozen and a little hard to cut, definately something none of us had before.

Salmon croquette - which according to Michelle looks like fish fingers, and I have to agree with her on that, but trust me it didn't taste like fish fingers!!

 

This was goats cheese something, it was an interesting texture, very yummy

 

our "healthy" dish for the evening, grilled eggplant, capsicium and zucchini

 

salsa beef balls

 

our bread and olive oil

 

crackling pork!

 

creme brulee with almost like fairy floss and  tequilla ice-cream!

 

our chunk of chocolate thing with fried bread slices.

 

Overall, we quite liked the ambience of the place, even though we were somewhat in the centre of the room, it was cosy, felt like we were the only ones there and the service was attentive, although it can be a little slow at times, prossibly because it seemed to be understaffed, I only ever saw 2 girls running around serving everyone, a little ridiculous?!? The food, it wasn't mind-blowing, but it wasn't tragic, definately a good catch up location with the girls.

Andaluz Bar and Tapas

Andaluz is little treasure hidden in the CBD of Perth, it's down an alley way lit with little blue lights beneath your feet, before having to go downstairs to the basement. Upon laying my eyes on the interior design, I KNEW I was in for a treat.

I felt like I've just stepped into some 1920s movie, as I navigated my way through the bar, finding little secluded places, with each area decorated in vintage tones of rich chocolate browns, red, mood lightings, fantastic side tables, lamps, drapings, curtains and leather (and velvet!) lounges, couches, seats and sofas. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the design of the place as I wasn't going to be rude and wasn't about the ruin people's whispers and secret doings.

The service at the place wasn't too bad, but our waiter was rather cute, with a nice accent (which turned out to be German and not French like we first anticipated!) and said waiter was rather in the know with what to taste from their tapas and drinks list.

 

Sauteed Mushrooms, Parsley, garlic and fino

 

Seared scallops, Berkshire pork cheek confit

 Ocean Trout Rillette

Black Angus Beef Carpaccio, manchego and herbs

 

Sauteed Prawns, manzanilla, shallots and Jamon

 

 Sorry.. I really don't remember what that was...

Pan Con Tomate (Spanish Tomato Bread)

L: Spanish Deli Cold Cuts - lomo, serrano ham, cantimpalo

R: Grilled Spiced Chorizo with lemon (THE BEST i've had!) 

and the desserts - it was to die for!! Not much to look at BUT we all experienced a little bit of heaven!

Chocolate Caramels with smoked chilli salt (OMG!! CHOCOHOLICS HAVEN!)

Orange and vanilla mashmallows, citrus sherbet

The ambience? It's well... I can only say that I feel like I've stepped onto a movie set, it's brilliant. It's swanky and all that oozes with coolness. I love it. Perth needs more of these types of bars, little hidden gems, that serve great tapas, drinks with awesome interior deco. I just wish, the food wasn't so pricey. But regardless, one of my favourite places and will be back when I have a bigger pay packet!