Varga Murphy Studio
Our restaurant critics’ picks of the latest and best eats around the country right now: Wildflower, Perth.
First thing’s first: Wildflower might well be Perth’s best-looking dining room. Polished marble, floor-to-ceiling glass, the grand reveal of St George’s Cathedral as you step from the lift four storeys up. This dashing restaurant atop Como The Treasury ticks all the boxes for a luxury hotel fine-diner, as does its prices. Nonetheless, a fervent commitment to provenance and technique helps put those $30-plus entrées into perspective.
Australian ingredients feature prominently, from steamed native greens hit with a fragrant seaweed butter to fennel and wattle seed sourdough served with a macadamia-enriched butter.
The kitchen seems equally enamoured with Japanese cooking traditions: plump scampi, grilled on the robata, garnishes a crunchy pig’s tail croquette while intensely sweet saucer scallops are served raw and dressed with native basil cream and frozen buttermilk.
In a town where casual rules the roost, this sort of ambitious cooking can feel a little precious, but cheery service and a user-friendly wine list keep things fun. Fine dining, it would seem, is alive and kicking out west.
Wildflower, 1 Cathedral Ave, Perth, WA, (08) 6168 7780. Open Tue-Sat noon-2.30pm and 6pm-10pm.
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