Table 78

by Darren Glass

Last week I took my wife out for lunch to Table 78 in West Perth. We were quickly greeted at the door and taken to our table in the front garden alfresco area.

It had a relaxed atmosphere and light music was playing in the background. It almost felt as though we had stepped into someone’s backyard.

As we were seated, we were immediately served icy cold water and these amazing almonds, infused in a chilli rub. They were delicious and a second bowl was soon delivered after the first one disappeared.

The staff were very friendly and made sure we were well looked after all afternoon.

It was a nice day so we decided to order a bottle of Stella Bella SSB to enjoy with our lunch. The wine list was very well priced and our crisp white wine was again served icy cold.

My wife Alicia and I thought we’d start with a platter of Kalamatta and green olives, grilled chorizo and parmesan biscuits. This was a great dish to begin with and definitely got our tastebuds going.

After studying the lunch menu, which is broken into sections of salads, pasta, seafood, meat, sides, cheese and dessert options, we both decided to order salads so that we could fit in the mouth-watering desserts on offer.

I chose the char-grilled squid and chorizo salad with mustard fruits, rocket, preserved lemon and chilli. All the ingredients were fresh and it was light and tasty with subtle flavours. The chorizo really complemented the char-grilled squid.

Alicia had the roasted field mushroom salad with spinach, walnuts, celery, crisp apple, fig balsamic and goat cheese crostini. The fig balsamic dressing was delicious and the added Italian parsley and mint was refreshing. The goat’s cheese crostinis were divine and made the salad quite filling.

Whilst enjoying our lunch one of the chefs came into the courtyard and began picking leaves off the bay tree next to us. He stopped for a quick chat before returning to the kitchen with his fresh produce. We found this quite amusing and impressive that he just popped out to the garden to collect special ingredients for his dishes.

After a short rest we were presented with our scrumptious desserts which we decided to share because neither of us could make up our mind. The passionfruit brulee with pistachio biscuit and the walnut and pepper meringue with fresh strawberries were very easy to knock back. Simply sensational!

We were having such a relaxing time that we decided to finish the afternoon off with a hot coffee.

Table 78 has great service and is well priced. The food was well presented and extremely tasty. We are really looking forward to coming back and trying their dinner menu.