Welcome to Dear Friends Restaurant

I was very impressed with the menu, every dish was so interesting without being over the top. It was a very hard decision but I decided on the duck and chestnut soup to start, which was full of flavour and just the right amount for an entree. For my main meal I had the Ostrich, a dish you don't see on many menus, it was unreal, such a unique flavour and cooked to perfection. It was coated in grains of paradise, which the charming waitress informed us was a type of pepper. It had a sweetness to it, like I have never tasted before.

The meals were bigger than we had expected so we opted to share a dessert, which was a perfectly cooked souffle. If we weren't already impressed, the souffle did the trick.
Best meal, we've had in Perth!

We were made to feel so special, the service was faultless. Friendly, yet very professional.

We entered via the bar, where we were offered a drink before our meal, we were made to feel welcome right away and were immediatly relaxed. The dining room is cute and cozy but it has a very elegant/regal feel to it. The music was very nice and wasn't too loud.

The best dining experience I have had in Perth. Can't wait for our next visit!

Went here with my partner for an anniversary dinner. The staff were uniformly good, and the restaurant space was physically well designed, if not especially attractively laid out. The food, however, was remarkably poor for a 5 star restaurant.

I had the Fire Roasted Red Pepper Custards for an entree, which was flavorful, if poorly presented in a tea glass with what was described as watercress and radish salad. In effect, this was a small drizzle of watercress in oil, with three slices of radish and four of kiwi. The 'custard' was a cold puree of red capsicum. Pleasant, if unremarkable. For main we both had the Aged MSA Beef Fillet, which was served set on caramelized golden turnips wrapped in radicchio, served with a morel mushroom sauce and a dust of field mushrooms. The beef fillet was correctly cooked, but was flavorless and bland. The 'dust of field mushrooms', was one field mushroom. Actually, I think it was a morel. Either way, it was simply the worst beef fillet served at a restaurant that I have eaten. The meat wasn't poor, it wasn't badly cooked, it was badly presented and had no flavor. We were so unimpressed after this that we abandoned the idea of desert and simply left.

If I were to make a suggestion, there are many fine restaurants in Perth, so try one of them instead of Dear Friends. It's possible this was a bad night, or that the summer menu is poor (I note the other reviews here were based on other menus), but I'd never return to this particular corner of Caversham.

My partner recently had some good news and I decided to take him to Dear Friends Restaurant to celebrate last night. We had never been there before but I had heard it was a 5 star restaurant and I really wanted my man to feel like a king so I whisked him away to this fantastic restaurant.

Our booking was for 6.30. We arrived and the door was opened for us and an offer of a drink at the bar first. We opted to go straight through to the main dining area. It is a smallish restaurant but the seating is wonderfully set out. We were shown to our table which was situated in the middle of the room and on two sides of the table there were little walls so it felt very intimate, even if the restaurant was full it would still feel this way, there are curtains on the little walls that block out the people seated near you. As we were seated water was poured and menus given, we opted for a $42 bottle of white wine, I think it was a little over-priced but it was definitely a delicious drop.

Now, because this was a special event we opted to go the three course meal (which ended up being four) but in usual circumstances we tend to be just mains and possibly an entree kind of people.

So for entree we both got Sashimi Fillet of Butterfield Beef (19.50 ea). We had never tried this before so weren't quite sure what to expect. It came out on a lovely rectangle plate with silver chopsticks. The beef was slightly smoked in green tea and the dipping sauce was just divine, shabutare dipping sauce. First course down and we were very happy so far.

For mains we both got the Aged Fillet of Beef (37.50 ea) done medium/well and a side serve of crushed olive and herb potatoes (10.50). The beef was cooked perfectly and came served rolled in blackjack spice on polenta with pecorino and basil and served with the most divine wild mushroom sauce. The potatoes complimented the meal well and were nothing to be sniffed at.

Now, this is the point where we are almost always too full to fit in sweets but, as I said, we opted to go all out and surprisingly for the amount of food we ate it didn't feel like we were over-stuffed, which I think is a good indication of how good the restaurant was. When we viewed the desserts menu we couldn't decide on ordering a full cheese selection or something from their sweeter section of desserts so we opted for one portion of cheese and a sorbet dessert. The cheese was Papillon Roquefort Black Label (14.00) and was quite strong but after the first couple of bites it really is a nice cheese. This came served with apple, pear and fennel seed bread. We also ordered a selection of house churned sorbets and ice creams (13). There were three serves and each was on top of a meringue, I can't remember the exact mix of the serves but one was vanilla, one was citrus (I think apple, I can't remember) and the other was balsamic and perhaps orange. The latter of the three was my favourite but I would've easily devoured all of them given the chance.

One thing I really liked was that when we ordered the cheese and the sorbets the owner suggested the cheese come out first because it was strong and then finish with the sorbet to cleanse and after eating the strong cheese we were grateful the suggestion had been made.

All throughout the meal our water and wine were getting topped up and the service was exceptional. Each course was served timely, just enough pause in between. After the meal we went to pay and both orders were at the till and we had a little chat about where they used to work and how they had bought the restaurant a few months back. I hadn't been to the restaurant before but I think they're doing a superb job. Although the meal was a bit pricey I think the food and service was fantastic, also if we had have just gone with mains then the price would have been fairly reasonable. We had a wonderful night and walked out about 8.45pm well satisfied.

With an event to recognise, we decided that the venue should be Dear Friends. Thursday lunchtime saw us greeted by the owner, Kelli and ushered in to the empty dining room. The room remained empty for the entire meal but in no way detracted from the experience, in fact it probably added to it. We have been going to Dear Friends since about 1999 and the venue has not substantially altered in this time although it has obviously been maintained and is now on its fourth or fifth set of owners. The young couple that own Dear Friends now have only been there a couple of months and they are still putting their mark on the restaurant.

The menu had so many temptations that I expect to be thinking of it for a few days to come! Kiran, the chef/owner, has departed from previous chefs here by taking an innovative approach to some more standard items. They use the term fusion, but I think it is more of a lateral way of looking at a dish. While we were umming and ahhing over the menu, we opted to have the trio of breads with butter, dukkah and oil and champagne cocktails. The breads are made on site and were delicious. We had finished all of the bread before we had come to a decision about the rest of the meal but had been able to squeeze in a chat with the waitress and Kelli in between nibbles of bread. The plates of seafood assiette that we had each ordered for entree arrived after only a brief wait and were stunningly presented on oblong white plates. (I should note here that all food that came to the table was presented by white-gloved staff.) Each plate contained two oysters with vodka and caviar, a scallop with sliced Peking duck, a yabbie, a little pot of blue manna crab creme and a little mound of Fijian kokoda of white fish. Excellent! The crab crème was a tad bland on its own but when used as a sauce for the other items worked well. If it was meant to be eaten just 'as is', it would have benefited from Melba toast or similar. Again, it didn't seem like a very long wait until our mains had arrived. I had semi-smoked venison strip loin which arrived on a mound of olive and herb crushed potatoes, in an aged balsamic, French shallot and a Dutch salted liquorice sauce. The sauce was divine and complemented the only just medium-rare venison superbly. My companion had a rack of lamb with Tuscan black truffle and pate de foie gras, candied orange and white peppercorn sauce sitting on a criss-crossed tower of yam batons. This dish was also enjoyed immensely. We ordered a side serve of vegetables which came out with bok choy (or similar), sugar snap peas, and baby carrots, and this dish was the only poor part of the meal with the vegetables being near cold and rather bland, although nothing was overcooked.

Dessert. We were both full but having seen the desserts, and despite not being dessert eaters (me especially), we just couldn't resist completing the meal in an appropriate manner. An order of peach and coconut sweet sushi (two nigri sushi and four mini sushi), served with matcha green tea icecream caramalised white miso reduction, a little mound of finely sliced strawberry and a pair of silver chopsticks, beautifully presented on an oblong white plate was soon placed before me. A portion of Queso Valdeon blue-veined semi-hard cheese with fruit bread (made in-house), a variety of biscuits, sliced fresh fruit and quince paste was also presented to my guest. Both desserts hit the spot for each of us. A short black and a green tea rounded off the meal. A bottle of Clairault Semillon Sauvignon Blanc complemented the meal well and was only $42.

We spent three hours luxuriating in food and wine, chatting to ourselves and our host, Kelli and overall enjoying ourselves immensely. And would we go again? You bet!! Friday nights they have a degustation menu that is pretty appealing. We spent $236.50 on lunch but indulged all the way. Yeah it was decadent but you only live once!! Left feeling replete but not stuffed!

My husband and I are both Chefs and have heard so much about Dear Friends, so we finally went in for a meal. I must say we were both blown away, we haven’t been this impressed since our experience at Jackons, Mt Lawley. The menu was obviously well thought out and very interesting. I loved every bite of my Venison with a beautiful Licorice sauce and hubby had a perfectly cooked Beef Fillet. We saved room for the cheese platter which was worth every penny and it matched beautifully with a glass of port. We had a lovely evening and can't wait for our next visit.

We went to Dear Friends on Saturday night. It s has a very warm and inviting atmosphere.

We had bread and dips to start, nothing special there. For mains however I ordered the veal and prawn, which was tantalising. It was served on a perfectly cooked, plump field mushroom and potato cake with Asparagus. Truly mouth-watering!

For dessert I had a selection of sorbet and ice-cream which was served on little meringues. This was a refreshing way to end the meal.

The service was fairly prompt and friendly, overall an enjoyable evening.

It is on the more expensive side, especially the wine. However, it's well worth a visit.

Dear Friends has a great layout and lovely atmosphere.

I had the Beef Fillet served with roast parsnip puree, French beans wrapped in pancetta, dressed with a porcini olive oil and thyme emulsion.

It was superb and cooked perfectly rare with the perfect amount the puree versus thyme and oil emulsion.

For dessert I ad the warm chocolate pudding which was brilliant.

Service is great, food came out at good intervals and the waiter and waitress were flawless.

The breads we had before our main meal were good but I didn't expect the typical hommus, tapenade and tzatziki such as any restaurant would serve. Just a little beneath them I feel.

Had a minor problem with the menus, being given one without pages and two that were the old menu. But that didn't take anything away from the night.

Apart from that it was another great night at Dear Friends which I always look forward to.

I can't say that I or my visiting rellies really enjoyed our experience. The food was adequate (this is all relative to its reputation and expense), the service friendly but unexceptional and the ambience was a bit....dowdy. I was underwhelmed.

I've been to Dear Friends in the past, and was blown away by the experience. At that point, arguably one of the finest restaurants in Perth.....

....not last time. Sorry! Wine list was OK (rather than superb) and my date and I (both of whom have been there before) were a little disappointed by the food, and the service, in comparison to previous visits.

This is all relative to price, of course. Dear Friends is at the higher end of the restaurant pricing range, but we felt we didn't get the same sense of occasion, or quality of food (especially in the seafood department, according to my date) as we had experienced previously. There were some things done well, not just everything (!) as we have experienced before.

As it was our wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate by going out for a romantic meal. We choose Dear Friends as we have dined there before and always been impressed and as usual we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I order the tasmanian Salmon which was served on a bed of risotto and it was delightful the tastes and textures complimented each other well. My husband order the veal which he thought was delicious and fell off the bone. The service at Dear Friends is 5 star and you are never dissappointed by any of food and desserts are devine.

Truly worth a visit and we will be sure to return many times in the future.

Great place for that special occassion or to take someone special.

My first experience of Dear Friends restaurant was magical, the atmosphere beaming radiance it was close enough to a midsummer nights dream without the Shakespeare, the food and beverage attendants were smartly presented as was the cutlery. Presentation of the food was immaculate although I ordered a dish that I wouldn't normally eat, I believe that if something looks and smells good you will enjoy every bite so a well deserved thumbs up for Dear Friends Restaurant.