Red Opium

“Hidden gem”

http://www.redopium.com.au

Photos courtesy of Emandy

Red opium is a new concept restaurant serving thai food but in modern tapas style. It is literally a hidden gem being located underground in a basement on Hay St. This restaurant was the chosen venue for a dear friend’s birthday. Walking down the stairs into the basement was exciting, we were greeted with red lanterns and draped curtains depicting a mysterious asian thai feel, there was even a little section to play chess and a lovely bed-like couch as one of the seatings. I was very impressed with the interiors.

Chess area

We were seated and greeted by the lovely waitress whom is the owner with her husband being the chef. My friends have read a critic review before going in and we decided to order some items he recommended and some from the owner. Items on the menu had very unique names, we ordered a total of 6 dishes.

Crudo tuna

Crudo tuna

Tuna was fresh and melted in our mouths, also had a hint of lemongrass which really gave it a punch of flavour. Everyone enjoyed this dish.

Ying and Yang Dips

Yin and Yang dip

Crackers served with creamy prawn and coconut dip and minced pork tomato dip. These dips was so unique and absolutely delicious, the crackers was so light and crispy and presentation was spot on. My fault would be more dips and more crackers please *I will just keep saying this throughout the post*.

Crying Waygu

Again another spot on dish, this reminded me of beef tataki but with a thai twist. Proabably a favourite amongst the group.

Son in law eggs

Son in law eggs

These eggs was exciting to eat. The owner recommended this dish as she told us stories of customers falling in love with it. Double cooked eggs, boiled then fried to give a crust on the outside and a sauce that tasted like the ones you find in maggie mee, packed full of flavour and abit on the spicy side. A rich dish we all enjoyed.

F duck

F duck

Roast duck in red curry. This is probably one of the best red curry I’ve had. So rich and creamy, packed full of flavour with lovely voluptuous duck pieces. This dish brought out the ugly side of me, I just didn’t want to share.

White bait

White bait

Unfortunately our lack of knowledge of what a white bait is led us to expect a big fleshy white fish, we were left disappointed with this dish. All the Malaysians referred to it as Ikan bilis. It was more a snack than a main dish. We ordered this as it was apparently one of the recommended dishes by the critic, but I’m sure there are better dishes than this.

All our meals were accompanied with fragrant white rice and we all left JUST full. We decided to have dessert elsewhere as they ran out of what we wanted, the dessert menu was still being refined at that time, I've recently seen the dessert menu and it looks promising. The bill came out to be just under $20 each which we were all very surprised. I think we could have ordered a few more dishes to bring us over the line in terms of feeling just full and FULL. I would have liked the dishes to be 10x bigger, but that’s just me being greedy and throwing the tapas concept down the drain.

I enjoyed dining in Red Opium and have been recommending the place to everyone I know since then. I have tried dining in again but they were fully booked so word has definitely gone out.

NB: The entertainment card offers a 25% off the bill to Red Opium
NB: They do private functions

Friends Restaurant

"Winner of a two-star Michelin award, a two-star Egon Ronay award and four AA Rosette"

http://www.friendsrestaurant.com.au/menu.htm

Please note: I tried this place almost a year from now and just haven't had the time to blog about it. I liked it that much that I felt it deserved a posting ^^

My close FRIENDS and myself decided to try a degustation for the first time. We chose 'Friends' restaurant as the chefs scored 2 michigan awards in their pockets and at the price of $95, it seemed pretty reasonable for degustation in such a restaurant.

On arrival, the outside looked modern and classy but the interiors was a different story. To me it looked rather outdated and cluttered. I didn't fancy the floral grandma curtains and the fake vines that looked as though they have collected dust over the years. Some of the decors was very pretty though and overall it had a nice warm homey feel to it which was most important, the restaurant had views at all angles and was very spacious.

We went on a chilly Saturday night and the restaurant was rather quiet. I started questioning whether people just didn't know about the restaurant or it just wasn't that great, the crowd was mainly old people with too much money to spend..we felt quite out of place.

Each table had a cute lamp and a salt combination platter! very exciting ^^ We were then presented with a basket of different freshly baked breads to choose from and then served canapes which was delicious.

Salt platter

Freshly baked bread

Canapes

Now I don't quite remember the exact name of the dishes but I do remember the taste very clearly. First course I had artichoke and truffle soup..This was delicious! So rich and creamy and the truffle flavour was definitely there, the flavours was so rich I can understand why it came in such small amounts.

Artichoke and truffle soup

Second course I chose the rabbit terrine, This was nice but my friend had the salmon which I would actually prefer over my terrine. Nonetheless it was still delicious.

Rabbit terrine

Salmon

Third course I had chicken, I realise I'm not too much of a fan of foam on my dishes but putting that aside, the chicken was cooked perfectly, very tender. But I have to admit I wasn't very WOWed with this dish.

Chicken

Fourth course was the seafood terrine. This looked very beautiful and tasted delicious too. It is flavours you can see. I enjoyed this more than the rabbit terrine.

Seafood terrine

Fifth course was the pork belly and potato mash, I'm just so eager to talk about this dish. The pork belly was DELICIOUS! crunchy, well seasoned skin and OMG the mash potato is the BEST mash I've had in my life..it was SO creamy, silky and SO buttery! DELICIOUS! My friend had the waygu steak and he also enjoyed it, probably not as good as my dish as he wasn't raving on about his dish like I did..then again, it could be a guy thing.

Pork belly on a bed of mashed potatoes

Waygu

Our rhubarb souffle was our Sixth course and it took awhile to get out but when it did, we realised it was fresh OUT of the oven and smelt so good! We all loved this dish!

rhubarb souffle

Overall I love this place, service was excellent, food was delicious and through my palate I now understand why they've won such awards. I would definitely come back to try their ever changing menu, perhaps taking my bf here on a special occasion ;)

Toast

"a toast to TOAST"

Toast was the destination for a girls day out brunch to celebrate my dear friend's birthday...conclusion...I love this place!

Toast is situated in East Perth Claisebrook, a perfect setting for a relaxing day out with a sense of classiness. Though it is situated in the upper class East perth, it certainly does not look the part, just an ordinary cafe with wonderful views and friendly service. If you want a more classy environment, go next door to the royal pub, it makes Toast look like the student cafe.

Lovely view from the inside

Interesting table settings

To start off my brunch from the very extensive menu, I ordered the Sweet Pea drink consisting of water melon, orange and basil. I LOVED IT! I knew I couldn't go wrong with water melon and orange but the hint of basil really made it unique. It was very refreshing.

Sweat Pea

My friend had the banana smoothie and that too was delicious, rich banana taste that was "genuine" haha...not those artificial banana flavours.

Natural banana smoothie

I shared two dishes with my friend. The first dish was the potato, mint and feta pancakes with poached eggs and smoked salmon, sour cream and chives. I think it worked by eating the dish with all the components. The smoked salmon was rather strong in flavour but this was balanced with the perfectly poached eggs and fresh avocado with the different textures of the shredded potato which was still quite firm, wasn't mushy as I expected.

Potato, mint and feta pancake

The second dish we ordered was the corn fritters with avocado, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. I think I enjoyed this dish more, it was more simple in terms of flavours. My friend who is on a quest to find the best hollandaise sauce in perth thought it tasted abit sour, but just very faintly.  To me, hollandaise sauce is just creamy yolky sauce that just makes everything looks delicious ahha.. I had no problem with it. The corn fritter wasn't everyone's thing and I've heard mixed reviews from my friends..it really comes down to personal preference, but I did enjoy it.

Corn fritters

The birthday girl ordered the open rye sandwich with smoked salmon, tomato salsa, avocado, capers and a poached egg. Her dish was huge and had a very refreshing taste with the mint and tomatoes. I would enjoy this dish, but as it was rather large, I'd probably get sick of it half way..I'm glad I shared two dishes with my friend.

Open rye sandwich

My other friend had the big breakfast and she said it was standard, nothing special about it. Though it was overall better than the secret garden big breakfast. The eggs was actually cooked properly. She couldn't finish it.

Big Breakfast

Last but not least my other friend had the eggs benedict. She too enjoyed her meal. She had "Beach Bear" as her drink which I thought tasted really good! So refreshing! It was probably better than mine.

Eggs Benedict

Beach Bear (Highly recommended)

Overall, I enjoyed my brunch in Toast, meals were prepared with fresh produce accompanied with excellent service. I'd definetly recommend this place...DO NOT go without ordering a drink from the fresh juice combos.

Shiraz Persian Restaurant

"Unique experience indeedy~"

So my honkie buddy Ian was back in town and what better place to take him out to a dinner where you can chug down a meal and have eye candy on the side...literally on the side~~ XD

I've always wanted to try out middle eastern cuisine and after numerous failures to get reservations to "The Prophet" I decided to try SHIRAZ~ and I have to say..I don't regret coming here ^^

luving the cute cup and teapot

This restaurant have not been open for long and upon arrival I realise it's a very family friendly restaurant..well I swear majority of the people in the restaurant are related except for the obvious two asian tables one being ours. Interiors were quite nice..better than I expected..table settings were nice with shiraz signed table clothes and an interesting table decor. Staff was very friendly and abit cheeky and the waitress and chefs (females) are soo beautiful ;) ANYWAYS.. Shortly after ordering the music suddenly became louder and it wasn't really my type of music so I thought "oh dear I dont' think i can eat in peace with this music" next minute a belly dancer appeared and that just made it ALL OK FOR ME HAHA! and being asian...we all took our cameras and snapped away..whilst all the middle eastern pplz in the restaurant had blank faces like they were sooooo used to seeing this =-=.

Then our entrees arrive...

The entree section didn't seem very exciting except for the LAMB TONGUE...which van ordered..wat was she thinking?!? haha...I stayed on the safe side and ordered the eggplant dip with woodfired bread and EJ ordered some kind of soup I don't remember the name.

Lambs Tongue

Van was actually afraid to try this...I don't think she finished it haha andI dont think she enjoyed it either. I guess it's a case of mind over matter.

Egg plant dip with wood fired bread

The eggplant dip was quite nice...it wasn't pricey at all so for it's price i think it made a good entree. Very simple.

Soup

I did not like this soup but EJ and the rest didn't mind it...I found it too herbally for my liking...probably could only take two spoons of this and i'm done.

...back to the belly dancer

Alot of shakey shakey in the chesty chesty

When the mains arrived..most of them came out looking the same...it was confusing figuring out which one is which...thank god the waiters remembered everyone's order. Our table was packed with dishes it was quite stressful and intimidating and the loud music and belly dancer in the background really wasn't helping...but after awhile I managed to adapt to the atmosphere. I don't quite remember which dish is which and what they were called but they all tasted very similar just different cutting O_o. I ordered the Shiraz special which was pretty much like a tasting platter of all the items on the menu. I liked the chicken and the minced lamb (long strip of meat) they were tender and marinated well. With this meal you have a choice of having a side of bread or saffron rice...i think the bread was a better choice..Fred ordered the saffron rice and they were very generous with the rice...WHITE rice may I add and probably a sprinkle of saffron on the top haha...he realli struggled to eat all the rice.

Shiraz special

Whilst we were trying to chug down our ever so large meals...the music gradually became louder again and from then...we knew exactly what to expect :P........ the belly dancer appeared again! *ohh surprise surprise* this time..with a different outfit ;)

DRAMATIC

With a CANE ;)

Squats?

Spinning the cane

The dancer tried to get the audience to participate with her...even targetting Ian, Fern, Van and myself.....we did not bUDGE....except for van...XD...a couple of men joined her later in the night and it was quite amusing to watch ^^

With all the dancing happening I started to work up an appetite for DESSERT!...actually nah I lied...I ALWAYS HAVE SPACE FOR DESSERT! :P I've read comments about the PERSIAN ice cream which is a mix of vanilla ice cream with rose water, saffron and pistachios...I was so excited to try it!

Persian ice cream

and the verdict?...

I LOVE IT! this ice cream was delicious~! I'd come back to this restaurant and just order this haha...overall...the experience was definetly unique and I think everyone should visit a middle eastern restaurant with belly dancers at least once in their lifetime...not sure if this is the restaurant to go to if you're looking for a really good feed though...I'd say the food was average..it was meat overload~ and very simple..the price of the meals weren't too bad and with the added entertainment, it's more worth it...stear clear if u're looking for a peaceful romantic dinner though.