Welcome to the first (of hopefully many!) reviews of Perth’s food, wine and all things culinary by Lee and Sandro. Before we get carried away with the details of our first outing, we think it would be nice to tell you a little about us.

First, Sandro. Chef by trade, connoisseur by nature, he is the food side of this dynamic duo. Having worked extensively in kitchens throughout Perth and Europe, this boy knows his food.

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Now for Lee – service, presentation and style are his passions and his profession. Lee is the front of house guru who will draw on his wealth of knowledge to let you know what to expect on the service side of our adventures.

For our first outing, what better way to consummate our newly forged critique-ship together than at the recently refurbished Court Hotel. Predictable yes, but after all, we’re not writing for Gourmet Traveller, we’re writing for OUTinPerth!

Now, we booked a table for the terribly uncivilized time of 6pm on a Tuesday (surprisingly, we had lots on that night) and our reservation was taken without incident. So booked, washed and fragranced we arrived.

For all those who haven’t been; the old girl really looks great – the décor, the fixtures, it all comes together well. To begin, we had a cocktail at the bar – Pink Diamonds ($9.00, Bombay gin, pink grapefruit juice, lime and a dash of sugar syrup) – and then sat at a table of our choice. Our waitress presented our menus and explained to us that it was her first night working – not as a matter of an excuse but more to let us know that although she was wet behind the ears, she would do her utmost to find out anything we needed to know (she was from Tassie, an absolute doll, she even took our inbreeding jokes with good humour)!

The menu contained a selection of tapas and mains and it must be said that there were a lot of dishes to choose from – in fact, the menu was vast.

To start, we ordered a tapas tasting plate ($19.00) to start. It arrived promptly, within 15 minutes and looked lovely. Of the four samples on the plate, the arancini balls were the standout, crispy crumbed coating with a moist, fetta adorned risotto centre. Now we aren’t total carnivores, but we would have liked to have sampled a red meat dish as one of the four. Our waitress did come and check on our entrée which is good form in our book.

We had a short sabbatical in between our entrée and mains (so Lee could have a well earned ciggie). We reentered and our meals were presented – appealing to the eye, inviting and plentiful. True to the pub bistro genre, the portions were large and excellent value for money. Our mains were appetizing with flavors that constructed from a culturally sound understanding. Though duck with celeriac mash (a $30 special of the day) was just a tad dry, the veal rissoles served with mash, port and onion sauce ($25) were quite delicious, especially after adding a dash of salt and pepper. On the whole, all dishes were well and truly above average for normal pub fare.

Would we eat at The Court again? Quite simply, yes. The decor is attractive; the staff is welcoming and the drinks list is downright Stella or should we say Esmeralda, Vina Esmeralda – Torres Spain ($29). The question did arise – do we think of The Court restaurant as a pub or is the restaurant, a restaurant in its own right? In our humble opinion, with a reduced menu, the kitchen could create an even bigger distinction between ‘pub’ and ‘dining’ and The Court could further fulfill its potential as a great place to break bread.

Well, that’s our first adventure concluded – next issue, we open up a little and give you a look into what’s happening on the Perth food scene with some invaluable insight into places you already know and how best to navigate them.

REVIEW IN BRIEF

• The phone booking – Above average
• The exterior presentation – Average
• The dining area – Above average
• The toilets – Average
• The drinks – Above average
• The food – Average/Above average
• The price – Above average
• OVERALL – “You would be hard pressed to find a better more affordably priced pub meal in Northbridge.”

RESTAURANT INFORMATION

• Contact for Booking: 9328 5292
• Kitchen Open: Tues-Sat from 3pm
• Dinner: From 6pm
• Lunch: Now open
• Pizzeria: Open Wed-Sun, 5pm-late.