Dining in East Perth: Little Moorish and The Royal

We've always been fond of the East Perth area ever since it was revamped a few years ago. It's a lovely area, with beautiful sceneries and nice cafes and restaurants. It was also quite nearby to our apartment in Highgate so it was a convenient location to meet friends. On this trip back to Perth, we dined in East Perth at two restaurants with friends, both of which I've eaten at before.

Little Moorish

I've blogged about Little Moorish restaurant before more than 3 years ago, and hubby was a little disappointed to see that they no longer have lamb shanks on the menu. I thought it was great that there was a change in menu because that meant more Moroccan-style dishes to try! For starters, the four of us shared Chilli & Lemon Squid (with orzo pasta, kalamata olives and red capsicum, AU$13) and a Mixed Tapas Plate (featuring three dips [cinnamon and pumpkin; zaalouk
tahini; and dhukah yoghurt], grilled chilli sausage, chicken wings and turkish bread for AU$33). All were quite nice, but only one thing stood out which, funnily enough, was a dip. The cinnamon and pumpkin dip had a nice blend of spices and was a fragrant and tasty dip.

Chilli & Lemon Squid; and Mixed Tapas:


For mains, hubby ordered the Bisteeya (AU$29), a sweet and savoury meat pie. I first heard about this Moroccan pastry a few years ago and I knew it as Bastilla. It was something I'd ambitiously put on my list of things to try making, but I never did do it because it frankly seemed like a lot of work. This restaurant serves this as a chicken and almond dish accented with cinnamon and honey. The sweetness might seem like a strange thing to have in a main dish, but it works. The pastry was nice and crispy. I got the Essaouira Salmon, which, according to the menu, is pink salmon served on a salad of green beans, tomato, kalamata olives, egg and potato with olive oil and lemon chermoula sauce (AU$32). It was nice, but not as nice as the bisteeya.

Bisteeya; and the Salmon:


My friend got the Moroccan Lamb Brochettes (lamb skewers with mango and potato salad, AU$28) which looked impressive so I just had to take a shot of it. Unfortunately I don't know how it tastes like but my friend said it was delicious.

Moroccan Lamb Brochettes


Once again, dessert proved too much of a temptation for hubby to resist, and an order of Chocolate Orange Pudding was made. It was good (chocolate and orange are a good combination), and very rich so it was good we had only one to share between the four of us. Hubby didn't enjoy it as much as he wanted to because he said that it was unevenly heated.



Thanks Shona and Jimmy for the lovely dinner!


The Royal

I came to The Royal a few years ago for a work Christmas function. Considering that it is more of a cocktail bar and pub than a restaurant, the food menu was quite extensive. The food itself was pretty good, considering that it's "pub food". Our dining companions often come to The Royal for the coffee, which they say is pretty good too. So I reckon that The Royal is a good all-rounder to satisfy the foodie, wine lovers and coffee drinkers.

Hubby got the Scotch Fillet (AU$37) which was served with pesto mash, banana prawns, roasted vine cherry tomatoes with house smoked garlic cream sauce. Not bad. My order was NT Barramundi (AU$34), which I assume is from Northern Territory. The fish fillet was lovely with a crispy skin, but the mint & pea risotto was rather plain and really needed the red pepper coulis to give it some taste.

Scotch Fillet; and NT Barramundi:


Everyone (else) wanted dessert with their coffee, so S and Hubby headed to the dessert display to order dessert. There were quite a few selection, and Hubby chose a Berry Crumble (sorry, I can't remember exactly which berry). Nice, but the jam on top was far too sweet.



Thanks Brett and Sam for taking us out to dinner :)


We're heading to New York for a month tomorrow, so this will be my last post for awhile (at least until we've settled down and gotten over the jet lag which will no doubt hit me again like it did last time we flew to NYC from Tokyo). I do have one final post on our eats in Perth, at the award-winning Loose Box, so keep an eye on this blog!