The Loose Box restaurant has to be one of the most unfortunately named restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. When I mentioned to friends that I was going for a meal at this place, it brought sniggers all around. Oh well, at least it is memorable! As a treat for our parents, we took them both out a couple of days before our wedding to say thank you. Neither mine or Brad’s parents tend to go to fancy restaurants, so it was a chance for us to treat them to a nice meal and share a passion of ours with them. I know my parents certainly couldn’t afford it when we were kids, nor were we ever well behaved to take anywhere fancier than the local Chinese… 

On the day of the meal, things were not going well. I’d just heard that myself and most of the team I worked with were being made redundant on the way in the car and at that stage, it was looking like my sister-in-law to be wasn’t going to have a bridesmaid dress to wear. When we got there, the waitress (who I believe was head of the front-of-house team) fumbled whilst opened a bottle of wine and sprayed it in my eye and all over my dress. At this stage I promptly ran to the bathroom and burst into tears, with the waitress following quite closely behind. She felt terrible, thinking that it was all her doing and when I explained why I was actually upset, she burst into tears. It was quite a surreal moment. Without us even asking, they removed the bottle of wine from the bill. 

Thankfully it turned a corner after that and what followed was an absolutely lovely meal. I’d chosen Loose Box as they offered a vegetarian tasting menu for my Mother-in-Law, something not all restaurants do. It turns out that the chef’s daughter is vegetarian and you can see that a lot of thought has gone into making it as fulfilling as the meat version. Another thing I liked about the Loose Box is that they are relatively flexible about the degustation menu. They were happy to swap out dishes between the meat and vegetarian menus and offer alternatives on a number of courses. 

The chef’s pastry skills came in for high praise from everyone. From the choux pastry swans, exquisite petit fours, to the delicate little meringue birds with a pastry sign that said “Congratulations on your wedding” which I thought was a beautiful personal touch. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal and I thought the prices — roughly $200 per person — were quite reasonable given the quality of the cooking and warm friendly service. Unfortunately my photos didn’t come out at all but you can have a look on Flickr to get the idea.

Loose Box
6825 Great Eastern Hwy
Mundaring 6073 Australia
Phone: +61(0)892951787
www.loosebox.com.au

There were a number of restaurants in Perth that I went to over our long wedding break which I didn’t end up taking photos at for one reason or another. They are worth a mention though, so I’m going to do a short post on each one. First up is Deco Restaurant at Raffles houses in a beautiful Art Deco building which I used to drive past with my parents almost every weekend.

(Photo by Tram_Painter on Flickr)

Good friends of ours — Shannon (who was my bridesmaid) and Paul — took us to this restaurant as our wedding present. We couldn’t take physical gifts home with us and they know how much we like food so this was a brilliant idea. The restaurant has fantastic views over the Swan River, so perfect if you aren’t a local. The menu focuses on local Australian produce, mainly seafood, and the portions were all very generous.

As none of us are fans of Oysters, we skipped their extensive selection and opted for shared starters on their menu — turkish bread, olives and chorizo — all of which were lovely. I had a pan-fried Pink Snapper fillet served with gnocchi, pumpkin, pine-nuts, sage and lemon beurre-blanc. I’ve had similar combinations in London but this won hands-down. Brad opted for the Double Roasted Duck in red thai curry sauce with lychees, tamarind, lemongrass, fried shallot & coconut rice. Brad gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up and ate the whole lot! Our friends opted for dishes they had ordered on previous visits, if my memory serves me correctly, they were Scotch Fillet for Paul and Prosciutto Wrapped Red Emperor Fillet for Shannon.

Unfortunately I can’t remember what we had for dessert, I think I may have shared one with Brad as it was only a couple of days before the wedding. Again, no complaints here. It’s on the pricier side of things but well worth the money. 

Deco Restaurant @ Raffles
67-71 Canning Beach Road
Applecross, Western Australia
Phone +61(0)893149000
http://www.rafflesperth.com.au/

I was lucky enough to go with some work colleagues to Pearl Restaurant in Holborn. We’d been looking for something nearby that was nice and that could fit eight of us in at short notice. I’d been researching earlier that week for a blog post when I came across Pearl on Timeout and noticed they had a special deal (3 courses for £30), sadly no longer available. Now I have to apologise up front for the quality of these photos. The section we were in had shocking lighting and I was armed with only my iPhone. 

We started off with not one but two amuse-bouche. Pretty amazing given we were dining on a set menu deal. The first was an assortment of dishes, there was enough for two each. I can’t quite remember what they were now but thanks to another food blog it turns out from the bottom they are a Mackerel and Vegetables Escabeche, a Chicken Liver Parfait with Toasts and Chutney, a Mushroom Risotto arancino and what I think was a Pastry Concoction filled with an unknown substance - unfortunately I didn’t get a taste either! The second amuse-bouche was the same for everyone. I was concerned it was a raw egg but it was actually a Butternut Squash Puree with Green Apple Jelly. The pumpkin puree came in for very high praise from my dining companions. 

We also had generous servings of fresh bread and I was beginning to wonder how I would get through the three courses. For starters, I opted for Roast Langoustines, Scallop Mousse with Black Spaghetti, Fennel Puree and Sea Purslane (IIRC) whilst for my main I went for Fish served with Herby Potato Cakes, Puree and Samphire. The starter was amazing. The langoustine was fresh and the black spaghetti was visually stunning. The green sauce was sweeter than I expected. Unfortunately I can’t remember the fish I had for my main (possibly monkfish). It was perhaps a little too generous a portion for me especially with the filling herby potato cakes. The puree, which I believe was parnsip, was rich and surprisingly enough, one of the highlights of the dish. 

We were expecting dessert but we ended up getting another bonus course, this time it was a Pre-Dessert in a shot glass - Vanilla Cream with Blackberry Compote. The creamy vanilla flavour worked really well with the tart berries. The desserts were possibly the most spectacular course of the evening. Both dessert options looked incredibly good and the presentation standard was very high. I can’t quite remember what I had but I know it was good, from what I can recall I think it was a Chocolate Parfait with White & Dark Chocolate Balls and Hazelnuts. I was stuffed by that point but still managed to finish off my dish. 

The other dessert looked equally impressive and you can see the Tiramisu with Amaretto Ice-cream in the photo below. Petit Fours followed, including marshmallows and sesame snaps. I managed a marshmallow but I was totally stuffed by that point. 

I felt that the service was a little clunky in parts and more visible than they should have been. On occasion, they interrupted conversation and clattered the plates as they laid them down or removed them but this is me nitpicking more than anything.

Although the food or the service weren’t perfect, I felt that the deal we got was pretty amazing. £30 bought us seven courses and it felt like they had really put effort in those courses, not skimped because we were eating on a special deal. If you can get a deal, I’d definitely recommend it but even if you can’t I’d still say it’s worth a visit. 

Pearl by Jun Tanaka
252 High Holborn
London WC1V 7EN
Phone: +44(0)2078297000
http://www.pearl-restaurant.com/