Vegetarian with a view and other Perth, Australia Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Annalakshmi

With its lovely riverside setting and spacious, well-furnished and gracious ambience, you would think the Annalakshmi is rather special. Well, it is, but in a very different way from the norm of classy restaurants. Everyone who works here is a volunteer, the delicious home cooking is all done by wives, mothers and grandmothers to family recipes. Everyday an extensive vegetarian buffet is served and the motto is "eat what you like, pay what you feel". The philosophy of Annalakshmi is that "the food is prepared and served with love and the undiminished notion of service to humanity"

Favorite Dish: There is no set menu, but every day there are two or three soups, several different breads, a variety of pakora and other small titbits, plain and pilau rice, a selection of vegetable curries and dahls, chutneys and raitas, all followed by delicious Indian desserts. The food is served on a thali platter and you are welcome to take seconds of anything you like.
No alcohol is served, but fresh juices and smooth lassis are available (I think these are charged for at a set rate).

Whilst there is no set charge, and you could eat and pay nothing, it is my recommendation that you pay something between A$10 and 20 according to your own budget.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: Barrack Street Jetty No 4
Directions: By the Swan River, at the bottom end of Barrack Street, near the Bell Tower
Website: www.annalakshmi.com.au

Restaurant Name: New Norcia Bakery

Rustic walls and simple fittings reflect the connection of the New Norcia Bakery's city branch with the historic Benedictine monastery town where they began baking their delicious artisan bread in the monk's old bakehouse in 1993. The bread is still baked there daily, while the city bakery attends to the huge range of yummy pastries, biscuits and other goodies made fresh each day. All this good stuff and more is available to eat in at the cafe next door or to take away.

Favorite Dish: Apart from the excellent bread and baked goods available in the shop, the cafe menu includes great winter-warming soups and delicious fresh dips and spreads that go down a treat with their crusty sough dough breads, pies and flans with gourmet fillings, rolls and sandwiches filled with interesting combinations and a daily tapas plate.

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Theme: Bakery
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: 9386 4114
Address: 163 Scarborough Beach Road, Mount Hawthorn
Directions: 7.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday
8.00am to 1.00pm Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays

There's a second cafe/bakery in Barker Road, Subiaco, near Rokeby Road
Website: http://www.newnorciabaker.com.au/main.html

Restaurant Name: Sitella's

You'll need to book well in advance if you plan to have lunch at Sitella's any weekend of the year. Its beautiful setting overlooking a lake and the vineyards of the Swan Valley combined with the fantastic food mean that it always full. There's a wide shady veranda, ideal for long, lazy Sunday lunches, whilst inside is a haven of warm terracotta and wood, which suits the winery setting perfectly.
Sitella's is a working vineyard so you can taste all their wines at the cellar door as you study the menu. Be warned though -decisions here are hard and it is all so good.

Favorite Dish: Meltingly tender seared kangaroo fillets served on a tart of spicy sweet potato was fabulous but the sticky double-baked duck in a teriyaki sauce got raves from the other side of the table and every plate that went past the table had heads swivelling. The food here is seriously good stuff!

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Theme: Local
Comparison: about average

Phone: 9296 2600
Address: 100 Barrett Road, Herne Hill
Directions: West Swan
Website: http://www.perth.citysearch.com.au/profile?id=60012715