The line between bar and restaurant has been blurring for years, but East Perth's waterfront strip is one of the places where the line has effectively dissolved. Bar menus here are now genuinely good restaurant menus.
The shift is partly competitive — when every venue on the strip is doing share plates well, the bar for entry rises. But it's also driven by the chefs who've moved into bar kitchens looking for more interesting briefs than another tasting menu can offer.
The result is share plates that hold their own against the city's best mid-tier restaurants: ricotta gnocchi with brown butter and sage, slow-braised lamb shoulder, crisp pork belly with apple and fennel.
What's particularly clever is how it works with drinking. The portions are sized for grazing, the timing is loose, and the kitchen will keep sending dishes until you tell them to stop. It turns a Friday after-work drink into a four-hour dinner without trying.
There are still gaps — desserts in particular are an underrated weakness across the strip. But the savoury menus are genuinely good, and you can put together a serious meal at any of the better venues for under $80 per head.
If you've been booking restaurants out of habit, swap one this month for a cove-side bar. You won't go back.