While we were in Europe, my writer Karina had Persian food in Perth at Recipe Restaurant. She loved it and thought the Persian food stayed true to its tradition…I thought that’s saying something when Karina is of a Persian background.
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Recipe Restaurant in East Perth is a Persian restaurant which opened in 2014 that combines traditional and contemporary cooking techniques. Persian food is great as it takes beautiful rich and extravagant ingredients and present them in way that lets each of them shine without being too overcomplicated. Recipe Restaurant’s location opposite the esplanade in East Perth gives the restaurant a beautiful romantic view and has a relaxed cool atmosphere.
Having dinner at Recipe Restaurant felt like I was stepping back into my own heritage. Though I am Persian, a lot of the traditions and foods have been lost along the way. It was really great to eat Persian food that was so traditional.
The waitress showed up to our table and casually went through the menu telling us about Persian food and Recipe Restaurant’s speciality’s. It was great to have someone who understood Persian food because she helped us selected dishes from the menu that truly reflected Persian food culture.
We decided to start the night with the Gambas ($18.90) entree…
Gambas is dish with spicy chorizo, prawns, garlic, onion and fresh lemon juice. It was served with two slices of rosemary turkish bread and oh my the turkish bread was the fluffiest and softest turkish bread I have ever tasted. The Gambas itself was also super tasty, the fresh lemon juice brought the flavours of the chorizo and prawn out beautifully. The bread and the Gambas worked beautifully together. I think overall this was my favorite dish.
Most of the main dishes featured a meat, though there was a selection of seafood too. We decided to have the classic dish ($58.90) which includes one skewer of beef strip-loin, one chicken marinated in saffron and lemon juice, and one lamb. The dish also came with saffron rice, grilled tomato, barbecue jalapeno peppers and shires salad. I think we underestimated how much food would be served, because there was a lot! I would definitely recommend sharing this dish with maybe one or two other people. Though all three meats tasted delicious, my favorite was the beef strip-loin. It was cooked to absolute perfection, soft and juicy with a simple flavor it was a real pleasure to eat.
We also tried the Persian burgers which was definitely an experience. We had the Recipe Temptation Burger ($31.90) which had a freshly made meat patty topped with blue cheese, mozzarella, mushroom, lettuce, chilli, onion, bacon and tomato served with a side of fries. Once again I recommend sharing with a couple of people because this burger was incredibly big. I loved that they used the turkish bread for it, because I was such a big fan of the turkish bread form the entree. The star quality of the burger came form the giant sheet of melted cheese that encapsulated the burger. The meat inside was very large but very succulent and full of flavor. However it was a little bit hard to eat purely because it was so big and there was so much filling.
I knew as soon as I saw the menu that I wanted to have Faloodeh ($11.90) for desert. My mother used to make Faloodeh when I was quite young, having it at Recipe Restaurant made me feel quite nostalgic for my childhood. This dessert is a features rice sticks and rose water served with lemon juice, pomegranate syrup and big scoop of saffron and pistachio ice-cream.
Recipe Restaurant has a lot of traditional Persian food. I would recommend it to people who don’t mind sharing because the servings are quite big (though there are single servings available, its more fun to share and taste a bit of everything). The prices do seem a little expensive the big serves do make up for it.
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About Karina
If someone were to record all my thoughts for a day, they would be astonished by the perpetual insatiable hunger I have for food. I constantly desire food, but not just any food, the most fabulous food I can find. From healthy low-carb high-protein power balls to decadent chocolate filled desserts, I will readily devour anything that looks and tastes fabulous!
Disclaimer: foodie cravings was invited as a guest of Recipe Restaurant. See disclosure policy for more details.
