My favourite sunset restaurants in Perth

If you haven’t heard: 14 February is Valentines Day. Yes, that’s tomorrow. TOMORROW! Get your bouquet of roses, parcels of chocolates and lovvy duvvy cards sorted. But wait! Flowers wilt, chocolate goes straight to the hips and cards, let’s face it, sooner or later end-up in the bin, no? So, what about a nice dinner and watching the sunset? That’s romantic! If you’re so inclined but don’t know where to go, here are my favourite sunset restaurants in Perth for your consideration.

The Kiosk, Floreat Beach

Photo by The Kiosk

The Kiosk, true to its name, dispence ice cream and cold drinks for beach visitors at the front and at the back invites guests to sit down under the sun sail covered deck overlooking Floreat Beach. This place is always bustling with people queuing up to order at the counter regardless of the time of the day. At night, life music softens the mood and blankets the slightly “kiosky” atmosphere of low-key plastic furniture and long wooden tables to share. The sunsets are spectacular here and if you don’t feel like frocking-up this is the place to go.Fish lovers will find plenty to choose from and prices are probably on the cheaper side in Perth (which means, it’s still pretty expensive).

The Wild Fig Cafe, Scarborough

There is three fig cafes in town besides this one in Scarborough. The atmosphere and menu vary though, but their popularity is the common denominator, which makes it hard to get in without a booking.

The food, like the interior design, is slightly quirky and the dinner staff have been amazingly friendly. My only criticism is, staff, particularly in the morning for breakfast when it’s busy, can be a bit snooty and if you don’t order another round of drinks you get your bill quicker than you can say “another cappuccino, please”. Has anyone else noticed that?

Bluewater Grill, Applecross

This is a sunset of a different kind, this time without an ocean view, but equally fascinating. The suburb Applecross sits along the southern side of the Swan River, so, there are water views. More importantly it’s right across from Perth’s CBD, which the sunset paints into all shades of gold and orange. It’s a magical sight.

This is exactly why this restaurant has been very high on my list of places to take visitors to. Alas, when my parents were here over Christmas we were tremendously unfortunate as this place had closed for a couple of consecutive weeks. I get that staff want to have a break too, but over the busiest time of the year? Mhhh. I was disappointed we didn’t get in, but hey, maybe you’ve got more luck?

The Blue Duck, Cottesloe

Photo by The Blue Duck

Cottesloe, as locals will attest, is Perth’s hoity-toity beach suburb. This doesn’t mean the villas popping-up like concrete bubbles all along the coast line are any less valuable…. Anyway, Cottesloe is a great place for connoisseurs and those who didn’t make a booking and need to check a few restaurants before scoring a table.Next to The Blue Duck is Barchetta, further down Indiana and across the road Bluewaters (not to be confused with the restaurant in Applecross I mentioned above), here the excellent menu makes up for the lack of ocean view.All of them are fairly pricy and worthwhile to check out. The reason why I picked The Blue Duck as my preferred choice is a completely biased and sentimental reason. I’ve had lovely dinners here before, the atmosphere is slick, elegant and still warm and cosy, which is the perfect mix for me. The food is superb so is the service.I’m sensing there’s a great story behind the name, but last time I asked about it the staff couldn’t quite recall it. Urgh, nothing’s worse than a botched-up story.

Salt on the Beach, North Fremantle

A little bit dark, but look at that long board!

The tent part to the right of Salt on the Beach is a beach bar area, which caters for families and kiddy entertainment. I haven’t tried the food here as it’s always been too noisy for my liking. The left side of the restaurant is a white table cloth and candle light area, it’s quiet, cosy and elegant.

Salt is one of the places where, if you have had the food once, you wake up in the middle of the night with cravings and want to go back. The pork belly and seared scallops did it for Thorsten. He said they were “the best ones I’ve ever had”. Since it’s one of the dishes he will definitely try if he finds it on any menu (so he has it A LOT) I can safely say he’s an expert in the pork belly department.We munched through the long board share platter - absolutely amazing! They’re also currently running a competition on their website, which might be worth checking out?

So, these are my favourite sunset restaurants in Perth. Which ones have I missed?