Piccolo in North Perth
by Nat from Nova 93.7
OK, so here was the deal. We had to get five chicks together for dinner sometime before Christmas. Sounds easy? Not when one’s just had a baby, one’s in the midst of moving to Melbourne, one’s doing a fly-in, fly-out job and one’s organizing a wedding. And then there’s me, the poor bugger who has to wrangle them all together. So it was something of a miracle when we all descended on Piccolo in North Perth within forty five minutes or so of the appointed time – not bad by our standards!
Piccolo, in that funky little strip on Angove Street, North Perth, was absolutely flat out. Not bad for a Tuesday night, although the fact that it was just a week out from Christmas might have had something to do with it. We scored a table outside – it was probably a good idea to keep us away from the normal customers, given our conversation can tend to be a little, er, salacious (which is a polite way of saying “smutty”!)
The chef kicked it off with a tiny taste of divine mushroom soup, and we cracked the first bottle of Moet. Piccolo’s BYO, so I brought along the bottle I was given for doing 1000 shows with Nathan (it was a party after all!). For entrée, Jilly and I opted for the salt, pepper and green tea squid ($19). The serving was especially generous, and the flavour was amazing. It was dressed with a chilli lime dressing and there was just the right amount of chilli (enough to notice, not enough to burn!). The other three chicks went for the sautéed wild mushrooms and potato rosti with poached egg and asparagus ($18) which looked delicious with great flakes of shaved parmesan topping it off, and it got a thorough thumbs up from everyone.
For main course Danni couldn’t go past the slow roasted lamb shoulder ($32). It had a greek salad with basil dressing on the side and, by the way Danni polished it off, was obviously pretty tasty. The other three girls had too much trouble deciding between the main course dishes, so went for the main tasting plate ($36) which had generous serves of the mussels with lemongrass, chilli and coconut cream, the pork belly and the braised beef cheek. OK, so they’re girls who love their meat! It took them a while to work their way through it and it must have been good because for a few minutes there, I think there was actually silence.
For my main course, I found the duck just too hard to ignore and I was SO happy with my choice. How’s this for a description: ‘five spice’ and maple syrup roasted duck breast with sautéed potatoes, green beans and a roasted hazelnut and spring onion dressing ($36). Absolutely divine. I would have licked the plate clean if I thought I could have got with it.
And whilst we’d eaten pretty heartily up to this point, we still managed to find room for dessert – it was the silly season after all. So the dessert menu was duly delivered and we started drooling all over again. Danni and Sandy shared the chocolate plate for 2 ($28) and they were quite delighted with the selection of chocolatey treats (who wouldn’t be, let’s face it!). There was chocolate fondant, white chocolate egg (served in actual eggshell), mocha icecream, milk chocolate mousse and dark chocolate and mint truffles, all served up on a platter with “Piccolo” spelled out in – what else – chocolate!
Jilly and Antonell decided to be a bit more ladylike and share the Bailey’s panna cotta with strawberry and raspberry soup ($12). The flavours were lovely and delicate, but it kind of paled in comparison to the chocolate festival happening on the other side of the table! I decided to turn a blind eye to my sweet tooth and ordered the cheese platter ($15). There was a selection of three cheeses, that the menu told me were Charleston, Ironstone and Tarago Shadows of Blue, served up with lavosh fruit chutney and my favourite, quince jam. It was a delightful way to round out the meal.
At the end of the night, the consensus was that the chef had outdone himself with some outstanding food. If we had to be picky (which isn’t in our natures at all!) the one disappointment was that the service seemed to be spread a bit thin. Our waiter was extremely competent, but she just seemed to be expected to look after too many tables. And although I didn’t require the facilities, a couple of the girls found the trip to the toilet a little on the scary side.
All up though, Piccolo is definitely a great little spot, and we’d all be happy to go back there again. Maybe we’ll be able to get our acts together again by next Christmas!
Piccolo in North Perth is also on the EatingWA VIP Card.
