The West End Deli has an outstanding reputation in Perth, deservedly so.  What I love about the West End Deli is the small but great menu and the fact that it is BYO and there’s no corkage.  Yes, that’s right, no corkage. Unheard of yes, but as it should be if you ask me!

This small West Perth eatery really made its name with great lunches.  It started opening up on the weekends and it is now consistently busy. It is easy to see why. The kitsch setting of black walls, mismatched 70s and 80s crockery lit by unique if not haphazard home made hanging chandeliers made with chairs interwoven with light bulbs makes for a relaxing old school ambience.

For entree, I chose slow cooked egg with peas, bacon, truffle oil, and parmesan.  I was curious about the slow cooked egg and wanted to try it. It was nice, the texture was slightly different to a normal boiled egg, it was nice. The peas, bacon, etc were nice too, although the truffle oil was hardly noticeable.

The problem with our table at The West End Deli was that is was just so dark. It was near impossible to see our food, even with the aid of a table tea light candle.  Put it this way, the 20-something year olds on the table next to us used a torch app on their iPhone to shed some light on their dishes. Poor Zorba with is old eyes (ha!) – he was struggling, as was I with my 20-20 vision.

Zorba’s entree was the home made ravioli with egg and ricotta. The egg inside the ravioli was slightly running, acting as a bit of a sauce to the dish, lovely.

For main, Zorba had seared snapper, prawns, mussels, saffron, and tomato.  He enjoyed it, but I think the difficulty in seeing what he was eating was slightly off-putting.

I wasn’t overly hungry, so opted for a second entree in place of a main meal. I chose quail with citrus and beetroot. It was very tasty but slightly unpleasant to be biting into a small quail bone because it was too dark to see that the fillet was in fact a maryland thigh with the bone in tact.

There is no doubt that the food is good. The service is friendly and professional.  The prices are up there, but there is no corkage charge and is fully BYO so the bill reasonable. If the West End Deli addresses the lighting on some of the tables, it would be hard to fault it.

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FACT FILE

West End Deli
95 Carr Street, West Perth, 6005
Tel: +61 8 9328 3605

Opening hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 7am – 3pm
Dinner from 6pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings
BYO wine, champagne and beer