Perth Girl About Town

04 December 2010

Cantina 663, Northbridge Festival & Beaufort Street Merchant

One of my good friends runs Top Perth on Facebook, a page to go to if you want recommendations on where to eat in Perth or what is good in Perth (click here for the link)!  Miss Top Perth definitely appreciates a good meal and we had an awesome day lately where we caught up for some grub, a chat and a walk around Northbridge to check our the Northbridge Festival.I met Miss Top Perth a long time ago in Bali when we were on the bus together to go to the same hotel. After bonding over Dior lipglosses and Lancome Juicy Tubes we spent the whole holiday together.  She is one of the busiest people I know so it was great to spend some time with her recently! 


We started out with a coffee and muffin at Cantina 663 on Beaufort Street in Mount Lawley.   This place is always so packed and it’s not surprising when they change their menu every sitting. You know you will always get the freshest of the fresh. We had arrived too late for breakfast and too early for lunch so Miss Top Perth ordered a Banana and Walnut Muffin to go with her long mac. I ordered a cappuccino and enjoyed every bit of it! So after our little chat we decided to head on down to the Northbridge Festival and see what is happening. 

It is so disappointing that they have so many resources for the festival yet I don’t think they were used to its full potential. We had a walk around and saw some of the kids on their skateboards, had a look at some of the market stalls and then headed up to the Cultural Centre to see what that held. It was pretty dead and there weren’t many people there. I know that it would have been busier at night but I was still hoping that on a Saturday there would still be some activity happening.


The Cultural Centre was again a ghost town with a small band playing towards the museum and a couple of art projects along the way.
After taking a stroll through Northbridge, and checking out all that was happening, we decided to head back into Mount Lawley and dine at the Beaufort Street Merchant for some late lunch. 

It was quite a warm day and it was so nice to walk into an air-conditioned restaurant.  One of the first items on the list was to order a fresh juice. We both decided on the Lush ($7) which has watermelon, apple, mint and rosewater. It was delicious and refreshing, such a good combination of flavours but you could definitely taste the rosewater. 

After looking at the menu I decided on the Orange and Hazelnut salad which also had snow peas and broad beans. Miss Top Perth decided on the Lentil Salad consisting of green lentils, sour cherries, bacon and gorgonzola. Both of these were $16 and we also added a baguette to the order. 


Our salads arrived in very unique bowls and our baguette was warm, served on a chopping board with a knife and some sticky balsamic and olive oil.
My salad was sweet from the orange and hazelnuts but deliciously crispy from the snow peas and broad beans. The hazelnuts also gave it a nice nutty flavour to the whole dish.
Miss Top Perth’s dish was more savoury than mine, a bit salty but definitely comforting and hardy.  It had a bit of a pea and ham soup flavour to it. As we discussed the salads, we decided nourishing was the best word to describe them. 

We carved the baguette into two and shared the sticky balsamic and olive oil. The bread was so nice and warm, crunchy on the outside, definitely fresh.
After I had eaten my salad I still had the juice from the orange in the bottom of my bowl so I used my bread to soak up the juice. Yum!

The Beaufort Street Merchant also has a little store at the back of the restaurant which sells gourmet delights including cheeses, chocolates, beers and wine. You can even choose your bottle of wine to have with your meal!
It was such a good day spent with an old friend and it was made even better with quality coffee, food and company!

Cantina 663 on UrbanspoonThe Beaufort Street Merchant on Urbanspoon


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