Black Toms – Revisited

I was reminded of the importance of quality company the other day when I went to lunch. A good friend of mine works in Subiaco so we decided we’d take advantage of the new Entertainment Book and find somewhere central to both of us and decided on Black Toms in West Perth for a Friday lunchtime catch up. 2 for 1 mains is always a plus. I like what they’ve done with the decor these days – very open and looks a little trendy with their pretty little lamp collection sitting above the bar. Also a plus is that in the restaurant they close it all in with heavy plastic sheets that actually works wonders against the wind that was blowing a gale that day. So I arrived first and was asked about water as soon as I was seated. So can’t fault the attentive service. My lunch partner didn’t take too long to arrive and given that it had been her birthday earlier in the week I had some flowers waiting for her. And because I arrived first I used that time to take a picture of the flowers…. its just how I roll I guess – love my photos 🙂

So when the lovely J had rung up to make a booking for us, she was told that a large ground was set to arrive shortly after we were due to arrive so given her super efficient nature she emailed me the menu so we could pre-chose our mains – what a gal! So I had decided I would go with the braised char sui pork belly with steamed vegetables ($29.80). I was sort of surprised when it arrived with a large serve of rice, given there’d been no mention of it in the menu description. Yes, I know I could have just not eaten it, but I think I had thought I would be quite vegetable heavy…. which sadly it was not. The vegetables that were included, 4 pieces of broccolini, were in fact steamed….. unfortunately within an inch of their life! There was no crunch to them at all. So I was pretty disappointed about that, I love my greens a bit more on the al dente side. The two triangles of pork were well cooked and very tasty, but I don’t know I suppose I had hoped to be more wowed. The whole dish left me seriously wanting.

And J was equally as unenthused with her selection of the salmon & crab fishcakes with pickled cucumber and salad ($32). I mean 4 pieces of lettuce, even if some is red and some is green, is still a fairly lacklustre effort at a salad. And with the actual fishcakes themselves, it was difficult to actually taste any of the salmon or crab, it was really just filler…. disappointing.

So service wise, no complaints, and the company was top notch but just the food really needs some work. Definitely wouldn’t be rushing back given some of the better alternatives available in that neighbourhood.