Lamont’s Wine Store

It’s always nice when someone you know has a good experience at a place and then invites you to head along with them to relive the magic. Well new magic for you and relived magic for them. Such was the invitation that GG and I received to try out Lamont’s Wine Store in Cottesloe with the lovely Mr C and Ms B.

I’d not been before, but I was definitely enamoured on entering. It had a welcoming and refined casualness to the place. And it really was a wine store! With fridges full of bottles, then all reds displayed on different shelves and racks interspersed between the tables and throughout the place. And it wasn’t crazy loud, which I have recently discovered is something that can seriously impact on the pleasantness of my dining experience. But as it was the chilled vibe of the place had me feeling very relaxed, as I sat and looked through the menu.

GG and I queried with the two ‘regulars’ whether they tended to just share a bunch of the smaller dishes or if they ordered a mains each. Shared was their preference and that worked for us! Always nice to get a few different dishes, as it meant you got to sample more off the menu. We started by ordering some bread, olives and a serve of the Venison Chorizo. And while worked our way through those, we each picked an item off the menu to have next.

The bread was freshly baked Baguette ($2.50 per person). Ahh the joy of fresh bread. Particulary lovely with some good olive oil, as this definitey was. The marinated mixed olives ($6.00) were also great, a garlic and rosemary infused mix of olives including some of my current favourites – those big, green ones, which I believe are Sicilian olives. They are just great! Such a wonderful flavour to them!

Gotta love Venison chorizo with grilled lemon ($9.50). Always makes me think of the Margaret River Deer Farm where I can only imagine that this Venison chorizo came from. Well they might make it in house, but regardless is made me think of Margs. Kind of makes me sad to drive past and see all the adorable Bambis roaming around in the field, knowing their fate, but I’m by no means a vegetarian and it really was beautiful chorizo. So much flavour to it and just perfect with a spritz of the lemon.

Now I’ll admit that I saw a serve of the House smoked Ocean Trout, horseradish cream ($15.50) be delivered to a nearby table and it was the dish I was most wary of. Predominantly because I thought it would have a really strong fishy flavour. I was pleasantly mistaken. The flavour was beautiful! And the crsipy bread on the side was great. The only real issue was that some of the slices of bread had holes in them that were so large it was more just a crispy edge than bread. But despite this, it was still a nice dish.

The dish I had chosen was the Sticky pork cheeks, shaved apple salad, candied walnuts ($15.50). It was amazing! The pork literally melted in your mouth and had this wonderful sticky, sweetness to it. Texturally it was great also to have the crunch from the fresh apple and the walnuts in this dish. A whole lot of yum.

We ordered both the Shark Bay whiting, tempura, with lemon ($17.50) and also the Handcut Royal Blue chips, rosemary salt ($9.50) because let’s face it fish and chips belong together. The light tempura batter on the whitening was so tasty and again the fennel salad on the side added a pleasant refreshing crunch. And putting it out there that these were some of the best chips I have had in a really long time. They had a generous sprinkle of salt flakes and were just cooked to crunchy perfection. I’d happily be eating fish and chips all the time if it was like these two dishes. Very well done.

And finally we had heard that one of Perth’s most illustrious food critics, Mr Broadfield, was particularly fond of the Wagyu beef pie with tomato chutney ($15.50) so we had to see what all the fuss was about. In retrospect, it wasn’t the hugest pie, so slicing into four pieces was a bit of a challenge, but we got there and it was worth the effort. Beautiful buttery pastry and soft and super delicious beef inside. The spicy chutney was also a pleasant addition.

We decided at this point that we were all feeling fairly comfortable, so decided we’d round out the evening with desserts. GG ordered the Crème caramel ($9.50), Ms B went for the Coconut cake with berries, which I very nearly got, because it sounded great, but in the end myself and also Mr C ordered the Rustic Apple Tart.

GG enjoyed his dessert, though did note that the sugary toffee on top was perhaps just a touch too sweet for this liking.

Ms C had positive reports on her choice and the berries on top did look so luscious!

And I did enjoy the apple tart, though was perhaps not quite as wowed by it as I had been with the savoury dishes we’d selected. It was very pleasant, but the apple, puff pastry, crème anglais combination felt a little too much like something I could whip up at home.

Dessert had filled any remaining void, so the fellas sipped on a Pedro Ximinez, but given I was driving I declined. We also decided we’d give cheese a miss at this point. I really was feeling quite comfortable, given what we’d already partaken in, so I didn’t feel I would do cheese much justice. An excuse to head back though, if just for the cheese 🙂 But definitely for more of those delicious dishes we’d already enjoyed for a second time.

It’s a lovely place for a nice night out. Tasty food and friendly and knowledgable service 🙂 They also do tapas evenings on some Sunday nights…. Details are on their website https://www.lamonts.com.au/venues/lamonts-cottesloe/ I suspect I’ll be visiting again some time real soon!