Juanita’s

I went to Juanita’s in Subi the other week. Up the end of Rokeby Road closer to Thomas than Hay I had actually not heard of it before. But I was catching up with a new friend, Lady B, to discuss all things WA Signature Dish and Juanita’s was chosen as our rendezvous spot. It’s a small bar with several popular tables out the front along the street, primed for people watching and then a selection of others inside closer to the bar, just on from a very cute little gift shop. It’s a real interesting mish mash of old retro furniture, eclectic paintings on the walls and interesting art and the combination all worked really well together. It’s welcoming and cosy and staff behind the bar are friendly.

We each opted for a very choice glass of Rose and while I couldn’t actually tell you what winery it was from, I missed the name, but it was delightfully dry and perfect for a Tuesday night outing. On the food front we ordered one of their tasting plates to nibble on. It was actually a pretty impressive line up of tasty morsels. Chunky chorizo slices with lemon wedges ripe for the spritzing, several pieces of bread, some hard cheese pieces along with crackers and then there was a small dish of a tomatoey relish, some vibrant green Sicilian olives (which I have decided are my favourite), some goats cheese and caramelised onion tartlets and finally two croquettes. Talk about a big line up!

It was a delicious selection, hard to know where to start but the lovely olives were beckoning to me so I grabbed one of those and eagerly chomped. Great start and I was reminded why these are my new favourites. Hard to say what a previous favourite was on the olive front, probably kalamatas. I tried the croquette next and the cheesy and herby deep fried treasure was entirely delicious. Deep frying can be a total wonder when it contrasts so nicely with other tasty components. The tartlets were great. My best friend made some fabulous tarts just like this recently so I welcomed the change to try a few more of the goats cheese and onion combos – so yum! They had been fairly generous with the slices of bread and as it turned out with a little of the relish and either a piece of the cheese or the chorizo it was a tasty little open sandwich. The chorizo was fairly mild in the spice stakes but I suspect that would keep it a crowd pleaser. Don’t want to rock peoples socks off with excess heat now do ya 🙂

It was actually quite filling as we worked our way through the line up of this and that. Hard to go past the croquette as a favourite, but the make your own little sandwiches were also a winner.

So it hadn’t been a long stay but it was just a perfect place for a lovely chat with Lady B from Clarity Communications. I’m excited to be involved in the WA Signature Dish competition. Call in for a drink, stay for a bite. So glad to have made Juanita’s acquaintance 🙂