February 21, 2016 | 0 Comments

3Sheets Portside

The sun has really dialled up the temperature of late so venturing out is something of a challenge, but it what summer in Perth is all about, so best to just embrace it. And that we did recently when we decided to venture out to Hillarys for a bite of lunch on a particularly warm Sunday. It actually turned out to be the hottest week in Perth in many, many years and I’ll admit that 40 degree heat is something I’m out of practise with, but thankfully when we arrived at our destination they had the windows open to capture any skerrick of breeze and also several large fans to keep the masses cooled. We had arrived at 3Sheets Portside.

Urban, Gritty, Relaxed.
Craft beer & great food in a family friendly environment.

3Sheets is a vast venue split into two sections – the main bar/restaurant then a slightly smaller space called Portside, which has a more tapas style offering. It is a very appealing menu and we took several minutes to short list our selections and landed on:

Sliders Board – Make Your Own Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork, Soft Shelled Crab, Iceberg, Tomato, Aioli, Apple Sauce, Tomato Chutney, BBQ Sauce, Lemon $34
Spanish Style Chips (Patatas Bravas) – Fried Crushed Baby Potatoes, Spiced Tomato Sauce, Aioli $12
Cajun Squid – Asian Slaw, Green Chilli Aioli $18
Bruschetta Salad – Tomato, Spanish Onion, Danish Feta, Ciabatta Toast $15

I went up to place our order (which you do so at the bar) and the friendly chap behind the counter queried how many people that order was for. Just the two hungry punters I let him know and he kindly advised that perhaps I was being slightly ambitious. I appreciated that guidance. So I paused and decided to scratch the squid, leave it for another day.

When he delivered our drinks a few moments later he let us know he’d send out a sample size of the squid for us to try so that was lovely. On the drinks side I had boldly gone for the beer tasting paddle, I say boldly because I’m not much of a beer drinker, but in weather like this it was definitely time for a brew or two…. Or four with thanks for the paddle. They were all actually really different beers and it was fun to sip each of them and compare and contrast the different flavour profiles like a pair of rookie beer pros, while we eagerly awaited the arrival of the food.

The Spanish style potatoes came first and were a generous, stacked bowlful of spuds, smothered in a dollop of creamy aioli and with an abundance of this delicious spicy tomato sauce. The potatoes were crispy crisp on the outside and hot and fluffy on the inside. It was an epic salute to the spud.

Next was the squid and when it appeared I had actually assumed they had decided to just give us a full serve because it was a very decent amount of squidy pieces. As it turned out at a similar time a table nearby had also ordered squid and I got to see what an actual serve looked like. It was a mountain! The biggest size I’ve probably seen anywhere in Perth that I’ve dined and squid is often a dish that GG and I will order to compare different venues versions. Portside’s spin was delicious. A crispy well seasoned coating, not too thick, tender squid and with a pleasant dipping sauce. On another day, at another time we would try and tackle a proper serve.

But today we needed to save room for the slider board which as with other dishes at Portside was tres generous. A selection of meats – beef brisket, pulled pork and a crispy soft shell crab – were served along with fresh salad and a range of condiments. And then you had 6 mini brioche buns to get creative with. I kept with fairly familiar flavours for my first burger, some of the pork with a little apple sauce, lettuce and tomato. Delish! Plus when I fancied a little more sauce a few bites in that was an easy problem to solver with the dish literally there waiting for me on the board. Given the ample ingredients I really upsized my second to quite a meaty affair and I have to say that I really enjoyed the opportunity to tailor the slider to my exact tastes.

There was barely enough room left for the bruschetta salad, but we soldiered on like the pair of eager little lunchers that we were. Now I had incorrectly thought that the bruschetta salad would be something more like a panzanella salad but as it turned out the beautifully charred slices of sour dough were just served along with the tomato, onion and basil blend and accompanied by many, many chunky cubes of dreamy feta. I didn’t mind the more traditional serving style though and as we had successfully tackled making our own sliders I felt confident that we would be all over the bruschetta challenge. And it was lovely bread and luscious, ripe tomatoes and that cheese was so super creamy. If not for it being the last dish we tackled I would have powered through my two allocated slices, but capacity constraints limited me to one loaded piece on this visit, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I had.

We polished off our drinks and chilled for a spell before braving the inferno outside to get back to the car. I’d really enjoyed the visit and thought food had been super tasty and with quite the bigger is better approach, but with a real focus on flavours and quality. They are just a generous bunch that want you to be well fed when you come to visit. Great place for a big group gathering or hey works just as well for a pair, but remember serves surprise on the upside and don’t get too carried away.