Hearth Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Perth

We went and checked out the newly opened Hearth restaurant located in the Ritz Carlton. The Ritz Carlton is located in Elizabeth Quay. The concierge greeted us, and he showed us to the new restaurant. Our reservation was at 8 pm when we arrived at the entrance of the restaurant we told them our reservation name and the waitress showed to our table. We were seated at our table, and the waiter brought a handbag holder which was terrific that held the handbag hanging! The handbag holder is new for a Perth standard. We got our menu, and we ordered wine, beer, champagne and scotch. We ordered three entrees/ The first entree, Red kangaroo tartar Coal baked beetroot, purple basil, salted egg yolk. I've never had kangaroo tartar, this is my first time, and I can say it doesn't taste like kangaroo, it's delicious. The second entree, Manjimup marron, grilled cream, burnt butter emulsion, native saline green. I like marron, the overall dish is tasty. The last entree, Quandong point pearl meat, I like this delicious dish, and it brings out the flavours of the quandong taste.

When we wanted to order the shared dishes, Duck and the Tomahawk steak, the waitress told us that they had sold out. I would recommend if you think you would like to order these dishes, please put a note to say that you would like to order these dishes they will put one aside for you.

We ordered three mains, Spiced Mottainai lamb zucchini, sheep's yoghurt, coriander. This is not my favourite dish, and it's my personal preference that I am not a big lamb fan personally. The lamb flavours are overpowering. My other friends who had this dish says it's delicious. The other main we had was the 45-day dry-aged Gingin grass-fed beef, young capsicum marmalade, purple congo potato, halls Suzette cheese sauce. I am a big beef person; I love this dish compared to the lamb dish. The flavours are just in harmony. The last main that we ordered was the wild line-caught local fish; I like the fish fillet it's very fresh. We ordered the sides to go with the main dishes; I can tell you the highlight is the potato mash, it is so smooth and very delicious.

We had complimentary dessert as our shared dishes were unavailable. We ordered the Burnt Bahen & Co. chocolate cherry, coconut; it was delicious. Grilled gooseberries, flowering coriander, sheep's yoghurt, anise myrtle, melon juice, this is a very tart dish if you like the tart flavour this dish will be an excellent recommendation to clean your pallet. Camembert ice cream, Verjuice syrup, sandalwood nut. We thought this dish would be a bit heavy, but surprisingly it's refreshing. The overall dessert dishes that we ordered were not overly sweet; we love it.

We will return and have the...

Update: Changed my rating from 2 Star to 1 Star.

March 2023: Yesterday I was walking through Elizabeth Quay and thought even after our last pitiful experience at Hearth, we would give it another go. So myself and one other entered and found a place to sit down. About 5 minutes later one of the staff members, an Asian female, came and cleaned the table - no smile, no greeting, nothing. Just started spraying our table and put menus in front of us. I specifically asked "Is this table service or should I order at the bar?" she replied "It is table service". Ok sure, no problem. We waited literally 25 minutes for her to come back so we can order our drinks but she never returned. So I walked up to the bar and saw her there just standing there doing nothing. I said "I guess you forgot about us" she said "Oh sorry about that". I mean, how is this even possible? There was maybe 8 other people in the lounge. I then asked if the juice was fresh pressed or store bought. She answered "it's all fresh pressed", in which her colleague interjected and said "actually Sir, it's not all fresh" and then showed me which ones were fresh and which ones were out of a plastic bottle. It's just unbelievably bad service. Hearth needs a complete service overhaul.

Late December 2022: Group of 4 went here for my mother's birthday high tea. They first messed up by giving us, vegans, a menu that is full of animal products. Several times we motioned to the waitress or manager to assist us, and especially the manager would just look at us waving at him, then ignore us and not do anything. We had to get up out of our chairs and approach him at the bar to ask for more water or ask why our food was taking 40+ minutes to come out when they weren't even busy at all. I saw him (the manager) also looking at our table with his coworker at the bar then laughing and gesturing in our direction, obviously making a joke about us. This happened multiple times. Extremely unprofessional. They then messed up several more things, my mum's coffee came out with a dirty cup, my green tea they didn't prepare correctly (you don't leave the leaves in the pot, it turns the tea extremely bitter/undrinkable), and overall the service was very average. The manager came across as unprofessional, unapologetic and arrogant. The vegan high tea food was good, nothing amazing. Won't be back anytime soon,...

Let me say at the outset, that the food at 'The Hearth' is extremely good. Beautiful. But at around A$180 per person it should be.

It was a six person table, as I was taking our directors of our cancer support charity to dinner; a once a year occasion for their endless hours of voluntary service.

As I mentioned, the food at this establishment was stunning, but that is where it ends. Here's the down-side to this experience, and remember this is an establishment that commands very high prices:

When my wife and I arrived, the young lady escorted us to the area where two of our friends had already arrived.

"That's them over there", said the young lady pointing to our table. She then walked away. What about escorting us to the table and at least offering my wife a chair?

We then sat for 25 minutes before someone finally asked if we wanted some water. Oh thanks!

The other couple had arrived earlier and it was a further ten minutes before our drinks order was taken. Be warned, that the wine prices are about 400% higher than you can by retail.

When making the booking I had informed the staff that my wife and I were vegetarians, but this was disregarded, so only having a set menu option, we opted for squid as an entree and "Wild Fish" as the main course. But what exactly is "Wild fish"? no one explained, and at almost $50.00 for a small serve it would have been nice to know what we were eating.

During the entire meal, I consumed five glasses of plain water. (I live with cancer). On four of the occasions I had to actually ask for the water'. Why?

My colleague had ordered what was a lamb chop as a main course. It was beautifully prepared, but looked so lonely; just one lamb chop. See photo.

To complement our desert, we had the choice of a Chateau D'Yquem (one of the really great desert wines) at $1,200 per bottle, or nothing else because, "...we have run out". Sorry folks, but not good enough.

At the conclusion of the meal, we were not offered coffee or tea and I just simply paid the bill and departed. No one asked us if we were pleased with the experience or said goodbye.

As I paid the bill of $1,180.00 for six people, I said to the staff member that I felt that we should have felt privileged to have dined at The Hearth, rather than they were privileged to have us there.

And that summed up our...