Wildflower — Restaurant in Perth

Honestly, I don’t even feel like writing this review because the whole experience was unpleasant, but I think the team at Wildflower needs to know. After having dinner here, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach pain and ended up vomiting. Since I hadn’t eaten anything else after this dinner, I have no doubt the food here was the cause. First dish – Petite tart Placed on top of a flower, but it was soggy and tasteless. This immediately lowered my expectations. “Fremantle Tuna” This was the worst dish of the night. I couldn’t eat more than one bite. It felt like a punishment game. I’ve dined at fine dining restaurants around the world and usually enjoy trying new foods, but this was simply inedible. The name also feels misleading – it was sticky beet puree with unpleasant duck liver flavor. What part of this was Fremantle tuna? Because of the tiny piece of tuna tartare? Jarrahdale Pumpkin No comment – dull, bland, and left an unpleasant aftertaste. Unfortunately, this same heavy, cloying flavor carried through most of the courses. Pork Belly This was the most acceptable dish, but nothing special. Honestly, the crispy pork belly I cook at home is better. Shark Bay Seafood I expected something refreshing, but instead it felt like a steamed egg custard. The shrimp on top tasted like frozen shrimp. Again, heavy and cloying. Why wasn’t there even one refreshing, clean-tasting course to balance everything out? Wagyu The worst wagyu I’ve ever had. The meat was tough and dry even though it was served medium. The cabbage pickle didn’t cut through the heaviness, the mushroom sauce was greasy, and overall it was just unpleasant. Lemon lime and bitters Why not serve something light and refreshing like a lime sorbet? Instead, it was cream and meringue – once again heavy, not refreshing at all. Rhubarb dessert Why so many puree-like dishes? After an entire menu full of sticky, creamy textures, this dessert was more of the same. Not enjoyable. Blue Cheese course This was the absolute worst. The smell hit me as soon as it arrived. It felt like the chef extracted only the worst aspects of blue cheese. After a whole menu that was already unbearably heavy, to finish with this was like a test of patience.

Finally, the petit fours were also terrible. Honestly, don’t serve them at all if they taste like this.

Overall, this dinner felt less like fine dining and more like a punishment game...

Went here with my wife for our 10th wedding anniversary.

Not worth it in my opinion- once upon a time I would have questions myself after such an experience, maybe my palate isn't mature enough etc.

These days I figure if I'm gonna throw $600 at a meal it should probably taste 75% as good as a place I'd throw $800 at (Aria, Sydney- incredible).

Anyway here's my take:

First course was the cum yoghurt- no good, too experimental; have you ever noticed how a glass of water at a cafe for breakfast tastes and smells bad because you've been eating egg? This course tasted like that smell Second course wasn't memorable enough for me to remember, at least wasn't offensive I guess. Was it a puree something? No idea Third was the fish maybe? Pretty good, highlight actually on reflection, I would eat this again if it didn't cost me 1/6th of the bill Fourth might have been the duck, it was okay I guess Can't remember fifth; kind of remembering a sauce or something Sixth was dessert, sold as a trendy chocolate lava cake- it wasn't bad, on par with the ones you can get from Dominos with a large pepperoni

Wine notes:

All the wine was unmemorable except for the Californian chardonnay- I've been chasing oak like that for so, so long, really nice; as for the rest of it, save yourself some time and some cash and just nip down the bottle-o, nobody is gonna know the difference

Non-meal notes:

Great view of the library and the river the other way Staff all friendly Mural on the wall behind us was garbage- like a photo of gum trees (decent) super-imposed on the worst computer generated ocean you've ever seen? Was it supposed to be a meme? Symbolic? Did you pay for it? Did you consciously pick it? Geez The word "beautiful" gets used every 3 or 4 words (by different staff members) in the notes for things- I mean if you have to keep reassuring me I start to wonder It was nice that our anniversary got a bit of focus, I appreciate the touch in recognising that folks are celebrating

I dunno- the place is hyped, we've been wanting to go for ages; probably wouldn't go again but hey now it's done at least.

If the big man is reading all I'd suggest is stop trying to do burnouts and wheelies (figuratively speaking) and just focus on getting the simple stuff as...

My family and I went for a dinner here after finally deciding to fork out a bit of money after hearing so many good things.

We went with the degustation course but we have before the booking let the restaurant know that I eat only pescatarian or vegetarian. On the night we were asked again if there is any dietary requirements and I repeated mine again and we agreed on Pescatarian set.

To start, complimentary appetizers was served for the table which had a duck pate of sort, which was fine and I didn’t worry to much about as it was complimentary and I just gave my portion to my brother. When the actual degustation meals started it went well. The first was vegetarian meal for all, then a pescatarian meal where they served gold band snapper for all with the second. Then the third meal came where the first difference between servings were: my family all had lamb and I was served fish - but it was gold band snapper again. I was slightly disappointed being served the same fish again but was fine with it because I understood that pescatarian requests would be small and would be difficult to cater for on a limited basis. So I just enjoyed the meal and it was very tasty.

But when the fourth meal and final main came, they served us all duck breast. This time I did say something and that this was not pescatarian as requested. They offered to take the duck back and serve me something else but I said I will just eat the duck because ethically I did not want the meat to just be thrown away and have the animal died for nothing (which I regretted later because I got sick after not eating any red meat for 3 years).

They did in the end subtract the cost of the duck meal to make up for the mistake which I did appreciate very much. Wildflower was really good, however, for the cost and reputation I did expect a better standard. Mistakes are made all the time and is normal, but I would just say that for what you pay here you expect a bit more care taken when dietary requirements are requested, and find other ways to not repeat the same protein, whether a more sophisticated vegetarian option is served instead of the same protein. Just something to consider.

Overall a pleasant experience. The food was tasty, all though I am not sure if it met the reputation. Customer...