The Aviary: Nest Rooftop Bar

When agonising over dining options for a mid-week dinner, with no spare cash readily available to be casually flung around, a restaurant with enticing vouchers starts to look attractive.

I will accept all cheapskate remarks thrown this way, because I've taken the word poor to a whole new level for a while too long.
I know deep down, secretly, if you took away any social shaming aspect you feel about using vouchers to buy your meals, the feeling of saving a couple of dollars is a very happy feeling :)

So off we went, chirping with 5 freshly printed vouchers in hand to see just what the guys at The Aviary are breeding in their nest.

Lamb, Coriander, Chilli & Yoghurt Pizza - $16

When it comes to eating out nowadays, I am a bit of a loner.
A loner, in the sense of ordering and only eating my own dishes, if the communal dishes on the table are loaded with fat, oil, cheese, or all 3.
Which, ever since I can't (...well, shouldn't) touch them, seem to be pretty much the ONLY things that people eat.

Having said that, yes, I am indeed implying that I actually have to order a whole pizza (without cheese), for me, myself, and I.
After finishing whole pizzas I think to myself, it was probably better off to have eaten the fat I avoided in the first place...

The one slice I finished for them, could have been a lot more meatier.
But then again...you can't speak very loud for just $10, can you?

Chorizo, Tomato & Roquette Pizza - $16

Despite the few vegetarian options available, the girls had firm decisions to order everything that wasn't. Animal enthusiasts, in every way.

They settled with a chorizo pizza, a firm and cheesy pizza base with sliced chorizo, fresh cherry tomatoes and a handful of raw rocket leaves, which was devoured in an amazingly quick time.

Crinkle Cut Chips with Spiced Aioli - $8

Forget everything I said before about not touching oily food.
I had a lot of this. This was good. This was also taken away from me, to stop me from getting a stomach attack.

I don't remember anything from the spiced aioli to be phenomenal, but the piping hot chips are a dieter's/gall-bladderless person's dream. The crinkles make them deliciously crunchier (or that could be a psychological thing).

A thing like this conveniently placed right in front of me, and all my morals go out the window.
Because everything that you can't eat, seem to taste so much better than they probably are.

Prawn, Coriander & Chilli - $16

This is my pizza for one, to which I was commended for finishing :D
I found this quite light and easy to finish, despite the others being unable to finish 3 pizzas amongst the 4 of them.

Ordered without cheese, the pizza is admittedly a little brittle and dry. The place can't be faulted for this, because making a hot dog taste good without the sausage IS difficult after all.

I'm guessing the kitchen substituted my cheese with basil pesto spread over the base, and coriander was mysteriously replaced with fresh snow pea sprouts. Eating this was like eating a salad, but the feeling of munching rabbit food while devouring a pizza, while healthy, is surprisingly disappointing.

...

My one regret of my experience with The Aviary is not heading back to try their advertised Pho Pizza, a westernised take on the Vietnamese beef noodle dish with beef and crushed peanuts. The $10 price tag of these pizzas is of value, considering the standards of the place, but I think I'd rather pay a little more, if it meant even better quality :)

I can't judge too much on the food since I've gone ahead and changed their ingredients to suit my needs because I'm selfish like that, but truthfully I would probably be somewhere else where $16 buys me a bigger, tastier pizza. What I managed to sip from a glass of their homemade mulled wine however, was a sweet stomach warmer from standing at higher altitudes with its colder breezes on the rooftop.

And there ARE lifts, in case the flight of seemingly neverending stairs are too confronting. Especially if you've just ran your marathon up the Perth Underground Station's staircase right below The Aviary.

Boasting Perth's largest outdoor rooftop bar (out of, what, 2?), the atmosphere is trendy and lush from what I could see with my poor night vision, with a strict dress code enforced. With requirements like "no fancy dress" and as detailed as "plain non branded t-shirts permitted", I felt a bit self conscious turning up. But upon seeing all the big shady umbrellas and toasty heaters, snagging a seat next to one became top priority.

I wouldn't mind a revisit, at an hour where there is still enough light to make out what's around me and what I'm actually putting in my mouth. And despite the issues floating around about their service levels, The Aviary is flying high with all the socialites in town and on social media.
I couldn't avoid all the little birdies around town tweeting and tooting about its existence.

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(08) 9226 0259
Mon - Sat: 11am to midnight
Sun: 11am to 10pm
www.theaviaryperth.com.au

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Domino's Pizza

Our plans to go all out with a buffet got thwarted.
Being too lazy and with nothing edible in the house to cook anyway, we decided on a decent dinner. Something that was quick, convenient and satisfying.

And something came to mind in seconds, something that fulfilled all that criteria.
Good old Domino's.
Never fails to impress and ALWAYS comes to the rescue. Just a phone call away when you need it, sometimes even more reliable than a friend.

We came to the decision of one pizza for each person. Normal people have one meal to one person, but we like to apply the same concept with pizzas: One pizza to one person.
We're not greedy, no we're not. Oooh we're ambitious though.

Here is our delicious, scrumptious, healthy dinner :)

Vegorama

See, we took the healthy choice and made the decision to eat a balanced diet - how many vegetables can you spot here! :D I looked at this with googly eyes. Who knew the vegetarian option would look so appealing and beautiful? This definitely deserves to be best dressed out of all the pizzas. Its array of colours make it look so lively and fresh and happy.
There is no better way to have your vegies intake via a pizza :)

This was just like a salad on a pizza with its abundance of vegetables to the brim, consisting of capsicum, mushroom, baby spinach, onion, fresh and sundried tomato with garlic olive oil, mozarella cheese and a sprinkling of oregano.

I would so order this again.
It's good for you and it's so colourful! Win win situation.

Hawaiian

This is a classic pizza that is always on our order. Good thing it is so standard and popular it has become a "Value pizza".  I used to love the Hawaiian like crazy but I don't know, it's not as lovable anymore. I think it used to be the sweet tang that excited me long ago.

Its pretty average ingredients are described with a fresh twist, giving them a renovation. Ham becomes champagne ham, pineapple becomes late harvest pineapple and mozarella cheese becomes mozarella cheese. Heh.

Normal pizza size

If you felt there was something peculiar about the Hawaiian pizza above, you're right.
It is SQUARE! So much more surface area to enjoy and devour.
Take a look at the normal pizza.

Now look below.

Abnormal pizza size

YAY for more pizza! This was possible because it was ordered with a base of puff pastry, which makes it so much bigger and puffy, crispy, flaky crusts. Because of the extra pizza?, this cost an additional $3. Is puff pastry really so much more decadent?

Fire Breather

I would've never chose this. I'm not exactly a chilli wuss but jalapenos on a pizza doesn't flatter my tastebuds in any way no matter how hard they tried. Just like the same way that they never make an appearance in my Subway purchases either. I was ignorant to the fact they are pronounced ha-la-pee-noes as well, until I found out the embarassing way.

It's also categorised under Premium pizzas and I don't get what's so fancy pants about it. Priced at $15, it's a fair bit more than the average Dominos standard. Piled on is a mix of jalapenos, pepperoni, Italian sausage, onion, tomato, shredded cotto and chilli flakes. You can't really see the chilli flakes...and it didn't taste like there were any either.
Or maybe I can just tolerate that hotness.

So I called this the Fire Eater instead of its name by accident. And the guy on the line corrected me, "You mean the Fire Breather".
Yeah, whatever mate.

Supreme

I'm so sad. This is now just the Supreme and no longer the Super Supreme. From childhood memory this was the best pizza evarrghhh and it looked like there was every ingredient on it you could think of.
But deeper memory work and I can actually only remember the extra ingredient that used to be on it, and that was olives. I think I like olives so much that without it, this pizza is now meh.

The Supreme boasts pepperoni, rasher bacon, capsicum, ground beef, Italian sausage, mushroom, pineapple and oregano. A little bit of everything. Not enough :(
Nothing is ever enough for meeeee. So hard to please.

...

So there we have it, yeah we got big appetites but we got big stomachs to match.
I find that Dominos are pretty generous with their ingredients on their pizzas. And while sometimes not tasting as good as gourmet pizzas, you really can't make any comparisons, given how good for value these pizzas are. Even more so on Tuesdays, at only $6.90 a pizza.

They even have one-topping pizzas for $5! $5 to feed a family, just not my family. You'll need like $30 to feed my family.

They're also damn quick at preparing the pizzas and getting them ready in time. Efficient workers! And they usually smell soo good that I don't mind filling my car up with food smells that linger around long after the food is gone :P
I can live with that.

The pizzas are usually stinking hot when you pick them up but these were stinking cold. But that's completely my fault because I took my sweet ass time to pick them up. Easy fix by whacking them back into the oven at home.
I regret soo much in keeping those delicious things waiting patiently to get eaten.
Really managed to keep their cool.