Obeying the house rules at Pure Bar

There was no magnificent golden river of egg yolk cascading over the bread...

Pure Bar in Subiaco was the suburb's first small bar and has since grown into a special little something with its award winning cocktails, all uniquely crafted in house. I love cocktails, they're a pretty accurate measure of confidence haha!

I had made a breakfast booking at 9:30am when my trusty Corolla tried to hamper my genuine efforts to have a good breakfast and left my car battery for dead. A battery replacement, $150 poorer and a phone call to the guys at Pure Bar to say "I'm still coming!" later, we headed off to a bar that I have strangely, never noticed before during my bizillionth drives down Hay Street in Subi.

Pure Bar

As I waited to cross the road I noticed Pure Bar's big, spacious, open-door design. I don't think I noticed much lighting being used at all inside the bar/eating area because all the open doors really capitalises on the bright natural lighting from outside. It was a beautiful hot day and we had decided to sit outside to soak up the great outdoors before requesting to move back indoors due to the heat. I think Summer has hastened its visit this year!

As this was another shameless Scoopon purchase, we are quickly given a special Scoopon Menu to pick dishes from, instead of their normal breakfast menu. It is more limited in choice but still featured a good selection of breakfast dishes. That being said, I skipped right past the "Fresh fruit salad" items immediately.

Pure Bar's house rules

The atmosphere was great at this hour as it wasn't overly busy nor quiet. I had a look around and had a giggle at their house rules (#3 is adorable!), written on a whiteboard and on display for patrons to follow. If these humble rules applied everywhere, the world would surely be a better place.

Cappuccino - $3.80

I chose a cappuccino with breakfast from the option of either coffee or tea. I don't dare critique on the quality of coffee as I am one of the rare, seemingly extinct species of non-coffee drinkers. Nevertheless, I did enjoy my cappuccino whilst waiting.

T2 Green Tea - $3.80

I am delighted to discover that the green tea we requested is by T2, as I am in love with their variety of aromatic and flavoursome tea combinations. The tea is strong, refreshing and hits the spot of tiredness in the face.

A toleratable sight or not?

As we moved and positioned the cup of tea around for photographs, we found ourselves staring into blatantly obvious dirty stains on the cup. Personally I don't make a fuss with these things even though I'm pretty unimpressed, but sending out food and drink in cups with marks and stains would probably not be the wisest thing to do.

What about you? If your coffee cup was delivered like this, what would you do?

Pure Benedict - $16

The Pure Benedict was a stack of poached eggs, baby spinach, toasted turkish bread and hollandaise, and came with a choice of smoked salmon, ham or bacon. The salmon we chose did not disappoint. Nor did the light but creamy hollandaise, which was nice but sparse. 

Hi sunshine!

More of it would help to add more moisture to every bite from this dish, of which is made up of very dry ingredients and in desperate need to be drenched (or at least drizzled) with sauce of some kind. Overall it was a little hard to see this dish as anything more than mediocre.

Vege De-Lite - $16

As I love my meat (sorry vegetarians!), I surprised myself by ordering a meatless breakfast. I get hungry too fast otherwise and this proved true when I felt hungry again - now you know the inspiration behind my blog name :) - just 2 hours after this breakfast. 

Some of my favourite. Why don't people like vegetables?

It was hard to pass up the Vege De-Lite, as it is comprised of everything I adore - that creamy avocado worked wonders with the tangy tomato and onion salsa. Fortunately for me but unfortunate to most, nothing happened when I pierced both my poached eggs. There was no magnificent golden river of egg yolk cascading over the turkish bread as expected, as the egg yolks were slightly overcooked and became a little solidified but still slightly gooey in the middle. Because I'm weird, I like it this way.

My eyes lit up at 'grilled asparagus' because this humble vegetable is amazing when chucked under the grill and retains a slight crispness. I was a little disappointed to see blanched, limp asparagus instead, which were overcooked and really too soft as a result. Bummer, this had so much potential!

Some beauuuuutiful hanging lanterns

Although some improvements could be made to the breakfast dishes we ordered, we were overall pretty happy with what Pure Bar delivered. I thought some items lacked a little seasoning, but nothing a little salt shaker couldn't fix.

Many seating options, indoor and outdoor

Where the cocktail magic happens

A pretty impressive cocktail list calls for a pretty impressive looking bar to match! I'm eager to get round to trying more meals here and a cocktail or five one day, some day...

A chill morning at Pure Bar

I really did like the ambiance at Pure Bar; its casual, chilled out and comfortable vibe is reflected in the staff members who served us that morning, who were all friendly, attentive and the simplest yet bestest thing to feel - happy.

Pure Bar, Subiaco

Pure Bar
Mon: 7.30am - 6pm
Tues: 7.30am - 7pm
Wed: 7.30am - late
Thurs: 7am - late
Fri: 7.30am - midnight
Sat: 8am - midnight
Sun: 8am - 3pm

Tel: (08)9382 3330
331 Hay Street Subiaco, WA 6008

Stopped using cutlery at The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant

All that I selflessly volunteered to finish off...

The drive to The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant felt like a road trip - I actually thought I needed to pull over at a petrol station to fill up. We were going for dinner that I had purchased through Scoopon (just a mild compulsion of mine, I swear) and considering this was a 45 minute drive, it seems as though I deem checking the location of restaurants totally unnecessary.

I've noticed my recent habit of abusing my petrol tank in these worrying times of sky high petrol prices, what IS my problem?!

The Darbar Indian and Nepalese Restaurant

These lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling were an instantly recognisable and familiar sight which I remembered taking a photo of at Himalayan and Nepalese Restaurant, which also happened to be my last taste of Nepalese cuisine. Having quite enjoyed some of the flavours of the food I had, I was interested to see how The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant compared.

The meaning behind the word Darbar is palace, where the restaurant's stated goal is to treat every customer as if they are dining in a lavish palace. Whilst the Italian-feel interior was not quite what I was expecting, I did feel this goal was genuinely upheld by all the staff members who served us on a busy Friday night. It may definitely sound a little cliche and be an overused feel-good promise made by restaurants, but I left The Darbar Restaurant with a positive experience and felt this was achieved in all aspects.

I walked out at the end of the night with a bigger belly and an even bigger sense of satisfaction than when I first walked in. In fact, I held quite an unfavourable impression of this place after they were reluctant to accept my Scoopon. I find it so irritating and unprofessional when restaurants inform you that "Yes, we do have tables available" only to suddenly have a complete change of mind to "Sorry, we don't have tables" when you notify them that you have a voucher in hand. It irks me to no end when restaurants decide that they don't have a need to honour the vouchers that they have issued themselves!

After the initial decline, it left me with that dreaded sceptical feeling of just how good they claim themselves to be. No hard feelings though, because I'm happy to say I was so pleasantly surprised that this is now a place that I would definitely want to return to - for both the food AND the warm, friendly service. You can never predict how things turn out, can you?

Complimentary basket of papadams

Service was brisk and it was easy to flag down a staff member to take orders despite a busy restaurant and were extremely accommodating and welcoming, carefully explaining the conditions that came with the meal. We eagerly made our way through the basket of papadams that each table is given and with absolutely no consideration for how much stomach space could be wasted on endless eating of this, we shamelessly asked for a refill to which the staff were more than happy to give us.

Chicken Momo (8 pieces) - $10

When four plates of these dumplings arrived at the table, there was mass confusion on our faces, mixed with surprise, disbelief and "What, are you serious?" I had no idea that our entree sized chicken momos was in fact EIGHT dumplings and would probably suffice as an entire meal to some. This is extremely generous on their part, but after making our way through them, we concluded that this was a smart means to prevent diners to take full advantage of the all-you-can-eat ordering of mains that was yet to come considering how much of a stomach filler this really was!

My last and only taste of momos was at the Himalayan Nepalese Restaurant, where I realised the remarkable similarities between this Nepalese dumpling and the Chinese version, jiaozi. Sadly the quality of the momos at The Darbar are definitely not up to scratch and you could probably judge this from the picture, but I have a feeling this is not their usual standards. The dumplings are stuffed with a minced chicken filling and are really not worth talking much about, but its accompanying sauce deserves all the attention and recognition it can handle. It is made from fresh grilled tomato and roasted sesame seeds and somehow carries so much flavour that I kept two dishes of it next to me for the entire night to use it as a dip for my naan bread and rice enhancer!

Vegetarian Momo - $9

 Like their chicken counterparts, the vegetarian momo were not much better in comparison. I think their biggest letdown was not so much the filling; it was the thick, doughy and bland dumpling skin that was its ultimate downfall to this potentially amazing momo. Stodgy would be the right word to describe the feeling of eating these, and the satisfaction levels declined real steadily with each momo eaten.

Although the quantity cannot be beaten, the quality just was not there despite me drowning it in copious amounts of sauce. I think a better strategy would have been to put less dumplings on the plate (I can't believe I just said that) so that it's a lot less overwhelming for the stomach to be confronted with eight sizeable dumplings for just an entree.

Lamb Chops - $20

My eyes inadvertently spotted the words "lamb chops" from amongst their wide range of menu items. It arrived sizzling on a hot plate, with a delicious aroma drifting from the spiced and marinated lamb that nailed it in terms of flavour. It was unfortunate that the lamb chops really lacked meat, otherwise it would have been a stunning starter. The squeeze of lemon worked wonders but that mound of cabbage, onion and carrots did little to enhance the overall dish.

Garlic Tikka - $17

The garlic tikka was our second sizzling dish - this one consisting of large, chunky tandoori grilled boneless chicken pieces marinated with a garlic and cashew nut paste. The pieces were huge but the flavour of the garlicy, nutty marinade was not significant (at all). I could not taste that rich, flavoursome hit I hoped for; overall, a little disappointing.

Lamb Jalfrezi - $19

I was hit with indecisiveness big time when faced with the array of choices on the menu, which are categorised into different sections based on styles instead of the meat. Apart from the more familiar terms such as vindaloo, madras and korma, there are other options (kadai, do pyaza and jalfrezi) which all sound confusingly similar in terms of ingredients used - namely onions, tomato and capsicum.

I turned to our waitress for help to decide which of these to order, to which she suggested the jalfrezi. This is a dish from Northern India that is prepared with onions, capsicum and tomato sauce, which is surprisingly subtler in flavour and appearance than I had expected. The curry was creamy and mild; a perfect company for all the naan bread that I selflessly volunteered to finish off.

Chef's Special Beef - $20

There is a section on the menu entitled "Chef's Special Items" that was quite intriguing, as it offered no other description besides that it is cooked in a Nepalese and Indian style with the chef's special condiments, with no further explanation as to what this actually was. It looked no different to any other serving of curry, but I enjoyed the slight heat to the beef curry. It was spicy but not to the stage of being hot, and tasted as though it was a heavily tomato based curry as there was a very subtle acidity to it. The beef on this occasion however, was tough to chew.

The Chef's Special Beef and Lamb Jalfrezi

Both the curries had just the right amount of spice for me and provided that gentle kick that I want from a curry. All the dishes are served as mild unless stated otherwise or requested by the diner to be prepared hot, medium or mild. I actually loved the flavours of the curries we ordered and if these were anything to go by, I wouldn't hesitate to think their other dishes would be of the same quality.

Garlic Naan - $5.50

We skipped on the four huge servings of rice that was included, as the servings of naan were equally as huge. The garlic naan is studded with small specks of garlic and looked promising in terms of flavour, but the garlic taste was not as distinct as I'd like it to be. I enjoyed ripping into it whilst it was fluffy and hot, tearing it apart and dunking it into the numerous pools of surplus curry sauce I had at my disposal.

Butter Naan - $5

Out of the two, I loved the buttered naan and its fragrant, warm, buttery layers of bread which were crisp in some areas. The aroma was rich and delicious and despite the visible buttery goodness seeped into the naan, it did not have an oily glean nor did it leave a glossy residue on my fingers.

I must commend the chef upon noticing on The Darbar's menu that diners can request for a style of naan that is not necessarily featured on the menu or any other dish you fancy, which is a really nice personal touch that makes the experience that much more special. Very impressive!

Dining area sectioned off into three areas

The exterior of the restaurant is unassuming and its location on a dim, quiet suburban street on the outskirts of Fremantle is a huge contrast to the environment of the restaurant, abuzz with a great vibe and great food. The ambiance is vibrant and welcoming, and is a very comfortable and casual setting to eat with your hands and get as dirty as you wish.

Yes, I think we were the second last table to leave...

Over the course of the night, we received great hospitality from each and every one of the staff members who served us or simply came by to ask how the meal was going. At one point a waiter came over and apologised for the long wait - I'm sure my confusion was obvious, we had only been waiting for 5 minutes after our entrees (which were still sitting on the table!)

This was a very pleasant experience and for once in my blog life, this was worth the road trip it took to get here. Can't say the same about food, but a little extra really goes a long way with service :)

The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant, South Fremantle

The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant

Open 6 days

Lunch
Fri, Sat & Sun: 11.30am - 2.00pm 

Dinner
Tues - Sun: 5.00pm - 10.00pm

Closed Mondays

BYO Wine and Beer, $2 per person

Tel: (08)9336 3600

34 Douro Road, South Fremantle 6162