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It’s amazing how you can easily miss a good thing – I drive on Fitzgerald Street in North Perth every day to get to and from work, although I’d never given a second thought to the cafe at the front of North Perth Plaza, which turns out to be gourmet deli & cafe Pimlott & Strand. Having discovered this quite by accident, we decided to go there for breakfast on Saturday morning and were pleased to see them open at a bright 7:30am.

There are plenty of tables inside and outside, and the walls are lined with interesting gourmet produce. The cabinets are full of meats, cheeses & pasta as well as savoury lunch items, pastries and macarons.

Breakfast options include muesli, crepes (berry or chestnut) and eggs done in some interesting ways – I was quite tempted by the “Eggs Hamburg” ($15.50) with parmesan herbed beef, poached egg, free range bacon & hollandaise served on a pretzel roll. Other options include the “Salmone” ($17.50) with smoked salmon, potato cake, eggs, spinach, caper berries & creme fraiche and “Breakfast Insalata” ($16.50) with baked ciabatta bread, grilled pancetta, poached eggs, parmesan, rocket & lemon vinaigrette. Of course you could always have a pastry from the counter if none of these take your fancy – you can see the full menu here.

We both started with a cappuccino, which came in generous mug-size servings. I quite liked the coffee, it was rather milky but strong in taste which made it an very smooth experience overall.

I ordered the “Classico” ($18.50), with eggs, sauteed mushrooms, tomato, free range bacon, chorizo & toast. I was pleased to see chorizo on offer as I’ve been enjoying it for breakfast with my scrambled eggs lately, particularly from The Beaufort Street Merchant and Piccos. The serving here wasn’t huge, and although the eggs were done to perfection I found the garlic mushrooms very strong, but that’s just personal taste. It just felt that this breakfast was lacking something, and the rock-hard butter didn’t help.

Renay chose the “Crostino” ($12.50) with sauteed garlic, mushrooms, spinach, crumbled feta & toast. This was very reasonably priced and although she enjoyed it, much like with my breakfast she felt that there were better versions of this to be had around town.

I’m keen to go back to Pimlott & Strand for lunch as we often look for somewhere close to home on the weekends, and I find the selection at 33 Degrees South rather limited (although the coffee is good). There was nothing really to fault with the breakfasts, they just weren’t to our taste and need something a little extra to secure a return visit from us. Definitely worth a try if you like garlic mushrooms.

…not much if this one was anything to go by, which is a shame because it’s actually quite a nice burger – the sweetness of the pineapple contrasts nicely against the barbecue sauce. It’s much easier to eat than the Sydney Stack…and didn’t Hungry Jack’s used to call this the Malibu Whopper?

I wasn’t going to review tonight’s dinner as we were both tired and hungry after a long week and in need of a quick but decent feed before heading home. What we experienced, however, was some of the worst food I can remember, and there’s just no way I can let it pass.

Italians Restaurant is located on the corner of Walter Road and Coode Street in Dianella, and according to its website are “Perth’s pasta specialists” with “quality fresh produced handled lightly and cooked precisely”. Apparently they even do degustation dinners. It’s close to home and we’ve been meaning to give it a try – it’s rated at 75% on Urbanspoon so we were expecting it to be ok, although the reviews vary from good to bad.

Firstly, I should point out that the wait-staff were efficient and friendly – but alarm bells started ringing when we were told that there was no diet-cola products on the premises, and then our lemon squashes (which were supposed to be lemonade) came out in glasses filled to about an inch from the top.

For entree we ordered the arancini stuffed with bolognese and mozzarella ($12), and garlic bread ($5). The arancinis were very small given that there was only two of them, maybe 4cm in diameter each. They were served in a very deep curved dish and buried under a huge amount of rocket, presumably so you wouldn’t see how small they were. The dish was so deep that every time I tried to cut them they would just collapse and disappear deeper in the bowl. I eventually fished them out onto a plate only to discover that they didn’t taste of anything. The garlic bread was ordinary.

The small carbonara ($14) was well described as tasting “home-made, but not in a good way”, but the real star of the show was my “ravioli tirolesi” ($23), an interesting sounding meal of “ravioli stuffed with potato, ricotta, braised leeks, saffron, tossed with fried sage & prosciutto in a creamy parmesan sauce”. I don’t know where to start with the description of what I actually received, but there was definitely no sign of saffron or sage. And the tasteless ravioli was undercooked. And perhaps the most insulting of all, the braised leeks were substituted with shredded white cabbage. It tasted like a bad home attempt to follow a recipe when you didn’t have all the ingredients. I’m not one to complain in restaurants, but this is about as close as I’ve ever come to causing a scene.

We just paid $62 for one of the most disgusting meals ever. I’m still in shock, and I’m still hungry.

So what’s for dinner?

The Subiaco Hotel was built in 1896, and transformed into its current “gastro-pub” form in 1994. Its award winning restaurant opens for breakfast at 7:00am every day, which is a great start – far too many places only open at 8:30 or 9:00am. We went for breakfast twice over the Christmas / New Year break, and on both occasions had no trouble getting a table, and found the service to be efficient and friendly without being over the top. The first time we went was on one of Perth’s recent very hot days, and despite the restaurant being open there was plenty of ventilation on offer.

The table settings are simple, and there is plenty of room between tables so it doesn’t feel crowded even when busy.

The breakfast menu contains some interesting items, and it’s all very reasonably priced. As well as the usual eggs on toast & muesli, you can try things such as “brioche french toast with berries, maple syrup, yoghurt ” ($17), “Arnold Bennett eggs, smoked haddock” ($17), “Moroccan brik pastry, duck egg, Turkish sausage, spinach & feta” ($17.50), “baked free range eggs on Turkish bread, onions, peppers” ($16.50) & “porridge with sour cherries & rhubarb” ($12). You can even start with a Bloody Mary ($16) if you feel the need!

The current menu varies slightly from the one you can download here, and you can also download the main lunch / dinner menu here.

The coffee here is outstanding, and both times I didn’t hesitate in going for a second. Cappuccino, mocha and latte were all excellent.

On our first visit, I ordered the “potato & pork hash, fried eggs, mustard, tomatoes” ($16.50). I wasn’t sure what I was going to be getting, but it was quite a small portion and my instinct to order a side of sourdough toast ($6) was spot on. I really liked the english mustard smear on the plate, although the fried eggs were very firm and bigger than the serving of hash – I’d have preferred a single soft poached egg on top and some toast underneath.

On our return visit, I had to try the “farmhouse: scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato, chipolatas, hash brown & toast” (a very reasonable $21). You know when sometimes you just fancy a simple breakfast, but want it to be really high quality? Well look no further. The eggs were soft and creamy, chipolatas of high quality (there are two more hidden under the hash brown), bacon was nice although perhaps a little fatty and the hash brown was house-made. For $21 you can’t do better – try having breakfast at a Coffee Club, for instance (in fact please don’t).

Renay ordered the “avocado on crusty multigrain, fresh tomato, soft goat’s curd” ($16.50) both times. This is pretty much her idea of a perfect breakfast – fresh, healthy and not too filling. It was so good she couldn’t even be swayed to try the “mixed mushrooms on toast, parsley, parmesan” ($16.50) on our second visit.

What more can I say? Open early, comfortable, good service, outstanding coffee and fantastic food all at a reasonable price.  The Subiaco Hotel has quickly made its way onto our list of favourite breakfast destinations, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

Regular readers and fast food fans will remember the fuss caused by the launch of the KFC Double Down in the USA, and then its Australian appearance in 2011 as part of KFC’s “Month of Mantime” promotion named simply “The Double”. At the time, I described it as “one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever attempted to eat” so I wasn’t particularly excited to hear of its return during KFC’s Good Charlotte fuelled frenzy of faux-coolness. My go-to KFC item is a Zinger with bacon & cheese, so when I heard of the new “Zingin Double” I decided to revisit the scene of the crime.

Side note: If you’re not familiar with the concept, the Double (Down) features two chicken fillets in place of a hamburger bun, with cheese, bacon & some kind of sauce in the middle. The “Zingin Double” swaps the chicken fillets for Zingers, and the sauce for a “chili relish”. The “shocking” replacement of bun with meat of course sends nutritionists etc into a panic, although at the end of the day it’s just an extra chicken fillet, and there are many worse things you can eat.

So down to business. As you can see at the top of the page, the Double came in a snazzy silver “It’s mantime” container last time. Nothing as glamorous this time around.

The chili relish is a hot, sweet chili sauce, with more heat than you’d expect from a fast food chain.

If you put the novelty value aside, this thing isn’t really very appetising to look at.

So how to spruce it up? Maybe add a KFC dinner roll for a more rounded experience.

Or perhaps eat as part of a “balanced” KFC meal?? Anyone for spicy coated chicken cordon bleu with chili relish, freshly baked dinner roll, french fries and creamy coleslaw? But seriously, the most practical way to eat the Zinger Double is with a knife & fork, as it’s just too big to fit in your mouth.

The Zingin Double isn’t as disgusting as the original, but only because the Zinger fillets aren’t as oily and the creamy sauce has been replaced with chili relish. I still couldn’t finish it, and this take on the original rates as one of the most pointless things I’ve ever attempted to eat.