Last month, my family and I had a dinner at Bistro Guillaume at the Crown Casino Perth. I think it’s my third time dining there, and I’m never disappointed. We had an early evening reservation and sat with a view overlooking the Crown’s pool. Our waiter for the night asked whether we wanted tap or sparkling water, and came back shortly with the menus. There was a special 2 and 3 course set menu offer available at the time (with a few choices for each course), so some of us took advantage of it.
My sister and I started off with some mocktails ($10 each). My sister chose the SMO – strawberry, mango and orange, while I chose one with pineapple, passionfruit and vanilla.
I decided on the twice baked cheese souffle ($26) as an entree and was really happy with my choice. The souffle was fluffy like a cloud, smooth and cheesy, with a nice crunchy exterior. I would happily order it again.
My dad and Mr FPJ ordered from the 2 course menu and both chose the kingfish tartare as the entree with green apple, samphire, smoked oyster cream and caviar. It was a bigger portion than expected. The flavours were wonderfully balanced making it a very light and fresh dish.
I decided on a main and dessert as my two courses since I really wanted the twice baked cheese souffle which wasn’t listed as an option. I was tossing up between the bouillabaisse and gnocchi as my main. I asked our waiter’s opinion who said the bouillabaise was a lighter dish while the gnocchi would be a bit more filling. I decided to go with the bouillabaisse as I do love my seafood and needed to get as much of it as I could get. The boullabaisse came with seared snapper, rouille and crouton. It really was a small dish, but the perfect portion after having the cheese souffle and with dessert coming up. The bouillabaisse had been made with various types of fish, fennel, celery, tomatoes, garlic, saffron and a strong flavour of dill (which Mr FPJ and my mum didn’t like).
Mum and my sister both ordered the linguini with spanner crab, garlic, chilli and tomatoes from the regular menu ($40). There was a generous amount of crab meat but an overload of garlic. It was still delicious and everything was wiped cleanly from the plate.
Mr FPJ and my dad both ordered the scotch fillet with peppercorn sauce and French fries. In all honesty, it looked and tasted like an ordinary steak. There wasn’t anything special about it, and we could have picked up a better cut of steak from the butcher and cooked it better ourselves.
As part of my two-course set menu, I had picked the pistachio cake with raspberry, caramelised white chocolate, blackcurrant and pistachio ice cream. I wasn’t sure what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised. The pistachio cake came deconstructed and I loved the pure pistachio flavours mixed with what seemed like almond meal in the sponge. The blackcurrant gel and fresh raspberries helped create some balance to the sweetness. The pistachio ice cream reminded me more of marzipan than pistachio, but all the flavours worked wonderfully together. It also wasn’t overly sweet. Yum.
My sister tried the chocolate profiteroles filled with vanilla bean ice cream topped with warm chocolate sauce ($20). This arrived at our table pre-chocolate sauce, with a little bit of theatrics as our waiter poured a mini-jug of warm chocolate sauce over the three profiteroles. The chocolate sauce had a higher cacao content making it bittersweet. If you don’t like dark chocolate, you probably wouldn’t appreciate this dish.
Service was fabulous – attentive, we were given enough time to ponder over the menu, further information about dishes was provided when asked, and our water was topped up regularly. The food didn’t take long to arrive and overall it was a pleasant dining experience. The elegant fit out and spacing between tables also made for a lovely ambiance.
Bistro Guillaume do high teas which I would love to try another time. Apart from Perth, there’s a Bistro Guillaume in both Sydney and Melbourne. Bookings recommended.
Bistro Guillaume Perth
Crown Perth
Great Eastern Highway, Burswood, Perth, Western Australia
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 12 Noon – 3pm & 5.30pm – 10pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12 Noon – 10pm
FPJ score 7.5/10
Value for money 7.5/10
Service 9/10
FPJ score 24/30
If you want more random photos and updates about food, I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
Facebook: /foodpornjournal
Twitter: @foodpornjournal
Instagram: /foodpornjournal