Hearth, Ritz Carlton Perth

Hearth Review

If potatoes are your favourite vegetable then the Hearth restaurant is not for you. However, if you appreciate good food then make a beeline for this place, as the food was excellent.

My husband and I booked lunch at Hearth for a pre-Christmas treat.

The imposing Ritz Carlton hotel on Elizabeth Quay is in a great location and Hearth makes the most of it with large windows looking over the Swan River and the bustling Quay. The hotel opened in late 2019 and Hearth prides itself on cooking food in a traditional way over an open fire. There is also has a strong focus on Western Australian produce.

We were a bit early for our noon reservation and one of the staff directed us to the Hearth lounge next door and assured us that a hostess would come and get us when our table was ready.

With outside seating and comfortable indoor sofas and chairs, the lounge was spacious and busy.

As no one came to advise that our table was ready, we wandered through to the restaurant at around 12:15 and were shown to a spacious booth.

Seating 120 people, Hearth was quite full with Christmas functions that added to the ambience. I felt the décor was quite bland although no doubt it is intended to be minimalistic. Lots of white and black but the overall impression is beige. I was irresistibly reminded that, to paraphrase Billy Connelly, the opposite of Windswept and Interesting is beige. Huge beige pots with greenery and hanging lights were well chosen but did nothing to dispel the overall beigeness.

We were offered the choice of an a la Carte menu or a degustation. The degustation was $145 per person (add $95 for wine pairings) for five courses plus one side dish but that would have been far too much for us at lunchtime.

The menu is not large and with apologies to my vegan friends – we immediately discarded the plant-based choices.

To start, we ordered the spelt bread with smoked butter, which we found underwhelming. Then it was a difficult choice between Smoked Abrolhos Islands scallops, apple, fennel, scallop dashi and finger lime ($30) or Barbecued Berkshire pork, Burns Beach abalone, peach, sherry dashi ($30). We both decided on the scallops. Good choice! The whole dish was fabulous – the pop of the finger limes finished it off brilliantly without overpowering the delicate smoked scallops taste.

Next up my husband chose the Woodfired spring lamb, baby turnips, smoked curd, yuzo, spiced lamb jus ($47) and I opted for Line caught WA red emperor, saltbush, kohlrabi, buttermilk and lemon myrtle vinaigrette ($47). Again great choices. When the plates arrived I thought the portions looked small. We didn’t go for either of the two sides – Gem lettuce, chervil emulsion, smoked manchego, marinated fish roe ($16) or Grilled brassica, broccoli cream, burnt almond mousse, pomegranate ($16) and I wondered if we had made a mistake. But no worries – everything was delicious and very filling. Both the fish and the meat (and yes I had a taste!) were beautifully presented, cooked perfectly and seasoning was totally on point. Outstanding cooking.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and have no hesitation in recommending Hearth but the service wasn’t quite what I expected from a five-star restaurant.

Address: Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1 Barrack Street, Perth. We both decided on

Phone: 08 6559 6822

Reservations:

Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 7am-10: 30am, 12pm-2: 30pm, 6pm-9: 30pm. Breakfast at weekends is only available to in-house guests

Gluten-free options: Yes

Vegetarian options: Yes

Restrooms: Clean. Ambulant and wheelchair accessible areas.

Parking: CBD parking nearby but an easy walk from Elizabeth Quay train station

Website: www.hearthrestaurant.com.au

About Hazel Broomhead

My name is Hazel and I am a Perth senior!

Originally from Edinburgh in Scotland, my husband and I moved to New Zealand with our children in 1974. As my husband is in the oil business, we moved to several other countries including the Sultanate of Oman, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Philippines, the USA, Russia and Kazakhstan during the next 36 years before retiring to Perth.

We have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren who live in different parts of the globe – New Zealand, Scotland and Colombia - which makes a great excuse for us to travel and visit.

My career background is in radio and print journalism in Scotland and New Zealand as well as public relations in various other countries.

We love to eat out, walk, travel and enjoy the wonderful lifestyle here in Western Australia.