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As much as love cooking, I also love eating out so I don’t have to cook. For our anniversary this year, we broke with tradition (tradition being the favourite Indian restaurant where we had our wedding reception) and ate at the Boatshed restaurant in South Perth to celebrate.

The views in this restaurant are magnificent and the waiter boasted that they were the best of any restaurant in Perth. I’d have to agree. If you get a table close to the water, you get delightful views of the city lights and river, complete with black swans begging for food. Make sure you ask for one when you book.

Surprisingly, the food menu is quite limited although the drinks menu seems to go forever! There were only 4 entrees, excluding oysters and 8 main courses.

As we were in the mood for celebrations, we started with cocktails – a Bloody Mary for my beloved and a Cosmopolitan for me. The drinks took a while to arrive but my husband was impressed that they provided tabasco sauce and salt and pepper with his Bloody Mary.

He always complains that there isn’t enough tabasco in his bloody mary so the restaurant racked up brownie points early. My cosmopolitan was nice but lacked the citrus tang that I really enjoy. Ironic considering what happened later – but I digress…

We decided to order a bread platter to start while we chose our entrees, figuring that it would be a while for our entrees to arrive, based on the cocktails.

As well as oysters, served natural; with pineapple, chilli and coriander salsa; kilpatrick and Spanish gapacho; there was a choice of beef carpaccio, pork belly, sizzling garlic prawns and whisky cured salmon with king prawns for entree. The prices were around $26 for each of the entrees and the oysters were $22 for a half dozen and $40 per dozen.

I ordered the prawns (very retro I know!) and my beloved chose 6 oysters kilpatrick. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have ordered the bread platter, because my entree was served with toasted ciabatta bread.

As we started to nibble the bread, a lovely amuse bouche arrived but unfortunately, that was followed about 5 minutes later by our entrees.

Oops, the timing wasn’t quite right!

But the bread was delicious and the olive and balsamic vinegar mix were just perfect for dunking. The amuse bouche was also lovely – a fresh salad with tuna and a finger of pastry. Yum!

My husband enjoyed his oysters – well anything is great served with bacon, isn’t it?

He didn’t say much but he certainly inhaled them at high speed. His lack of words is usually a good indication of extreme enjoyment!

My garlic prawns were perfection – buttery, garlicy and oniony – everything you could want in this dish.

They were served with two slices of toasted bread which were delightful but made the bread plate we’d ordered kind of redundant (I probably should have read the description more closely). The dish was generously sized and very, very tasty. After my husband polished off his oysters, he “helped me” with the prawns and was impressed.

We ordered some Simmonet Brut champagne – French, cremant, non vintage and very reasonably priced at $55. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive until well after we’d started our main course. Seems like the timing issue struck again!

The main courses ranged from lamb backstrap, to gnocci, salmon and beef fillet and were priced from $38 to $52. I had ordered Risotto with lemon and parsley, roasted scallops, parmesan and parsley sauce ($40). My husband chose the Mt Barker free range chicken stuffed with port and pistachio mushroom duxelle ($42).  The main courses were served very close to the entree and we really would have preferred a bit of breather to digest our entrees.

The main courses looked absolutely delightful. My risotto was a brilliant green colour and the scallops were beautifully caramalised. Isn’t this a mouthwatering dish?

My husband’s chicken also looked delicious and was a very generous serving.

We tucked in.

Whilst the flavour of the chicken was amazing, the meat itself was slightly overcooked so was quite dry. The meal also contained zucchini with blemishes on the skin – not what you expect at a fine dining restaurant!

It was all a bit of a shame but not worth making a fuss over. The problem with my risotto was a bit bigger.

From the first mouthful, there was an overpowering citrus flavour. Even though the dish was described as being made with lemon, it actually tasted like lime. The scallops were beautifully cooked but were just drowned in the citrus taste.

At first I thought I was tasting it wrongly, so I persevered with a few spoonfuls. Then I let my husband have a try and he agreed that it was inedible. With regret (for the scallops), I sent it back and decided not to try a replacement, given my husband’s experiences with his dish.

We asked the waiter if he’d tasted the dish and he agreed that it was too strongly flavoured with citrus. We weren’t charged for the risotto.

We finished with dessert. I chose a white chocolate creme brulee with a rasberry compote ($16) and my husband chose a cheese platter ($19.50).

My creme brulee was delicious but the top hardly cracked when I tapped it with my spoon. My inner child really likes a generous crack in a creme brulee!

The raspberry compote was probably the most delicious thing that I tasted during the whole evening. It was really fresh with a hint of citrus (this time used appropriately!). Each spoonful was flavoursome and totally satisfying. If I hadn’t been in a restaurant, I’d have stuck my finger in the glass and licked out all the dregs!

The cheese platter was generous and included some quince paste cubes (perfect with the blue cheese) and pear slices.

The platter also included goats’ cheese, a brie style cheese (although it wasn’t a brie) and a hard cheese. We asked the waitperson about what the cheeses were but we weren’t given a very clear explanation.

In any case, all of the cheeses were delicious and provided a delightful ending to the meal.

We were very full after we’d finished our meal because all dishes were so generous. The bill came to $231 which covered three courses, and drinks minus one main meal. Whilst most of the food was good, unfortunately we felt that the details like overcooked chicken let down our fine dining experience.

On the plus side, our entrees and desserts were really good but the main courses much less so. The service was excellent throughout the whole meal but the timing on the dishes and drinks was a little strange.

We’d both recommend that you try the Boatshed for a special occasion because the ambiance is so amazing. But perhaps steer clear of the risotto unless you’re a huge citrus fan!