I honestly think that Petite Mort is hands down the best degustation in Perth. I have always wanted to come here on Saturday night for their degustation, but they had always been fully booked. I had managed to book one month in advance for Saturday the 20th of August. Prior to last night, I had scrawled through pictures on instagram and zomato and found multiple pics of their dessert, the death by chocolate.
I had booked for 6pm as the degustation was supposed to take 3 and a half hours, meaning we would be done by about 9:30pm. I didn't know what I was in for as the last degustation restaurant I went to, Amuse, had a completely different feel to it. I had looked on the website (and zomato) for the menu, but I realised the zomato one was outdated and the website didn't have a menu, so I was looking forward to what they had on offer.
The sign of the restaurant was bright and in block letters, indicating that it was a modernised restaurant. It lit up the dark night. We arrived to the quaint restaurant on Onslow Rd, Shenton Park at 6:07pm, (a bit late, I know!). The menu was outside, but we were late and I wanted a surprise so I didn't look at the menu on the way in. We walked up to the front table and told them we had a reservation for 6pm.
They seated us down at a nice little table in the corner. The decor made the restaurant have a sleek, modern feel to it, and the windows were transparent, meaning we could see others arriving. The paintings had a nice contrast of light and dark, hung up against the sleek black interior. Unlike Amuse, the lighting was quite bright, and it didn't feel rustic at all as the tables were closer together.
However, the ambience of the restaurant was quite nice. There was some slow music playing in the background of people's chatter. We were immediately handed menus, and explained the process of this degustation, (it was different as we could actually choose the seventh dish, either the lamb or barramundi.)
We were asked if we wanted tap, still or sparkling water, which we chose tap. The water was poured to us in a lovely, elegant bottle. We didn't get to keep the bottle of water on the table to allow more moving room, but the waitresses made sure our glasses never went empty. The menu was a 9 course degustation for $115 per person, which included bread and palette cleansers along the way.
Our waitress gave us some time to decide on our seventh dish, which we both ordered the lamb. We chatted for about 10 minutes before she came back to take our orders. 5 minutes later, our waitress brought us some bread in a wooden box. We were given two mini serves of bread to sample, along with a pot of salted, house churned butter. The two breads today were sourdough and tomato bread.
The sourdough bread was warm and wonderfully soft on the inside. The house churned butter just melted into that fluffy, warm bread which was just divine. The tomato bread had a hint of tomato swirled through it. It was also warm, and in an escargot shape, the tomato paste swirled through the pastry. With the butter it was also rich and tasty.
12 minutes (yes I was timing) after the bread came, the second course came. It was eloquently explained by our waitress in detail. It was a mini serving of crab and coconut foam with butternut pumpkin soup poured over the top. We were also given a pipette of Nam Jim, which I discovered very early on was spicy. I mixed in all the elements of the entree together. The coconut foam gave the dish some sweetness, while the crab offered the savouriness to balance the dish out.
The butternut pumpkin soup was so creamy and rich. I don't usually enjoy pumpkin soup, but this was just divine, especially with the added sweetness and savouriness. After we had finished eating, our waitress came and took our entree and bread plates away, along with the spoon I had used for the soup. Did I mention that we had 4 sets of forks and knives for later!
Our waitress came with our third course shortly after. (7 minutes) She explained that it was salt cured salmon with ginger, kombucha, seaweed and wasabi sorbet. The wasabi tasted just like the Japanese variety, just in sorbet form. The salmon was so light and fresh, which went perfectly well with the minty kombucha jelly, tangy ginger and salty seaweed. This was an excellent palate cleanser and such a light dish.
We were told we were going to have a palette cleanser before they started serving our main courses. I was quite surprised when she brought out a mini drink and explained that the sweet mint drink was on the bottom, and the sparkling apple was on top and we were meant to drink the mint and apple together. I took a large sip of drink and instantly loved the sweet mint flavour combining with the tart apple one.
After that course, we were served our mains. The first of them was the rabbit with lentils and artichoke. The first thing I noticed when it came out was it's beautiful presentation. The waitress explained it was rabbit three ways. Leg of rabbit, rabbit croquette and rabbit meat. There was dollops of artichoke puree around the 3 types of rabbit. There were pieces of artichoke and lentils dotting the plate.
The leg of rabbit sat in the bed of lentils. The artichoke was nice and soft, and I ate the chunks of artichoke with the puree. The leg of rabbit was nice and salty, and flavoursome with the lentils it was resting in. The rabbit meat was wrapped in crisp prochutto and was also soft and worked well with the artichoke puree. The batter of the rabbit croquette was crispy and it had been nicely fried. The rabbit meat within was soft and moist.
Our next course was beef with root vegetables, hollandaise sauce, bearnaise and onion jam. The three sauces were dotted in a pattern around the plate. The potato pave (root vegetables) was crispy and a combination of sweet potato and regular potato, balancing out the sweet and savoury. The beef was so soft and tender, it cut like butter. I ate it with the three sauces and it was amazing; so flavoursome.
Our seventh course was the lamb main we chose at the very beginning of the meal. It came wrapped in crisp prochutto, root vegetables and potato puree wrapped in thin pastry. The root vegetables were so fresh and soft, they cut so easily and tasted so fresh! The potato puree was creamy, with absolutely no lumps and the pastry was stull buttery and crispy. The lamb was beautiful, it cut so easily and it packed so much flavour.
Before our predessert came our waitress asked us if we wanted a break to transition from savoury to sweet, which we agreed on. It was another 15 minutes until our predessert made it's way to our table. Our predessert was some kind of sorbet, with milo puree, biscuit crumb and a minty jelly. The sorbet was refreshing and tasted like mint. The milo puree was interesting, it tasted just like milo but served in liquid form.
The biscuit crumb was crumbly and crunchy and when the crumb, milo puree, minty sorbet and mint jelly were combined, it was such a refreshing dessert. I can see why the predessert was intentionally light and refreshing. The actual dessert was called "Death by Chocolate", and it looked as pretty as a picture, just like the ones I had seen earlier on instagram and zomato.
The waitress explained to us what this chocolate concoction was. There were six mini bites of chocolate on the plate with a streak of caramel sauce and chocolate soil underneath. This may have very well been the best presented dessert I have ever seen, not just in Perth, but the whole world. The first bite of chocolate was a chocolate macaron. The second bite was a white chocolate mousse encased in a white chocolate shell.
The third bite was chocolate fudge rolled in some sugar. The fourth bite was a chocolate truffle. The fifth bite was milk chocolate mousse, and the final bite was aero chocolate. I decided to eat the aero chocolate first as I wanted to save the best for last. The aero chocolate was so light and while it looked like a brownie, it surprised me as it melted in my mouth. The caramel sauce was so fudgey and divine, it paired well with all the chocolate.
The chocolate mousse was so rich and creamy. It also melted in my mouth and I wished there was more of it. The chocolate truffle contained chocolate mousse, which was a surprise as I thought it would be solid. The truffle was amazing however, and the crisp chocolate casing was divine, and so thin but tempered. The chocolate mousse was creamy and light, just like the previous two bites.
The chocolate fudge was so dense and perfect. The salted caramel sauce gave it that saltiness. The white chocolate truffle was less chocolatey than it's milk variety. The white chocolate mousse was so airy and refreshing. It was rich and creamy and the white chocolate casing had that snap. The white chocolate went the best with the salted caramel as white chocolate needs the saltiness.
The chocolate macaron was the last element of the dish, and hands down the lightest, crispiest, best macaron in Australia. The biscuits were so dense and fudgey, while the chocolate ganache was so rich. I dipped it in some salted caramel sauce which was divine. It was getting pretty late, (it was 8:45pm which was earlier than expected, but still really late), so we asked for the bill.
Another surprise came! We were served petite fours to finish our 9 beautiful courses. The petite fours were served on white rocks. We had in the box, macarons and chocolate covered orange jelly. The macaron was divine, crispy base but chewy inside, with that wonderful chocolate ganache sandwiched in between the two biscuits. The chocolate orange jelly was also very nice, the sweetness of the orange jelly with the richness of the chocolate was a perfect combination.
All in all, we will be back for sure! This is my new favourite restaurant in Perth, and I will be back to try their A La Carte menu, which is 3 courses for $64, which still includes their signature "Death by Chocolate" dessert along with many others (plus gnocchi for a main!) We walkedto the front desk where we were farewelled with a smile. A+ for customer service! Whether you are looking for good food, a present for a special occasion, a birthday dinner, a work conference or fine dining, this place has it all.
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