The Wine Bar That You Never Knew Existed in Bassendean, Perth

I think we all have that second thought about telling people about an awesome, rather undiscovered spot. The thought of billions of people ruining your peace & quiet, slowing down the service of your glass of wine to the table or driving up wine & food prices are all horrible thoughts when you think about the word getting out about your new favourite spot.

I did have a brief thought about keeping this my little secret but I love you guys too much to do that. We can just keep it between the TC community, well for the time being anyway until word does actually get out.

There’s not a lot to see in Bassendean really, the mall is in the process of getting a makeover which will mean the small suburb beside Guildford will soon have a Dome cafe. There is a fab little fish’n’chips shop called The Old Trout and the Red Poppy Cafe is the perfect spot for an afternoon beer if you’ve just missed a train.

The local pub, The Bassendean Hotel is only a 150 metre stroll from the Bassendean train station. I have visited the pub a couple of times, but I guess I just thought it was your normal neighbourhood pub up until an impromptu visit last weekend (hence the iPhone instead of nice camera photos in this post!)

When walking in via the back entrance to the hotel, I noticed the ‘Bistro & Wine Bar’ sign pointing up the stairs inside.. And yes it totally grabbed my attention. We went up the stairs to find a rather deserted restaurant with a cute little private deck in the center.

The service

Our waitress Georgia was super sweet and lovely throughout our entire meal. She set up a lovely little table on the deck under an umbrella for us. What I also loved is that even when we ordered wine by the glass she bought the bottles out for us to see and then proceeded to pour the wines. I absolutely loved this as it meant I could take a picture of the bottles for my Facebook Tasting Notes album.

The food

The food menu was concise but seemed to cover all bases, I’m definitely ‘the less choices the better’ type of girl as I can’t make decisions to save myself. As I’m ever so slowly leaning more and more towards Gluten Free foods I was happy to see some delicious GF choices to choose from.

It’s important to note that upstairs you can order from both the Bistro menu as well as off the Local Bar & Lounge menu. The best of both worlds!

Mr. Spittoon opted for the 200 gram Scotch Fillet topped with Basil & Parmesan Crust on a Pepper Sauce for $32.50. He loved it! Cooked to perfection and was surprised to see two little extra parcels on the plate. We thought these were potato but Mr. Spittoon was totally overjoyed to find out they were stuffing! He was one happy man.

I opted for the home-made fried chips with aioli for $6. Totally yummy and they also came with tomato sauce, both sauces were presented in cute little bamboo baskets. I then had the Swordfish Salad for $21 with pomegranate, spinach and quinoa. Beautiful! So refreshing and absolutely tasty.

https://travellingcorkscrew.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Bassendean-Hotel-Bistro-Menu.pdf

https://travellingcorkscrew.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Bassendean-Hotel-Local-Bar-Menu.pdf

The Wine

The wine list seems to cover all the bases. Wine by the glass starts at $7.90 up to $9.90 and bottle prices from $34-$79. It was nice to see Plumm glassware used too, even for the water glasses.

It would be nice if there were more wines by the glass, but Mr. Spittoon and I were totally happy with all our choices.

Here are my tasting notes:

• Three Drops 2012 Riesling from Mt Barker. $8.80 per glass or $39 per bottle. Lemon with a slight lime tinge colour on the eye. Aromas of summer! It’s so fresh and refreshing that it reminds me of afternoons by the pool. Citrus zing with stone fruits and lemongrass. On the palate that same feel flows through, it’s bright, thirst quenching and simply just tasty. Lovely match to my swordfish and pomegranate salad.
• Sticks 2012 Chardonnay from the Yarra Valley. $8.40 by the glass or $38 by the bottle. Yellow on the eye with aromas of butter, vanilla and toffee apples. On the palate it has a creamy mouthfeel with flavours of guava, melon and tropical fruits plus a lovely oak kick. Yumo!
• Dusky Sounds 2013 Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. $7.90 by the glass or $35 by the bottle. A pretty subtle lemon colour on the eye with aromas of elderflower, lemongrass and fresh passionfruit. In the mouth it has that delicious NZ Sauvy punch that we all love with refreshing guava and gooseberry flavours. It’s an understatement to say Mr. Spittoon LOVED IT!
• False Bay 2013 Rose from Stellenbosch, South Africa. $7.90 by the glass or $35 per bottle at the Bassendean Bistro & Wine Bar. A salmon-orange shade on the eye with aromas of red berries, minerals and a pomegranate bite. On the palate it is very crisp with grapefruit + red currant flavours and it has a rather smokey tart finish. Definitely a good foodie wine in my opinion!

https://travellingcorkscrew.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Bassendean-Hotel-Wine-Bar-List.pdf

All up the lovely lunch was $92 which I think was pretty decent for 2 meals and 4 glasses of wine in a lovely relaxed setting away from any hustle and bustle.

But the question is whether it’s worth the drive for those not local to Bassendean? No! It’s worth the train trip, seeing as the wine bar is literally a hop skip and a jump from the train station, why drive when you can train and have that extra glass of vino I say!

For more information check out The Bassendean Hotel website or follow them on Facebook.