Decanter – Vic Park’s New Wine Bar: My Verdict

“A decanter is a vessel that is used to hold the decantation of a liquid (such as wine) which may contain sediment” – that’s what good old Wikipedia thinks anyway. To me, well it’s the new drinking hole less than 10 minutes walk from my office (yes I have a day job – something has to pay for my wine consumption!) and I had a lovely lunch date with the girls to check it out on opening day.

Let’s start from scratch here. Decanter is a BRAND NEW venue on the Vic Park strip, it is near enough to the city that you can pop in either on your way to or from the city, it has plenty of street parking nearby plus cheap paid parking around the area. But don’t drive, you want to make sure you can sip on glorious alcoholic beverages all night right? Well the good news is, Decanter is right on the bus line so there’s no excuse!

The ‘American Tapas & Lounge Bar’ seamlessly fits into the Vic Park strip. It’s not pretentious but friendly and welcoming. Before I go any further I have to admit the service on opening day was top-notch – and I really hope, 1 month and 1 year down the track this stays the same. But what’s best is the owner (who could fit into the Perth Sons of Anarchy quite well – ladies that’s in a good way!) and manager valued our feedback. I am the type of person who sees a problem and wants to fix it as soon as possible and I have a feeling these guys are the same, which is refreshing in a customer-focused business.

So, I guess you want to know my verdict on Decanter right? Well here you go..

The Wine

Naturally for me, this is my first focus. As soon as I saw the menu my eyes went straight to the American offerings on the wine list and I immediately wanted to try the Bogle Chardonnay! After perusing further I was happy to see a good dose of Castelli Estate wines which I am familiar with as well as some local Margs wines and some South Aussies in the mix.

The Bogle Chardonnay was fabulous and I would totally recommend this vino if you’re dining there however I do hope the wine list is mixed up and expanded upon over the coming months as between me and the work girls we will have tried everything on the list over the next few months (don’t worry we are totally wine appreciators). I just see so much potential in this place and I really want it to be my weekday go-to! I’d definitely love to see more American tipples added to the menu.

Our bottle of Bogle was $44 which we then followed up with a bottle of Naked Grape SBS from Smithbrook in Pemberton for $27. The latter is not sold in bottle shops and another one which I haven’t come across before. It’s good to see they have ticked a few boxes when putting together their wine list.

Glass prices range from $8-14 which is pretty standard for an inner city bar. And in terms of other drinks – I love that they have the Spanish beer Estrella as well as having cocktails from $12 which is fairly good for Perth prices! Non-alcoholic drinks are there too, but to be honest I hardly paid attention to them! I did like that the water came out in a decanter though 🙂

The Food

I’m going to leave all the technical bits and pieces up to the Perth foodie bloggers as really I’m no foodie. I just like to eat and most of my food choices are dependent on the type of wine I’m in the mood to drink. God damn, wine rules my life!

So here is what we ordered:

• Deep Fried Pickles with Aioli $6
• Chunky Chips $5
• Crispy Pork Belly Bites served with honey bourbon glaze $12
• Jalapeno Poppers with tangy sour cream $12
• ‘Spicy Buffalo Wings x 6 $13
• Philly Steak Slider x 3 $16

The jalapeno poppers were my absolute favourite followed by the wings (minus the ‘spicy’). Next time I go back, I’ll head straight for these two. I believe these are the best poppers in Perth, they’re no Mike’s Jalapeno Poppers but they’ll definitely do for a local substitute until Mr. Spittoon and I can get back to Thailand again.

I would love for the spicy wings to have some spice next time seeing as there is a non-spicy and spicy version on the menu and well the spicy wings didn’t tickle the taste buds at all. However the flavour was spot-on, flippin’ finger-lickin’ good if you ask me!

Plus the lunch deal – 3 sliders for $20 plus a glass of house wine or beer is a pretty darn good deal for us local Vic Park workers!

The best thing is they were obviously having debates about whether customers can order a mixed serving of 3 sliders or not. When we arrived we had to order 3 of the same sliders for the one serving and I’m pretty sure when we left you could order a mixed serving of sliders (winning!). Good call if you ask me! The Philly Steak Slider was great but the Fried Chicken, Jalapeño and Tomoto/Tomato sounded pretty damn tasty too!

Overall

Decanter definitely had a laid-back vibe, nicely kept but not pretentious. The first thing that stood out to me was the Estrella sign behind the bar which naturally made me think tapas and then I just loved the Edison light globes hanging over the high tables. The super friendly manager dude told us that the couches and front bench under the window can’t be reserved so there’ll always be room to pop in for a vino or two.

Will I go back? For sure!  For an opening day, it was pretty darn good and really I can only see it getting better and better. I may even have to suggest to the boss that we have our Christmas party there 😉

The Decanter Menu