A tucked away little gem – Padburys Cafe in Guildford, Perth
It was an impromptu dinner reservation and seeing as I had just received my Entertainment Book digital membership I wanted to pick a place that we could get a great deal at and that was close to home.
To be honest with you, I haven’t really noticed Padburys on Terrace Road in Guildford. I mean, I have seen it there but I just thought it was another cafe. When in fact it is a cafe but also a licensed restaurant so I found out!
There is actually a lot of history behind the building where Padburys is located as it’s one of the oldest surviving commercial and residential buildings in Guildford and is listed as a Heritage Building on the State Registrar. Built in 1869, the restaurant use to be home to one of Guildford’s main stores.
We went during the week, and it was fairly quiet. We actually arrived about 45 minutes prior to the time I booked. When I called up to ask if we could come earlier, the staff member on the phone was so pleasant and likewise when we entered the restaurant she was equally as pleasant.
The restaurant has that warehouse type feel; high ceilings, some brick walls and it is decorated with vintage, antique pieces. It’s actually very funky! We were seated in one of the window seats which I wasn’t too keen on to start with as it’s like a window box and therefore everyone walking by looks at you like you’re a puppy on show. Thank-fully Guildford isn’t that busy so we weren’t glared at, at all!
The menu, as expected was pretty straight forward. In a way I do like small menus as obviously they have worked out what their signature dishes are and hopefully they know how to do them well!
The wine list was similar. It was nice to see a mix of Australian wines (a few Swan Valley ones on there which was good) as well as a couple of New Zealand wines too. You can also BYO your own wine which is good to know for the future (check out a full list of BYO restaurants in Perth here)!
We decided to go local and opted for a bottle of the Olive Farm Brut for $28 which I thought was very reasonable. Bottle prices ranged from $28 up to $45 and glass prices from $7 up to $8.50 which is pretty good.
However the crown cap on the bottle of Olive Farm bubbles did confuse the waitress and I have no idea how she did it but when she tried to remove the cap she broke some of the glass off the top of the bottle. Without hesitation she went and got another new bottle. Which is good, no one wants to drink shards of glass! It was actually this incident which made me pop in a section on how to open bubbles with crown caps on my guest post for the Perth Champagne Club.
Mr. Spittoon and I were both dying for a good steak so we both ordered the; Char grill Harvey Beef served with potato mash, green beans, brocolini, mushroom ragout, crispy sweet potato and red wine jus for $39, it didn’t disappoint and knowing that we were getting one of the plates free with our Entertainment voucher, really sweetened the deal.
I don’t know if the meal simply wasn’t enough or I was just particularly hungry on the day but I was still keen for more once I finished my main. So naturally I thought I would take a look at the dessert menu.
In 2 seconds I had decided and flagged over the waitress to order the; Padburys famous half-cooked chocolate Fondant served with Vanilla ice-cream and Chocolate sauce for $14. I WAS IN CHOCOLATE HEAVEN! This was an amazing fondant, cooked to perfection and I was in a sweet heavenly chocolate daze by the end of it. I’ll be going back!
Padburys do breakfast, lunch and dinner, you can find the full menu here. For further information and bookings please check out the Padburys website.
