Greenhouse, Perth

I loved this place. I loved the concept, the atmosphere, the menu, the service. That's a lot of love.

• the concept "Greenhouse is about designing and operating better places for people. Places that let us touch natural materials, understand where everyday things come from and taste fresh food straight from the garden. All the features of the Greenhouse are carefully considered first for their practicality, recyclability, life cycle and embodied energy and then for their aesthetics and cost." There is a lot more about this on the website including a time-lapse video of the building being constructed.
• the atmosphere Walking up to the outside of the building you are presented with a living framework - hundreds of terracotta pots of ivy. It feels alive and refreshingly different. That's just the outside. Inside the colour is amazing. The warm tones of yellow are so inviting. Given we had travelled so far from Adelaide to be here, we decided it would be silly not to at least take a look at the rooftop bar. Think rustic stools and the opportunity to get up close and personal with the herb garden. Literally able to rest your champagne flute on the wooden board resting over the dirt. The kitchen is open and the furniture entirely appropriate. It was all designed by Joost Bakker and includes tables made from the plywood floor of the original Greenhouse from Melbourne and chairs made from old road signs.

The exterior of the building is clad in corrugated iron covered by a vertical garden

4000 terracotta pots filled with ivy and strawberry plants

Light shades made from reclaimed fencing wire

Bar stools/tables made from wafer board recycled from old wooden palettes

• the menu It's tapas style and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. It includes ingredients I love but don't often find in restaurants like quinoa and tahini.The prices vary and items may change daily due to availability. At least you know it's fresh and seasonal.
• the service We had the services of lovely Hannah who was youthful and full of energy. She helped us with our choices and was happy to let us pace our meal out. It was relaxed service with a smile and a tatoo. She got additional brownie points for running our camera lens cap out to us as we waited for a taxi after our meal.

Onto the food. I was so excited when our starters arrived. A combination of how fabulous it looked and jet lag meaning it was hours after our usual dinner time! The 'afghan bread with tahini dip' was a great combination. The dip was spicy but not hot and the paprika gave it a dustiness whilst the bread was doughy and fresh.

afghan bread, tahini dip

The second starter dish was a classic served with a twist. It looked impressive but fell a little flat although only if you were expecting strong flavour as it was quite mild. Strong in texture - crunchy megas, cold melon, soft prosciutto.

prosciutto, melon, fennel, megas

Next came some spicy squid which we could have consumed in under 5 minutes but made ourselves wait to enjoy it with the rest of the dishes. A squeeze of lemon juice cut through the chilli and made the flavours zing. The squid was meaty and cooked very well.

squid, ancho chilli, coriander

What I loved about this dish is that there is no way I'd shave vegetables at home! It meant that the flavours were so light I couldn't really identify any exact vegetables but that wasn't an issue. Tasty.

shaved heritage vegetables, goats cheese, honey

The hero of the dining experience was the beef main course. It was amazing and the only reason Sean shared any of it with me was because he knew how hungry I was after a 12km run earlier in the day. So, back to the beef. It literally fell apart. I now want any beef I eat accompanied by a creamy almond paste. So delicious. The beef presented on the bone was an interesting touch as well although it could have been used as a weapon to fight off forks getting the last scraps. I'm going on a bit about that as the portion size was small for a main course. The only criticism.

wood roasted beef belly, wheat, garlic & almond sauce

Not a particularly good photo of our other side dish but you should get the idea. It was simple, nothing complicated just crunchy vegetables with a nice oven roasted flavour tossed together. Given quinoa isn't sticky and is such a small seed presenting it on a board - and not in a bowl - may not be the best idea. It made a mess as it fell off the sides and onto the table.

wood roasted asparagus, quinoa salad

I would have loved to try the cheese board but the Burswood Casino was calling Sean. Summing up I would definitely dine at Greenhouse again and recommend it to my friends. Sean wasn't so sure but that was mainly due to the portion sizes. Oh, and that the environmental awareness extends to the toilet where the lights must be set to switch off after a certain time period. Toilet pressure!

We dined on 12 March 2012