Just minutes, rather than hours, from the city, the Perth Hills holds its own among more lauded food and drink destinations.
While Perth locals often default to Margaret River for their food and wine escapes, the Perth Hills deliver with vineyards, cideries, distilleries and destination diners scattered across rolling terrain. Winding through olive groves, orchards and forested valleys, this pocket is packed with long-lunch gems and laidback brilliance.
If you’re chasing the best restaurants in the Perth Hills, you’re in the right place.
Here’s a tip: organise a driver and head for the hills.
The Flackyard
While you’re in the neighbourhood it’s worth popping in to see Em and Nik Flack at The Flackyard for a chinwag about Bindam Mie Boab Nut sherbet and native thyme oil.
Both are on the menu at their fine diner which focuses on Australian native ingredients over long lazy lunches from Friday to Sunday.
Is there any more heavenly way to spend a Sunday than over a pork and cider pairing with layers of bunya nut purée over slow-braised, crispy pork belly and a shallot crackle crumble?
The couple are well versed in native produce having worked with First Nations people in the remote Kimberley wilderness and Northern Queensland before packing up their family and moving to Em’s home in WA to create their immersive dining experience.
Nik’s 25-year chef resume cites the Big Boys. Wildflower and Fervor in Western Australia, Vue De Monde in Melbourne and True North International in Queensland.
There’s also a take-away cafe on site for those navigating walk trails around Lake Lescheaultia or kayaking on the lake, and it’s no ordinary kiosk.A Sobah no-alcohol craft beer and a spring roll with lemon myrtle, native lemongrass, redback ginger and river mint don’t even touch the sides after a brisk walk or paddle, but the kangaroo and beef sausage rolls just might
Booking a pre-packed picnic basket – and a blanket – is the way to enjoy the shady gum trees while admiring the gentle ripples on the lake.
2135 Rosedale Rd, Chidlow
The Standard Gauge
Perth punters are heading to the hills armed with bottles of wine handpicked from their own collections. And they’re not just there checking out the carpet of aqua wildflowers around Lake Leschenaultia.
Savvy food lovers are booking weekends – months ahead – in Chidlow, to wallow through $75 degustations served up by Michelin-star chef Alan Wise.
Wise and his apprentice, Lexi Mifsud (Culinary Federation of Australia’s 2024 apprentice chef of the year), are the two-person band adding character, pizzaz and gastronomic intrigue to Lake Leschenaultia’s former butcher shop. They’re plating up steak tartare, potato rosti, duck breasts with orange and fennel, or whatever seems like a good idea on the day, to the delighted occupants of just 20 sought after seats who are giving glowing feedback.
It’s no surprise to find that Wise can cook his way out of a paper bag while chatting amiably to customers with one hand behind his back. After all, he’s worked the line in famous kitchens around the world including New York’s Rouge Tomate (now closed) where, as executive chef, he earned a Michelin Star.
During 12 years in the Big Apple, the Wangaratta-born chef also worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Picholine, Juni and Public before returning to Australia for a stint in Brisbane. And then, as luck would have it for us on the west coast, he moved to Perth as Cooee’s inaugural executive chef.
Two-and-a-half years ago, hankering for a more rural idyll, he headed inland to Chidlow where it wasn’t long before locals started dropping off baskets of figs and other produce from their gardens, which he transformed into pitch-perfect plates. Chidlow might be half a world away from New York but Wise has found his spiritual place. And so have his customers.
570 Rosedale Rd, Chidlow
Naked Apple Cider House
You won’t find many apple polishers among the hectares of lush gardens and native bush land here.
All the flattery going down in this coolest-of-cool cider house is genuine, especially when it comes to kicking back on the deck on a Sunday afternoon with a Green Caviar or All Nighter in hand. The perfect sidekick while you’re working your way through a crispy porchetta roast. Or the Gochujang wings that have their own fan club of sweet-and-spicy addicts. King prawns served with pan-fried chorizo, garlic toast and toasted sesame seeds also hit the spot.
Why Naked? Owner and founder – and head cider maker – Ross Engel does not add anything to his cider that isn’t found naturally in an apple. That means no added sugar, no flavourings, no preservatives, no additives or anything funky. To ferment his brews he relies on wild yeast.
Some may remember this venue from another lifetime as the Mia Flora garden centre and the Hopscotch venue before it evolved, in 2018, into the 100-seater restaurant operating today with plenty of room over the property for kids and dogs to run around.
The setting is sublime as are the accompanying sounds in the courtyard on a Sunday arvo.
As the Engels promise, it is a cider house where everyone is welcome, even those who don’t love cider. Though, take a mouthful of any cider on the list and you will swear you can taste the Perth Hills.
1088 Brookton Hwy, Karragullen
Mason & Bird
Happy hour, courtyard games and a foot stomping dance floor equal hillside vibes here in the unlikely setting for a cafe, the Zig Zag Cultural Centre.
Throw in a chunky bacon and egg toastie or a grilled haloumi salad and you’ll understand why this popular venue goes off, whether it’s over weekend brunch or a warm, summer night.
Given it has some Rockpool heritage in its DNA, you would be crazy not to try a burger.
It’s open for dinner Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, which are the best times to stop by for a buttermilk fried chicken burger or pan-roasted gnocchi with cauliflower, almonds and craisins.
Don’t forget the crowning finish – warm chocolate brownie. It all goes with the rustic backdrop.
And the McHenry Hohnen Rocky Road Margaret River Shiraz. It’s all overseen by the affable Jaclyn Noel, now flying solo, at the top of this dining tree.
7 William Street, Kalamunda
La Fattoria
NOTE: Closed 2nd Feb – 5th March for vintage
Fans of the slow-food movement should actually shake a leg and rush to make a booking at this unpretentious farmhouse trattoria in the Piesse Brook Valley, which tugs at the heartstrings over a leisurely four-hour romp through rustic Italian dishes at Nonna’s family table. Nonna here refers to Luezza Radice, the hardy Sicilian woman who, more than 80 years ago, helped clear the land to make way for the orchard and vineyard that now produces the wines and fruit making up the dishes served in her memory at this delightful pitstop.
It’s Luezza’s grandson, Eric, and his wife, Lucy Cole-Radice, who pay tribute to Nonna’s rustic approach in buckwheat pancakes with rocket, chicken agrodolce and savoiardi with ricotta cream, chocolate and vanilla custard – all whipped up by Lucy, an outstanding self-taught cook. Choose to sit at the family table or graze your way through your own pick-a-platter selections of bresaola, sopressa, cauliflower fritters, baked lemon-thyme arancini or meatballs – either way, it’s a feast.
What this venue lacks in glitz it makes up for in rusticity. The entrance snakes through the packing shed after passing by the ramshackle 1930 family home, wine barrels and a vintage Milan scooter. Sit on the deck overlooking olive trees, geraniums and a sign saying “beware of snakes” you’ll feel you’ve stepped back in time. Book in advance.
211 Merrivale Rd, Pickering Brook
MyattsField
This elegant boutique vineyard in the Bickley Valley showers guests with liberal pours of wines perfectly suited to the valley’s microclimate. While you sip riesling, sparkling vermentino, tempranillo, shiraz and the quirky but rare durif, MyattsField owner Josh Davenport shares his food-and-wine trail tips, offers to let you picnic on the terrace and gives snippets of the journey he took to convert the family farm to a vineyard in the late 1990s after working in wineries around the world.
The elegant cellar door is set against a backdrop of gum trees and has a resident gaggle of geese, whose day job it is to control pesky insects and to keep you company while you picnic or share a cheese platter from the cellar door. Tip: definitely try the durif. It’s made from the first WA planting of this variety on the owner’s vineyard and you’ll think of chocolate and dark cherry.
Union Rd, Carmel
The Packing Shed
Note: The Packing Shed is temporarily closed in 2026. The cellar door remains open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11.30am to 3pm. And Lawnbrook Estate is still available for events and celebrations.
19 Loaring Road, Bickley
Seven Sins Perth Hills
When the disarmingly obliging staff at family-owned Seven Sins atop the Darling Scarp describe their serves as generous they don’t even wink at the understatement. Take the much-lauded crisp pork knuckle. It’s the most popular item on the German-inspired menu of chef-owner Sebastian Sindermann, but it’s more than big enough to feed two, and take home the leftovers. Crisp, tender and served with creamy potato mash, sauerkraut, apple mousse and shiraz jus, it goes incredibly well with a pint of Weihenstephan Hefe, an Oakover chardonnay or even a Sin Gin cocktail made with berries, mangoes, Prosecco and pink gin.
Those thinking fondly of the coast can order a tail of crayfish, which comes drizzled with lemon herb butter and garlic cream with a pile of tomato linguine. On the table, you’ll also find smaller plates on offer – there’s crispy fried popcorn squid with a mild yellow ginger and coconut curry, and creamy burrata with spiced tomato potato. The idea is to sit back, sink a few beers or cheeky cocktails and make an afternoon of it thinking of Oktoberfest. Oh, and order dessert – apple doughnuts. Say no more.
1 Soldiers Rd, Roleystone
Plume Estate
If it’s panoramic views you’re after, where better to drink them in that Plume Estate, a boutique family-owned vineyard where the vista over Bickley Valley is usually described as stunning, amazing, sweeping and “the best in the valley”. The reward for navigating a very steep driveway is a drop of sparkling to calm the nerves from a perch in the most sophisticated tin shed ever – a café, actually – while checking out the tapas menu. While the focus here is handcrafted wines – sparkling pinot, verdejo, rosé, shiraz and durif – the short list of shared bites should not be ignored. Don’t pass up the opportunity to try the flammkuchen, a thin-crust, pizza-like specialty of France’s Alsace region, topped either with speck and spring onion, or with goat’s cheese, pear and honey for a lighter, vegetarian option.
91 Glenisla Rd, Bickley
Core Cider
Core Cider is a total orchard-to-glass cider experience. The Cider Garden looks over the orchard where the first apple tree was planted back in 1939. While the manicured lawn is the place to loll around while working through a paddle of Sparkling Pear, Crisp Apple, Berry Perry or Sparkling Ginger ciders – drops brewed just a stone’s throw away on the farm that’s been in the Della Franco family for four generations. But what to pair with it? Their signature Core fried chicken with a sweet mango glaze, of course. That’s the staple on the set menu in the Orchard Bistro upstairs, but you can keep it casual in the garden with mini tacos or a saltbush & rosemary lamb pizza followed by a lick of ice-cream. A winner right to the, ahem, core.
35 Merrivale Road, Pickering Brook