Some of Perth CBD’s most interesting food is hiding in plain sight. Step inside an anonymous arcade, follow a laneway behind Murray Street or wander beyond the usual lunchtime orbit and you’ll find tiny canteens, old-school cafes and specialist kitchens with devoted local followings.
These aren’t the headline restaurants drawing weekend crowds, but places known to those who work nearby and know where to look. From handmade udon and Indonesian meatball soup to Korean comfort food, German home cooking and excellent focaccia, consider this a map of the CBD spots worth knowing before everyone else does.
Karache’ by Sani
At lunchtime, this little Murray Street canteen can be easy to miss until you notice the queue. Karache’ by Sani specialises in halal Malaysian and Singaporean food, much of it arrayed across a colourful bain-marie that makes choosing difficult. Build a plate around nasi biryani and beef rendang, or try lamb masala, red chicken curry and dhal; nasi lemak, roti canai and teh tarik broaden the offering. Unfussy, generous and deeply comforting.
124 Murray Street, Perth
Saigon Pastry House
Don’t let the name, or the decidedly no-frills Barrack Street shopfront, throw you. Saigon Pastry House has built a quiet following for its banh mi, especially the crispy pork version. Rolls are made to order with pork belly, crackling, pâté, aioli and fresh salad. The menu roams beyond banh mi to pho, rice dishes and noodles, but the pork is the reason to seek it out.
37 Barrack Street, Perth
Alfred’s Pizzeria
Stay at the same address, but head downstairs. Alfred’s is a subterranean pizza joint and small bar serving pizzas made with Italian ingredients, organic tomatoes and fior di latte mozzarella. Try the Betty Rizzo with buttered potato, prosciutto and garlic, or the Rocky with cacciatore, pepperoni, chilli and basil. It’s as much bar as pizzeria, with cocktails, aperitivi and a deep list of whisky, cognac and amaro.
37 Barrack Street, Perth
Chuonkin Thai Restaurant
Named for the Thai phrase “Chuon kin?” or “Have you eaten yet?”, Chuonkin draws on its owner’s childhood in Fang, Chiang Mai. Situated into a small Barrack Street shopfront beside Pigface Bookstore, the menu mixes familiar comforts with more inventive flourishes: pad see ew and massaman beef sit alongside angel-hair pasta in green curry with prawns and caviar, and slow-cooked duck confit in red curry with lychee.
137 Barrack Street, Perth
The Parallel
Tucked beside Pigface Bookstore, The Parallel is a new cafe built around specialty coffee and a short menu of toasties, at an address with some fitting sandwich history: Toastface Grillah once operated from the rear of the same building. The Backstreet Brisket combines slow-cooked beef with American cheese, pickles and sauerkraut, while The Parallel Original pairs beef soujuk with cheddar and roasted pepper-walnut dip. There’s also a mushroom and truffle version.
143 Barrack Street, Perth
Toffee Café
Located inside Equus Arcade, this tiny German cafe has been feeding CBD workers for more than a decade. Its compact kitchen turns out a broad spread of home-style fare, from bratwurst, currywurst and schnitzel to spätzle, potato salad and leberkäse, alongside pretzels, German bread and house-made pastries. With only a handful of tables and little visibility from Hay Street, it is precisely the kind of place easily missed by anyone who does not know to look.
Shop 200, Equus Arcade, 580 Hay Street Mall, Perth
Toastface Grillah
Toastface Grillah may no longer be a secret, but its current CBD home still rewards a little searching. The business began in a Perth laneway in 2013; today, tucked into Bushell House off Murray Street, it remains devoted to one thing: gloriously over-engineered toasted sandwiches. Try It’s Gravy Baby with pulled beef, rosemary gravy, crispy potato straws and pepper jack, the chilli-spiked Chillionaire, or the three-cheese Trillacheese, with house-made tomato soup for dipping.
3/349–355 Murray Street, Perth
Hifumiya Udon Noodle House
Follow McLean Lane off Murray Street and the city quickly gives way to something more like a neighbourhood Japanese canteen. Perth’s first dedicated udon specialist takes its cues from Kurashiki in Okayama, a city associated with bukkake-style udon, with noodles made fresh in-house. Order the mentaiko bukkake with slow-cooked egg, beef curry udon or the Hifumiya Original with fried bean curd, egg, seaweed and bonito. The regular lunchtime queue is testament to how firmly it has found its audience.
100–104 Murray Street, McLean Lane, Perth
Jigoro
Come back to the same address after 5pm and it is almost unrecognisable. Hifumiya’s daytime udon operation gives way to Jigoro, a boisterous izakaya inspired by the casual drinking dens of Japan. Bottles line the walls and the menu encourages grazing: kakuni braised pork belly, spicy karaage, sake-steamed clams, grilled mentaiko and monkfish liver, followed by warming chazuke bowls of rice and dashi. The night-time transformation is part of the pleasure, and easy to miss if you only know McLean Lane by day.
Shop 2, 100–104 Murray Street, McLean Lane, Perth
Hangang Korean Dining & BBQ
Set beneath the old European Hotel on Murray Street, Hangang is a relatively new addition to the CBD’s Korean food scene. The menu ranges from bibimbap and gimbap to bubbling jjigae, fried chicken and Korean-Chinese favourites such as glossy black-bean jajangmyeon, spicy seafood jjampong and tangsuyuk, crisp fried pork with sweet-and-sour sauce. Wagyu and other barbecue cuts also feature, making this an unusually broad option for a weekday CBD lunch.
97 Murray Street, Perth
Mister Focaccia
Mister Focaccia’s CBD outpost occupies an understated ground-floor space on St Georges Terrace, a city sibling to the original Leederville shop. Owner Fabio Merafina specialises in the focaccia Barese of Puglia, where he grew up, with dough made fresh in store and meats sliced on site. The truffle prosciutto combines prosciutto, stracciatella, truffle paste and rocket, while mortadella, Caprese and more substantial meat-filled versions round out the menu.
G3/172 St Georges Terrace, Perth
Noodle Forum
Inside Equus Retail Arcade, Noodle Forum centres on thin egg noodles prepared daily using the traditional bamboo-kneading method. Order them with barbecue pork, in the coconut-rich laksa supreme with Exmouth prawns, shredded chicken and tofu, or alongside beef brisket slow-cooked with ginger and star anise. The surrounds are modest and the menu straightforward, with the noodles firmly the point.
Shop 203, Equus Retail Arcade, 580 Hay Street, Perth
Bakso Barokah Perth
Easy to overlook among Barrack Street’s utilitarian shopfronts, Bakso Barokah feels more like an Indonesian street-food stop than a polished CBD restaurant. Its speciality is bakso, the comforting meatball soup found across Indonesia: try bakso urat with a hefty tendon meatball, egg-filled bakso telur or the chilli-heavy bakso mercon. Bakso Malang adds tofu and fried wonton, while mie ayam bakso and peanut-sauced batagor broaden the menu. Indonesian TV and a crowd of students and expats complete the transportive effect.
135 Barrack Street, Perth
If you know where to look: Perth CBD’s best hidden eats
Up at the quieter eastern end of Hay Street, Beansprout rewards those who venture beyond the CBD’s usual lunch circuit. Local nine-to-fivers are well onto it, as the queue snaking out the door around midday often makes clear. The BMT banh mi thit is a favourite, packed with pâté, mayo, pickled carrot, cucumber, coriander and chilli, while the broader menu sticks to the same fresh, punchy formula across vermicelli bowls, pho and other Vietnamese lunch staples.
530 Hay Street, Perth