When the locals tell you this is the spot to dine and feast on local seafood you listen.
Located on the premier street in the beating heart of Geraldton’s pint-sized CBD, Salt Dish is at the apex of dining options in the Mid West. Set in a quirky heritage building, it sprawls between a cosy, light-drenched dining room and a verdant courtyard at the rear. It’s a laid-back place somewhere between café, bistro and wine bar with affable, attentive service and a broad-reaching menu built around seasonal, Western Australian produce and a wide stretch across global cuisines.
Highlights are found in local seafood, with Abrolhos Islands octopus charred and dressed with zingy chermoula buoyed with a pungent wedge of smoky eggplant.
The food comes hitched to a snappy wine list that delivers boutique and left-of-centre producers with a strong lean into the state’s avant garde winemakers. Highlights are found in local seafood, with Abrolhos Islands octopus charred and dressed with zingy chermoula buoyed with a pungent wedge of smoky eggplant and supported with nutty chickpea salad; there’s a lot on here, but the sum of the parts is genial and appealing in this layered dish. Light and lively calamari gets a spotlight, fried gently, dusted with fennel and citrus salt and gussied up with drips of tzatziki.
Salt Dish nails the neighbourhood, all-purpose venue with aplomb, a boon for Geraldton, albeit as easily at home in Fremantle or Northbridge, perhaps, as it is on the sparkling Coral Coast.