The new-look Karrinyup offers a raft of opportunities to fill your plate as well as your shopping bag. Here’s where to begin.

With the launch of the new-look Karrinyup, a host of hospitality brands have opened their doors to the public, with a range of leading names and figures opening widely anticipated venues. Across two distinct dining precincts, The West Deck and The Café Terrace, a range of restaurants are now welcoming guests, not just between forays into the premium shopping precinct, but as destinations in their own right – a trend that will only continue as more venues open their doors, including Dandelion, a bar-restaurant from the team behind The Standard, The Royal and Fleur. Meanwhile, the current offer ensures that Karrinyup will be a go-to for drinking and dining, as much as for shopping and leisure. But what to make of all the options, and where to go first? We’ve got your back, with an essential guide to what to try from the team at WA Good Food Guide, so whether it’s laksa, woodfired pizza, a smooth latte or a full-blown modern Indian experience, you’ll find the breakdown, from breakfast through to dinner, right here.

Laksarama

Laksarama is the creation of Brendon Sim, owner of top Perth CBD venues Bar Lafayette and W. Churchill. A love letter to his Malaysian heritage, the short, sharp menu is centred around two laksas and three moreish sides comprising crunchy fried prawns, crisp-fried tofu and Malaysian fried chicken.

When it comes to choosing, the curry laksa is a tried-and-true classic, but our pick is the Sarawak laksa, a dish Anthony Bourdain once described as “breakfast of the gods”. Whatever the time of day, the aromatic spiced coconut broth, rice vermicelli, prawns, shredded chicken, shredded omelette, fried tofu, beansprouts, coriander and belacan (Malaysian-style sambal) bring heat, funk, spice and richness into play in a dish that has you going back for more. The side dishes all stack up, but the tofu is our pick. Be sure to pair it all with a Tiger beer to complete the experience.

Eat Drink Raw

Founded in 2014 and previously located in West Leederville and West Perth, Eat Drink Raw is a plant-based wholefoods cafe with a focus on sustainable living. Located on the Café Terrace, all items are vegan and free from gluten and refined sugar, while ingredients are organic and locally sourced wherever possible.

Eat Drink Raw’s menu ranges from smoothies, desserts and other counter items to all-day cooked breakfast and lunch, including smashed avo and bagels. The gluten-free waffles with banana, berries, coconut yoghurt and maple syrup are a particular highlight.

Lunch options include a range of bowls, vegan burritos, burgers and salads, and a particularly impressive take on sushi.

Graze & Tipple

Graze & Tipple is a one-stop shop for Italian gourmet market shopping, dining and drinking in the heart of Karrinyup’s shopping precinct, with a menu that runs from breakfast through to dinner.

Breakfast offers an elevated take on classics, from buttermilk pancakes with tiramisu mascarpone through to prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella on toast with heirloom tomatoes. Come lunch and dinner bring the Italian focus to the forefront. Here, sourdough pizzas are the dish of choice (try the patatas, with truffle salsa, kipflers and fior di latte), but pasta is just as appealing, as are mains including braised lamb shoulder and pork cotoletta with kohlrabi and fennel. The concise but considered drinks list includes a lean to local reds, with plenty of range in the beer stakes, too.

Graze & Tipple’s deli features everything you could ever want from a gourmet Italian market, with a range of artisanal cured meat and cheeses, through to premium pantry items and ready-meals. Oh, and don’t skip the coffee and gelato counters.

Graze & Tipple’s deli, meanwhile, features everything you could ever want from a gourmet Italian market, with a range of artisanal cured meat and cheeses, through to premium pantry items and ready-meals. Oh, and don’t skip the coffee and gelato counters.

Priestess by Voodoo Coffee

Located in The Loop, Priestess is the latest venue from the creators of Pretzel and Raine Square’s Voodoo Coffee. While the Voodoo heritage is clear, Priestess is a light and inviting space compared with the moodier, more industrial original; the perfect respite from a busy shopping trip.

While coffee is the focus, Priestess serves a range of sweet treats and other pastry items to enjoy alongside your flat white. Light meals include a bacon and egg brioche roll, bruschetta and a pear salad. Pick a bagel and add your choice of topping such as smoked salmon with jalapeño cream cheese, or perhaps Canadian maple butter for a sweeter experience.

Hermanos en Tacos

Hermanos en Tacos is the sister restaurant to Mount Lawley Tex-Mex favourite Hermanos en Cantina. The fresh, fast, friendly theme continues here in this fully-licensed casual diner.

Portions are substantial and the flavours punchy, whether you choose the 12-hour slow-cooked beef brisket, a plate of nachos or one of the twenty varieties of taco

Portions are substantial and the flavours punchy, whether you choose the 12-hour slow-cooked beef brisket, a plate of nachos or one of the twenty varieties of taco (we recommend the blackened fish and shrimp). Refreshingly, the salsas in each dish are as much the star as the fillings, and there’s clearly a lot of thought and scope behind the menu.

Unsurprisingly, margaritas and a growing selection of tequilas are available to add to the fun.

Baguette Me Not

CBD – and formerly Subiaco – street-food favourite Baguette Me Not is a welcome addition to Karrinyup with its range of Vietnamese-inspired dishes. The menu includes baguettes, bowls, bao buns and even tacos.

Our picks are the crisp-crackling pork belly banh mi and customer-favourite Egg Sheeran bowl, featuring cucumber, pickled carrots, brown rice, a fried egg, mayonnaise, spring onions, fried shallots, coriander, chillies and your choice of protein. The generously-filled bao buns are worth your time, as are the banh mi loaded fries. Vegetarian and vegan options are in plentiful supply, while a classic Vietnamese iced coffee joins a coffee roster from Melbourne’s SOCO roasters.

Spice Market

Spice Market is large, bright and one of the stars of the Karrinyup restaurant precinct. It’s a Thai restaurant with a menu as large and generous as the venue itself, covering everything from stir-fries to curries to salads, noodles and rice. There are dedicated kids and vegan sections, too, so there really is something for everyone, making it perfect for groups and families.

A unique feature of Spice Market is that food is delivered to your table by robot waiters, while ordering is done on your phone via QR code. A glimpse of the future, right here in Perth, and indicative of Spice Market’s ethos, which is centred around friendliness and good times.

Topi

Want to see pure class personified? Head straight to Topi, the latest restaurant venture from one of Perth’s most well-loved and respected chefs, Gurpreet Bagga. At Topi, which refers to the crisp, white hat worn by the bike-riding dabbawalas who deliver lunch to city workers in India, it’s a family affair with wife Rashmi standing elegantly front of house while husband Gurps, as he is fondly known, whips up his version of Kerala Fried Chicken and other modern Indian favourites in this exquisite, stylish setting. The KFC? Extra addictive, with a tang from a buttermilk brine leading into a fair whack of heat and a satisfyingly crisp crunch.

The Kerala Fried Chicken? Extra addictive, with a tang from a buttermilk brine leading into a fair whack of heat and a satisfyingly crisp crunch.

Add pappadums, pickled carrot, a deceptively healthy boozy mango lassi and some curry-leaf chutney and you’ll understand why they say “sorry, no doggy bags” on the menu – quite simply, you won’t be leaving anything on the plate.

Viet Hoa

Every shopping trip should begin with a generous boost of sustenance and energy, and Viet Hoa, the next outpost from Northbridge’s Vietnamese standby, supplies both in spades. This pleasantly-staffed bolthole transports customers to the night markets of Hoi An, with all the flavour and colour.

Soft and sensuous rice paper rolls come crammed with dazzlingly fresh lettuce, crumbed fish, cucumber, grated carrot and avocado. They’re a meal on their own but there’s plenty more, and Chinese influence comes to the forefront too. Try a mixed plate from the bain marie where $15 plates are piled high with the likes of satay chicken, colourful stir-fried veg, beef with black bean sauce and slippery rice noodles. There’s oodles of choice, but overlook the roast duck at your peril.

Good Company

The Three Pound Group (The Camfield, The Stables, The Reveley and The Elford) chose the perfect name for their pub. With neighbours like Dandelion (from hip publican John Parker) and Topi (Gurps Bagga’s Indian venue) Good Company certainly lives up to the billing. And while it might be more than a stone’s throw from the ocean, it has beach bar stamped all over it. With it’s Head to the West Deck for woodfired pizza, wagyu beef burgers and chicken schnitzel paired down with a Feral Biggie Juice on tap. (Or you can always branch out with premium Ruinart at $200 a bottle or a skin-contact rosé from Amelia Park.)

Cocktails come in three sizes – virgin, cocktail and giant – while the pizza oven churns out puffy, billowing beauties with fior di latte playing foil to a range of flavourful toppings. There’s kingfish crudo, too – a bracing starter with blood orange vinaigrette and toasted nori powder. Right on trend, and spot on in exection.

O Mare Mio

Channel Monica Bellucci zooming around Naples on the back of a Vespa at O Mare Mio, where blistered, scorched pizzas with minimal toppings meet authentic Neapolitan seafood dishes against the backdrop of the West Deck’s water feature.

Sip a Spritz and enjoy the gentle sea breeze while tucking into a slice of the Freo, featuring tender marinated octopus with fragrant herbs and a cleansing slap of vinegar. An Italian feed would suffer without a couple of thick slices of classic Italian bread, soft and tender on the inside with a chewy crust; as the perfect sidekick to octopus they also come to the party when dipped in luxuriant tomato sauce.

Channel Monica Bellucci zooming around Naples on the back of a Vespa at O Mare Mio, where blistered, scorched pizzas with minimal toppings meet authentic Neapolitan seafood dishes against the backdrop of the West Deck’s water feature.

Seared scallops pair up with pumpkin sauce, and don’t even ask if crab linguini is on the menu – of course it is. And if the mood takes, you can hop aboard one of the Vespas for a photo at the end, reminiscing about la dolce vita.

Thuggs

If you want the Nashville version of fried chicken – and a side serve of hip-hop – Thuggs is your go-to. Go hungry. Go on a day when you are not worried about carb intakes. And leave room for the loaded fries. While the names of the burgers and the cool-dude backdrop bring on a wry smile, the choices are all about serious comfort food.

The challenge is to munch your way through a Busta Double burger – two slabs of buttermilk-fried chicken between pillowy soft buns, and a smattering of pickles and Thuggs’ own mayo. And, just in case you were wondering, they do have vegan and gluten-free options.

This piece was produced in partnership with Karrinyup Shopping Centre.

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