Huge Portions @ Embers Restaurant, Gooseberry Hill, W.A.
On a public holiday a few weeks back, A decided that we would go for a bushwalk. A is quite sporty whereas I would prefer to stay indoors and read or write. A normally gets me involved by making food an incentive and as bad as that seems, it definitely works. On this particular Friday, A gave me the incentive of a lunch in the hills beforehand. A gave me the choice of where to go, so after a bit of research on Urbanspoon, I decided we’d go to the place that is ranked number 1 in the Kalamunda/Manduring/General hills area – Embers Restaurant.
Embers Restaurant is located in Gooseberry Hill in a little hub of small shops. The venue is quite cute inside but due to the chilliness from the air-con we decided to sit outside. It was quite busy at Embers, and there were quite a few oldies out as they offer a $12.00 pensioner meal.
After we sat down, we waited a long time for menus. A went and grabbed them herself as there seemed to be no waitresses venturing to the outside area. It was strange, as when she entered inside the restaurant there were more than enough staff to adequately serve outside as well.
The menu is pretty basic but has lots of options. The lunch menu was good and the prices were reasonable. I especially thought this when our meals arrived.
I ordered the chicken parmagiana ($25) and it was massive in size. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chicken parma that big before and I don’t think the photo does it justice. The chicken parma was overall quite tasty. The rest of the meal was good too, as the chips were a nice, golden brown colour and not overly salted and the side salad was really fresh. Overall I liked it.
A ended up getting two entrées as a main– both of which were a huge serving as well. She ordered the Spanish sausage plate (chorizo sausage with green split olives, served on Embers fresh crusty bread, $14) and a Mediterranean salad (Eggplant, mescalin, onion, olives, roasted capsicum, cherry tomatoes, $12).
The chorizo on the Spanish sausage plate was way too tough and it wasn’t enjoyable to eat however she enjoyed the flavours of the green olives and the chorizo overall. The bread was crusty and I managed to wrangle a bit and I thought that it was lovely, fluffy white bread. The Mediterranean salad was really fresh and the flavours of the ingredients went really well together – especially the roasted capsicum and eggplant with the onion. Overall, she was pleased with her meal.
We both came away from Embers saying it was quite reasonable but a bit on the average side. The service was definitely average (as the waitresses didn’t appear very often), the food was a bit hit-and-miss (however huge servings!) and the atmosphere was a bit average as well (it was really, really chilly inside). However, in Perth, you can definitely do worse and the surrounding hills area is lovely to drive around and do a little bushwalking.
Embers Restaurant is quite popular for their wood-fired pizza. I would be very interested to return on an evening for a try, and their breakfast is also ranked quite popular as well.
I would definitely recommend Embers for a lunch in the hills before a bit of a bushwalk. It definitely did its job and sustained us for our journey forwards.
Oh, and one more thing – If you do go for a bushwalk afterwards, beware of the swooping magpies!
