With a promising new head chef at its helm, Petition is helping make working – and eating – in the CBD great again.
15/20
Contemporary$$
Monday nights in Perth tend to be kind of quiet. Unless, that is, you happen to be
Petition. Around winter, I started noticing that, regardless of what was happening in the city and the rest of the State Buildings, Monday evenings would see the precinct’s all-day kitchen hum with a cool, you-love-to-see-it energy.
“Who are these people?” I’d wonder as I stopped to admire the warehouse-chic
dining room in action. Unvarnished timber floorboards and Edison globes ticked the boxes for “faded glory” (Not my words: I’m just quoting Petition’s interior architects, spaceagency.)
Cheery diners supplied the human warmth to offset all this semi-industrial style.
Naturally, I became obsessed with figuring out why, in a town where Monday nights are usually spent at home with the family or in the gym doomscrolling, Petition managed to constantly fill seats. It helped, of course, that it was open.
Consistency counts for a lot, and places that trade from breakfast till late, Monday to Sunday are precious finds.
Being attached to the swish COMO The Treasury is another plus, although I wouldn’t say that the crowd here is mostly (or even largely) made up of people staying in-house. Hotel guests breakfast in Post and the West Australian-ness of the outfits (business, casual, designer-streetwear) reinforce Petition’s good standing among locals.
And then it hit me. Or more accurately, I got it. Petition hums on Mondays – and
other typically quiet nights – for one simple reason. It is an excellent place to eat
tasty things, drink splendid beverages, talk with pals and do other things that
humans like doing in restaurants.
Petition’s current head chef is Jessica Roe. A product of Noggerup in the
Donnybrook-Balingup shire who started her career at the Mumby Tavern, Roe
represented Australia at the culinary Olympics as well as ran the Bistro Guillaume kitchen prior to joining the State Buildings last winter.
Were those busy Mondays directly tied to Roe’s arrival? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe Mondays at Petition have always been a vibe but your correspondent, too busy staying at home or exercising, didn’t notice. I can’t say. What I can say, though, is that Roe’s quietly confident cooking denotes her as a cooking talent to watch.
For eaters that seek out lesser-seen dishes and wild combinations, Petition’s menu won’t set your world on fire. Oysters. Charcuterie. Fish of the day: just some of the safe, corporate-friendly options a 110-seat, all-day CBD eatery needs to offer. But when considered with fresh eyes and prepared with care, even the most commonplace of dishes has the potential to thrill.
As proven by the rise of chain sushi stores, Perth likes raw fish. While Petition’s
amberjack ceviche ($28) isn’t technically raw – the bracing, limey South American dressing known as tiger’s milk cures the fish – it delivers similar oceanic thrills as crudo and sashimi. Although related to the ubiquitous kingfish, amberjack is a firmer-bodied fish whose flesh can stand up to the pickled chilli and sunny mango salsa that it’s served with.
How good are chefs using different species and flavours to advance the raw seafood discussion?
Equally pleasing are kitchens that nail details. Without the zip of a sour cherry gel, the irony richness of silken chicken parfait ($28) might be too much. Smoked tomato ponzu is the intriguing top-note that keeps you spooning beef tartare ($29) onto crisp planks of toast. Serving salt-baked beetroot ($24) at the right temperature and cutting it into the right-sized chunks turns up the volume on the vegetable’s earthy sweetness.
I don’t know how, but Petition’s entrees are designed to suit both sharing and
individual ordering: great news for both social and business diners. But if the
occasion really does call for every eater for themselves, beaut snacks a la meaty
ham hock croquettes ($8) and airy savoury profiteroles sandwiching Halls Suzette cheese ($8) can be ordered by-the-piece.
Mains are largely based on the meat-and-three-veg model and best shared when
dining with pals rather than colleagues. But by all means, let the budding food
influencer in the office video your tagliarini pasta with crisp fractal blooms ($38); that crisp-skinned ocean trout atop a sunny romesco sauce with pearl couscous baubles; and that glorious chocolate delice ($22) speckled with Maldon salt flakes and finished with a caldera of warm butterscotch.
Photogenic, artfully plated cooking like this deserves a wider audience, especially when it tastes as good in the mouth as it looks on screen.
Excusing curious missteps such as oddly (mis?)placed spray bottles and laundry
being folded on communal tables, Petition’s restaurant-craft is solid. The tableware is very now, the napkins are linen and service is both personable and professional.
The drinks list is a good time and doubles as a dangerous gateway to Petition’s
dedicated wine and beer spin-offs.
From a business perspective, all-day venues are hard to make work: not just in
Perth, but anywhere. (The original Greenhouse, I feel, was the last place locally that really nailed the brief.) But when an operator and the city get it right, everyone wins.
Think Melbourne’s Cumulus Inc and Sydney’s Fratelli Paradiso while it was still doing breakfast.
Petition is neither of these institutions. And that’s a good thing.
Rather, it’s a bustling, versatile third place designed by and for Perth. There will be suits. There will be t-shirts and boardshorts. There will be multigenerational families with loud children. But there will also be good eating, good drinking and good times.
And it’s there to be enjoyed every day, every week. Sign me up.
The low-down
Vibe: a bustling all-day kitchen making working and eating in the CBD great again.
Go-to dish: amberjack ceviche, tiger’s milk, mango salsa
Drinks: a cool, versatile snapshot of State Buildings’ commitment to good drinking across the board.
Cost: about $155 for two, excluding drinks.
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Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
