Restaurant and food reviews from Perth, Australia

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Boulevard Restaurant, Hillarys

Boulevard Restaurant reviews; Boulevard Restaurant Hillarys reviews
As spring approaches, it's time to get out and about and enjoy some of that sun.  Or alternatively, time to go out and eat lots of food whilst soaking up sun or at least go and eat somewhere with a view.

I went up Hillarys Boat Habour way one weekend, where many restaurants and pubs including The Boulevard Restaurant are located.  Hillarys Boat Harbour has many open areas, nice brick and planked flooring, and views of the ocean (at some locations) and boats - making Hillarys a popular location for tourists and locals alike.  Boulevard restaurant fits into this with its own modern casual atmosphere and large windowed walls overlooking part of Hillarys.

At lunch/dinner Boulevard Restaurant offers an upmarket cafe menu, complete with a modest alcohol list.  There are many cafe style meat and veg type dishes but with a slightly more upmarket feel.  However, vegetarians may struggle to find much worth eating.

Seafood platter - $54

The seafood platter was a plate of tempura prawns, crayfish, salt and pepper squid, wedges, barramundi, and a bit of salad and creamy tartare sauce.

Perhaps the centrepiece of the dish, the half cray was a tad on the dry side but nonetheless it was still a tasty cray that was helped out by the light but welcome garlic butter.

The tempura prawns were crunchy prawns coated by a crunchy and tastily seasoned batter, but perhaps a bit heavy for a "real" tempura batter.  The salt and pepper squid were lightly dusted and again well seasoned with prominent salt and pepper tastes, making a good addition to the plate.

The barramundi was lightly coated and grilled, and also a bit on the dry and flakey side.

The wedges were pretty standard - that is good and nicely done, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Thinking about the different elements of the plate, this didn't seem like a bad seafood platter - just a bit on the pricy side.

Moroccan spiced chicken breast - $40

The chicken breast was seasoned with Moroccan spices giving it a nice Moroccan spiced flavour, and overall the chicken breast was cooked well and not that dry - and thus I thought it was well prepared.

The chicken breast was served on top of a preserved lemon cous cous, pomegranate and extra virgin olive oil.  The pomegranate sweet and lemon sour flavours were both prominent and at times seemed quite intense in competing with the Moroccan chicken flavour but otherwise I did enjoy the refreshing nature of the cous cous and the fact that it wasn't just plain cous cous.

On top of the chicken was a pistachio nut butter, adding yet another layer of slightly nutty buttery flavour to the chicken.

All up, a different but good dish, but yet again $40 did seem a bit steep.

Drunken strawberries drowned in Contreau - $13.50

This dessert was a cocktail glass of some pretty standard creamy vanilla ice cream, topped with strawberry halves that had been soaked in Contreau.

The strawberries themselves were good, being nice looking and nice tasting.  The contreau added its citrusy flavour to the strawberries with a nice mild kick.

Green tea - $4

I didn't actually taste this tea, but the usual green tea drinker on the table said it was pretty bitter and not that pleasant.  Maybe this was a combination of too many "standard" grade green tea leaves soaked in boiling water a little too long?


We liked: Some of the flavours were surprisingly ok if not necessarily complimentary (eg the cous cous) and generally well cooked; the location at Hillary's can be a good outing especially on a nice sunny day; the service is friendly and helpful.

We didn't like: The prices seemed a little on the high side for the food.

Other things to note: Vegetarians may struggle to find much worth eating.


Boulevard Restaurant
Shop 64, 58 Sorrento Quay
Southside Drive
HILLARYS WA
(08) 9203 7722
Boulevard Restaurant on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

Candy Palmer said...

The seafood platter just made me very very very hungry! Arggggggggggggggggh! Although its a bit more for it's price but the platter looks yummy! :) YUM! Thumbs up!

Adrian said...

Hi Candy

I do like a great seafood platter too :)

It's a good seafood platter but I personally feel there are better ones available in Perth.

filipino women said...

Hi Adria, this is another good review of yours. And nice photos. This is one of the restaurants we went to visit as we wanted to try a restaurant in the entertainment book. On arrival it took a good 10-15 minutes for our drinks to arrive and had to remind them for a bottle of water for the table. Was looking forward to eating but it did take quite a while and first impressions I had the paella, and my girlfriend had the salmon. The salmon was ok but was not worth the $40!!.The paella was a different story, again at $40 it came out in a ramekin and first thoughts was... it was kind of small. :D

filipino love said...

But, I was told that theirs a new Owner running this place and was keen to see if things had changed.

dog good companion said...

Good value. I've eaten here four times now and the food is fresh, honest and there's plenty of it. Great fit out and vibe and service is usually pretty good once you actually get a table (this can be a mission at busy times). While full of choices, the wine list pricing is def on the high side; but this is the case at far too many Perth establishments. A great place for a group or just a casual meal for two.