Perth’s food scene has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past decade. What was once dismissed as a culinary backwater — isolated by geography and somewhat insular by temperament — has emerged as one of the most exciting restaurant cities in Australia. The combination of extraordinary local produce (from the Indian Ocean seafood to the Swan Valley wines, Margaret River olive oils, and some of the finest beef in the country), an influx of world-class chefs, and a dining public that has developed genuine sophistication has produced a restaurant scene that now genuinely rivals Sydney and Melbourne for innovation and quality.
I’ve eaten my way across Perth more times than my waistline would prefer, and the list of excellent restaurants just keeps growing. Here’s where to eat — from the special-occasion splurges to the neighbourhood gems that locals are quietly proud of.
📋 TL;DR — the quick version
- ✅ Wildflower is the best fine dining in Perth: Rooftop restaurant with stunning city views and a menu built entirely on Western Australian native ingredients.
- 🐟 Seafood is the star of Perth’s food scene: Blue manna crab, marron, fresh scallops, and the finest rock lobster in the world — WA seafood is extraordinary.
- ☕ Perth’s coffee culture is world-class: Specialty coffee is taken very seriously here — you’ll find excellent roasters and cafes in every neighbourhood.
- 🍷 Margaret River wine is on every good list: Western Australia’s flagship wine region produces some of Australia’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
- 🏙️ Northbridge and Highgate lead for nightlife dining: These inner-city neighbourhoods have the densest concentration of excellent restaurants and bars.
- 🦞 Book ahead for the top places: Perth’s best restaurants are as in-demand as their counterparts in Sydney — planning ahead is essential for weekend bookings.
- 🌊 Cottesloe and Scarborough offer excellent beachside dining: Eating great food with the Indian Ocean in view is one of the great Perth pleasures.
🌿 Fine dining in Perth: the top tables
🌸 Wildflower
Wildflower, perched on the rooftop of the COMO The Treasury hotel in the heart of Perth, is widely considered the finest restaurant in Western Australia. Chef Matt Stone and his team have built a menu based entirely on native Western Australian ingredients — dishes that use the same bush foods that Aboriginal people have eaten for tens of thousands of years, presented with contemporary fine dining precision and creativity. The dining room opens to the sky, the views across the Perth CBD are dramatic, and the tasting menu changes seasonally to reflect what’s genuinely available from the land and sea. Book weeks ahead for weekend dinner sittings — it’s one of the most sought-after tables in Australia.
🎣 Print Hall
Print Hall occupies a beautifully restored Art Deco building in the heart of Perth’s CBD, and it delivers one of the city’s most polished dining experiences. The focus is on the finest WA produce — lobster, marron, wagyu beef, and seasonal vegetables — prepared with classical technique and presented beautifully. The wine list is exceptional, with particular strength in Margaret River and Great Southern wines. The bar upstairs serves the best cocktails in the city centre in one of Perth’s most elegant spaces.
🌊 Wills Domain
Technically located in Margaret River wine country rather than Perth itself (about 2.5 hours south), Wills Domain deserves mention because no food lover visiting Perth should leave Western Australia without making the trip. The restaurant at Wills Domain winery has long been one of the finest dining experiences in Australia — the food is extraordinary, the wine is selected by people who really know it, and the setting among the vines is the definition of graceful. Make the drive. You won’t regret it.
🐟 The best seafood restaurants in Perth
Western Australia produces some of the finest seafood in the world, and Perth is the best place to eat it. Blue manna crab from the Swan and Murray rivers, marron (a freshwater crayfish unique to WA), Shark Bay scallops, Exmouth prawns, and the globally coveted Western Australian rock lobster — known internationally as “Australian Lobster” — all appear on Perth menus with the kind of freshness that east coast cities simply cannot match.
⚓ Long Chim Perth
David Thompson’s Long Chim is not strictly a seafood restaurant — it’s a Thai restaurant — but its use of WA seafood in Thai preparations is genuinely extraordinary. The blue swimmer crab dishes and whole fish preparations are outstanding, and the quality of the cooking overall is among the best Thai food in Australia outside of Sydney. The basement location in the State Buildings complex gives it a dramatically atmospheric setting. Loud, fun, and deeply delicious.
🦞 The Lobster Shack (Cervantes)
Two hours north of Perth at Cervantes, The Lobster Shack processes the Western Australian rock lobsters that end up on fine dining menus worldwide. Visitors can tour the processing facility and eat fresh lobster in the on-site restaurant at prices that would seem criminal in Sydney or London. It’s not a fancy restaurant — plastic chairs and paper bibs — but the product is the best rock lobster you’ll eat anywhere on earth. Worth the drive, especially if you’re heading north towards Jurien Bay or Kalbarri.
🐚 Kailis Bros Leederville
The Kailis family has been involved in WA seafood for generations, and their Leederville fishmonger and cafe is the best place in Perth to buy or eat the finest local catch. The retail counter sells just-caught seafood at prices that make you want to cook, while the cafe turns out excellent seafood dishes from breakfast onwards. The crab linguine is a Perth institution. Arrive early on weekends — the queues for brunch fill up fast and the good stuff sells out at the fish counter.
☕ Best cafes and coffee in Perth
Perth takes specialty coffee extremely seriously, and the standard across even the most ordinary suburban cafe is remarkably high. The city has its own roasting culture — several Perth-based roasters have won national and international barista championships — and the neighbourhood cafe experience here is genuinely world-class. Exploring Perth’s cafe scene is one of the great visitor pleasures, and it doesn’t require a reservation or a budget.
For more inspiration, check out 3 Days in Perth Itinerary and Best Luxury Experiences Perth.
☕ Telegram Coffee
Telegram Coffee in the Perth CBD is consistently rated as one of the finest specialty coffee experiences in Perth. The roasting and barista technique are exceptional, the food is thoughtfully prepared with local ingredients, and the space has a calm, focused atmosphere that coffee lovers will appreciate. Their single-origin filter coffees in particular are worth seeking out for the flavour complexity they reveal.
🌿 Sayers Sister
Sayers Sister in Northbridge is the Perth brunch institution. The all-day menu showcases excellent produce with dishes that are creative without being pretentious, and the coffee is outstanding. Weekend queues are significant — arrive before 8:30am to secure a table without waiting, or come on a weekday when the crowd is more manageable. The ricotta hotcakes and the grain bowl both have devoted followings, but honestly, everything on the menu is good.
🍻 The best restaurants in Northbridge
Northbridge is Perth’s entertainment and dining precinct, immediately north of the railway line from the CBD. It contains the highest concentration of restaurants, bars, and late-night venues in the city, ranging from cheap and cheerful to genuinely excellent, and representing an impressive range of world cuisines alongside WA-focused contemporary cooking. Walking around Northbridge on a Friday evening and choosing somewhere to eat based purely on what catches your eye is one of Perth’s great visitor pleasures.
Angel Falls Grill is the standout steakhouse in Northbridge, serving extraordinary WA wagyu and grass-fed beef in a comfortable, no-nonsense setting. Must Winebar pairs regional WA wines with small plates that highlight local produce — the cheese and charcuterie selections are excellent, and the wine list is one of the best curated in the city. Nobu Perth in the Crown complex brings the globally famous Japanese-Peruvian fusion concept to the Perth waterfront, and while it’s expensive, the quality is consistently impressive for a special occasion.
🌊 Beachside dining in Perth
One of the privileges of eating in Perth is that you can combine excellent food with some of the best beachside settings in Australia. The Indian Ocean coastal suburbs of Cottesloe, Scarborough, and City Beach all have restaurants that face the water, and eating at one during that legendary WA golden hour before sunset is an experience that’s hard to match anywhere in the world.
The Cottesloe Beach Hotel is one of Perth’s most storied dining venues — a grand colonial pub right on the beach at Cottesloe, with a beer garden and rooftop terrace that both look directly onto the Indian Ocean. The food is good modern Australian pub fare; the setting does the heavy lifting. Bib and Tucker at North Coogee (near Fremantle) is more serious about its cooking — a contemporary restaurant with an outstanding tasting menu and views over Cockburn Sound. For a more casual beach experience, the kiosks and cafes at City Beach and Scarborough both serve decent food in stunning settings.
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🛒 The best food markets in Perth
Perth’s food markets are excellent and give you access to the local produce that makes the restaurant scene so strong. The Fremantle Markets (Friday to Sunday) are the most famous — a Victorian-era market hall with fresh produce, artisan food products, and excellent street food. The Mount Claremont Farmers Market (Saturday mornings) is the best pure farmers market in the Perth metropolitan area, with direct-from-farm produce of outstanding quality.
Pair this with Best Day Trips from Perth and Best Food in Perth to round out your trip.
The Subiaco Farmers Market and the Inglewood Night Market are both worth knowing about — the latter runs on selected Friday evenings in summer and is a wonderful community event with good food, local wines, and live music. If you’re self-catering or building a picnic, the Maylands Peninsula Public Golf Course Farmers Market is a local secret worth knowing: small, curated, and with some of the best artisan bread in Perth.
🍷 Margaret River wine: what to order
Margaret River wine deserves a mention in any guide to eating and drinking in Perth, because it appears on every serious wine list in the city and because it’s extraordinary. The Margaret River region, about 270km south of Perth, produces less than 3% of Australia’s wine but a disproportionate share of its finest bottles — particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blends.
In Perth restaurants, look for producers like Cullen, Vasse Felix, Leeuwin Estate, Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle, and Xanadu on the wine list. These are benchmark producers whose wines sit comfortably alongside the best of Bordeaux and Burgundy on the global stage. If you’re lucky enough to visit Margaret River itself, the winery restaurant experiences at Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix are among the finest in regional Australia.
👉 Book a Margaret River Wine and Food Tour from Perth on GetYourGuide →
💡 Tips for eating well in Perth
- 📅 Book ahead for top restaurants: Perth’s best restaurants fill up fast on weekends. Wildflower, Print Hall, and the top Northbridge venues all require advance reservations — don’t assume you can walk in.
- 🦀 Order the local crab: Blue manna crab is a Perth speciality that you simply cannot get this fresh anywhere on the east coast. If it’s on the menu, order it.
- 🌅 Time your Cottesloe dinner for sunset: The sunsets at Cottesloe Beach are famous worldwide — booking a waterfront table at the Cottesloe Beach Hotel for the golden hour is a Perth experience you’ll talk about for years.
- 💵 Perth is an expensive city: The cost of dining in Perth reflects the high local wages and cost of living in Western Australia. Budget somewhat more per meal than you would for equivalent quality in Melbourne.
- ☕ Ask your cafe about the roast: Perth’s baristas love talking about their beans. Asking about origin and roasting style will often unlock a much better coffee than the standard order.
Perth’s food scene rewards those who engage with it seriously. The produce is extraordinary, the chefs are ambitious, and the dining culture has developed a genuine confidence that was absent a generation ago. Eat widely, eat curiously, and don’t leave without trying the crab.
Exploring Australia’s food and wine scene, read our guides to best restaurants in Melbourne, best wine regions Australia, and best fine dining restaurants Australia.
