Perth Voice Interactive

CHILLI ORANGE, North Perth

by DAVID BELL:

Angove Street is killing it just now.

Once little more than a side street near the pool hall, these days it’s full of top-notch cafes and quirky shopfronts and on any given weekday morning there’s a healthy population down on the strip.

Chilli Orange is up there with the best. It’s hard to pigeonhole: Variously described as “Asian”, “tapas” and “modern Australian”. None nail it.

I don’t know how to describe the joint but I know we had a French waiter and I ate a pretty damned good steak that sure wasn’t tapas-sized.

For entrees we started out with some pork belly ($16.90). Sourced from Linley Valley, it’s admirably free-range, and served in squares with kim chi, spring onion and cucumber. The outer carapace is supremely crunchy, and the inner flesh soft as butter. It’s an incredible contrast of textures and the flavours of the hoi sin sauce meld beautifully with the sesame oil and chilli. A+, would eat again.

We also picked up the tempura king prawns ($15.90) and were rewarded with incredibly clean-tasting, fresh, sweet flesh and the tempura batter was light and fluffy without a hint of over-oiliness.

For mains I went for the grilled beef tenderloin ($36), ordering it medium rare but getting it closer to medium. No matter, the meat was still pretty tender and moist with a nicely crusted exterior. It was served alongside mushrooms and sweet potato cooked in tempura batter to be dipped in the deeply rich teriyaki sauce. A solid meal but I was on the verge of raising unkempt eyebrows at the price.

The duck and scallop ($38) was an interesting combo of two meats of very different consistencies, but the scallops were perfectly seared, the duck chewy and rich, and the leafy salad crisp and fresh.

Chilli Orange is a little pricier than I’d normally aim for on a weeknight out but, given it wasn’t that long ago your only option was a $3 hot dog at the pool hall, I’m pretty thankful for the choice on Angove Street today.

Chilli Orange
21 Angove St, North Perth
Phone 9228 3814
Open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday