Perth Voice Interactive

THE sweet smell of barbecue sauce hangs heavy in the air at Old Faithful, an American BBQ joint on King Street that’s been open a bit over a year now.

It follows a philosophy of “low and slow” smoked meats, and there’s always huge hunks of animal slowly cooking away in the kitchen.

You order as a table and the staff reckon you should aim for around 250g of meat per person; it’s all served up in a big share plate alongside bread and shaved onions that slather up the sauce.

Chopped pig ($8.20 per 100g) comes in a beautifully messy pile of shredded meat, moist and tender and in a tangy sauce. The barbecue chicken ($10.80/100g) is cut into thin strips, the outside just a little charred and covered in mysterious bitey American mustard sauce. The wagyu beef brisket (the premium beef option at $17.80/100g) is king of the show, with the gourmet cow served on the bone, the bulk of the flesh soft and juicy and tapering off into the flavour-rich chewy part close to the bone. I could eat eight cows’ worth.

Admirably Old Faithful sources all its beers locally from Feral Brewery, known for its American-style craft beers with a hefty bite to them that can go toe-to-toe with the massive meaty flavours. If you tried to knock back a Corona or some other faux swill you wouldn’t be able to taste it above the sweet barbecue sauce, so something with hair on its chest, like the Feral’s American Pale Ale, is needed to balance it out.

The menu’s rounded out by some properly American sides like coleslaw, chicken wings, fried pickles and the delicious corn bread ($5 for two cupcakes), filled with chunks of real corn and slathered in sweet, soothing maple butter.

Every item was delicious and filling and I can start to forgive Americans for being so obese they need mobility scooters to navigate Walmart if this is what they’re eating over there.

by DAVID BELL

Old Faithful Bar & BBQ
86 King Street, Perth
0439 467 035