SOMETIMES I start to roll my eyes when I read the pretentious and often embellished backstory to a new restaurant or food product. Like the beer that was brewed by celibate monks in a cave in Syria  for 12 years using yeast extracted from the Turin shroud. Thankfully The Woodfired Baker in Maylands has a…

   LAST day of the school holidays. After eight weeks of ice cream, beach and video games, it felt like the Fall of Saigon in my house with Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles desperately needing to get back into some kind of routine. But before they were hoisted onto the roof and bundled into the Catholic chopper,…

IT WAS time to revisit a Maylands institution and see if it was still keeping up its game. Rifo’s Cafe has been around for a couple of decades, presiding over the Guilford Road and Eighth Avenue intersection like Emperor Nero in a pair of thongs. Their lunch/dinner menu was classic Italian – woodfired pizzas, pasta…

As I drove into Maylands, the sun burst through the dark clouds, turning raindrops on car bonnets into gleaming works of art. It was a pretty introduction to a pretty suburb, and as I parked on the corner of Eighth Avenue and Whatley Crescent, I marvelled at the art deco buildings, leafy trees and sunlit…

IN the fickle world of dining it’s good to see an eatery that has survived for 20 years and keeps getting better. Rifo’s Cafe opened in Maylands in 1999 and quickly became part of the Eighth Avenue renaissance. The mercury was hitting 41 when the D’Angers dropped in for lunch recently, but we still appreciated…

THE Secret Garden was a favourite read as a kid, so sitting in an almost secret garden for a solitary lunch at the Garden Cafe on Guildford was most enjoyable. Unlike the young and misanthropic Mary Lennox, I like people and am usually happy to chat – a lot – as my husband will tell…

NOGGO the dog” gazes quizzically from the wall as you step inside Noggos Kitchen and Coffee in Maylands. The colourful mural was inspired by the owners’ pooch Nugget and several other mutts in the dog-friendly neighbourhood. I probably had a similar expression because the last time I dropped in to the tiny shopping complex on…

ACCORDING to the Chinese horoscope my beloved and I are rabbits. But even we are getting sick of munching on limp salad after limp salad in Perth cafes. So I let out a sigh of relief when I found Little Shop of Plenty in Maylands, a vegetarian  gaff that offers a diverse range of hearty…

Indulge your senses and invigorate your spirit at Chapels on Whatley. Not only does it serve up the biggest range of artisan teas in Perth, plus superb speciality Toro Black coffee, it also does fabulous Eurasian cuisine and kick ass cocktails. The amazing menu offers tastes from exotic eastern British colonies of the past like…

THE cyclist clad in yellow lycra rushed up to the counter, his cleats tapping out a rhythm Sammy Davis junior would have been proud of. “Now that’s a different sort of fast food,” I thought. “I always order the kway teow,” the cyclist tells the Voice during his short wait. “We’ve never eaten in, but…