Fleur Perth restaurant review: A dinner of convenience turned into a delicious meal in a beautiful room

I can count the number of times I’ve been out at night in the city in the past six months on one hand, with fingers left over. Nothing against the CBD; it’s more to do with middle age and work and children and the resulting 8pm bedtime. But it does help to explain how I haven’t, until now, made it to Fleur restaurant, inside The Royal Hotel. Fleur is right up my alley (French-adjacent food in a moody, tucked-away dining room? Sign. Me. Up.) but it took a conveniently timed showing of Nosferatu at the nearby Palace Cinema to get me there. My mistake. We arrived for our 5.30pm Friday booking feeling hungry and a little ready for the retirement home, given the hour. The host laughed graciously at my joke about an early bird special, before showing us, their first guests for the evening, to our table. A complimentary non-alcoholic aperitif lobbed soon after; a lovely touch. I love a classic negroni so when I saw a beetroot version on the menu, in service of you, dear reader, I gave it a try. Not purple, and all the right bitter, herby notes with a subtle earthiness, garnished with pepper berries. Very nice. (Our attentive waiter took it upon herself to investigate the colour question, returning to tell me the beetroot is infused into the gin. When I complimented a striking fish-shaped water jug, she peered underneath to give me the name of the maker. Full marks.) We ordered six oysters, with fennel and tarragon mignonette ($30), which were of the creamy, mineral-ly Albany rock variety on this night. If a finer oyster exists, I haven’t tried it. The beef carpaccio ($26) came out in a creamy sauce which made us momentarily think they’d brought us the wrong dish. Actually, it was our own failure to read the word after carpaccio — tonnato. This Italian condiment, made with tuna, anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and mayonnaise, was unexpected but nonetheless delicious. I had to be talked into the chou farci ($36), a dish of Savoy cabbage with lentil, feta and polenta. My reluctance stems from a trip through Romania, when a generous local offered a traditional dish of stuffed cabbage, where said stuffing resembled Whiskas much too closely for my liking. I ate it, of course, for the sake of politeness and cultural exchange, but the memory lingers. I need not have worried because this was not that; a gorgeous-looking dish, the softness of the filling was balanced against the burnished cabbage leaf and taken to a new level by the addition of smoked tomato oil. A lamb dish ($40) consisting of rump, slow-cooked belly, caponata and a smear of sheep’s yoghurt was perfectly nice without reinventing the wheel. The stand-out came in the form of a humble side dish ordered because I cannot resist a fried potato, nor do I want to. The rosti ($12) was the stuff dreams are made of: crunchy outside, soft inside, salty and elevated into the stratosphere by the thoughtful addition of a mushroom emulsion, egg yolk and a sprinkle of chives. If I close my eyes, I can still taste it. Dessert was a banoffee mille-feuille ($19) which teamed layers of crisp pastry with creamy dulce de leche to great effect. By the time we left at 7.30pm to watch Count Orlok skulk around in the dark, the dining room was full and lively, testament to the happy combination of great food, inventive drinks and the convivial atmosphere Fleur is dishing out. Endnote: after this review, I discovered Parker Group is about to do a revamp of the Fleur menu. All the more reason to make another trip into the city. The verdict: 15/20 It started as a dinner of convenience, but ended up a lovely meal in a beautiful room. Fleur The Royal Hotel, 531 Wellington Street, Perth Open Wednesday-Saturday, 5.30pm till late Contact 9322 1023, fleurtherestaurant.com.au Bookings Yes