Miki's Open Kitchen, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

With the weather warming up over the Summer months in Perth, the cooler climes of the South West beckon - even more than they usually do. Alissa and I had already spent Christmas and New Year's in the Great Southern, and a weekend away with friends in Margaret River was another chance to escape January's run of high 30°C days. While we were down for a belated edition of our annual Christmas Cookoff competition, Alissa and I took the opportunity to tick another Margaret River restaurant off our list of places to try - Miki's Open Kitchen, a Japanese restaurant that came highly recommended.

Swings Taphouse & Kitchen, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

I've said it before and I'll say it again - pizza is an easy dish to make at a mediocre level (hence its ubiquity), but one that is very difficult to truly master. The dough, the thickness of the base, the type of oven, the temperature, the amount of toppings on top - all these variables greatly influence the final result, and while exotic and clever pizza topping combinations are obvious ways to make a pizza appear better, if the fundamentals of a great base are not achieved first then half the battle is already lost. Its for this reason I seldom seek out pizza, but when our friends Cam and Nadia said the Swings Taphouse & Kitchen made the best pizza they'd eaten since they lived in Italy, I knew it was something worth trying. We initially thought of saving it for future Down South holiday, however after a car breakdown meant another three nights in Margaret River, Alissa and I decided to pop into Swings for a late lunch.

Settlers Tavern (American BBQ Lunch), Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Our last meal in Margaret River was meant to be our breakfast at Morries; we had our car packed and ready to go, and after stopping in for a wine tasting at Stella Bella and a coffee at Yahava, we were on the road for two nights in Karri Valley. As we were driving down Brockman Hwy, our car suddenly stopped and would not start up again. After a few hours standing around in the searing sun, an RAC mechanic trying his best to figure out what was wrong with the car, a rope tow to Augusta, a $400 order for a faulty Airflow Sensor and being advised of a 2-3 day wait for the part to come from Sydney, Alissa and I were rescued by our friends Cam and Nadia and taken back to Margaret River. With Karri Valley Resort kindly changing the date of our booking and Cam and Nadia telling us to stay as long as we needed, Alissa and I decided to make the most of this less than ideal situation by sampling a few more restaurants on the Margaret River main strip, with Settlers Tavern's American Barbecue menu high on our list after Cam's strong recommendation.

Morries Anytime (Lunch and Breakfast), Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

In spite of only having been established less than 3 years ago, Morries Anytime has become something of a Margaret River institution. It so well known and popular - the most blogged about restaurant in the region - that it feels like its always been there, and yet for all the regular visits Alissa and I have made over those same 3 years, we've never tried the food at Morries. With two nights set aside staying with our friends Cam and Nadia in Margaret River, Alissa and I were keen to rectify this oversight by trying the lunch and breakfast menus of 'Margaret Rivers first all day, anytime hospitality venue'.

Cape Lodge, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Outside of the towns and regional centres, dining out in the South West is a largely daytime affair. It makes sense - driving around the Australian bush at night with little to no phone coverage over great distances can be a bit unnerving if you aren't used to it, especially with the risk of kangaroo collisions increasing at sundown and sunset. It was surprising then to discover Cape Lodge - one of the top rated restaurants in the Margaret River Region - did not open for lunch, and that it was their fine dining dinner service that was most celebrated. With the recent arrival of a new head chef in Michael Elfwing and a recently updated dining room that has been described as the region's most fancy, Alissa and I decided to make dinner at Cape Lodge one of our two fine dining destinations during our 2015 Down South trip.

La Scarpetta, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Local knowledge can make all the difference. Talk to most Perth residents about places to dine on the Margaret River main strip, and you'll get the same standard answers - Morries, Muster Bar and Grill and Settlers Tavern will be the mainstay answers, while those keeping up with more recent openings will probably recommend Swings Taphouse (which replaced the much loved Wino's) and Miki's Open Kitchen in Margaret River. When planning our 2015 trip through the South West, I wanted to try out places that are perhaps a little less well known, and our friends in Margaret River thoroughly recommended a place they frequent called La Scarpetta, an Italian Trattoria located on the north end of the main strip run by Italian trained Italian chefs, with a strong focus on the food of Sardinia.

Wills Domain, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

When it comes to restaurant reservations, I like to make them as far ahead of time as possible. In planning our January 2015 road trip through the South West, reservations at Laundry 43, Wills Domain and Cape Lodge were booked by August to avoid the mad scramble for a table over the high demand first weekend of the New Year. When double checking our bookings and collating our confirmation emails for our files, I discovered that I'd made a serious error - I'd booked Wills Domain for our first day instead of our second, meaning we'd have to drive past Busselton to Yallingup, double back to Busselton for our dinner at Laundry 43 and then double back even further the next day to cover the things we'd planned for Day 1 in Geographe. With Wills Domain once again announced as the West Australian Good Food Guide's Regional Restaurant of the Year in the interim, changing our booking was not going to be possible  - especially since we booked an extended sitting for the degustation - so we decided to drive the extra distance and enjoy our meal and the winery's stunning views a day ahead of schedule.

Arimia, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

One of the peculiarities of Western Australia's public holiday calendar is how sparse the long weekends become in the second half of the year. While the first half of the year averages 1 a month, after WA Day its over three months before the Queen's Birthday long weekend provides some respite from the relentless working week. The Queen's Birthday then is a holiday we all look forward to, independent of whatever feelings we have for the monarchy. This Queen's Birthday weekend was particularly important for Alissa, as it marked the end of her prac for her university studies and a weekend down south celebrating the birthday of our friend Annaliese Hutchison. After heading down with our friend Ben on the Friday night, Alissa and I had some free time on the Saturday morning to explore. After tasting (and purchasing) wine from the cellar door at Flying Fish Cove, Alissa and I decided to stop in for lunch at the cellar door restaurant at the nearby Arimia Estate.

Vasse Felix, Margaret River, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Its been called one of the best cellar doors in Australia, and has remained consistently at the very top of the best regional restaurants rankings in the Good Food Guide with and equal-highest rating of two stars and 17/20. To say Vasse Felix's reputation precedes it is an understatement.

One of the great perks of living in Perth is that its so close to two amazing wine regions - the world renowned Margaret River region, and the criminally underrated Great Southern. Only back a few weeks from Alissa and Don Eat Asia, we had come down to Margaret River for a wedding and on our way back decided to replenish our depleted wine supplies and try chef Alan Carr's latest creations at the Vasse Felix restaurant.

Owing to being the first vineyard in Margaret River and their continued presence at the forefront of the region's 5-Star wineries, the cellar door-restaurant complex was one of the more expansive in the region.

We had arrived early and were the first to be seated for their lunch service. The high ceiling dining space on the upstairs floor lacked air conditioning, and on this hot Summer day the room was warm indeed even with fans feebly whirring in the background. Thankfully we were seated near the door, where the cooling winds did their best to relieve the less than optimum temperature.

The food menu was divided into sections - Entree, Main, Sides, Dessert and Cheese, and featured the kind of vague ingredients-only dish names that has become quite popular - 'Jamon, nectarine, granola, fennel, buttermilk' and 'Chicken, black eyed beans, corn, merquez, chipotle' for example. Some might find this pretentious, but sometimes its nice to have that element of surprise when the dish finally arrives. We chose to go with a shared entree, two mains and two desserts and since we had a long list of wineries to visit, we skipped the wine and opted for coffee instead.

While we waited for our first plate to arrive, we were given the obligatory serve of bread. This was good bread with a nice softness to the fluffy white interior, but it was not exactly memorable in the way the bread at Caprice and Otto e Mezzo was.

We were swayed away from individual entrees by the duck content in the Charcuterie plate. Duck parfait, duck ham and duck & pork rillette, along with some cured pork fennel sausage and a chicken, prune and pistachio terrine? Yes please! Being fans of this kind of very European-style tasting plate filled with an abundance of flavours and textures, this was a great way to start our meal - even if some of those other entrees sounded amazing.

I love a good plate of protein, but the main that caught my eye the most was the vegetarian option of Buckweat Gnocchi, Cauliflower, Raisin, Goats Cheese, Hazelnut. I used to be of the opinion that gnocchi was gross and rubbery - until I realised the off-the-shelf rubbish that passes for the stuff is nothing like the soft, creamy consistency of the real thing.

'My god!' I exclaimed as the crispy fried outer layer of the gnocchi gave way to the super-soft and smooth interior. This is how gnocchi should be. The cauliflower was served in three ways - fried florets, slivers that had been dehydrated and a foamy puree. All were delicious, and paired well with the goats cheese and a vegetable I'm not normally particular fond of - kale. Throw in the sweet raisin and hazelnut sauce at the bottom, and this was a really winning dish.

Pork was on the menu, so of course Alissa went with the Pork Shoulder, Onion, Endive, Mustard as her main. Plating was absolutely stunning - almost too pretty to eat. Tastewise, the pork shoulder was perfectly cooked as it was flavoursome and juicy, and the classic flavour combination reminded her of a very fancy version of the kind of Dutch-influence cooking she enjoyed as a child. If food has that kind of sensory flashback effect, I think it definitely a success.

Of course, you can't have a good European-style pork dish without the crackling and this salted, crispy crackling was a real treat.

I love cardamom in sweets, and it convinced me to order the Guava, Apple, Cardamom, Honeycomb dish for dessert. The plating of the multiple component dessert was again very beautiful. The combination of textures and flavours were sublime - the smoothness of the guava mousse combined with the crunch of the thinly slice apple and the honeycomb alongside the sweetness of the sauce, jelly and the cardamom brioche provided a delicious final course to the meal

Alissa's dessert was even better; a large part of which owes to the fact it had sorbet as a component. I love sorbet on a good day but during a heatwave I wanted it even more. The dish -Mango, Coconut, Yuzu, Forbidden Rice - drew from a wide range of Asian flavours. The Forbidden rice for one was basically just pulut hitam. It was not necessarily the best pulut hitam either of us have ever eaten (it was a bit too stiff for my liking) but when combined with all the coconut slivers, the meringue, sorbet, fruit and the rice cracker on top, it made for a refreshingly tropical dish that was perfect for the hot day.

The Verdict: Excellent+
Vasse Felix's reputation is well deserved - this was one of the best cellar door meals I've had, and was of a quality level that was not just 'good by Regional Australia standards', but of a standard that did not need such qualifications. Alan Carr is an inventive chef with a keen understanding of flavour and textures, as these wonderful dishes reflect. Certainly worth making a part of your itinerary next time you're in Margaret River.