Brooklyn, Claremont

This wagyu burger is pretty good but at $25, it’s up there with Perth’s most expensive too.

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“You have to try their bread with maple butter, it’s one of our favourites there” my sister Alice tells us.

“I’m all for pub grub as long as there’s meat” I reply.

“It’s a New York style pub so there must be the cocktails too!” Mysaucepan says gleefully.

“Yaay, I’m in!” our niece Rene says.

Brooklyn, Claremont

We arrive in Claremont just past noon on a windy Perth day.

Claremont Quarter is a large shopping centre with restaurants, cafes and shops along St Quentin Avenue. After a browse around, we tuck ourselves into a cosy corner in the Brooklyn across the road.

Corn bread with maple butter

The promised corn bread arrives in four pull-apart pieces with a generous dollop of maple butter.

I catch a whiff of the earthy truffle aromas in the butter as it sits patiently on our table.

“This bread is asking for trouble” I say.

“Do your usual destructive best and tear it apart then” Mysaucepan says sarcastically.

The pull apart corn bread is soft, fluffy and just warm enough to melt a good slather of maple butter reeking with intoxicating truffle aromas.

This is one good mouthful I shall remember for a long while.

The bartender is busy mixing all kinds of cocktails inspired by The Big Apple.

Upper East Side Sour, Coney Island, The Big Apple Mojito, The East End Collins and The Notorious B.I.G spell New York New York, let alone a Barbra Streisand that Mysaucepan has ordered.

Barbra Streisand

“Why is it called Barbra Streisand?” Mysaupcean asks.

“Well, Barbra is obviously an iconic New York and Broadway heavyweight when it comes to her music” I say. “Or perhaps she’s still singing Evergreen to the world blissfully unaware there’s even a cocktail named after her in some city called Perth in a country called Australia.”

“Ooh, it’s pretty good” she says.

“Lemme try!” Rene says as she takes a sip.

Made with Espolon blanco tequila, apple liqueur, agave syrup, cloudy apple juice and freshly squeezed lime, the Barbra Streisand is a fresh apple and cinnamon twist on the classic margarita dusted with cinnamon sugar on the rim of a chilled glass.

Buffalo wings

Buffalo wings arrive with sixteen deep-fried golden brown drumettes, cucumber batons and blue cheese dressing.

Good as it may look, I find the batter soggy, the meat a little dry and the blue cheese dressing a little too strong.

Perhaps these wings are charbroiled rather than deep-fried but whichever way, it iscertainly far from the best I have had.

The Brooklyn

The Brooklyn is a wagyu pattie with bacon, cheese, red onion, homemade pickles, tomato, cos lettuce and tomato sauce in a sesame brioche.

It looks pretty hefty by any standard and all burgers on the menu come with fries.

Perhaps I have been recently spoiled rotten by Aldi’s brioche burger buns (incidentally, Aldi will be opening stores in Perth this year) because no burger bun has come close to its delicate and buttery softness when I make my homemade beef burgers.

The Brooklyn is pretty good with a thick and wholesome wagyu beef pattie, melting cheese and slices of homemade gherkin though I hardly find any cos lettuce in the mix.

At $25, this burger comparable to Neil Perry’s wagyu number at Rockpool Bar & Grill in the heart of Sydney CBD. So, this one is a rather expensive affair, especially when scoffing it down while sitting on ottoman stools.

And hello Perth, the mining boom is now long gone but boom prices seem to be lingering on like the truffle and blue cheese aromas at our table.

So dear readers, what do you look for in a good beef burger?

Brooklyn
14/22 St Quentin Avenue, Claremont
Western Australia

Tel: +61 8 402 213 345

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