Frances Andrijich
Talking about Pearla & Co’s pink snapper makes me both happy and sad. I’m happy because, well, it was a shockingly good piece of fish: juicy of flesh, its crackly skin pocked with just enough char to emphasise the snapper’s oceanic sweetness. The dish was testament to plenty of people doing plenty of things right, from the person that line-caught the fish – Anthony Heslewood from Revolution Fisheries in Augusta – to the Pearla & Co kitchen team that knife-scaled the snapper, dry-aged it, then carefully grilled it over charcoal before dressing it with a brown butter sauce studded with twigs of samphire.
Then why so sad? Because by the time you read this, it’s likely that the new Western Australia fishing ban will have either driven pink snapper and other demersal (ocean floor) fish off restaurant menus, or that their prices would have skyrocketed, putting them out of reach of most diners. But like the saying goes, there’s plenty more fish in the sea. And Pearla & Co chef-owner Scott Bridger and his head chef Pablo Gosteli certainly have the know-how to make this local seafood shine.
Sometimes that involves doing a lot. Such is the case with meaty grilled tiger prawns from Exmouth, finished with an earthy fermented chilli butter and garnished with a cutesy “prawn cracker” of sorts, made by frying the creatures’ spindly legs. Yet at other times, success is achieved by doing very little. The zip of a perky green tomato aguachile gently steers rounds of fatty Rottnest Island bigeye tuna towards South American ceviche-ish territory.
And then there are things like the tartare, that have a foot in both camps. Here, raw flesh from that same dry-aged snapper is diced, sharpened with chilli, then served sang choi bao-style alongside cups of frilly butterhead lettuce. This presentation doesn’t just highlight the complex flavours patience can unlock in seafood: it also helps justify management’s not-insignificant investment in dedicated twin Dry Ager fridges.
You’ll spy these fridges – and their occasionally Dexter-esque contents – in the dark-hued dining room, with black tables, elegant armchairs fitted with cushions the turquoise of a January rockpool, staff keen to help, plus floor-to-ceiling windows that bring the sun and sea breeze indoors. But if you really want to maximise the restaurant’s coastal setting, it’s all about booking an al fresco table.
As far as locations in which to serve and celebrate contemporary seafood cooking, Pearla & Co looks and feels the part. For anyone who enjoys eating by and from the sea, this is a restaurant that has all the ingredients to make you very happy. The only sad thing about visiting? Having to leave.
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