The motto of
Urbon Restaurant is 'Eat - Drink - Chill', which is a pretty fair mission statement and one they achieve with ease.
If you're not familiar with the restaurant, as I confess I wasn't it can be a trifle hard to find. The restaurant is hidden away in Burswood, a suburb overlooking the casino and a high-density residential area.
Urbon Restaurant's facade (Photograph courtesy of Urbon Restaurant)
Urbon's is in the ground floor of one of these skyscrapers and is as discreetly labelled as any London Club. I knew where it was and I drove past twice.
However, once located, the place is gorgeous, spilling outside through tall French doors. Outside is all palms, cushions and wicker couches, inside is wood, distressed lime-washed walls and tall, well-padded, settle-like booths exceptionally comfortable.
Urbon Restaurant's interior (Photograph courtesy of Urbon Restaurant)
Urbon's is open seven days a week, from 7am to 10pm, so breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's licensed with a superb range of wines from imported French (Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle at $450 a bottle) to the best of local wines (Cullen 'East Block' Red from Margaret River at $95 the bottle).
Urbon Restaurant's interior (Photograph by D Sutherland-Bruce)
In addition, Urbon's offer a range of cocktails that enjoy a dedicated following - Candy Apple, Bollicine, Bloody Urbon and an 'Excellent Clarity' made with Angostura Bitters, Cherry liqueur, vanilla and a dash of plum bitters, described as ready to 'wet' your appetite, which I think was a pun on 'whet', mind you the menu also offers 'bacon rashes', so maybe not.
Urbon Restaurant's cocktails (Photograph courtesy of Urbon Restaurant)
Those typos are off the website, the printed menus are correctly spelled enough to sooth the most rabid pedant.
All cocktails are $18. There's a decent range of beers and ciders as well and soft drinks as well as their famous coffee, which really is exceptional.
At 9:00am I couldn't face alcohol, I'm not 19 any more, so I chose to eat off the breakfast menu. The menu is extensive, with a delicious mix of traditional such as the 'Big Breakfast' ($23) and eggs Benedict ($21) and the more imaginative such as 'Our Favourite hot pot' ($18) and my own selection of Smoked Salmon Egg Soufflé ($18) with coffee and fruit toast ($6)
This came, most beautifully presented, on an oblong white ashet. The soufflé was not traditional, it was an egg, perfectly cooked, folded into a parcel of smoked salmon and baked with a cloud of soufflé perched on top and served with fresh spinach wilted, a truffle salsa and a small tower of chopped avocado.
Urbon Restaurant's meal (Photograph courtesy of Urbon Restarant)
The meal was magnificent, the flavours delicate and balanced, the combinations inspired. I did not, however, care for the fruit bread, which I found dense and solid. According to the menu, it comes with preserves, although mine did not in fact do so, but the server did offer me jam if I wished.
The coffee was sublime, among the very best I've ever tasted. I had two cups and I would have had more it time permitted.
I don't know what the rest of their menus taste like - but I'm betting they would be beautifully presented and probably delicious.
Highly recommended.
