Mike P.
Yelp
What a surprise this little gem was!
Tucked down at the more unassuming end of Rokeby Road in Subiaco, Meeka has redefined my expectations of Perth cuisine.
A friend and I were looking for something "different" so I suggested we give "that Moroccan place" in Subi a try. When we arrived at around 8:30PM the place was absolutely packed. A good sign. We were asked if we minded "a bit of a wait" and were seated outside (at my request) since the interior was a little noisy from all the other diners.
Now, I am known for being a bit of a picky eater. I won't touch lamb, any sort of seafood, mushrooms, and any manner of other foodstuffs most people consider staples, but, I swear, once the menu for Meeka landed on our table I must have seen twenty things that I would happily order. Since I was with my "vegetarian other than seafood" friend we decided on a pair of vegetarian starters. The walnut-spiced eggplant chips with almond tarator was genuinely tasty. This wasn't the mushy, nondescript load of blah I have so often associated with the humble aubergine, but a crisp vehicle of deliciousness for an intriguingly refreshing dipping sauce. The real star of the first round of gorging was, however, the vegetarian dates stuffed with almonds, preserved lemon, three cheeses, lightly fried in chickpea batter. I'm not a huge date aficionado but I would utterly destroy a heaping plate of these things at any time and any place. Their incredible flavour far exceeds the sum of their parts. No one component overwhelms the palate and these, along with the eggplant chips, formed a perfectly tantalisting teaser for our main-course adventure to follow.
I'll leave my friend's vegetarian main for his own review and will, instead, discuss my herb and candied walnut-crumbed pork cutlet, sweet potato manchego picklet, fennel salad, with apple glaze and popped spiced corn. Pork cutlets aren't my favourite cut of meat, but this treatment was simply gobsmacking. I politely waited for my companion's meal to arrive before tucking in, but, even so, I couldn't resist nibbling a couple of pieces of my popped, spiced corn. This stuff is like no "popcorn" you've ever tasted. Texturally and in flavour terms it is on a whole new level of existence. The tasty nodules just about exploded in my mouth before melting into an alluring promise of what was in store with the rest of the dish. The pork was perfectly cooked, just turned from pink so the cut was still juicy and the crust, fennel, and picklet (sort of a mash) combined well. Would definitely get this one again.
Even though we were pretty full and I'm not usually big on dessert, the final section of Meeka's menu was too exciting to be ignored. I'm a fiend for Turkish delight so I was a gonner the moment they put "Turkish-delight-stuffed doughnuts with pistachio ice cream and rose fairy floss" atop their list of sugary temptations. Like everything at Meeka these desserts were freakin' huge. The doughnuts were almost the size of Jonathan apples and there was three to a portion, to say nothing of the ice cream and fairy floss. Two or even three people could share some of these desserts and be more than satisfied. The taste? Well, let me just say that the other dessert options sounded similarly intriguing; however, it's going to be a struggle to avoid ordering the same again. Astounding.
Eating at Meeka was like discovering another sense that, unbeknownst to me, has lain dormant all my life. After living for six years in Las Vegas and sampling some of the best that culinary Mecca has to offer, I didn't think Perth was going to be able to surprise me in this way. Meeka could, quite conceivably, have provided me with one of the top 25 meals of my life.