GOODY TWO'S
"Content warning: umami"
You'll feel somewhat like a member of the Yakuza when you descend into Goody Two's, a lounge bar beneath Hibernian Place serving Japanese whisky and Japanese-inspired snacks. The refined venue is the latest from Andy Freeman (Perth's OG small bar operator) Eamon Sullivan and Scott Bridger, the team behind May St Larder and coastal stalwart Bib & Tucker.
The mafia vibes begin when you step down concrete stairs past a feature wall adorned with lilac-hued flowers, and peak when you enter the space; an arrangement of plush banquettes on soft carpet, surrounding small tables. An impressive bar occupies one length of the largish underground room, lit by a row of black pendant lights, suspended in twos from the ceiling. In the middle of the room a great cluster of shaded lamps form a cloud-like chandelier, hanging amorphously from the roof. But the lavish effect is lessened somewhat by a section of exposed brick at the back, hinting at the car-park aesthetic just beyond the walls. Similarly, a DJ booth flanked by roof-mounted speakers adds an element of confusion – is this a cocktail bar? A nightclub? A karaoke lounge? We're not entirely sure.
Perhaps this disorienting effect was heightened by the relative emptiness of the place – but we can hardly hold this against Goody Two's - it is a weeknight after all, and we are in Perth. Still, with only a couple of tables occupied you can't help but expect a shrill tannoy voice to announce that boarding has commenced for QF123 to Sydney.
Luckily there's nothing confusing about the menu – this place wears its heart on a Kimono sleeve. To drink, there's sake, umeshu and Japanese whisky – 3 pages of it – that'll set you back between $14 and $250 a nip, and if you're feeling fancy (read: burdened by cash) there's bottle service that involves a cart and triple distilled ice cubes. Japanese ingredients and flavours influence the cocktail list – try a "Torii’s Tipple", with Roku gin, lillet blanc, yuzu, and salted watermelon, or a "Kyoto Sling", made with umeshu. Of course if you eschew culture in all its forms there are a handful of red and white wines and some tap and bottled beers.
The food card is a short affair and everything (except the Cape Grim sirloin served with house condiments, $35) reads like a playful bar snack. Crispy root vegetables with ramen salt ($4) are little shards of veg done up not unlike potato crisps; Goody Two's equivalent of a bowl of peanuts. There's little to challenge you here except the pleasant knowledge that you won't leave covered in peanut husks. Crispy sushi rice with tuna tartare and yuzukosho ($12) is a more adventurous snack; fresh red tuna heaped on a 'cracker' of puffed rice, finished with a tiny dollop of spicy yuzukosho and a sprinkling of sweet green onion. It's conceptually interesting, texturally exciting and overall pretty tasty. My only gripe, and it is a minor one, is that the puffed rice cracker bears more than a little similarity to a cruskit, a food item I was happy to leave in school lunch boxes of the past. A more refined cracker would have enabled the raw tuna flavours to really sing.
Eggplant, white miso and saltbush furikake ($7) is a steal at this price. Fat, succulent hunks of eggplant present bathed in unctuous white miso glaze - beautifully sweet, caramel-ly and robust, and packing a serious umami punch. The furikake, a dry seasoning typically comprised of finely chopped seaweed, sesame seeds and dried fish, gives the dish a pleasant oceanic lift. This is a well-executed plate with great flavours, the sort of food that you'll find yourself daydreaming about unexpectedly in public days after you've eaten it.
The drawing card of Goody Two's are its skewers – an homage to the Japanese tradition of yakitori – cooking skewered chicken over a small charcoal grill. At Goody's, the chicken skewers ($9) are prepared the authentic way, and the result is sublime – moist chunks of bird alternate with charred spring onion, adorned with the tiniest dab of the fiery yuzukosho. Be warned; this little condiment can lean towards incendiary for some, but it is also vibrant and citrusy and the perfect foil for the deep, smoky, charcoal flavours of the chicken. The onion is a burst of sweetness; a clever touch in a world where so many forms of skewered chicken commit the cardinal meat sin of being as dry as an Afghan wedding.
Berkshire pork skewers ($11) taste as good as you think they will. The meat is sticky and tender, a small mound of daikon slivers bring a burst of vinegar tartness to push through the fat, and a dollop of red miso paste provides that mouth-coating umami. This would be the hero dish at any upper-crust BBQ function, combining the "dude-food" cool of pork belly with show-stopping miso flavours. It’s a decent bet that the words "Goody Twos" and "have you had the pork belly skewers?" will be uttered in single breaths for a long time to come.
The dessert selection is small and suitably Asian. Be a bit different, though, and order one of the three whiskies served with matched handmade chocolates, courtesy of Sue Lewis Chocolatiers, who have created these exclusively for Goody Twos. Or make a night of it and go for a flight of all three ($50).
Goody Two's is probably not somewhere you'd come for a full meal. These are jazzed-up snacks, Japanese in soul if not in tradition. The food is inventive, flavourful, fun and for the most part, well executed. Gather here for drinks, order a few things to share amongst friends, and you can't go wrong. The space may be a little bit confused - like a businessman dressed in a Kimono – but you can imagine that when the place is pumping and the cocktails are flowing everything would just make sense, even the DJ booth. Goody Two's feels like a samurai poised to strike; once it lands a blow, it has the potential to do some serious damage.