A Perth neighbourhood bar branches into a new space that’s small in size yet big in ambition – and earns a hat in the process

Imagine you’re out for dinner and drinks somewhere. How do you know that the people next to you work in hospitality?

Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. Not in the same way that, as the joke goes, vegans and Crossfitters might, but via subtler means.

They might, for instance, ask to dine at the bar: the best place, of course, to talk shop with bartenders. If a group orders a round of Negronis right away, odds are that they’re hospo folks having the night off.

Finally, there’s asking your waiter for one-of-everything: a classic industry secret handshake that wordlessly says, “hey, I’m one of you.” (Or, at the very least: “I pay more attention than most to Good Food restaurant reviews and other industry news.“)

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According to my notes, Bar Lyla is one of Perth’s few places that officially offers “one-of-everything” on its menu. Fitting, I think, as so much about this one-month-old bar reflects its owners’ ideas around hospitality.

Compared to when this grissini-like space was La Madonna Nera, Lyla feels roomier and brighter, at least in personality. Timber panelling abounds and the former’s industrial shelving has been replaced with diner-style banquettes punctuated by dusky pink aggregate concrete tabletops.

But as far as lumens go, Lyla is as bright as its predecessor – so not bright at all – with tabletop mushroom lamps and the open kitchen among the space’s few light sources. You’ll notice the latter in the back corner behind the bar which is at least as big as the cooking area.

If it wasn’t clear, drinks are a big deal at Bar Lyla: just as co-owner Jess Blyth hoped when she launched venue number two across the road from her Mount Hawthorn wine bar, Sonny’s.

Yet as it turns, the food here is as notable as what’s being poured. As to be expected, I think, when you go into partnership with Lyla’s other owner, Sofika Boulton: a kitchen phenom who has been making noise over the past decade via stints at Wildflower, Bar Rogue and, of course, Sonny’s.

I don’t know if it’s a change of scenery, a major career growth spurt since I last reviewed Sonny’s in 2024 or the excitement that comes with managing a tighter, more fluid blackboard menu, but if Boulton’s previous appointments denoted her as a talent to watch, then Lyla confirms that she has well and truly arrived.

Lyla’s menu might just be nine-dishes long, but clever thinking ensures each plate bangs. Lyla’s pickle plate, for example, might feature fleshy green olives, crisp hoops of fennel and spears of cucumber bathed in a performance-enhancing preserved lemon brine.

These perky vegetables aren’t just a great start to dinner: they also make cameos throughout the night. That sharp vegetal edge in the house martini? Thanks vegetable brine! Bathing crunchy slices of underripe peach in the fennel’s pickling liquid gives them an intriguing anise flavour that pairs great with fatty salumi.

As at Sonny’s, things cooked over charcoal are another highlight. Dense swordfish loin from Anthony Haslewood of Revolution Fisheries is slowly grilled to preserve its luscious, luxurious mouthfeel. You’d happily eat it as is but presented atop a zippy apple “dashi” and finely cut strips of veg, it’s a fish course for the ages.

Baking remains one of Boulton’s strengths. Each day, she and offsider Nate McGuckin bake a dozen shallot tarte tatins that, topped with chunks of Cambray’s luscious Blackwood Blue, flip the French classic into a joyous new-age cheese course. (Also from the department of clever cheese change-ups: check out those golfball-sized “dumplings” of goat’s curd and ricotta – a gnudi by any other name – that are poached to order for maximum lightness!)

Fluffy milk buns are more pillowy and soft than brioche-rich. They get warmed in the oven and brushed with fermented honey while a creamy kefir-cultured butter quickly melts into the pull-apart bun’s lacquered crevices.

For dessert, leftover buns – after being soaked in a syrup made with sake and passionfruit-like mountain marigold – get reborn as sake “babas” in one of the more inspired examples of upcycling day-old bread I’ve tasted lately.

While you’re free to cherry-pick individual dishes, opting for the one-of-everything is the best way to appreciate Boulton’s quiet genius while locking up a great meal deal for two. (The set menu comes with a discounted buy-in compared to ordering everything individually.)

Even better, it frees up your CPU for other key decisions, starting with what to drink. Daisy Case, sommelier across Lyla and Sonny’s, doesn’t just know their stuff: they know how to win guests’ confidence while playing matchmaker between drinker and the treasures of Lyla’s stockpile of booze.

Ask Case about secret bottles that they’ve stashed away, and they might direct you towards a northern Italian red blend containing the lesser-seen variety, schiava.

Like Boulton – and Blyth and all of their colleagues at the bar – Case isn’t afraid to do things their way. As a result, Lyla and Perth’s dining scene is all the richer for it.

The low-down

Atmosphere: a cosy wining and dining destination proving – hallelujah! – there’s still room for venues with personality in our AI slop era.

Go-to dishes: kefir milk buns with fermented honey ($12), shallot tarte tatin ($16), dark chocolate mousse ($8), “sake baba” ($10).

Drinks: snappy cocktails from Jess Blyth, cool wines via Daisy Case, plus more temptation than thirsty guests will be able to refuse.

Cost: about $140 for two people, excluding drinks.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.