Perth, AU

Glass-walled rooftop fine diner inside the COMO Treasury, with tasting menus built around the six Noongar seasons and native ingredients — bunya nuts, wattleseed, marron, Rottnest scallops. Perth's most considered restaurant; book a month out.

David Thompson's basement Bangkok-street temple inside the State Buildings — pork-and-prawn pad see ew with proper wok hei, jungle curry with grilled chicken, and the chili-fish-sauce dressing that's printed on the t-shirts. Loud, packed, and the most consistent Thai in the country.

Russell Blaikie's all-day Italian-leaning room on the Hay Street arcade level of the State Buildings — handmade pasta visible from the dining room, tuna-tartare bucatini, and a vermouth list deeper than most CBD bars. The neighbourhood restaurant the CBD needed.

Communal-table room in a 1898 warehouse off the West End — wood-fired sharing plates, the sourdough that lent the place its name, and Shark Bay prawns under 'nduja butter. Anchor of the Freo dining scene since 2013 and still the booking everyone makes when family visits.

Kenny McHardy's single-fire restaurant on South Terrace cooks everything — bread, vegetables, fish, dessert — in or over the embers of a manuka-wood hearth. Tiny room (28 seats), no a la carte, set menu only, and Perth chefs' chef-of-choice on their nights off.

Kate Lamont's beachside dining room set back from the Cottesloe sand — grilled WA produce, an outdoor terrace under the Norfolk pines, and a wine list with the deepest Margaret River cellar in town. The sundowner-then-dinner combo every Perth wedding rehearsal books.

Sweeping ocean-front brasserie a block back from Cottesloe Beach — premium WA seafood, the western rock lobster spaghetti, and the dressed-up sister to the noisier hotel rooms next door. Plush seats, big windows, sunset is the show.

South Freo seaside bar with old-world flair — Fremantle octopus with tamarind and chipotle, line-caught daily fish, and the natural-wine list that earned it a Broadsheet listing within six months of opening. Walking distance from South Beach for the post-dinner stroll.

Ten-seat handmade-udon counter on Ginza Nana Alley — chef Tatsu Sato pulls his own dough, broth is bonito-and-Marron-shell, and the chashu-pork tsukemen is the bowl most regulars order even in summer. The anchor of the alley's Japanese revival.

Northbridge's most-photographed breakfast room — vintage cabinets, green-pea-and-ricotta pikelets, and a queue out the door by 9am on weekends. The flagship Sayers in Leederville does it bigger; Sister does it prettier.

Beaufort Street institution that started the doughnut-and-baked-egg trend in Perth — croissant bread-and-butter pudding for breakfast, brisket sandwiches at lunch, and the cinnamon scrolls that go from oven to gone in under an hour. Five locations, but this Highgate original is still the best.

Cosy Fremantle kissaten serving a single Brunch Set — protein, tempura, miso, rice, salad, dessert — that changes monthly. Eight seats, no menu negotiation, the most thoughtful Japanese breakfast in WA.

Hole-in-the-wall on Barrack Street making house pâté and crackling-pork bánh mì that food critics have voted best in Australia three years running. Takeaway only, eight rolls on the menu, queue at 12.15pm any weekday.

Northbridge pho stalwart on Brisbane Street — the bowls are enormous, the broth simmers from 5am daily, and the room hasn't been redecorated since 1996 because it doesn't need to be. Cash-friendly, locals' default, no Instagram.

Leederville Vietnamese from the Mister Walker team — not-quite-traditional bánh mì, lamb xiu mai meatballs, smoky gai yang chicken, and a Saigon-bar interior with the kind of cocktails the original food carts never had.

Long-running Northbridge Japanese on James Street — teriyaki barramundi the regulars order without looking at the menu, sashimi cut to order, a tatami room for groups, and prices that haven't kept pace with the newer omakase spots.

Mount Hawthorn south-east-Asian sharing room from the Lulu La Delizia family — Wagyu Shanghai dumplings, Szechuan beef tartare, an open kitchen with the wok flames as the dining room lighting. Reliably packed Wednesday onward.

Greek-inflected Mediterranean dining room inside HYDE Perth — Aaron Moore's produce-led, share-style menu drawing on his years on the pass at Bread in Common and Coogee Common. Dining room, poolside bar and rooftop terrace move with the day.

Coastal Southeast Asian dining room inside the Cottesloe Beach Hotel — chef Steven Ryu's bold, aromatic menu of wok-tossed mud crab in red curry, grilled Wagyu sirloin and short raw bar, paired with a serious sake program. Two spaces split between a plush cocktail bar with Indian-Ocean views and the dining room.

All-day diner inside the redeveloped Leederville Hotel — the 'Servo Sunrise' bottomless brunch is the city's busiest Sunday booking, loaded hash browns and Turkish salad anchor the menu, and the cocktail rotation rotates through 90 minutes of mimosas and Bloody Marys.

The Beaufort precinct's South-East Asian standout — chef Sundoo Kim's fresh Thai with hand-picked produce, prawns-in-the-blanket and slow-cooked beef massaman the menu defaults. Bigger room than the Northbridge spots, easier to walk in.

Newcastle Street's Michelin-trained pie shop run by Richard Overbye (ex-Wildflower) and Patrick Wallis (ex-Modus) — a dozen handmade flavours from mince and steak through Keralan barramundi curry to the smoked-brisket-and-bone-marrow that gets the most pour-overs in town. Counter-service only, sells out by mid-afternoon most days.

Subiaco's handmade-pasta room from the Lulu family — agnolotti with brown butter, cacio e pepe taken seriously, and the warmest service in the western suburbs. The reservation everyone's parents make.

Scarborough beachfront Italian that's been doing red-checked tablecloth properly for two decades — handmade gnocchi with pork ragu, wood-fired pizzas, and a balcony that catches the Indian Ocean sunset every clear evening.

2.5km loop along the eastern escarpment of Kings Park — gravel and boardwalk descending below the cliff edge to a rollercoaster trail that stays in dappled bush the whole way. Best urban trail in WA, finishes back at the war memorial in an hour.

620m glass-sided arboreal walkway 16m above the Kings Park canopy — flat, accessible, free, and connecting the State War Memorial to the Botanic Garden via a treetop bridge. Best 20-minute walk a visitor with limited time can do.

The start of the 1,000km Bibbulmun Track to Albany — the first 7km from the Kalamunda terminus down through jarrah forest to Mundaring Weir is the standard local day-walk, with a campsite shelter and signing-in book partway. Trailhead in Kalamunda town centre.

WA's first national park, 24km east of the CBD — jarrah-marri-paperbark forest with the eerie 340m Swan View Tunnel, Hovea Falls in winter, and the Heritage Trail that follows the old Mundaring railway grade. Day-trip friendly, no public transport beyond Midland.

40m cascade in Mundy Regional Park dropping from the Darling Scarp toward the coastal plain — flows late autumn through spring, dry summers. Short 1.5km top-and-base loop is the locals' favourite winter walk.

437 hectares of untouched coastal bushland between Floreat and City Beach — Reabold Hill is the highest natural point on the coastal plain with 360-degree views, and 15km of trails wind through tuart and banksia woodland the developers never reached.

45km network of linked coastal walks circumnavigating Rottnest — five sections from one-hour beach loops to all-day cliff-and-salt-lake traverses, each marked with Noongar interpretive panels. The bike-free way to see the island.

Flat 4.5km return walk along the South Perth shoreline — head out from Mends Street ferry jetty toward Coode Street, with the entire CBD skyline mirrored in the Swan the whole way. The locals' default sunset walk.

3km one-way concrete-and-boardwalk path along the dunes between Trigg Point and Scarborough Beach Pool — Indian Ocean on one side, dune restoration on the other, and a turn-back at the Scarborough food trucks. The flat coastal walk the locals run before work.

Small island in the Swan River between East Perth and Victoria Park with a free-roaming grey-kangaroo population — 2km flat perimeter walk, no entry fee, and the closest wild marsupials to a CBD in the country.

WA's flagship contemporary art space in the 1896 brick former Boys School at the Cultural Centre — three galleries, three performance spaces, rotating exhibitions, and the annual Hatched graduate show in March. Free entry, programming pushes harder than any other gallery in town.

Kerry Hill-designed performing arts complex in Northbridge — home to Black Swan State Theatre, Perth Theatre Company, and the Heath Ledger Theatre. The architectural drawcard alongside the program; the foyer alone is worth a wander.

1904 Edwardian baroque theatre on Hay Street — the only working Edwardian theatre in Australia, home to WA Opera and WA Ballet, with a velvet-and-gilt interior the locals show off when interstate friends visit. Backstage tours are surprisingly good.

60,000-seat stadium across the Swan from the CBD — AFL Eagles and Dockers home ground, concert venue for the bigger international tours, and the Halo rooftop walk gets you 42m above the field with a CBD-and-Kings-Park panorama. The pedestrian-bridge walk in is part of the experience.

Casino-and-entertainment complex in Burswood — Crown Theatre for touring musicals and arena acts, a dozen restaurants from cheap to Nobu, and a pool deck with cabanas the only true resort-style hotel in Perth. Walking distance from Optus Stadium for pre-game.

1916 art-deco cinema on Beaufort Street, now a 1,200-cap live music venue — touring indie and rock bands, comedy, and the Lawley locals' default night out. Original organ pit kept intact; the room sounds the way 1916 architects intended.

Tucked-away Northbridge live-music dive on William Street — indie bands, emerging artists, quirky experimental acts, and the cheapest pint in the cultural quarter. The room everyone in Perth's indie scene played before they got a record deal.

North Perth pub with the back room that's launched half of WA's touring bands — beer garden, big front bar, late-night band room that holds 600. Tame Impala, San Cisco and a hundred other names played here before the big rooms.

Open-air rooftop above the Rechabite on William Street — fairy-lit, skyline-view, palm-shaded, with a cocktail list that doesn't take itself seriously (kimchi margarita, mezcal negroni). Walk-in until 7pm Friday-Saturday, after that you queue.

Speakeasy hidden behind a steel door in a Northbridge backstreet — 300 bottles of rum, no signage, a Prohibition-era room and a password that changes weekly on Instagram. The bartenders ask what you like, not what you want.

Rooftop bar accessed via a graffiti'd laneway off James Street — espresso martinis, a wood-fired pizza window run by Flipside Burgers, and the Northbridge-after-work crowd that fills the deck from 5pm Thursday.

The Fishing Boat Harbour brewhouse that put WA craft beer on the map — Pale Ale on tap from the source, wood-fired pizza from the open kitchen, and a barn-style room with the brewery tanks visible from every table. Family-friendly until late.

Three-level William Street venue — ground-floor restaurant, mezzanine bar, jungle-themed rooftop perched above the CBD trees. The rooftop is the pull: leafy, breezy, cocktail-list takes itself seriously and the late-night DJ residencies rotate weekly.

Australia's longest-running gay club, operating in James Street since 1975 — drag shows, late-night dance floor, and a courtyard for cooling off. Friendly door, all ages welcome, the institution that other capital cities don't have anymore.

State-of-the-art brewpub on Lake Street — production brewery downstairs, big airy taproom and beer garden upstairs, with happy hour daily, quiz night Thursdays, and DJs Saturdays. The all-purpose Northbridge anchor for groups.

400 hectares of bushland and manicured garden on the Mount Eliza escarpment above the city — bigger than New York's Central Park, free to enter, and the locals' default for picnics, sunset photos, and the September wildflower bloom. The DNA Tower and the glass-floored Federation Walkway tree-canopy bridge are the two short detours every first-timer takes.

WA's only UNESCO World Heritage site — a convict-built 1850s limestone gaol that held prisoners until 1991 and now runs day, tunnel, and torchlight tours through cell blocks the inmates rioted in. The tunnel tour drops you into the original water supply network with hard hats and a kayak section; it's the standout if you only do one.

The Norfolk pine-lined arc of white sand 12km west of the CBD — flatter and gentler than the surf beaches up at Scarborough, with a tiered terrace lawn the locals stake out before sundown. March's Sculpture by the Sea turns the whole strip into an outdoor gallery for three weeks.

The reclaimed inlet that finally pulled the CBD back to the Swan River — a half-loop boardwalk with rotating food trucks, the Spanda sculpture, and the copper-clad Bell Tower housing the 14th-century St Martin-in-the-Fields bells gifted by the City of London for the 1988 Bicentennial. Ferries to South Perth and Rottnest leave from the eastern jetty.

An A-class reserve 19km off Fremantle — 63 beaches, no private cars, and the world's largest colony of quokkas (the dog-sized marsupials that smile for selfies). Day-trippers cycle the 22km perimeter loop; overnighters fight for the converted-1860s-prison cabins at Karma Rottnest.

The state museum in the Perth Cultural Centre — 'Boola Bardip' means 'many stories' in Noongar, and the eight permanent galleries cover everything from megafauna fossils to the Wild West gold rush to contemporary First Nations art. The blue whale skeleton hanging in the Treasures gallery is the postcard exhibit.

Free state gallery on the north edge of the Cultural Centre — strong Indigenous and modernist Australian holdings, a rooftop sculpture terrace open since 2023 with skyline views over Northbridge, and a rotating program that includes the WA Indigenous Art Awards each summer.

The 1897 heritage market hall on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson — 150 stalls running Friday to Sunday, mixing fresh produce, secondhand vinyl, leather sandals, and the dolma-and-baklava counters the locals queue at. The crystals-and-incense quotient is high; so is the live busker rotation in the courtyard.

Frank Salt's sail-shaped 2002 building on Victoria Quay houses the Australia II — the 1983 America's Cup winner with the controversial winged keel — alongside an Oberon-class submarine you can walk through and the Indian Ocean galleries covering pearling, immigration and the WA fishing fleet.

The 1899 colonial mint still pours a 6kg gold bar twice an hour for visitors on the working factory floor — and houses the world's largest gold coin (a one-tonne pure-gold Australian Kangaroo) in the vault upstairs. Operational, government-run, and a 15-minute walk from the CBD.

An 1860s Gothic Revival asylum-turned-arts-centre — sprawling lawns, two galleries with free entry, the Sunday Music free outdoor concert series November to March, and a printmaking studio that still runs public workshops. Locals treat the gardens as a Saturday picnic spot.

Perth's redeveloped surf beach 14km northwest of the CBD — wide open Indian Ocean swells, a heated public pool right on the sand, and a renovated foreshore with food trucks, an outdoor amphitheatre, and inexpensive burgers at HQ for a Sunday sundowner.

The pedestrianised plaza connecting Perth Station to Northbridge — bookended by AGWA, WA Museum, PICA, State Library, the State Theatre Centre and Blue Room. Free urban orchard, public ping-pong tables, and the city's main outdoor screen for AFL grand finals.