A chilli affair at Kitsch

Sometimes I feel like Leederville is my home away from home with the amount of time I spend there. I'm an avid Tutti Frutti goer, and outings for breakfast generally have me heading in this direction. So when my best friend Carly suggested we catch up for dinner one night before an undisclosed surprise activity she had planned for us, I was quick to offer two different venues - Duende or Kitsch.

We're both huge fans of Kitsch so it was an easy choice and one we readily embraced as we made our way down one Wednesday night.

If you haven't been to Kitsch it's a very cute Asian style restaurant which has a gorgeous and comfortable outdoor dining area that just screams weekend drinks. They're known for their share style of eating, which is right up our alley.

Arriving around 6pm the sun is still up and the restaurant is filling. Lucky for us they can squeeze us in!

We immediately order a ginger beer cocktail ($13) each - which Kitsch give you the option to make spicy if you'd like. Carly declines, but I'm in a brave mood so I say yes. It's pretty damn hot! Cool, refreshing alcohol that gives you a big chilli kick after you swallow.

I love my chilli but as we make our way through the food that comes, I realise all dishes have chilli which means I have no relief but the tap water that I chug away at desperately.

When dining at Kitsch I highly recommend ordering a serve of prawn crackers with yellow rock chilli salt ($3.60). Crunchy, salty and immensely moorish. Jeremy often jokes that prawn crackers are my shameful secret addiction and I have to reluctantly (and sheepishly) agree that he's right.

I do get the odd prawn cracker that seems a bit stale, but for the most part they have that satisfying munchableness that I crave so much.

On our waitress's recommendation we try a serving of the san choy bow with chinese pork and fresh herbs ($14.80). These are pretty damn delicious! Fatty (in a good way), flavoursome pork works well with the herbs and chilli, plus there's a liberal dose of sauce on top and some crunch from peanuts.

At my house we tend to eat san choy bow with bamboo, mince and mushrooms so this is a nice variation from the more traditional style my mum has passed down to me.

The star dish of the night is the spiced corn fritters with green chilli coriander syrup ($11.90) for both of us. Dark and crisp, these fritters are varied in shape but all pack the same smack of flavour. The syrup is definitely a winner, it's sweet, hot and utterly memorable.

The pork dumplings (I think these were around $10) were the most disappointing of all the dishes for me on this visit. I actually don't think I'd ever had a dish at Kitsch before that I didn't like but sadly then came along this dumpling - which was actually a recommendation from the staff.

The skin of the dumpling is hard and chewy; the filling a bit nondescript. I think some people might enjoy this, but after years of family dumplings, and feasting my way through Asia on many an occasion, it just didn't live up to what I personally would have enjoyed.

I have only discovered prawn toast in the past couple of years - even though it's of Asian origin. I have to admit, I really enjoy a good serving of this. Kitsch's version is sesame crusted and comes with a fish sauce for dipping ($12.10).

My first piece was a little pedestrian, with not much flavour though there was a good satisfying crunch when I bit down. My second piece was much better though, with a liberal coating of the prawn mixture that had a good taste, and decent level of seasoning.

Our final order for the day is a serving of the mie goreng, which is $16 on Wednesdays and comes with a ginger beer cocktail. Pretty good value!

This mie goreng is yummy! The noodles are cooked perfectly, and there's a delicious combination of green vegetables, chilli, bean sprouts and chicken. I like the diverse textures throughout the bowl, though the spring roll is not quite to my preference. We end up picking that out and going to town on the rest of the dish.

All up I enjoyed our dinner at Kitsch for the most part. There were a couple of dishes which weren't quite aligning to my tastes, but all up it was a nice weekday meal. I'm a big fan of their eggplant katsu which I had last time and tastes phenomenal - crunchy, inventive and a treat with the wasabi mayonnaise. I'll be back for this again soon.

Oh and that surprise outing? Well that was a Fox and Rabbit flower crown making class. Don't we look amazing in our little concoctions! What an amazing night.