disappointing. after a very positive review in the west recently, i was inspired to try ishka for a wedding anniversary dinner with my wife last night, friday. i have to say that i was disappointed on several counts. there is much better food and ambience available at this price - and indeed cheaper - in perth.
first, the venue. on approach the setting is great. ishka is upstairs above the tavern. the decor is smart and has one or 2 individual features but is rather formulaic. but the open plan design means that the very loud noise from the friday bar session downstairs is very evident in the dining room and put paid to any hope of an intimate dinner. there was no mention of this on the website. i think it would be fair to do so and to also let people know when booking, especially at this price point. another couple whos table was even closer tothe balcony above the bar in fact had themselves moved to try and escape the noise.
now the food. my trois d'oiseaux was pretty good. the pate was tasty and smooth and seemed to be home made. the terrine was enjoyable, though it and the accompanying crackers were under seasoned.
my wife's prawns, however, were bland, watery and tasteless. on mentioning to the waitress that perhps they were frozen prawns, my wife was told that the prawns were supposed to be fresh, and an apology was given, but there was no follow up.
for the main course, i chose the seafood fricassé. the seafood was a good mixture and tasted fresh, but was mostly overdone. worst of all it was accompanied by a strange black goo of barley and mushrooms which had a far too intense mushroom taste, totally overpowering the seafood. as a result i left most of it on the plate.
my fellow diner chose a fillet steak which was a fine piece of meat but was rare, not the requested medium rare. at this price i expect them to get it right.
whilst we liked the look of the dessertt menu, our experience thus far had introduced doubts about its veracity - was it just a collection of frozen treats? so we opted for coffees. these were fine. but a request for something small and sweet to accompany drew the remark that they used to do biscotti but didnt anymore and no other suggestions were made.
on the positive side, the service was polite and friendly. the young staff did their best but perhaps some guidance as to how to react to disappointed comments might be in order.
overall i would not recommend going here on friday or saturday due to the noise alone. the food was ok but wasnt delivered to the standard promised by the price. if you really want to spend this much then i know many better venues in perth.