Hamptons City Beach: Cracking oceans views let down by mixed lunch by the sea

With temperatures rising, thoughts again turn to long, lazy summer days spent lounging on a favourite strip of Perth’s magnificent coastline.

It’s warm, to be sure, but our family is not quite ready yet to slap on the sunscreen and brave the stiff westerly that’s ripping up the surf this particular Saturday afternoon.

The next best thing? Taking shelter in a restaurant where we can at least see the ocean and dream of calm days not spent chasing the beach umbrella into a neighbouring suburb.

Right on City Beach, we front up at Hamptons.

The grandiose curved bar as you enter offers a lot of promise.

But — after waiting a few minutes to attract the attention of two staff faffing with a computer screen nearby — as we’re shown to our table we’re disappointed to see that beyond lies an enormous tavern-esque space with dark maroon carpet and dozens of bland tables arranged in rows.

Surely this cavernous space would benefit from a few half-walls and a booth or two to break up what otherwise looks like a very large conference room, albeit with a killer view.

Menus are delivered. Oddly, there’s not one for non-alcoholic drinks. There’s a very decent wine list, but with glasses ranging from $14 for small to $30 for large, whoever curated it probably deserved better than it coming as two sheets of stapled A4 paper that look like they’ve already seen plenty of pairs of hands.

We start with house-baked cobb loaf, hickory-smoked butter, olive tapenade, oil and balsamic ($16.50). That butter is a mouthful, and a little too much for us to handle. But the grilled chorizo and rocket is a delight. A squeeze of the charred lemon adds a welcome touch of zing.

Back to that view. We were thankful to be seated right by the window because, with a 40-minute wait for our mains, we were given plenty of time to soak in the sights of the pristine white sand and glistening sea, and chat about our plans for the summer.

The kids’ tempura chicken nuggets and chips ($13.50) came with a welcome, and undressed, side salad, which went down a treat.

My crispy skin Tasmanian salmon ($49) was accompanied by pea and spinach mascarpone risotto, confit tomatoes and preserved lemon herb pangrattato. It was pretty good, but I couldn’t help feel I’d paid a premium for fussiness to dress up what was a perfectly decent piece of fish.

There was no arguing about the size of my wife’s chargrilled beef fillet ($58) which came with black garlic and celeriac puree, ratatouille, red wine jus, duck fat potatoes and sweet potato crisp. We were left wondering how brief the potatoes’ liaison with the duck fat had been as she tucked into the beef.

More blue in the centre than the medium-rare she had ordered, our friendly waitress was more than happy to send it back to the kitchen and we were appreciative of the free glass of wine offered to compensate for the wait.

Returned to the table about 10 minutes later, we were a little puzzled to find — given the price of the dish — the same piece of beef redressed, albeit now the requested medium rare.

Now two hours into the meal, the clock was against us and we didn’t have time to try one of the cakes on offer, They did, however, look amazing.

We’ll add points for the friendly, but sometimes absent, service staff and for the kind front-of-house manager who enquired about my wife’s beef on the way out and offered to take the cost off the bill.

A stone’s throw from the water, there’s no questioning the appeal of Hamptons as a seaside hotspot.

But with a sizeable cocktail list and outside deck with a clear view to the ocean, I think we’ll stick with drinks next time.

The verdict: 14/20

Cracking oceans views let down by a mixed dining experience.

Hamptons City Beach

179 Challenger Parade, City Beach

Open: Wednesday to Sunday; breakfast 7am to 11am, lunch from 12pm

Contact: (08) 9385 9588, hamptonscitybeach.com.au

Bookings: Yes