Simon Collins’s Bar & Bites is a critic’s A-to-Z look back at Perth and Western Australia’s food and drink scene in 2024—not a scored ranking or a current venue directory. Published by PerthNow on 14 December 2024, it mixes praise, complaints, trend observations and jokes, with venues and experiences ranging from Gibney in Cottesloe to regional dining, cocktails and leftover storage.
What kind of guide is Bar & Bites?
Food critic Simon Collins uses the alphabet to organize a year-end retrospective of 2024. Its entries move between restaurants, pubs, drinks, dishes and food habits rather than applying one consistent test to every venue. The piece is best read as a snapshot of what caught the critic’s attention that year: part recommendation, part cultural commentary, part comic gripe.
That distinction matters. Praise and criticism are Collins’s judgments, not a formal ranking or a guarantee that a venue will suit every diner. The article was published on 14 December 2024, and its opening acknowledges a year of new venues, chefs and dishes alongside familiar grievances and a growing cocktail culture. Read Collins’s full PerthNow retrospective.
Which venues stand out in Collins’s 2024 account?
Gibney, Cottesloe
Collins singles out Gibney, a coastal brasserie and grill, for the combination of food, drinks, service and atmosphere. He describes it as especially enjoyable and suited to a long lunch. That is an enthusiastic critic’s assessment, not a claim about present-day menus, prices or booking conditions.
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Papi Katsu
The neon-lit Japanese diner appears as one of the year’s most talked-about openings, with its omakase experience among the features Collins discusses. The retrospective records its place in 2024 conversation; it does not establish current availability or how the restaurant operates today.
Karla at Stories, Yagan Square
Stories is described as a broader hospitality venue at Yagan Square, with Karla identified as its standout dining option. Collins gives the complex’s 2024-era scale as 4000 square metres, 11 bars and three restaurants. Those are figures reported in the retrospective, not independently confirmed current counts.
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Wildflower at COMO The Treasury
Among hotel restaurants, Collins treats rooftop restaurant Wildflower as a notable exception. He discusses chef Paul Wilson and a menu centered on local produce. The entry is praise within his survey, not a current menu or service guide.
How far beyond Perth does the retrospective reach?
The A-to-Z includes regional and island experiences as well as metropolitan venues. Albany’s dining and wine scene appears alongside Dear Darnell’s in Witchcliffe, the Exchange Hotel in Pinjarra and venues on Rottnest Island. These examples give the roundup a Western Australian scope, but it is not a comprehensive regional directory.
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Collins’s treatment is selective: a venue’s appearance signals that it featured in his 2024 food-and-drink conversation, not that it was assessed against every comparable business in its town or category.
What food and drink trends does Collins discuss?
Cocktails, gin and beer
The retrospective reflects on Perth’s cocktail culture, including Collins’s criticism of the espresso martini, and surveys Western Australian gin producers and craft beer business activity. Its gin entry reports more than 300 Australian distilleries, while another entry says about 40 per cent of Guinness consumed in Australia was consumed in Western Australia. Both figures are claims reported in the 2024 article; they should not be treated as verified current statistics.
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Zero- and low-alcohol drinks
Collins notes the growth of non-alcoholic drinks and attributes two figures to ANZ’s annual Food For Thought report: a projection of 300 million litres in Australian zero-alcohol beer sales by 2028, and a claim that 78 per cent of no- and low-alcohol consumers also drink full-strength alcohol. These are figures as reported by Collins, not independently checked here against the underlying report. The volume is a forecast, not a reported outcome.
Wine bars and regional wine
Wine bars and Albany’s food and wine scene form part of the roundup’s broader drinks picture. The article records the critic’s view of the year, rather than providing a directory of wine venues or evidence of what is currently open.
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Ramen, bowls, tacos and other food debates
Other entries cover ramen, convenient bowl meals, tacos, omakase, XO sauce, frozen yoghurt and plant-based meat. Collins also takes aim at what he considers unnecessary decoration on plates. These are observations and preferences in a critic’s year-end survey, not a definitive verdict on the dishes or categories.
The taco entry cites a Remitly-commissioned study, reporting more than 1.8 million TikTok posts about tacos, compared with 734,000 for pani puri and 654,000 for hot dogs. Those platform counts are presented as the article’s reported comparison; they are not a measure of food quality or proof of what diners ordered in Perth.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is the article’s tone?
Collins writes as a critic with a comic, opinionated voice. The retrospective’s opening, “Well, I’m stuffed,” sets a playful tone, while its entries move freely between recommendations, trend notes and irritations. Readers should distinguish reported details—such as the venue names and attributed statistics—from the author’s personal evaluations.
Can you use this as a guide to where to eat now?
Use it to understand what Collins highlighted in 2024, not to plan a visit without checking current details. The retrospective does not establish today’s operating status, hours, menus, prices or booking availability. Those details can change, and an opening or service note from the article’s publication period is not confirmation of the present situation.
What does the Z entry say about leftovers?
The final storage-related entry makes a humorous case for ziplock bags as a practical way to store leftovers, especially in a freezer. It is a personal preference, not a product comparison or a test of any particular brand. The aside is peripheral to the retrospective’s main subject: Perth and Western Australia’s food and drink experiences in 2024.
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