Simple yet creative food done exceptionally well is incredibly rewarding at Wines of While

A doctor in the kitchen with nothing but two hotplates and a sink. A wine bar where the food perhaps surpasses the libations. A scene-y spot that’s friendly and welcoming. Wines of While is not at all what it seems.

The 50-seat bar-restaurant opened with plenty of hype last August, following overzealous licensing recommendations by WA Police that were later disregarded.

The public debate did the natural wine bar a favour — it was an immediate hit. The space up the northern end of William Street became the darling of the post-hipster cool kids, and its no-reservations policy meant queues were long and slow.

For six months, I bide my time, worried the hype might not match the reality. But a lunchtime recce shows me I should’ve joined the line.

The meal is another lesson in flipping expectations. A raw zucchini salad sounds dull and too trendy, but the tower of green ribbons, crushed almonds and toasted seeds ($14) turns out to be one of the best salads I’ve had. Ringed with fresh herbs and dressed with top-notch olive oil, lemon juice and showered in salt flakes, it sits on a pool of fresh ricotta. Every mouthful is a dream.

I return for dinner. It’s busy, but a table is easily found, with seating inside and out on the pavement.

You order and pay at a mess- style bench after perusing a blackboard menu. White beans ($10) are shockingly good. Creamy rather than chalky, the kidney beans — which are soaked for 36 hours — bob in a porridge-like stew rimmed with olive oil and decorated with shaved lemon rind.

Get the house-baked bread to wipe up every last drop — it’s a meaty sourdough of bakers’ spelt and rye, cooked dark and crusty ($3 a person).

A slab of terrine tastes like Christmas ham ($12). Its freshness is amped by herbs, French mustard and baby cornichons, but it doesn’t move me the way the beans do.

The waiter brings our shishito peppers in ajo blanco ($14). The green peppers, pan-tossed and blow-torched, are a limited-edition number produced by Roly Poly Farm in Gidgegannup. Most are mild, but there’s an occasional wildcard, the spice hit soothed by the cold almond soup encircling them. Thumbs up.

I duck to the loo, skirting past the kitchen where Dr Samuel Winfield is somehow managing to keep up with only two induction plates. He’s entirely self-taught (he and his sisters took over cooking at their Narrogin family farm in their early teens) and he clearly has a talent for it. And he still works as an assistant surgeon on Mondays.

We finish with fresh tortiglioni pasta that is made by hand on the bar in the morning. The short tubes lace between springy Berkshire pork meatballs that are dainty enough to pop in the mouth, and a glossy tomato sugo, enriched with olive oil, fresh basil and grainy Parmesan ($24). Sensational.

Wines of While shows that simple yet creative things done exceptionally well can be incredibly rewarding. Leave your expectations at the door.

Wines of While

Address: 458 William Street, Perth

Phone: 9328 3332

Open: Tue to Sat, noon-midnight; Sun, noon-10pm

Web: winesofwhile.com

Licensed: Yes

Bookings: No

SCORE: 16/20