The Gate And Bistro - Perth

I was most surprised by The Gate. Located in the car park at the Cockburn Gateway shopping Centre I didn 't have high hopes. Is it a classy, stylish, hip, happening place- no, but it has a nice shady courtyard, they were playing the footy, and we were hungry. Think of it as the classy cousin of your typical tradie pub- sport on tv, pool tables, TAB, but with a Bistro and a shady courtyard. We ordered the Soaked 'N ' Smoked Beef Brisket Sliders, Fish 'N ' Chips, Nacho Stack and Wedges. The beef in the sliders was juicy and tender with a smoky bbq sauce and slaw. Just what you want from sliders. The fish in the Fish 'N ' Chips was a huge piece of perfectly battered crispy fish- it looked- and I 'm told by my friend who ate it (and wouldn 't share) that it was delicious! The Nacho Stack was a real hit, with multiple Nacho aficionados at the table declaring that it was the best nachos they have ever had and were fighting for the scraps at the bottom of the plate. Well seasoned with ground beef, beans, sour cream and queso. And the wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli- can you really get it wrong? An entirely pleasant afternoon. Will I be coming back on Saturday night, no, but for a casual afternoon feed it exceeded my expectations?

The gate is kind of a place that is very difficult to review because it is very difficult to experience it all. It consists of a drive-in bottle shop, sports bar, bistro lounge bar and what I suspect to be a restaurant although to be fair I can't really comment on all of it. However, I can comment on some of it. The sports bar is filled with some nice 1080p plasmas (nice job on plasmas, they have great viewing angle unlike most LCDs) and they offer betting through Tab Sportsbet. Although I'm not a fan of betting, I guess it comes in handy if you are looking to watch a game with the boys. Seating space seems to be a bit sparse inside but there is seating outside too. Smoking is not allowed, not even outside which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on the way you lean, for me it is awesome. Otherwise, standard deal with drinks. Sports bar has very lax dress standards, no issue if you are heading for a drink after work for example. The bistro part and lounge are much more to my taste. More seating, most of it outside. However, for one of those scorching Perth days they do have outside cooling systems, one of those sprinkler systems which I cannot decide if I love or hate with a passion. Lounges are nice, food is good, on the whole a pleasant experience. Increased dress standard applies in this section though. Before 9pm kids are welcome which again, could be something good or something bad. However, short of nearby shopping centre and another pizzeria/restaurant there is nothing else going on in vicinity. Most you can say is that trains/buses are fairly close. This bar is not going to be part of any bar hopping plans or anything like that. I know it is a new suburb but I can't see many people specifically going out and visiting this place along the route.

This was my first time back after a disappointing experience a while back, and sadly things have gotten worse rather than better. How on earth a venue as large as this one can justify not accepting cards at any of their bars, I cannot fathom. I can only assume this policy is used to drive up usage of the ATM that they collect fees from, but in this day and age it 's unacceptable particularly when the typically high WA prices mean that a couple of pints alone will set you back almost $25, before even thinking about food. It was only after saying that I would go elsewhere rather than pay ATM fees that the waitress curtly advised we could pay by card if we set up a tab (in fairness to her, she probably gets asked about the cash only policy every 3 minutes). Sadly even this was too hard, with licence, credit card and paperwork all required to be able to use the single EFT terminal in the entire venue. The venue also advertised 2 for 1 meals on the Tuesday night, but apparently this required a membership card which can only be obtained by filling in a paper survey at the bar and waiting weeks for it and of course the discount isn 't available in the interim. Not sure how the card is delivered when the survey didn 't even ask for an address, so I ended up throwing the form away. The menu is reasonably diverse but nothing out of the ordinary, and typical of the overpriced offerings at pubs in the state but the quality simply wasn 't there at The Gate. My $26 chicken parmy was small, with a bland splattering of tomato sauce and tasteless frozen chips. My friend 's steak sandwich appeared to be a better choice but its accompaniment of 'rosemary salted chips ' were the same frozen ones I received. Not worth the trip across the road from the shopping centre their outdoor dining precinct offers better food at a lower price.

The Gate is probably one of Cockburn's finer dining establishments. There are several seating options, casual, outside and inside for the more corporate types of lunches and dinners. The indoor decorum is nice. I have been twice and both times never had complaints about food. I asked for my steak to be medium, which it came in a tad under (better under than over in my opinion . It was really good, as well as the mound of fries. The bathrooms are ample and they are located both inside and outside (amazing! . Service is very, very slow and servers tend to go MIA. If you're in a hurry or only have a 30-minute lunch break, I'd go elsewhere. If you are in the area and okay with sitting a spell, have at it.

Very nice establishment. This place is huge! There's plenty of parking, a massive restaurant, two drinking areas, and heaps of bars to accommodate. All they need to do is ban smoking in the beer garden (personal preference for me). The place is fitted out with plasmas galore for the sport enthusiast. Beer prices are good too.