Indigo Oscar (Cottesloe)

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Before reading ❗️

The details 📝

Indigo Oscar opened up in late 2021 and made it in our Top 9 Eats of 2021 and in Ate it & Rate It December 2021. The Latin American dining room and bar is located in the Indiana Teahouse - the iconic heritage site located in the middle of Cottesloe beach. Interiors here are vibrant with pastel hues of blue and pink and the dining room is met with beautiful panoramic ocean views (we can imagine this being a very popular venue in the warmer months). We've been back four times since our first visit late last year - and we've enjoyed all of our visits.

The kitchen here is headed up by Tom Harper, who previously was the head chef of Besk in West Leedy. Flavours here run Latin American - so expect things like ceviche, aji, chimichurri, salsas and more.

The mostly gluten-free friendly menu at Indigo Oscar changes regularly, but takes a similar form. You'll find a range of smaller, share style plates and heavier, more filling mains.

A staple order here is their Shark Bay crab arepas. These feature deliciously creamy crab with a hint of zest from the lime. We could probably inhale a couple of these bad boys if we were left to our own devices.. Just saying.

Ceviche is a staple Peruvian dish. If you like your Japanese food, this is basically food you'll be able to find at the famous Peruvian-Japanese restaurant, Nobu. We always grab whatever ceviche they have on the menu!

As for meats - you can't go wrong with the chicken here, which is always juicy and tender. It often reminds us of Wild Hop's Free Range BBQ Rotisserie Chicken.

The coriander mustard sauce paired beautifully with the juicy scotch fillet.

And a side of carbs to complement the mains is a must. The crushed crispy potatoes were.. Delightfully crunchy with a healthy amount of salt and extra aji verde on the side, should you want to spice things (literally and figuratively).

We were kindly sent the roast baby corn by the kitchen (thank you!). The dish had a nice range of textures. You can't really go wrong with cheese and juicy corn.

Aventuras Latinas - Mexico

Our first visit to Indigo Oscar in 2023 was in mid-June. We ended up deciding to go here on a whim, as we cancelled our initial dinner plans (a new Japanese joint that commanded a fairly pretty penny) due to some not so great feedback we heard about the joint. Enough with the negatives, onto the positives.

When booking Indigo Oscar, we were delighted to find out that they would be offering a fortnightly changing menu until August 2023, where they explore the food of half a dozen South American countries. The theme for our visit? Mexican.

We started strong with a Yellowfin tuna tostada - which satisfied our sashimi cravings for the evening. It had a fairly reasonable amount of tuna on it.

The stars of the show were the four or so tacos we all ordered. It's hard to point point an exact favourite, as all of them kind of taste the same after a while. Between Paige and I, the tacos al pastor and birria quesatacos probably would be the ones we reorder.

The oyster mushroom taco was a definite flavour and texture bomb.

Birria quesatacos are always a crowd favourite. You can't really go wrong.

Tacos al pastor had a nice balance of sweetness from pineapple and heat from the jalapenos. What elevated this was the chicharron on top, giving it a nice crunch.

After eating around half a dozen starters, it was time to move onto heavier dishes. The aguachile prawn ceviche couldn't have come at a better time. It opened up and was a great palate cleanser. Refreshing, to say the least.

Our favourite mains was the O'Connor scotch fillet and the roasted cauliflower. Both of which, paired well together.

The delicious cauliflower reminded us of Miznon's roasted cauliflower from our Melbourne trip last year. Much appreciated in the dish were the fried chickpeas for texture and the mole rojo, which gave a nice smoky, peppery flavour.

A dish which we didn't enjoy as much, was the lamb shoulder barbacoa. The majority of the bites I had did run lean and on the dry side but there was enough tomato-ey sauce to dip the lamb into.

Now, we don't normally order salads, but someone in our group insisted that we do. The chopped salad was probably the most underrated dish of the night. It was like a party in one's mouth. So many different textures to enjoy (yes, we'd get it again). It brings back memories of Petition's chopped broccoli salad (that happens to also have lots of lovely textures to enjoy).

Last but not least - a slice of tres leches cake for dessert. The almonds complemented the rich, creamy cake nicely.

Once again, Indigo Oscar didn't disappoint. Hats off to chef Tom Harper and his team for cooking up some very delicious food.

We hope to squeeze another visit in sometime soon and enjoy more of their changing South American menu!

Aventuras Latinas - Colombia

So, we managed to fit in another visit before Indigo Oscar's rotating South American menu finished up in August 2023. The time of our visit was mid-August 2023 and the theme of the menu was Colombian food.

Indigo Oscar's Colombian menu was incredibly accomodating for those that are Celiac - with 22 of the 23 menu items being gluten friendly! This made dining with one of our celiac friends, very easy.

Between a group of four, we all ordered two empanadas, an arepa and a scallop each. The standouts was the beer braised ox tail arepa and the Shark Bay scallop.

The pairing of the bacon with the scallop made for a nice sweet-salty combination.

As for mains, the star of the show was the barramundi which a beautiful, flavourful sauce (we ended up ordering some rice to soak up all the sauce!).

The steak once again was perfectly cooked. The only thing missing to the beautifully fried egg was some Maggi soy sauce (just joking - this is the Asian tastes in me coming out 😂).

Spiced cauliflower and smashed potato paired well with our mains.

For dessert, we shared the chocorramo - which was akin to a milder tiramisu in terms of texture and flavour profiles.

Our fifth visit to Indigo Oscar made for another consistently delicious meal. We're glad to have visited twice during their rotating South American menu and hope they do something similar again! It's the ever changing menus of restaurants that keep us coming back to a place.

Before visiting 🚙