"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Kim’s Food Bar, located on the busy Napoleon Street strip in Cottesloe, has only been open three months, and already this little Italian restaurant has many distinguishing characteristics which are being celebrated by locals. Kim Gamble, owner of Kim’s Food Bar, is a well-known restaurateur in the Cottesloe area, and his latest restaurant, Kim’s Food Bar, is an intimate space that is building an identity as the new place to visit for top quality, seasonal ingredients with an emphasis on simplicity and specialisation.

Kim gamble is one of the few old school restaurateurs still going strong. He’s the kind of guy who’s just as comfortable clearing tables as sitting down for a glass of wine (or two) with some of the western suburbs powerbrokers. Kim’s career in hospitality started way back in the Kim’s Bar days which was THE place to be seen on Bayview Terrace in Claremont. He started and ran the the iconic Blue Duck and after years of battling a reluctant local council, eventually got the lease to the site which became Barchetta.

The thread that runs through his seemingly disparate venues is a true love of great produce. It’s very popular these days for chefs and owners to align themselves with fresh produce, but to see Kim’s eyes light up when he talks about his in-house gelato, you can see this is a very deep passion.

Like Kim, the chefs at Kim’s Food Bar, Ben Fossilo and Steele Greenland shop for their own produce, utilising whatever is in season, and growing all of their own herbs at the back of the restaurant. Lunch specials are created daily, and should you have a question about the menu, Ben and Steele generously make their time available to customers for chats about the food, ingredients, the weather, etc.

If you still need convincing that a trip to Kim’s Food Bar is like having a little taste of Italy in Perth, everyday at lunchtime a pleasing spread of anti-pasta is set out for people to help themselves. The restaurant has developed its own sourdough bread (Kim’s loaf), and it sits stacked perfectly nearby, inviting purchase and consumption. The pizza is prepared in a wood-fired oven, and come summer, will be available for delivery by a friendly driver in a Piaggio (Vespa) Ape (pronounced “ah-peh”), the three-wheeled scooter/truck hybrid created in the 1940’s.

True to the epicurean theme at Kim’s, the coffee is also devoted to quality and pleasure. Featured is the 5 Senses’ Harvest blend. It is light, clean and fresh with a bit of citrus acidity; it’s also sweet and chocolaty through milk. On this day, my morning tea companion says that her coffee is so good that she will have another – this is the first time I have ever seen her do this, and we have had many coffees together.

And speaking of sweet, Kim’s is just starting to focus on desserts. Anna, the restaurant manager, also happens to be a wiz of a baker. Her latest creation is a white chocolate and lavender cannoli. Desserts currently depend of availability.

Plans for the future include renovations and expanding into the shop next door. They hope to be completed by the end of the year, and with the charm oozing from Kim’s, they’ll need the extra space. In the meantime, note that Kim’s is fully licensed with a BYO option on Tuesdays. They’re currently open later than anyone else on the Napoleon strip and welcome people to drop in late, Thursday through Saturday, for a pizza, some nibbles, or of course, a great coffee.

Kim’s Food Bar
38 Napoleon St.
Cottesloe, WA

Hours of Operation
Tuesday to Friday
10am – late
Saturday
8am – late