Magnolia BBQ Opens Two Nights a Week in a Coffee Shop, but It’s One of 2025’s Best New Openings

There’s no shortage of Asian eateries in our sunny state, but none quite like Magnolia BBQ. Two nights a week, chefs Jacob D’Vauz (ex-Rockpool, Madalena’s) and Anisha Halik transform Victoria Park’s light, bright Modus Coffee space into a candlelit dining room. Come sundown, the coffee menu has vanished behind custom curtains, bespoke screen-printed tablecloths are laid out (each topped with the kind of plastic covers you’d find at a hawker stall), and the hum of the espresso machine gives way to the warmth of a custom woodfired Zesti oven. 

This is Magnolia BBQ, the culinary couple’s latest after-hours project. After a wildly successful stint at the Doubleview Bowls Club under the moniker Special Delivery, the 80-person pop-up feels like a smaller, surer, and deeply personal progression.

The ever-changing menu draws from the Malay Archipelago – Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia – and is threaded with Halik’s Christmas Island background, but Magnolia is not bound by tradition. Instead, every dish is filtered through the pair’s own memories, intuition, and decades of combined hospitality experience, creating an ongoing conversation between past and present. 

“It’s cool to shine a light on Asian cooking, or what we call Nusantara,” says D’Vauz. “We want to break stereotypes that Asian food has to be cheap, or that the quality of the proteins or produce can’t match the sauce. Magnolia lets the cuisine reach its full potential using WA’s best produce and the techniques we grew up with.”

That might mean Abrolhos Island scallop crudo with green mango, sambal hijau and kerupuk (a deep-fried fish cracker). Or Fremantle swordfish chops, brushed with sambal and served bone-in, resting in a broth made from Stakehill Farm tomatoes. Or pie tee: thin pastry shells filled with beef tartare and black pepper jam, crowned with smoked bone marrow mayonnaise. 

“What you’re getting is a lot of produce actually brought in from Indonesia that gets used in a legitimate way, paired with these special WA ingredients,” says D’Vauz. “A lot of it is an interpretation of what we would eat at home or at our family’s homes, but made Magnolia.”

A custom woodfired Zesti oven is central to the menu. It’s smokeless, with infrared lights that evaporate fat while maintaining a steady heat, but D’Vauz maintains that cooking over fire is “not a fad. It’s how it’s always been done at home in Indonesia. Fire and smoke, simple and instinctual.”

Despite only opening on Thursday and Friday evenings, it takes a village – and an entire week – to prepare for service. Chicho Gelato supplies the gelato, croissant roti is made with the offcuts from Goods Bakery, and the sambal is prepared by the couple’s aunties. 

“Everything takes time,” D’Vauz says. “The pastes, the sambals, the curries: it’s all made from scratch. 

There’s been a deliberate move to make the pop-up family-friendly and inclusive: the team will happily supply a highchair on request. The menu is entirely halal and the venue is alcohol-free. Drinks range from a calamansi and jasmine “half’n’half” to a Ribena float with basil seeds and aloe vera foam. The Nai-Lo, a shaken “Milo Dinosaur” made with condensed milk, is a nod to their daughter, Naia. 

Bookings are currently released month by month, although there is a small handful of tables reserved for walk-ins. 

Magnolia BBQ

5/660 Albany Highway, Victoria Park

No phone

Hours:

Thur & Fri 5.30pm–10pm

magnolia-bbq.resos.com/booking 

@m.a.g.n.o.l.i.a_bbq