The Five Dishes You Need To Order at Pearla & Co, According to Scott Bridger

At Pearla & Co, celebrated seafood chef Scott Bridger’s new North Fremantle restaurant, there’s a decent chance your dinner is hanging directly behind you. Inside the elegant dining room, an entire tuna sways inside one of two dedicated dry-aging fridges, while chefs shuck oysters, break down fish and cook over charcoal in full view of the diners seated along the marble bar.

That transparency is intentional. Pearla was designed to put both the produce and the process on show – a restaurant built around Bridger’s longstanding obsession with WA seafood and the people who catch it.

“It’s a real passion project, this restaurant,” says Bridger. “It kind of evolved from produce itself, and then my love of seafood.”

Just metres from the sand at Leighton Beach, the venue feels deeply tied to the WA coastline, from the fisherman supplying fresh swordfish and tuna caught off Rottnest Island to the hyper-local octopus appearing across the menu.

Broadsheet and NAB have teamed up for Bookings With Benefits, a dining program that gives you $50 off the bill when you spend $250 or more and pay with your on your NAB credit or debit card at selected venues – including Pearla & Co – around the country.

Here are the five dishes Bridger says best define the restaurant right now.

Rottnest swordfish belly ’nduja, pickles and wild fennel

Swordfish is delivered weekly from waters off Rottnest Island, but while most kitchens typically focus on the loin, Bridger is most interested in the belly.

“The loins are quite lean, but the belly is hugely fatty – in a good way,” he says. “It acts in a really similar way to pork belly.”

That comparison sparked the idea for Pearla’s seafood take on ’nduja. The swordfish belly is smoked for four hours, then slowly cooked with Italian chillies and fennel seed until rich, spicy and spreadable.

“It becomes sort of a really beautiful vessel to eat with bread at the start of the meal,” he says. “People just want more as soon as they get it.”

Chargrilled Fremantle octopus, smoked tomato XO and labneh

Bridger has been championing Fremantle octopus long before it became a staple on menus worldwide. At Pearla, it’s paired with one of the kitchen’s most labour-intensive sauces.

“Every time we serve it, people ask if they can buy the sauce,” says Bridger.

The sauce in question begins with something most kitchens would toss away: octopus skin.

“It’s essentially a waste product,” says Bridger, “but it turns into this incredible sauce.”

The skin is cooked for hours with garlic, chilli, smoked tomato, vinegar and oil, creating a deeply savoury XO-style sauce full of salinity and umami. The octopus is chargrilled over coals until smoky and blistered, then served on skewers over hung yoghurt, with the smoky XO layered on top.

Shark Bay cuttlefish noodles and braised legs, caramelised soubise and red pepper

“There’s so much opportunity with seafood for winter,” says Bridger. “People think seafood has to be super fresh and summery, but it can also have those really warming, hearty flavours.”

This dish leans into that idea, resembling a cold-weather pasta. The cuttlefish bodies are stacked, frozen and sliced into fine ribbons that mimic noodles.

“It gives you these ribbons that have a noodle-like texture but are completely cuttlefish,” Bridger says.

The legs are braised separately until tender, while the cuttlefish “noodles” are cooked for about 20 seconds to retain a slight bite. Everything lands in a spicy seaweed and red pepper broth over a caramelised soubise – a slow-cooked onion puree that adds a subtle sweetness and depth.

Rottnest Island tuna, fish bone jus, pickled onion and swordfish bacon

For seafood sceptics, Pearla’s big eye tuna is the closest thing on the menu to a steak.

Each week, a whole Rottnest-caught tuna weighing up to 40 kilograms hangs inside one of the two dedicated dry-aging fridges. Over about a week, the skin gradually dries and tightens while moisture is redistributed through the flesh rather than lost.

“It really accentuates the natural flavour of the tuna,” Bridger says. “You get this slightly meatier flavour, but without it being fishy.”

The fish is cooked over charcoal and served with a glossy fish bone jus made from roasted tuna bones reduced for hours until intensely rich. Cubes of cured swordfish belly stand in for bacon, while pickled onion and fermented cucumber cut through the richness.

“We’ve had people say they don’t really like fish,” says Bridger, “and then they eat that and go, ‘Oh my god’.”

Whipped honey, mandarin, yuzu marmalade and black sesame

“I can just talk about fish all day, but we’re not just fish,” says Bridger. “We also have beautiful vegetable dishes and beautiful desserts.”

His pick for dessert starts close to home, with honey harvested from his father’s hives.

It’s gently caramelised into a soft mousse, topped with bright yuzu marmalade made with fruit from Pemberton, poached mandarin and a black sesame wafer canopy.

“It’s nice to end on something a bit lighter, as opposed to a really heavy, rich dessert. It’s just not really the way we cook.”

The Broadsheet Dining Program Special Offer of a $50 discount when you spend $250 or more is available when you dine at a Participating Restaurant between 13 January 2026 and 16 December 2026. To be eligible for the Discount Offer, you must make a booking via the NAB Exclusive Booking Link for the Participating Restaurant which is found on the Broadsheet Booking Page and spend a minimum of $250 on your NAB credit card. Between 2 June 2026 and 16 December 2026, Select venues will also accept NAB debit card payments. The Discount Offer will apply at the Restaurant when you pay the final bill amount including GST and service fees and charges (if any) with your NAB credit card (includes a digital NAB credit card) or NAB debit card (includes a digital NAB debit card) at select venues. The Discount Offer is only valid once per booking and will not apply to any split bills and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. For the full Terms and Conditions of this Offer, please click here.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with NAB.