Subiaco, Perth: leafy lanes, long lunches and a very good train ride

Five kilometres and a seven-minute train ride west of the Perth CBD, Subiaco has the sort of daily rhythm that makes a city feel civilised. The plane trees do a lot of the work. So do the Federation cottages, the wrought-iron shopfronts and the habit locals have of lingering over lunch as if the afternoon were not going anywhere. On Rokeby Road and Hay Street, prams, dog leads and coffee cups share the footpath with the more serious business of pasta, wine and the occasional long, contented stare into space. Subi is what happens when an inner suburb grows up without becoming dull.

What Subiaco is known for

Subiaco — or Subi, if you want to sound as though you’ve been buying bread here for years — is Perth’s polished inner-west village: leafy, walkable, a touch affluent and entirely comfortable with being seen at lunch. Its reputation rests on three sturdy pillars. The first is dining, with Rokeby Road and Hay Street forming one of the densest runs of good restaurants in the state. The second is the Saturday-morning ritual of the Subi Farmers Market, held in the grounds of Subiaco Primary School and now one of WA’s original farmers markets. The third is heritage, from the Federation-era cottages to the art deco Regal Theatre on the corner of Hay Street and Rokeby Road, still standing there like a reminder that Perth once knew how to make a corner look glamorous.

What makes the suburb feel different from the city centre is scale. You don’t need a map so much as a decent pair of shoes. The train drops you right into the middle of things, and within a fifteen-minute walk you can go from breakfast cakes at a Greek café to a wine bar in a 1920s shopfront, then on to a show in a heritage theatre. It is a suburb with a proper daytime pulse: retirees over long blacks, office workers on early lunches, neighbours stopping to chat outside boutiques, and the steady clink of cutlery that tells you this is a place that eats well before dark.

Subiaco’s other claim is one Perth shares with a few of its best inner suburbs: it has weathered a wobble and come back stronger. The years after the old Subiaco Oval closed were not exactly a party. But the strip has turned a corner. Miles Hull’s Subiaco Continental, the FOUND. brewery in the former Golden West cinema, and a run of newer wine bars have brought a younger dining crowd back without sanding off the suburb’s gentler edges. It still feels grown-up rather than glossy, and in the early evening, when the light goes gold through the trees, every second doorway seems to be pouring something.

Where to eat & drink

Subiaco’s dining story starts with pasta, and the benchmark remains Lulu La Delizia, tucked into an arcade off Rokeby Road at 5/97. Joel Valvasori-Pereza’s regional Italian cooking has earned the sort of acclaim that makes people book ahead without pretending they are above it. The shared banquet is the easy way in, and it suits the room: a place that understands the pleasure of being looked after by people who know what they are doing.

Right beside it, Lulu’s Cantina arrived in mid-2025 with a looser brief — panini, aperitivi and pasta specials — the sort of sibling that lets you stay in the Lulu orbit without committing to a full ceremonial dinner. It’s useful, too, for the kind of afternoon that begins with one drink and accidentally becomes a plan.

For something larger and louder, Subiaco Continental on the corner of Roberts and Rokeby Roads is the suburb’s big statement piece: Miles Hull’s 400-seat modern tavern, all all-day European energy and a wine list that feels fair rather than smug. The menu runs from gildas and crudo to lamb-ragu caserecce and steak frites, which is exactly the kind of spread a place like this should have — broad enough for a long lunch, sharp enough to keep you interested. It has the easy confidence of somewhere that knows it will be busy anyway.

Shui, at 12 Rokeby Road, takes a more polished route through modern Asian sharing plates. Cured kingfish spring rolls, dan dan noodles and Abrolhos Island scallops give the strip a different kind of texture, one that feels especially welcome when you’ve already had enough of the usual suburban comfort food and want a plate with a bit of a wink.

Greek food has long had a strong grip on Subiaco, and the best examples still feel like places the suburb has grown around rather than imported for effect. Lady of Ro, at 345 Rokeby Road, is a beloved BYO taverna where grilled octopus, char-grilled lamb and shared mezze come at prices that are kind by Subi standards. Two doors down, Boucla at 349 Rokeby Road has been a Kastellorizian-Greek institution for more than two decades, with shakshuka, Turkish eggs and a cake counter that can make the most disciplined person suddenly indecisive.

If you like your Mediterranean with a more wine-led bent, Intuition brings chef Mathieu Wyatt’s touch to the strip, while Piccolo Trattoria at 361 Rokeby Road keeps things deliberately unpretentious at the leafy south end of the road. That last stretch matters: it’s where Subiaco’s dining strip starts to feel less like a destination and more like a neighbourhood that happens to have very good restaurants.

Coffee, naturally, is not left to chance. Blacklist Coffee Roasters serves the serious crowd, the sort who know exactly how they take their flat white and are not interested in a lecture about it.

Going out

Nobody comes to Subiaco to rave, which is precisely why the going-out scene works. It is a small-bar and wine-bar suburb, and it wears that brief with more style than many places that try harder. The most talked-about newcomer is Lums at 433 Hay Street, a modern wine bar built into a 1920s grocery-and-general-store building. It pours Swan Valley pét-nats and Italian nebbiolo alongside Mediterranean share plates, and the old bones of the place give it a pleasing sense of continuity — as though this corner has always been meant for a good bottle and a long conversation.

Around the corner, BARK is the neighbourhood cocktail bar, where espresso martinis and casual snacks share space with themed nights. It is not trying to be the only thing you do in a week, which is part of the appeal. You can drop in, have a drink, and leave without feeling as though you’ve been recruited into a lifestyle.

Juanita’s, at 341 Rokeby Road, has a more lived-in charm: vintage furniture, a sommelier-led list overseen by Emma Hymus, and a dog-friendly patio that makes it feel as though half the suburb could wander through and be recognised. Hidden behind Dilly Dally on the same road, Bar Loiter is the cosy one, a tucked-away nook for indie beers and small-producer wines. It’s the sort of place you find once and then start pretending you discovered it yourself.

Near the station, Refuge Small Bar keeps things brisk with rotating seasonal craft beers in an industrial room and a burger-and-beer special that has the reassuring logic of a place that knows exactly what people want after a train ride. FOUND. Subiaco, meanwhile, has taken over the old Golden West cinema at 399 Hay Street and turned it into a big, buzzy room with more than 20 taps and elevated pub food. It’s the kind of venue that can absorb a crowd without losing its sense of occasion.

And then there is the Subiaco Hotel on Hay Street, an icon since the 1800s, still anchoring the strip with a moody bistro fit-out, dueling-pianos nights and proper Sunday roasts. It has the sturdy confidence of a pub that has outlasted several eras of taste and is still here to pour the next round.

Things to do

The single best thing to do in Subiaco is catch a show at the Regal Theatre. On the corner of Hay Street and Rokeby Road, the 1938 art deco corner theatre is one of Perth’s few remaining independent live venues and a State heritage-listed building, with a programme that ranges from big-name touring comedy to concerts and musicals. It’s the sort of theatre that makes the suburb feel slightly more glamorous than it has any right to be, especially when you approach it at dusk and the façade catches the last of the light.

Beyond that, Subiaco is best enjoyed at street level. Rokeby Road is the obvious wander, with its boutiques, cafes and steady foot traffic, but the real pleasure is in doing it slowly enough to notice the suburb’s rhythm: the school-run crowd, the lunch crowd, the after-work crowd and the people who seem to have made a career of looking relaxed. Saturday morning belongs to the Subi Farmers Market, where the schoolyard fills with produce and conversation before noon. It’s one of those markets that feels less like an errand and more like a weekly neighbourhood assembly.

The suburb’s northern edge is in flux as the former Subiaco Oval precinct is redeveloped into a new residential and open-space area, so depending on when you visit you may meet construction hoardings or fresh parkland. It is a reminder that Subiaco’s story is still being written, even as it clings to the architecture and habits that made people like it in the first place.

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If you want the bigger nature hit, Kings Park and Botanic Garden is a short hop south-east. One of the world’s largest inner-city parks, it offers the Federation Walkway, wildflowers in spring and a sweeping lookout over the Swan River and the city skyline. In a suburb as composed as Subiaco, Kings Park feels like the necessary exhale.

Shopping

Rokeby Road is Subiaco’s retail spine, and it has quietly rebuilt itself into a proper shopping strip again. The names here are polished without being absurd about it. KIVARI opened its first WA boutique at 1-11 Rokeby Road in late 2024, bringing a recognisable Australian label to the street. FLANNEL at 86 Rokeby Road adds another established name, while iisie fashion and Cavania keep the mix from feeling too corporate. Lucy In Disguise, tucked down a small walkway just off Rokeby Road, is where you go when pre-loved and vintage sound more appealing than whatever the algorithm has decided is new.

The market deserves a second mention here because it is as much a shopping destination as a Saturday ritual. The Subi Farmers Market runs from 8am to noon in the grounds of Subiaco Primary School at 271 Bagot Road, is not-for-profit, and channels takings back to the school. Organic and biodynamic fruit and veg, WA seafood and meat, bread, preserves, cheese, coffee and flowers all show up, along with live music and that cheerful brunch-in-the-schoolyard energy that makes you forgive the queue for coffee. Go early; the best produce and the good coffee queue up fast.

Where to stay in Subiaco

Subiaco suits travellers who want a quiet, leafy, grown-up base with fast access to the city rather than a room in the thick of the action. It is an upmarket pocket of Perth, so the accommodation mix leans boutique hotels, serviced apartments and Federation-cottage stays rather than budget beds. The most central option is Vibe Hotel Subiaco Perth, a modern four-star lifestyle hotel with a rooftop pool and easy access to the station and Rokeby Road restaurants.

Staying near the Rokeby Road and Hay Street intersection puts you within a couple of blocks of the best dining, the Regal Theatre and the train. The residential streets north and south are quieter and greener, though you’ll trade that for a slightly longer walk to the strip. Wherever you land, the logic is the same: calm evenings, a leafy neighbourhood and a seven-minute train ride to the CBD. {{HOTELS}}

Getting around

Subiaco is on the Transperth Fremantle line, and the station sits right in the middle of the suburb beside Subiaco Square. Trains run roughly every 20 minutes and take about seven minutes to Perth (CBD) station in one direction and around 20-plus minutes to Fremantle in the other, which makes both the city and the port easy day trips without a car. The suburb itself is flat and very walkable, with Rokeby Road, Hay Street and the market all within a comfortable ten-to-fifteen-minute stroll of the station.

Kings Park is a couple of kilometres south-east and can be reached on foot, by a short rideshare or by bus. Perth Airport is roughly a 20-to-30-minute drive depending on traffic, and the CBD is about five kilometres away, so rideshares into town are cheap and quick. You can absolutely base yourself here without a car, though one helps for beaches, Swan Valley wineries and the sort of day trips that remind you Perth is a city with a lot of space around it.

Subiaco is not trying to be everything. It doesn’t need to be loud, or cheap, or open until ridiculous hours. It is a suburb for long lunches, decent wine, a Saturday market and the happy knowledge that the train home is only seven minutes away. In Perth terms, that’s a very good arrangement indeed.