After 15 years of active service, Rockpool Perth is getting a $3 million makeover

Consistency, insist the personal trainers and motivational speakers, is important.

At Rockpool Bar & Grill Perth , consistency is a way of life and helps explain why the luxe steakhouse – despite opening its doors in 2011; despite changing fashion and food trends; despite the dedication of new temples of beef across P-Town ; and despite the departure of Rockpool’s famous, ponytailed founder – remains a key figure in the city’s dining landscape as well as the casino’s safest bet. (That the restaurant had a reputation for only putting the best ingredients in its shopping trolley and dry-ageing fridges helps too, as does its ability to cook said ingredients very well and very simply, time after time.)

After 15 years of active duty, Rockpool is taking a three-week sabbatical later this year and getting some work done: three million dollars of work, to be exact. According to Rockpool owners Hunter Street Hospitality, this makeover will mark the biggest change to the space since Neil Perry and designer Grant Cheyne rebooted the former food court into a gilded, classically inspired steakhouse. For management, this refresh is a chance to start writing the restaurant’s new chapter.

“This renovation is our opportunity to begin Rockpool 2.0, which is exciting,” says general manager Laura Bartolone.

So what changes are on the cards? A little more colour, for one. While I’ve appreciated the timelessness of the room’s existing taupe, gold and beige palette, those proposed persimmon-hued banquettes do bring a jolt of energy to the room. (These new bench seats also face towards the restaurant proper and open kitchen; a nicer view, I reckon, than the postcard-perfect white big top circus tent currently squatting in the carpark and whose gracious curves are obscured by hessian curtains.)

The layout of the dining room (260 seats, an increase of 20 seats) will be rejigged to create more fluid, modular areas that can better accommodate large groups. The bar is also getting upsized and will be able to fit 40 revellers in a revamped, more standalone space. A third private dining room is also being built. Considering the fit-out is being handled by SGB Group – also responsible for the recent facelift of Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney – it’s safe to assume that the new-look Perth will feel a little more like Sydney (and vice-versa).

The food offering, meanwhile, is also being streamlined and brought into line with what’s happening nationally. While fellow collectors of restaurant ephemera will be crestfallen to hear that Rockpool will stop printing daily dated lunch and dinner menus (the carte will now be presented in a leather binder) news that the kitchen will reopen with a stronger seafood focus should help soften that blow.

“The goal is to replicate the beef program into the seafood side of things,” says Rockpool Perth executive chef Brendan Owens. (This new seafood focus has already been implemented at Rockpool’s Sydney and Melbourne siblings.) “We’ve always had good raw seafood on but there’ll be more of a focus on cooked seafood. Things like whole marron, squid, fish and lobsters.”

Still, the cornerstones of Rockpool’s identity will remain.