Restaurant and food reviews from Perth, Australia

Friday, April 6, 2012

Little Creatures Brewery, Fremantle

Keeping with the theme of laid back Sunday afternoons, I found myself out one Sunday drinking ciders out at Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle.  The location along the water and the modern laid back pub atmosphere makes it a great place to sit back for a few pints (cider or Little Creatures' very own beer) preferably coupled with some good simple food.

What sets Little Creatures even further apart from just any other "modern" pub is that it's set in its very own microbrewery.  On site you can see big vats and other beer making apparatus through glass displays that give it quite a special feeling.

Little Creatures is a reasonably large sized eating and drinking establishment - with indoor dining as well as al fresco dining out front and back.  However, despite the amount of seating, Little Creatures' popularity means you will have to wait for a table during any peak times.  Prepared for this occasion, Little Creatures hands out electronic buzzers to alert you when your table is ready whilst you have a drink or two at the bar.  However, once you do get a table, the food service appears to be quite prompt and organised.

The food on offer at Little Creatures matches its microbrewery atmosphere perfectly.  A lot of the dishes on the menu are share dishes - and not just typical pub meals like fish n chips and steakburgers, but modern pub tapas dishes and wood fire oven pizzas.  The dishes work great with beer or wine with family or mates.

Mixed olives, feta - $9

These olives (with seeds intact) were served with olive oil and feta.

Pan fried haloumi, cherry tomatoes - $14

If you've had pan fried haloumi before, it tasted as good as it should taste.  Each slice was lightly browned, giving a bit of warmth and ever so slight melted texture enhancing the flavour of this otherwise great tasting cheese.

The cherry tomatoes were also lightly cooked, lightly warm, and were garnished with basil leaves.

Harissa spiced lamb, melanzane, feta pizza - $23

This pizza was specially made in Little Creatures' own wood fired oven using their own dough where, if you want, you can watch the pizza maker roll it out from a round ball in plain view.

The pizza had a thin crust (which I prefer) and though this translated into a crunchy edges, the centre of the pizza base was soggy - probably from the ingredients piled on top and heavily skewed towards the centre.

The toppings included a healthy helping of well-spiced harissa lamb, small strips of melanzane (eggplant), and crumbled feta on a tomato paste base.  The generous helping of lamb helped make this otherwise seemingly simple pizza taste good, the harissa spice helping to create a Moroccan style pizza that was well flavoured without being salty.  However, on this paticular pizza, having the ingredients a little skewed towards the centre left some edges of the crust taste quite boring and lacking flavour.

Refried bean nachos - $23

As nachos should be, guacamole, sour cream, cheese red onion and jalapenos topped this corn chip share meal.  Added to the mix were refried beans that were very soft, had absorbed a nice light savoury flavour, and a pleasure to eat compared to harder textured ones.  Overall, this was a nicely made nachos with good flavours coming out of the toppings and refried beans, and the corn chips largely remaining crunchy and not soggy.

We liked: Modern and casual bar atmosphere; microbrewery beer; fast food service (once you are seated that is) for the size of the establishment.


We didn't like: Potentially long waits to get a table (though they do issue you with a buzzer fo whilst you wait drinking at the bar)

Other things to note: The menu is geared towards sharing dishes, though there are some meals for one.


Little Creatures Brewery
40 Mews Road
Fremantle WA 6160
(08) 9430 5555
www.littlecreatures.com.au

Trading Hours
Monday to Friday - 10am to 12am
Saturday - 9am to 12am
Sunday - 9am to 11pm


Little Creatures Brewery on Urbanspoon