Little Creatures, Fremantle, Western Australia

On arriving in Western Australia last month, we realised very quickly that beer is super expensive, seeming to average around £10 for a pint. There are several micro-breweries around Perth and Fremantle though and we had a hankering for some good beer so when a friend recommended Little Creatures we thought we’d better look it up.

Turns out, Little Creatures is more than a micro-brewery. In two huge harbourside warehouses they have various venues including beer tasting in the brewhouse and the great hall which is just an incredible bar and restaurant space. Their beer comes straight from the huge brewery tanks behind the bar, it couldn’t be fresher if it tried. Between us we tried almost the whole range including the Shift Brewer’s Stash Special which was called Goliath Black Session IPA. Treacly and smokey but very drinkable. I’m not keen on the heavy stouts and porters back home so this was a great middle ground between those and a golden ale.

The pictures really do not do it justice. As you can see, we visited at night and it was really dark and atmospheric with the whole space lit by strings of lightbulbs. Loud and casual this is the place to come with a group of mates. We knew the beer would be good but what I wasn’t expecting was just how good the food was. There must have been 300 people there so when I saw a sharing and pizza menu I expected the worst.

Somehow on this massive scale, Little Creatures are turning out the most amazing food, freshly cooked to order and interesting. Everything we ate was totally delicious. Served as they come out the huge open kitchen, we ate ‘tapas’ style.

Between five of us we ordered:

• Woodfired pizza with mushroom, garlic and tallegio cheese
• Marinated octopus
• Kangaroo with tomato chutney
• Beetroot salad, goat cheese, macadamia & spinach
• Sticky lamb ribs
• Sardines, onion, apple & crouton