Bathers Beach House, Fremantle.

Bathers Beach House in Freo reminds me of a restaurant from Miami, and it's one of the most talked about new restaurants in town. With incredible views over the ocean and a delicious menu to match, it's easy to see why, so my brother, Chris, and I went along with a friend to try it out.

For a weekday night it was packed; locals making the most of the warm balmy weather and gorgeous clear skies. Bathers Beach House is quite a contemporary but glamorous restaurant with an outside seating area for a more relaxed atmosphere. Even in the main restaurant the views and warm weather are made the most of, with huge picture windows wide open to let the sea breeze through.



Friends of mine have raved about Bathers Beach House, but a lot of online reviews are less than complimentary. I decided to trust my friends though, as they're usually right about all things to do with food in Perth. Naturally I started with a cocktail, the Dr Gilles contains angostura 5 year rum, ginger beer, grenadine, fresh fruits, absinthe, however all I could really taste was ginger beer and rum, which was a little disappointing.

To start with I opted for the marinated Fremantle octopus with fresh ciabatta and olive oil. The octopus was delicious and tasted incredibly fresh, and the ciabatta was perfect for soaking up the leftover olive oil the octopus was in.



My brother had the pepper berry kangaroo with bush tomato and balsamic, and he said it was fantastic.



Our friend had the sea salt and pepper squid, which was absolutely huge and could have easily been a main course!




For the mains Chris had the fish and chips, which I steered clear of as I'd had food poisoning on Rotto the previous night from the fish and chips at the Rottnest Hotel. He thought it was a decent fish and chips, but definitely not worth $28 when you can get a better fish and chips across the road at Kailis or Ciccerello's for half the price.



I didn't want anything too heavy on my stomach after being so sick the previous night, so chose the veggie open ravioli with feta. It was exactly what I needed; filling but reasonably healthy and packed with vegetables!




Our friend had the chicken breast with mushroom risotto, crisp pancetta, and truffle oil. This dish looked really beautiful, and I had a serious amount of food envy.




At this point we were all pretty full, so we decided to share a dessert just to give us something sweet to complete the meal. After much uhming and ahing, we decided to go for the caramelised banana, pecan nuts, salted caramel, and vanilla ice-cream. The dessert was pretty good, but I didn't taste any pecans and the salted caramel was hard rather than runny which almost broke my teeth a couple of times.


Overall the food was excellent, however the service really brought the place down. It took them a long time to take orders, clear the plates, and to top up or replace our bottle of water. They also refused to split the bill, which to be completely honest is not acceptable in 2015. They claimed it takes too long when it's busy, but there were three of us and it was empty by the time we were settling up. I used to work as a waitress as a student and it's not that difficult to split a bill. So cue that awkward 'who's going to put $160 on their card and get cash from the others...' question.



Sadly we arrived too late and missed the sunset, so it was pitch black which means I can't really show you the view :( but take it from me, it's gorgeous! If you want great Aussie food that isn't badly priced (bar the fish and chips), head to Bathers Beach House, but just be prepared for slow service and make sure you take cash.