Garde Hotel
Cnr Parry & William Streets, Fremantle
Ph: (08) 9239 3300
www.angleseafremantle.com.au
A New Vintage of Hospitality
Housed on the ground floor of the new Garde Hotel complex opposite the Fremantle Oval is Anglesea. A modern Japanese-Korean fusion restaurant, it is the latest addition to the port city’s on-trend dining scene, thanks to hospitality gun Tim Buckton.
Already part-owner of Emily Taylor, Gimlet, Sailing for Oranges and a string of hotels, Tim is clearly passionate about Fremantle.
“Like everything we do in our restaurant and hotel business, there’s a connection to Fremantle,” he says.
“We like to make Fremantle a whole destination and each of our venues tells a story. The name Anglesea is actually from a ship tied to Fremantle’s colonial past. We’re all about accessible good value where people will want to come.”
On the day we visit, we are greeted by comfy padded chairs and sofas, and low, unobtrusive round tables making up a majority of the seating in the lobby-style space, with a tastefully muted colour scheme and tan flooring. In all, it is a modern yet warm fit-out. The kitchen is open, yet discreetly tucked away towards the back of the room, and the clientele is a mixture of low-key business meetings and well-dressed tourists.
Our lunch gets off to a rousing start when we are presented with an arrangement of dainty dishes called Teishoku, which literally translates to ‘set meal’ in Japanese. Popular in Japan, teishoku is best known for providing a complete nutritious meal in one sitting. On this day, our set meal consists of wasabi and edamame guacamole with furikake; whipped gochujana spiced tofu with chilli crunch; a ball of salted plum and red bean dango (my favourite, with a perfect chewy consistency and just the right balance of umami); cucumber and shiitake pickle with toasted sesame and organic tamari; Ssamjang glazed eggplant (sweet and syrupy – another winner); and spinach and shimeji mushrooms poached in yuzu agedashi and an enormous puffed sesame cracker to help scoop up the assorted dishes, and a bowl of steamed rice.
We were advised to hold off starting until our mains arrived. The Torched Ora King Salmon has been dry aged in-house and is fall-apart tender. One of Anglesea’s signature dishes, it comes with two dipping sauces – a zesty kimchi and white soy dressing, and a nori jam. A small side of fennel and pickled ginger salad makes for a perfect offset. The beautifully seared Kangaroo Tataki in ponzu is tender and not at all gamey – and gets a spicy kick from a chilli crunch topping. The 2024 Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc (Marborough, NZ) has a beautiful ripe, fruity finish that was a terrific match for the dishes.
For dessert, we sampled Kanmi (which means sweet in Japanese), a soft-serve ice cream wonder that is made in-house and is available in two flavours, a gooey matcha with black sesame maple syrup, topped with a sesame praline and clusters of popcorn smothered in a miso caramel sauce.
Anglesea is open seven days a week, from 6:30am until late.
By Jenny Susanto-Lee
“Comcater was very proud to be involved in working with the Anglesea team in specifying and designing the Mareno modular line of powerful cooking equipment. The space was a challenge, however, Mareno made this possible to suit the chefs’ needs.”
