Bread In Common on Pakenham Street is a name I often hear where iconic dining is concerned in Fremantle along with the likes of Cicerello’s and Little Creatures bar. It actually surprises me to hear that this fairly new eatery had already achieved a reputable status in Fremantle over a short period. Just before Yobi and his girlfriend headed to Cicerello’s I decided that we should all have some light brunch here to understand what the hype was.
Walking in, I liked the interior which was quite simple but carried a lot of substance. I noticed how well the wood on wood combination and the light bulbs presented in a minimalistic cable X bulb combination worked nicely together!
To start, we could go no further than the homemade bread with two dips. One was a sausage dip while the other was a zucchini sesame one. I had also asked the other bread staples which was butter and olive oil. It was an all out affair on this one.
The bread here have all the perks of a homemade bread but unfortunately that was where it all ended. It was simply nothing outstanding and felt all too plain. The centre of the bread was not as expected. But more disappointingly were the dips which were really quite mediocre. Between the two, the zucchini one was more outstanding than the other sausage one. Taste wise, I would not be such a hard critique but considering the price we paid for what I perceive as “1 large table spoon” of each, it was really quite disappointing. I think Brika does a better deal with their dip when you have size X price X taste considered in the equation.
Our shared meal was a poached salmon with cauliflower, goji berries and some herbs scattered around the top. While the salmon was poached to perfection, everything else in this dish could not be anymore boring than white paper. The salmon carried little seasoning which was good to enjoy the delicate protein, but when it came to remainder of the plate, that cauliflower finely diced to act as a staple carbohydrate was absolutely terrible. In fact, a little too raw for my liking. I preference would be to have it blanched longer to make it soft and fluffy. Basic seasoning of salt and pepper would have been much appreciated.
But hey, it was not the end of the world. The duck fat roasted potatoes was probably the second best dish I have had this weekend. It was bloody good. Loved the bits of caramelised garlic that came with the potato. Bloody sweet. Homemade ketchup was a nice touch that did not carry the same artificial sweetness the bottled ones do. Over all, this had to be my biggest like walking away from this place ;0!
The service here was OK but hardly commendable. On that not so busy Saturday, we asked two different waiters thrice for a refill of bread to come with our non-existent butter and olive oil with a constant reminder that an order had already been placed before. It took them a long time only to appear with two orders of bread which we could not finish. With more than 80% approval and 800 odd likes, I was expecting a whole lot more from Bread In Common. I do not believe that I am asking for a lot. Simple plating with a balance between substance and value would definitely have sufficed. Yay or Nay? Definitely nay for me.
WenY
