L2 Eat Cafe

Funky and Friendly Freo!

If your idea of Fremantle dining is pasta, pizza or greasy fish and chips then you are missing out on all of what Freo has to offer.

Located opposite the train station at the start of trendy Market Street , L2 eat Café is a gem just waiting to be discovered.

Already a favourite with locals and tourists, funky and friendly L2 eat Café is the perfect setting for a big weekend brekkie, a mid-week catch up with friends, a stylish evening meal or even a private evening soirée in the upstairs gallery/function space.

The current autumn menu, devised by head chef Darren Collins around fresh, in-season local produce, has strong Moroccan influences and celebrates modern Australian ethnicity. Using chickpea, lentil, tapioca and rice flours, almost everything on the menu is gluten-free.

For the discerning diner after a healthy alternative to a steak and chips, the Veggie Stack from the autumn lunch menu is sure not to disappoint. Totally gluten-free, this dish cuts a very impressive and colourful figure on the plate and creates a very satisfying experience in the mouth. Freshly roasted capsicum and mushrooms stacked between homemade pumpkin, carrot and cinnamon fritters make a fresh yet hearty meal. Unlike typical vegetarian patties that are dry and tasteless, these fritters are moist and simply exploding with flavour.

On the autumn dinner menu, the Sweet and Sour Crispy Skinned Duck Breast served with red cabbage, pistachios and a blackberry sauce is an amazingly intense taste combination and a large and very impressively presented dish.

The Moroccan Tagine Chicken is also a large, flavour-packed meal. The chicken, cooked on the bone to enhance flavour, falls away easily and melts in the mouth. Although full of exotic flavours and spices, this Tagine is quite a mild dish and comes served with turmeric rice. The flavours of this dish can be highlighted even more when accompanied by a glass of 2005 Sinclair Jezebel Cabernet Merlot. A local wine with a palate of seductive cassis and blackcurrant fruit, the Jezebel has excellent persistence of flavour and fine French oak tannins.

There is a lunchtime Tasting Plate with a selection of Margaret River Venison Chorizo, Salt and Three Pepper Squid (coated in gluten-free rice flour), Moroccan Chicken Wings, Fremantle Pickled Octopus, Mushroom Bhajis and tasty grilled WA Honey Bugs. Every inch of the plate is covered, with no silly garnishes, and it would be ideal to pick over between four people.

There is also a Share Plate on the dinner menu, which is smaller than the lunchtime plate and designed as an entrée to a main meal. It has a selection of the Margaret River Venison Chorizo, Fremantle Pickled Octopus, Green and Black Marinated Whole Olives and Garlic-rubbed Toast.

But if a tasting or share plate is too much of a taste sensation for you why not pick a few tapas to come out on their own? With an impressive list of individual tapas on offer there is definitely a dish to suit even the fussiest of eaters.

The ideal accompaniment to the many tapas dishes L2 eat Café is renowned for is the New Zealand 2007 Momo Sauvignon Blanc, which has a fruity aroma and is sweet and robust on the palate with a clean crisp finish.

L2 Café also has an exciting array of deserts on offer including a gluten-free Chocolate and Beetroot Mudcake with Wattleseed Ice-cream. This moist dense chocolate cake is a perfect end to a main meal or as a cheeky mid- morning or afternoon treat with coffee.So next time you're contemplating dining out in Freo why not try something a little different and give L2 a go? It really is a funky and friendly place just waiting to take you on an exciting culinary journey.

By Lauren Norton