Mother Restaurant Plant Based Fremantle WA 7

Dine

Mother

Emma and Heath Daly started their restaurant business in 2009 to offer natural, nutrient-rich nourishing dishes free from a refined process or artificial ingredients and an ethos dedicated to low waste and sustainability.

By Nardia Plumridge

Sustainable and seasonally focused fare is what's on the menu at Mother.

Heath Daly is a naturopath with 25 years of experience and a former senior lecturer at the Australian College of Natural Medicine. Together with wife Emma, they prove that a veggie menu doesn't mean dishes that lack flavour at Mother. Instead, an exciting mix of Mediterranean-inspired vegan plates is on offer, using house-made, plant-based cheeses, yoghurts, ferments, and pickles.

Oyster & chestnut mushroom tartare with smoked 'aioli', native thyme, black sunflower seed, and herb oil. Pumpkin ravioli layered with a creamy 'gouda' sauce, almonds, sage, spinach, chilli walnut crumble, and truffle oil. Gnocchi with Geraldton wax and zucchini sauce, green beans, spiced almonds, and a creamy house-made labneh. Or, if you can't decide, let the chef choose with their "feed me" menu of six carefully selected courses for $55pp.

Flavours are not confined just to the dishes. On the drinks list is an enticing collection of "clean" cocktails. Their take on a Tom Collins is twisted with lemon myrtle, hibiscus, fresh lemon topped with Geraldton wax and soda water with locally made Australian gin. In a Spritz, kumquat and elderflower liqueur are topped with prosecco, soda and grapefruit. The wine list has a tilt towards organic Australian natural wines, ciders, craft beers, plus plenty of non-alcohol options: hand-brewed kombucha, fresh smoothies, or hot elixirs that make an ideal post-meal tonic.

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The restaurant space was first traded as The Raw Kitchen before transitioning to Mother in August 2020. Over a speedy 4 months, the Daly's renovated the warehouse and menu, a time Emma calls a "beautiful chaos". "It was a rapid-fire renovation and rebrand period, finishing with the race against the clock to open before the arrival of our second son. Sunny Wilde arrived just days after the relaunch", she says.

Those refurbed interiors are an impressive turnaround from their original guise. The vast 1920's era warehouse roof is stripped back to its frame and features its original beams with a pitched ceiling. In the dining room, booth seating ideal for groups has been created using converted shipping containers or grab a table made for two by dining on vintage red covered bus seats.

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For those on the go, the front bar at Mother brews fresh coffee and take away snacks from 11am.

While across the room, its retail store, Zero, stocks over 3000 plastic-free products, including beauty and home care items. Plus, the Mother team has just introduced their Takeaway Tuesday - Neighbourhood Pizza Night, offering three pizza styles, sides and desserts that can be pre-ordered for collection.

"The evolution to Mother has felt like beginning a whole new venue again, but in the best possible way," says Emma. “It has really allowed us to fully embrace what we stand for with all our passion. Sustainable change, four seasonal menu changes each year using superb WA produce, the celebration of fresh native ingredients, and the momentum to continually push the limits on the quality and creativity of the food, drinks and experience we provide," she adds.

Find more places for wellness in Fremantle with our insider’s guide here.