One of the things I love about the south west is it’s abundance of great family friendly dining options. So when we were discovering Denmark for the first time, I had my fingers crossed that we’d find a few gems that everyone in our family could enjoy. Warren, our host at Misty Valley Country Cottages, suggested that we tried Boston Brewery. It’s a place he enjoys and he recommends it to all the families staying at his farm too.
Boston Brewery is part of the Willoughby Park Winery. I didn’t have a chance to check out their wines at the cellar door, but it’s on my to do list for next time. The award winning Willoughby Park wines have received a five star rating from James Halliday and a whopping 91 points for it’s popular Chardonnay.
As soon as we arrived, Chef made a bee-line for the bar. Boston brewery’s range of beers are brewed on site. There’s a larger, German style wheat beer, English style IPA, rye pale ale, brown ale and stout. They make an alcoholic ginger beer too. Another one I need to try next time!
Inside, there’s a huge dining hall with a kiddie corner and open fire, for those chilly Denmark nights.
The spring weather was glorious when we visited, so we headed outside to the huge lawned beer garden, dotted with picnic tables. There’s often live music playing on the outdoor stage too. The playground, set in a large sandpit, is large enough to keep the kids entertained while you have a cheeky late afternoon drink and some food.
The first time we went along for dinner I was feeling like something light, so I enjoyed a couple of share plates. The lemon myrtle salt and pepper squid ($15) were crisp and tender. The nicely seasoned morsels were delicious dipped in the lemon aioli.
I would make the 450 km drive to Denmark again JUST for these local chestnut fed pork and blue swimmer crab spring rolls ($14). I can’t tell you how delicious these massive spring rolls are, brimming with a generous amount of moist pork meat, crab and dipped in a spicy namh jim dressing. A must try!
Chef enjoyed his wood fired pizza ($22). It’s perfect pub grub to accompany a cold beer. The tomato base is topped with Italian sausage, mozzarella, Kalamata olives and fresh chilli.
The lure of the playground, coupled with a tasty dinner of burger, chunky chips and a good side salad meant that Little Chef wolfed down his cheese burger ($12).
Since we were so impressed by the family friendly atmosphere and good food at the microbrewery, we returned more than once. On the second time we dined at Boston Brewery, the stand out dish was my twice cooked Linley valley pork belly ($32). The pork belly, cooked in master stock, had a wonderful depth of flavour. The accompanying veg was really tasty – roasted kifler potatoes, Dutch carrots, plump snowpeas, cauliflower puree and a Willoughby Park Red Wine jus.
Boston Brewery is definitely somewhere we’d return – not just to top up Chef’s growler with their excellent craft beer! The food has more finesse than your typical pub grub. You can really tell they use quality, local ingredients too. It’s very easy to loose a few hours relaxing in the beer garden, overlooking the vines.
Read Part 3 of our trip to Denmark here… Discovering Delicious Denmark All about the attractions we visited in the Denmark area.