Clancy's Fish Pub — Restaurant in Fremantle

UPDATE 21 OCT 2024

I hope they can arrest the slide but this place is starting to wobble. Unsurprisingly, the chain is down to two (2) properties. Whoever is in management needs to fire their recruiter or get a good one because right now they're bedevilled by staff mismatched to job requirements.

If you're a kick-ar$e drummer, singer, guitarist, artist, go do that. Don't try to be a hospo if you're not hospitable. If you're in admin and can't admin, don't.

I made a telephone booking in February for December. I rang and emailled to cancel in May but had to email again and physically walk in to the venue three (3) times to cancel the booking.

Somehow that's my fault. "Should have spoken to a manager," in a condescending tone.

I did, C. Couple of times. And even if I didn't, can the snark, C. Shouldn't take eight (months) to cancel a booking.

And get your staff some basic hygiene training. I tried to very quietly tell one who I'd been bantering with about the three finger rule* and he yelled in my face to speak to his supervisor if I had a problem and stormed off like a toddler. The supervisor? Muso off in a creative little cloud and didn't want to hear a word of it.

FFS, since COVID we have to do this better. Now with new strains and mpox rising again, it's even more vital. IF IF IF you have anti-vaxxers on staff, get new staff. They can believe what they want, but not while waiting tables and serving drinks.

Normally I'd say, you'll restore to 5* but I don't know.

========\

My happy place.

The staff are 99.9% fabulous. The food is to die for, though spend five minutes there and you'll go searching for the fountain of youth so you can spend more time there.

So many different areas to either rant and roar* or chill completely out**. A book library. Lots of local info, copies of street press, and flyers for all manner of musical and artistic distractions both on site and off.

A drinks range that could coming back 'til you're 236yo and still not cover the lot. Knowledgeable bar staff, and though I've been only going there for about eight months, the consistency of top barkeeps, mixologists, wait staff, cooks, and managers tells you mostly all about what the place is about.

I've cruised past on nights when Google Maps tells you they're still open, but sensibly they've pulled stumps a wee bit early. What are the staff doing? Sitting with outside lights off, doors closed and locked, neon signs switched to the 'Come back tomorrow' position, they're inside having staffies, enjoying each others' company, decompressing after another amazing day in hispitalityville.

I nod, wave, smile, recently shoved some comp festival tickets through the crack in the door to the duty manager, and walked off whistling, humming, or singing a sea shanty.* Or a bluegrass/faux gospel song.*

Or Sgt Hulka song.**

Me: so many years on this planet. So many years treading the boards. So many years in the music industry, so many years a hospo trainer, 10 years travelling this land mass in about one month's time. This place is in definitely in my top five venues for food, drinks, music, good cheer, meeting friends + acquaintances + randoms and having life-changing experiences.

Add a dart board and a pool table and they'd be top three.

Translation: awww yeah, it's a bit good, eh? ;-)

Sea Shanty night with The Lost Quays on first Monday of the month. 7pm for 7.30pm.**

• Clancy's Country and Bluegrass Club with The Hamilton Hillbillies+ friends/guests on third Sunday of the month.*

• Live, original music including pub choir, musical trivia, local, state, and non-WA artists on practically every other night of the week.**

** Check local guides.

Clancy's Freo, I have to ask: are you...

My family went to Clancy’s Fish Pub (Fremantle) on a Sunday in October 2025 to celebrate our son’s birthday. The venue was at my son’s choosing and he suggested to meet up at 11:30. Not knowing what the traffic would be like or being able to find suitable parking we arrived there at 11:20. Most parking in the immediate area is only 2-hour limit. Even on a Sunday. 😡 Fremantle really goes out of its way to make visitors feel unwelcome. Like ourselves there were a couple of other patrons waiting for doors to open. This was fine as we had a good selection of seating to choose from. We chose to sit out on the front verandah. This was a bit risky as there was predicted risk of showers that day. The verandah gave us a wonderful vista of the wall art on the Wool Stores building across the road. Personally, I would rather have looked at the amazing workmanship of those craftsmen of yesteryear in the laying of all those red bricks that make up the building facade. What first struck me was the friendliness and warm welcome we received from the bar staff upon entering the premises and just walking past the bar. In many venues, a greeting, if you are lucky, is only offered when placing a order at the bar. It was now approaching 12PM. Time for the kitchen to open and place orders for our meals. Each table has a QR code thing to place an order but, I like to talk to real people. It makes it so much easier to discuss mild/medium/hot chilli or if we would like extra bread. Making my way to the kitchen order counter, I was almost bowled over by the rush of patrons coming in at 12PM. While queuing to place an order, the staff person identified that there was a problem with the internet connection while serving the customer in front of me. I thought to myself, not a problem, I wanted to pay by cash anyway. To my astonishment, out came the ‘Kitchen is closed’ sign and we were told to come back later. My first thought was “buggar”. The parking meter is running, how long is this going to take. My next thought was in disbelief that orders could not be taken even though the chef in the kitchen was within eye and earshot of the order counter. ☹ It appears that even cash is worthless without internet. Time to get the drinks order in. I just hoped that drinks orders can be placed without internet connection. The friendliness of the bar staff continued as he described what options were available on tap. Having made my selection, I was relieved to know that cash is still valid tender. Now it’s time to sit down, drink my drink and admire the artwork. The kitchen did eventually re-open. The son and daughter had the Seafood Share Plate. The son-in-law missed out on this experience, he decided to go to the Australia vs India ODI instead. The granddaughter had the kids Pasta. The ‘trouble and strife’ had SA Kinkawooka Chilli Mussels (medium chilli). I decided upon the Seared Tuna. All dishes were very nice, fresh and tasty. The tuna was a bit of a flash back to a recent trip to Japan. Fortunately, the venue wasn’t too crowed on this day. Maybe the weather, maybe the cricket or maybe because of Telethon that the crowds were elsewhere. I was two thirds of my way into my drink before I had relaxed enough to really enjoy this venue. I’m only giving 4 stars overall for Clancy’s Fish Pub because of its location (Fremantle) with its parking issues and because of the lack of food ordering contingency when...

Went here for the first time last weekend with my younger brother to see our mother. Food was terribly average. I had some of my brother's fish and it was the best fish I've ever tasted (my mum then pointed out it was called Clancy's Fish Pub for a reason). I ordered a share plate, wasn't very filling. Halloumi was alright but chorizo wasn't very interesting and nobody seem to enjoy the bread and white bean dip. Personally, I wish I'd just gotten the fish instead. I also ordered an iced coffee and it was the most average iced coffee I've ever had. Not the worst by any stretch (nothing will beat Han's Cafe Applecross who didn't understand what an iced coffee was so they boiled a cup of coffee and added ice cubes to it) but I would have been better off going to Coles and buying a Dare instead. The cone of chips were easily the most pedestrian chips I've ever eaten and something I'm not likely to want to order again.

Still, that being said, the atmosphere is wonderful and the service was great. Lots of open space to sit in outside and the whole venue was an authentic rustic charm to it. There's a few other interesting items on the menu I might try out in the future like the Memphis Rub burger and the battered feta fingers but personally I can think of much better places to eat at in...