Fish Café - Review

Hubby had a birthday last month, so we decided to head down to the bay and have lunch at the Fish Café in Manly, also known as the Barramundi Boys.  It had been ages since we'd eaten there (since our friend's son was one of the chefs), so it was well time to check it out again.

a bit of a nautical feel going on inside 

We sat at the front overlooking the yachts, and escaping the rain outside.  Guess what Mr P. had to drink?  Yep, ginger beer, of course.  His fave Bundaberg brand.

ginger beer for Mr P. - (surprise, surprise) - $4

Brown Brothers Prosecco for me - $9.50 

You can't go past a nice glass of Prosecco, I always say.  This one was sparkly and refreshing.  Not a bad drop.  And it went well with my main of grilled salmon, which came with a smoked eel croquette and pea purée.

grilled salmon $32

My salmon was a wee bit overdone for me.  I do like mine a bit pink in the middle.  This had been taken just that 60 seconds too far.  (The crispy skin was great.)  I didn't really enjoy the accompaniments with the fish.  The smoked eel was very strong in flavour, and overtook the salmon. The pea purée also had a very strong, somewhat bitter taste and overpowered the salmon.  There was an overall sweetness to the purée too, which was not to my liking.  Not a bad dish, but needed just a little more thought and care. 

Mr P. had fish and chips $29

You can have this either battered, crumbed or grilled.  Mr P. went for battered as you can see.  I would have to say that $29 is pretty steep for fish and chips and a bit of salad though.  But Mr P. really enjoyed his pieces of battered snapper; he said the fish was moist and the batter crispy.  He really appreciated that it was not oily. The chips were fat and well seasoned, and the tartare sauce was a hit too - tangy and creamy.

a side of extra chips with aioli $5

Rather ambitiously, we ordered a side of chips too!  And no, we didn't get through them all.  They were delicious, but our eyes had been bigger than our stomachs, as the saying goes.  The café was by no means full, but service was surprisingly slow (but friendly). Our drinks came fairly quickly, but our meals took nearly half an hour more, so we had been there about an hour before we ate.  We were just about ready to nibble our fingers off at that stage. 

so many masts on so many boats

The Pickings' Verdict?:  A lovely place to sit and watch the weather and the yachts. Food comes in generous serves; the atmosphere is friendly, and with a bit of tweaking, the food would be very good indeed.



The Fish Café is open 7 days a week.  It has a children's menu, and also does takeaways.  It is a wine bar also, so you can sit and have a drink, while dreaming of far away places.


461 The Esplanade
Manly Harbour Village 4179
Ph: 07 3893 0195