Fish Shop (Rainy Sunday)

I have reviewed Fish Shop previously in a fair bit of detail – so if you want to get a feel for the place check out my previous review here.

We stop by on a Sunday to have some delightful seafood and to escape the rainy Sydney weather (what is with this weather – seriously). Anyway back to Fish Shop. We arrive and find a nice table in the middle of the restaurant. My friend orders a Pinot Gris and I decide to go with the Gamay to keep myself warm. I am already rugged up but the weather is terrible. The beautiful waitress explains the menu to us and we all chatter about our choices.

The Gamay is light, beautiful and has the full fruit flavours which give my taste buds a little something to dance about!

The Fish Stew

I have my heart set on the fish stew. A warm rich thick stew with clams, mussels, calamari, prawns and tender fish pieces. The broth has tomatoes and spicy seasoning with a rich cream accompaniment. Of course there is some crusty bread to mop up the goodness.

The dish is soul food. It’s a moment when you’re absorbed and you feel your inhibitions fall away. You forget the weather, you forget about the things which are wrong about the world. It doesn’t matter because the Fish Stew is perfect. It’s the focus of our attention and your emotions.

The dish gets the balance right between fresh produce, letting the seafood take the limelight and the flavoursome hearty soup which doesn’t overpower the main ingredients. It’s lovely, It’s heaven. The calamari and prawns are succulent, the fish just flakes on your mouth and the mussels and clams have this tender chewy texture. The crusty bread is called on soak up the excess broth the centre of the bread is like the sponge but the crusts retain their crunch. It’s such an experience. Who knew such a simple dish could bring about such happiness.

My friend orders the Linguine with spanner crab, chilli and bottarga (dried fish roe). She attests its beautiful – so I place it on my “I’ll try it next time” list.

The Cobia (from the market specials list) looks amazing and I do ask my friend on his thoughts and he agrees the taste matches the aesthetics.

A couple of the other diners order the trademark Fish & Chips and agree it’s pretty good.

The rain continues to pitter patter and we make our way to the exit…. the perfect way to spend a rainy weekend!

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