*PS: Apologize for the yellow-ish or red-ish pictures. The lighting in the market is just not cooperative :(
Missing to visit Sydney Food Market at my last year's visit to Sydney, this year I will no more let it go. Officially established as Sydney Food Market in 1945 and moved to its current location at Blackwattle Bay - Pyrmont at 1966, SFM has been highly well-known as the largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest in the world. The 500 species traded annually here are sourced both nationally and internationally. Starting from auction-based system in making its sales, SFM now do serve online sales, making a total of approximately 50 tonnes of seafood trading everyday. They even have their Seafood School established in 1989, which has hosted numerous Australia's best chefs.
Missing to visit Sydney Food Market at my last year's visit to Sydney, this year I will no more let it go. Officially established as Sydney Food Market in 1945 and moved to its current location at Blackwattle Bay - Pyrmont at 1966, SFM has been highly well-known as the largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest in the world. The 500 species traded annually here are sourced both nationally and internationally. Starting from auction-based system in making its sales, SFM now do serve online sales, making a total of approximately 50 tonnes of seafood trading everyday. They even have their Seafood School established in 1989, which has hosted numerous Australia's best chefs.
Reminding me of the famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan, SFM is also an extremely busy fish market since early in the morning. The wholesale auction starts at 5.30am every week day and some of the retailers are already available from 4am in the morning! Most of them close at 4.30pm to 5.00pm, but there's also one restaurant opens till 10.30pm in the evening. No wonder why the market is so crowded, since it doesn't only host auctions, make wholesale and retail sales, but also provide behind-the-scene tours* which are available every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (*More information about the tour can be accessed from their website).
I visited the fish market at lunch time, which was around 12pm, and it was extremely packed with people. I could hear various languages spoken and I saw that people literally had to shout while making their orders, otherwise no one could hear you. There were quite many restaurants serving various types of seafood there, and I could say most of them were fully occupied though some were indeed having much more guests than others. Besides, there were also a few stalls selling bread, pastries, desserts, wines, fruits, and even gifts!
For those serving seafood, most of them actually sold the same variants of seafood, ranging from the raw ones to the cooked ones. Sashimi, sushi, baked seafood, fried seafood, grilled seafood, and a lot more were available! Fish, squid, oyster, prawn, lobster, scallop; just named it and you could surely find it there. Not only that, you could even buy the raw ones then have them cooked in your desired way.
Each seafood restaurant here had its own space with quite many number of tables. However, as they're just next to one another, it's allowed to buy from one then dined in another as long as you also bought something there. Besides, there were also outdoor spaces to dine while enjoying the view of the bay. But beware, there were lots of birds there who might at any time steal away your foods (this was my sister's own experience! LOL).
Recommended by my sister as the best restaurant there for the fried and grilled seafood, my family and I chose Fish Market Cafe to have our lunch. We had to immediately walk along the showcase, pointed the dishes we want to order, and paid the bills at the cashier located at the end of the alley. Just next to it, they also served arrays of sashimi and sushi, available in raw and cooked versions. At the cashier, various sauces to be enjoyed with the dishes were also sold; ranging from Peri-peri, Sweet Chili with Mayo, Tomato Ketchup, Thousand Islands, etc. Unfortunately, they didn't provide the one needed by Indonesian's the most, chili sauce! LOL.
Assorted Sushi (AUD 3.5 each)
According to my sister, her friend said that Fish Market Cafe was well-known for their fried and grilled seafood, but not for the sashimi and sushi. Nonetheless, looking at how long the queue was, we decided just to buy everything here instead of going to another restaurant again. So we ended up ordering 3 types of sushi from the sushi assortments. First one (bottom left in the picture) combined raw salmon, raw tuna, and salmon roe; second one (bottom right in the picture) combined eel (unagi) and crab stick (kani); while the third combined scallop and grilled salmon.
Being said as not the expert in sushi, I didn't put high expectation in the beginning, yet surprisingly their sushi turned out delicious! All the ingredients were so fresh and the rice was perfectly sticky and tasty. Coming in that gigantic size, it was highly satisfying both in terms of taste and portion. My most favorite was surely the third one, which reminded me of my most favorite sushi in Jakarta, Sushi Masa's Spicy Salmon Hana Roll.
Beer-battered Gem Fish (AUD 9.5)*
*Served with chips/rice. Additional AUD 2.5 for salad
The mainstream yet everyone's favorite menu to be ordered here, beer-battered fish and chips! Yes, that common batter-coated fish fillet, deep-fried into golden brown and served with french fries. Well, who didn't love it? Especially, you should note that this one served extremely fresh fish under that luscious coating! For this, you actually had the option to choose the fish as well. They did serve Barramundi, Snapper, and Flathead.
Grilled Atlantic Salmon (AUD 16.5)*
*Served with chips/rice
When you're at SFM, had as much variants as possible. Raw one checked, fried one checked, now it's the turn for grilled one. For this, my family opted for salmon, and because we had chips already, we chose rice to be served with this one. Again, another super moist salmon perfectly seasoned, creating that delightful melt-in-your-mouth moment. If you were not into fried dishes, this one was doubtlessly the best choice for you!
Large Fried Calamari (AUD 10.5)
Back to the fried dish, but this one was calamari. This was surely not to be missed! It served the perfect texture for calamari, chewy and not rubbery at all. Covered in bread crumbs, it gave that immaculate combination of crispy outside and indulgent inside. I could imagine if this was served in the cinema, it could be the best snack ever to enjoy while watching movies. LOL
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| Large Fried Calamari & 1/2 Rocklobster Mornay |
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| 1/2 Grilled Rocklobster Mornay with Cheese |
1/2 Rocklobster Mornay with Chips (AUD 24.5)
Another precious one that you definitely had to go for, Rocklobster! Well, this was the chance to have high-quality lobster in fulfilling portion and affordable price. The garlic lobster was available in both garlic and chili pepper seasoning as the default one, as well as cheese. I had the default version for this though I was really desirous to order the cheese one, since it's for sharing and my dad was not that much into cheese. Nevertheless, it's still successfully made me 'fly' with its soft texture and its faultless sweet lobster taste. If only we were not too full already, I believe we would go for the second round.
Grilled Scallops with Cheese (AUD 10 per 3 pcs)
Again, reminding me of the ones I usually had in Japanese restaurant, I had set my mind even before I stepped into the place, I should try this dish when I went to SFM! It simply looked so tempting that I could hear the dish forced me to try it :p. If I couldn't go with cheese for the lobster as it's for sharing, this one did allow me to have cheese since I had it for myself! Having the first bite of it, I couldn't stop to put in more into my mouth and just in a blink, the clam used as the tray was perfectly cleant-up. The grilled scallop impeccably melted in my mouth and I loved how the dish being super cheesy. It was also a fulfilling one as below the scallop, there was actually a spoonful of rice hidden.
Having dined in SFM, I now didn't put any single doubt on why people said that SFM was surely a must-try when you visited Sydney. Not only the foods served here were awesome, but also the experience of eating here was totally memorable. Every penny spent here totally was totally worthy and I could imagine how expensive these dishes would be once they were brought into a fine restaurant outside of the market. I now can only say that I don't even mind going there again tomorrow, even to have exactly the same dishes I just had today!
Taste: 9/10
Place: 7/10
Service: 7.5/10
Price: 8/10
Thanks for Reading! :)
SYDNEY FISH MARKET
Address: Bank St & Pyrmont Bridge Road, Sydney NSW 2009, Australia
Phone: (+61) 2 9004 1100
Operating Hours: Mon - Sun 7.00am - 4.30pm
FISH MARKET CAFE
Address: Sydney Fish Market Shop 4
Phone: (+61) 2 8317 4911
Operating Hours: Mon - Fri 4am - 4pm, Sat - Sun 5am - 5pm
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