Fishface

By Franz Scheurer

Fishface, a tiny restaurant located where all the action is in Darlinghurst, has always traded on its reputation for very fresh fish. A change of chef has not changed that, but the menu is now more ambitious.

You can sit at the sushi counter and watch the preparation of your meal or at one of the many tiny tables, inside or out on the footpath, and order from the menu. We ordered some sushi to share as a starter, which we enjoyed, especially the eel. An entrée of ‘Harbour Prawns’ served with angel hair pasta, herbs and shellfish oil presented well and had good texture and the ‘Hand Picked Spanner Crab’ served with tomato jelly, fennel and a very pretty salad of tiny multi-coloured leaves was succulent and sweet (although lacking in salt for my taste). For mains we sampled ‘Our Fish & Chips, Lemon & Tartar’ (with a note on the menu: eaten with fingers… is there a better way?), the ‘Blue Eye Roasted on Potato Scales’ served with salt and pepper crust and preserved lemon and the ‘Crispy Skin Snapper’ served with peas, brandade and lemon oil.

The presentation of all dishes stands out: very modern, very sparse but also very appealing. The hand-cut chips soggy and crunchy at the same time very satisfying, the idea of roasting just the skin of the Blue Eye on a thin potato galette is pretty clever and the sweetness of the peas compared to the saltiness of the brandade, a perfect taste combination. All seafood was cooked to perfection.

They serve individual oysters at $3 each, other entrées range from $6 (Mushroom Soup with cooked Yabbies and Shellfish Oil) to $20 for the Spanner Crab. Mains range from $22 to $29. We shared a couple of competent desserts and as the place is BYO the night-out didn’t break the bank.

Service is friendly and quite efficient with the exception of the final act: the paying of the bill. Once I want to leave I want to leave now and get very impatient if I have to wait for ages for the credit card to be collected or the bill to be processed.

Score: 6/10

For more information:

Fishface

132 Darlinghurst Road

Darlinghurst

Tel.: 02 9332 4803