The Sydney Fish Market’s tagline is that it’s Australia’s home of seafood. It certainly lives up to that tagline with its wide selection of seafood for people ready for a feast. There are lots of different seafood to try. You will need to come back at least one or more times to try the various seafood plates/baskets on offer.
From the Sydney Fish Market website:
Seafood lovers will be spoilt for choice with six seafood retailers offering an array of fresh seafood from Aussie favourites like Prawns, Oysters, Rocklobster and Barramundi to harder-to-find delicacies such as Sea Urchin, Marron, Spanner Crab and Scampi. With well over 100 species available every day, there is always something new for enthusiastic cooks to discover.
The onsite food service offering is equally impressive with a range of cafes and restaurants offering seafood-centric snacks and meals including fish and chips, sashimi, traditional Cantonese Yum Cha and the world famous ‘Sushi Donuts’. At many of the retailers you can even select your own whole fish, fillets or live seafood from the retail display and tanks, then have it cooked to order. Once you have selected your lunch you can enjoy it on our harbourside boardwalk with views of Blackwattle Bay and the Anzac Bridge.
The seafood offering at Sydney Fish Market is complemented by a range of specialist retailers including a butcher, greengrocer, bakery, deli, gift store and more making it a one-stop destination for premium produce.
I recommend catching the light rail or a taxi to the Sydney Fish Market. It is west of the Sydney CBD. While it is certainly walkable, I found the 40 min walk to be long with many obstacles in the way.
When you walk into the main warehouse, it is lined with food stalls on both sides. It’s a not a huge warehouse. Many of the stalls sell similar things, like seafood baskets and plates. I recommend walking one round to see everything on offer before deciding. You will need to pick wisely, because most of the options are large portions. Thus, if you are not a big eater, you are unlikely to go for round two.
I brought a few people with me, so we were able to pick and choose from different food stalls.
Even though this isn’t Japan, there as an abundance of Japanese inspired cuisine, from sushi donuts to fried seafood cooked in a Japanese style, using a hibachi or turned into tempura. One thing I found interesting was the number of Japanese tourists around. They were all very interested in the offering.
Some of the food stalls just have a delightful display of food. There is so much color. It makes for excellent photos. It explains why there are so many instagram posts for this place.
Most of the food stalls are cook to order, so you know that when you place your order, you are getting it made from that point on. The serving of seafood plates and baskets is generous. I found that sharing a seafood plate or basket with just my girlfriend, now wife, when I first visited in 2017 to be overwhelming.
There are certainly a lot of exotic seafood dishes to try. From what I could tell, it seemed that all orders can be cooked on request or eaten raw.
As you walk around the market, you can walk the vendor cook the seafood before your eyes. Normally fish markets smell all salty and stinky, but when you walk past food cooking at the Sydney Fish Market you get that whiff of the delicious food and will want to know if you have space for it.
Whether you go for grilled seafood or fried seafood, you will be grinning afterwards. I’ve now tried most of the stalls and they all seem to be on par with each other. If you are ever in doubt, go to a food stall with a queue.
We ordered a seafood plate with a lobster tail, calamari rings, sweet potato chips, octopus and normal chips. Yum!
Before you miss the chance to the enjoy the current iteration of the market, you should know that there are plans to renovate the Sydney Fish Markets. I note that a development application was approved on 17 June 2020. On its website, it describes the renovation to the Sydney Fish Market as follows:
The new design provides more than 4,700 square metres of new public open space and paves the way for a future shared pedestrian and cycle path that will provide waterfront access all the way to Woolloomooloo.
The new building will include a variety of fishmongers, restaurants, cafés, bars, and specialty food retailers in a four-storey market hall setting, as well as new public promenades and a ferry wharf.
https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Home/News-Media/News/Article/sydney-fish-market-development-applications-approved
It will be exciting to see what a revamped Sydney Fish Market will look like. It looks promising so far.
The Sydney Fish Market is located around here: Corner Pyrmont Bridge Road &, Bank Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009:
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