Sydney fish market is the go to place for fresh and delicious seafood in the city of Sydney. It is so popular that the market had grown into much of an attraction of its own. It is not uncommon to see swarms or even bus load of tourists coming here for meals.
The place known for offering the best of seafood right in the heart of the city. The market decked in a blue shade which stands out in the neighborhood. It sits on Blackwattle Bay at the corner Pyrmont bridge road and located in the Bank Street region of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
You can get parking on-site or alternatively free parking across an open park in a residential neighborhood about 2 blocks away from the market.
Moreover, on bit of history, Sydney fish market was established in 1966. The market claims to be Australia’s home of seafood. Also, the market is synonymous to Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo Japan.
Similarly, here, it is home to wholesalers and shops serving the fresh catches the moment they arrive on-site. The market is a working market and one of the largest working fishing port after Tokyo’s Tsukiji.
Seafood under one roof
Furthermore, Sydney fish market itself is a very large warehouse complex, but the portion of interest to you are the consumer store areas where you will spend most of your time at the market. The entrances of the market leads you right into this consumer section of the market.
This large marketplace features a variety of shops for seafood, deli items, as well as wine, vegetables & bakeries. Moreover, seafood selections come from a variety of wholesalers. Here you can find an assortment of seafood whole sellers. These includes Claudio’s, De Costi, Doyle’s, Nicholas and Peter’s Seafood. All of them offers fresh seafood on display.
Moreover, each seller specialize in their specialist area of seafood. Though after visiting them all they all are pretty much same-same. However, the locals may tell you from experience that old timer Peter’s Seafood offers one of the best selections in the Fish Market.
Each seller offers a fresh seafood retail section. The market is a clean dry market, just like in a Supermarket. This is unlike Tsukiji’s wet market setting.
Furthermore, the market has accommodations for dine-in areas catered to causal patrons. These seafood stores and eateries offers proper restaurant style dine-in areas.
In addition to the fresh seafood counters, it is not uncommon to have a pick of your life seafood in-store, have it prepared and ready to consume at the adjacent seating areas.
Hence, you can come here to buy/ order fresh seafood back or have your fresh seafood catches cooked for you. Here you can dine-in with your seafood ready to eat on the spot at the patron dining areas.
Food selections
On the platter are a large selection of fresh seafood. You can often find choices lined along the walls in-store are several seawater tanks housing additional sections, such as lobster and crab sold by the kilogram or quantity.
Recommended foods to try will be their mega seafood platters. They are excellent for sharing, especially for groups of at least 2 to 3 persons. Also, seafood are served and cooked in a variety of styles. These include deep fried or grilled fish platters. Flame-grilled or freshly cut Sashimi and oysters platters.
An example of flame-grilled are clams, they offer quite a visual spectacle too when cooked. Often drawing larger spectator crowds as the chefs juggle a flame torch to prepare your food.
In addition to seafood. The Sydney fish market also has a sizable vegetable grocer on site. On stock are a large selection of fresh fruit and vegetable produce. There is also a fruit bar outside the grocer serving freshly blended fruit juices. They are recommended as perfect compliments after your fish and chips meal for a good detox.
Watch out for flying rats!
There are both indoor and outdoor seating are offered at the fish market. However, unlike other fish markets like Tsukiji where eateries are tucked in their own restaurants in shop alleys, Sydney fish market does it all in-house food-court style.
Also, the outdoor seating offers nice views of a small marina area, there are plenty of seats, so it won’t take long to find one even at peak lunch periods. However, with the views comes the risks of outdoor seating. Australia is known for their seagull menace.
They are otherwise known as “flying rats”. They invade your unattended meals in swoops. Also, attacking in packs and always eyeing your food behind the corner when you are having your meal.
With the seagull menace, no wonder it is always packed indoors and it is incredibly difficult to find any indoor seating.
It is advisable to eat as a group with your food places protected in the center of your table. Also, do not feed the birds as it reinforces the habit to obtain food from people. The cleaners there does a good job in clearing your meals quickly before the birds come in, but you can play you play to clear up after yourself.
All in all, Sydney Fish Market gets my recommendations as a go-to place for a good seafood lunch. A must-try will be their pretty addictive crispy fresh fish and chips. Fans of Seafood will rejoice at what the fish market can offer. It is also not too far off from downtown Sydney and worthy of a leisure lunch when you are in town.
View more photos of Sydney Fish Market here.
