Where you can try the best fish dishes in Victoria
From a delicate, but deadly Japanese morsel to fish and chips with a difference, Victoria’s top restaurants are reinventing seafood and making a splash. Here’s your oppor-tuna-ty to try the best fish dishes across the state.
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From a delicate, but deadly Japanese morsel to fish and chips with a difference, Victoria’s top restaurants are making a splash by reinventing seafood dishes across the state.
Here’s where you can find the best fish dishes in Victoria.
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MINAMISHIMA
Down an unassuming Richmond backstreet in a hushed, reverent, dark room you’ll be served a procession of perfect morsels across two hours that showcase Japanese omakase at the highest echelon.
Whelk with tobiko might precede textural octopus brushed with sweet soy that tastes like an ocean walk. Prawn with kelp, torched engawa (flounder from the fin), charred sea eel and oily mackerel flown in from Tokyo are just some of the fish you might be served draped over perfect fingers of rice on any given night.
O-toro tuna, the most prized belly piece of the most prized bluefin tuna will feature, as well as — for those who dare — whisper-thin slices of fugu, the deadly puffer fish that only the most skilled sushi chefs can safely prepare.
A tight, expensive wine list features an extensive selection of sake and teas, with knowledgeable staff on hand to help navigate. It will take you months to get a booking and cost $185 a head, but Minamishima is an experience like no other.
MINAMISHIMA
4 Lord St, Richmond
9429 5180
Must-eat dish: Fugu (puffer fish)
Cuisine: Japanese
Price: $$$$
Chef: Koichi Minamishima
Bookings: Yes
Open: Dinner Tues-Sat
BYO: No
Separate bar: No
Drinks list: Randolph Cheung
SARDINE
Mark Briggs is winning sardine haters over, one pan of Lakes Entrance beauties at a time.
Briggs (ex-Vue de Monde) has made a Gippsland Lakes-change from the city and is championing a boatload of lesser-loved fish.
On the ever-changing menu, fisherman’s stew is generously strewn with the good stuff — prawns and bugs and clams and snapper on our visit — in a saffron-bright sauce of sunshine that’s mop-every-drop good, while roasted fish of the day might come with fat diamond clams, smoky bacon, garden peas and pillows of buttery mash.
Gippsland’s also celebrated in the glass, the small list served with admirable knowledge by the keen young team.
And those sardines? Fresh off the boat and into the pan, a half dozen whole fish are perfectly cooked, the flesh without a hint of the fishiness effortlessly falling from the spine. A sprinkle of salt flakes and a squeeze of lemon lets the flappingly-fresh fish shine, a sauce of blitzed coriander hiding pops of finger lime its vibrant accompaniment.
SARDINE
65 Esplanade, Paynesville
5156 7135
Must-eat dish: Lakes Entrance sardines
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Mark Briggs
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Tues-Sun; dinner Tues-Sat
Instagram: @sardineeaterybar
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: Yes
Owners: Mark and Victoria Briggs
Wine list: Victoria Briggs — includes local and imported wines
IKI JIME
An admirable focus on seafood (though not as singular as it was upon opening at the end of 2017) makes the most of ethically sourced bounty, brought to the spot-lit tables by sleekly attired staff.
“Fish and chips” is exactly that but not. Here, slices of yellow fin tuna wrap the finest whispers of the crispest potato dusted with puckeringly sharp vinegar powder, creating the poshest reinvention of a classic yet seen.
A gorgeously delicate, perfect tart filled with Morton Bay bug meat, topped with finger lime and chives, is at once fleeting and sublime, while torched mackerel is more robust but no less refined.
Fab finger food joy is found in the “fish snags” (also seen at Vue de Monde) that nestle within a sweet brioche bun, topped with kohlrabi and dotted with tarragon mayo, while bigger fish dishes from the Josper are simply treated to let the excellent produce shine.
IKI-JIME
430 Little Collins St, Melbourne
9691 3838
Must-eat dish: Fish snags
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Justin James and Sam Homan
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Wed-Fri lunch; Tues-Sat dinner
Instagram: @iki_jime
BYO: No
Separate bar: Yes
Wine list: Remi Craquelin
PURE SOUTH
It overlooks the Yarra River, but at Pure South Dining, you’re more likely to be thinking about the Derwent and the Tamar.
That’s because this Southbank stalwart, by the pedestrian bridge, is anchored in all things Tasmanian: from St Helens oysters and Robbins Island wagyu pastrami to Bass Strait scallops, King Island beef cheek and Pyengana cheddar.
The six-course “chef’s tour” is good value at $115 and Pure South’s comfortable moodily lit dining room encourages a leisurely stay. But going a la carte can be rewarding, especially if chef David Hall has got ‘Cullen Skink’ on the menu. His elegant take on this Scottish classic glints with silvery mackerel.
However thoughtful, the execution of dishes is not always exact. Our Flinders Island wallaby, cooked rare, wallowed in an overly assertive native pepperberry sauce, while Jerusalem artichokes with goats curd and honey were ‘rested’ too long.
PURE SOUTH DINING
Southgate Ave, Southbank
03 9699 4600
Must-eat dish: ‘Cullen Skink’ smoked mackerel, leek, herb velouté
Cuisine: Contemporary
Price: $$
Chef: David Hall
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Sun-Fri; dinner daily
Instagram: @puresouthdining
BYO: No
Licensed: Yes
Separate bar: Yes
Drinks list: Tim Stow
Owners: Philip Kennedy and Peter Leary
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