If, like me, you’re partial to a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, you might already be familiar with the glorious fish sandwich at Bar Copains. If not, what you need to know is that it’s the sandwich version of the Filet-O-Fish of your childhood memories – the one you think existed but actually never tasted that great. This one lives up to those misguided food memories.

Is it Sydney’s best fish sandwich? Sandwich watch – a column dedicated to the essential Sydney sandwiches you need to know about – thinks so. And since it’s peak summer and excellent seafood-eating weather, we thought it was the perfect time to champion the fish sandwich, even though it’s often a maligned sanger choice.

So, it’s better than McDonald’s?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, that’s why it’s on the menu.

“The idea came from wanting to serve our guests an elevated version of the Filet-O-Fish, utilising the best ingredients possible and serving it with our all-time favourite fish,” says the Surry Hills wine bar co-owner Nathan Sasi.

Sasi and Bar Copains co-owner Morgan McGlone are fans of King George whiting, a delicate and sweet-tasting white fish that gets crumbed in panko breadcrumbs, deep-fried to golden perfection and sprinkled with sea salt.

The fish is cooked to order, which gives the sanger a clever mix of temperatures. There’s the hot, crunchy fish, room-temperature soft white bread, and just-out-of-the-fridge crisp, thinly sliced iceberg lettuce and tartare. Delicious.

But for me, it’s the tartare and bread

A McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish is nothing without the tartare, and that’s a star here, too. Sasi says they make theirs using Kewpie mayonnaise, chopped capers and cornichons, a splash of pickle juice, pickled green garlic, dill, parsley, chives and lemon juice. It’s tart, textural and very good indeed. The final step is adding thinly sliced eschalots that have been pickled to remove the onion kick.

The bread is white and gloriously soft. So soft you could almost rest your weary head on it. “We use two slices of the world’s finest bread, Wonder White, with the crusts trimmed and cut in half to make four fingers of bread,” says Sasi.

It’s not cheap

No, at $28, this is not an everyday sandwich. Many of the sangers covered on Sandwich watch hover between $14 and $24, so this is definitely at the high end, but Bar Copains is not a grab-and-go shop.

The busy Surry Hills wine bar scored a hat in the 2025 Good Food Guide, and the last time I ate the King George whiting sandwich I ate that, and only that, for dinner, and was content. Well, also a glass of skin-contact wine from Italy.

Where to eat one

Bar Copains is at 67 Albion Street, Surry Hills, and is open Monday to Thursday from 4pm until late, Friday and Saturday from noon, and Sunday from 1pm. barcopains.com.

This is the latest instalment of Sandwich watch, a column dedicated to the Sydney sandwiches you need to know about.