Simon Food Favourites: Cloudy Bay Fish Co.

14 May 2011

Cloudy Bay Fish Co.: Seafood, Westfield Sydney (25 Mar 2011)

The Sydney Room, Level 5, Westfield Sydney
Cnr Market and Castlereagh St Sydney NSW 2000

http://westfield.com.au/sydney

Quality at a price

I’ve visited the Cloudy Bay Fish Co on three occasions now and noticed on my most recent visit the menu seems to have evolved to include A tasting plate of all seafood ($19.50) which satisfies by desire to always try a bit of everything. My favourite item to date has been the quality and decent sized Prawn cocktail out of the four offerings. The texture and taste of the Ablacore tuna, braised with lemon mayonnaise and the Kingfish poached in verjuice seemed very similar to me. I wish they had more variety to choose from with three of the selections being fish. If they really want to call it a seafood tasting plate then I think other choices like mussels, scallops, oysters and octopus should be available in the mix — it’s more like a tasting plate of fish. The salad was fresh although the dressing was fairly flavourless for me if there was any at all.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Quality ingredients, Nice clean seating around if you can find some when busy

CONS: Expensive, Three of the four items are fish on the tasting plate. Limited variety of seafood, Small portions provided

MUST TRY: Prawn cocktail is pretty good, Next visit I might try fish and chips

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25 March 2011 visit

A tasting plate of all seafood ($19.50) salad

Prawn cocktail

Ablacore tuna, briased with lemon mayonnaise

Kingfish poached in verjuice

King Salmon roasted with lemon thyme

Salad

Kingfish poached in verjuice

King Salmon roasted with lemon thyme

Ablacore tuna, braised with lemon mayonnaise

Prawn cocktail

WORTH TRYING :-)

25 November 2010 visit

Half Tuna and Half Prawn cocktail salad ($14.50) — I had to ask for this specifically and there seemed to be confusion amongst the staff whether it was allowed or not

Charlie's Honest Quencher Old Fashioned Orange and Mango Lemonade ($4)

19 November 2010 visit

Braised tuna roll ($9.50)

Menus

Bread rolls

Service counter

Seating and decor

View Larger Map

11 November 2010

8 new eateries now open in Westfield Sydney Food Court (9 Nov 2010)

Cnr Market and Castlereagh St Sydney NSW 2000

http://westfield.com.au/sydney

Shiny new food court in Sydney

The recently opened Westfield Sydney now brings 8 new eateries on the level 5 Food Court Sydney Room although it's a little strange noticing Sugar Fix (level 1) is listed under Fresh Food on their map directory. As you enter via the highly mirrored escalators it's hard not to notice and be partially dazzled (and blinded) by the bright illuminated wall lighting — beam me up, Scotty! The food court has a fair amount of seating amongst the dark paneled decor and seems to be popular amongst the city office workers at the moment. The eye catching display of desserts and gelato on offer from Via del Corso is certainly one for me to revisit and try. I have my eye set on the fruit tart ($5) although a single scoop of gelato comes at a premium price of $5 — you'll get two scoops of quality gelato from Messina for this price. Top Juice has some wonderful looking fruit salad that looks set for competition with David Jones Food Hall and their chocolate coated strawberries are decadently sized — although I'm suspecting it's actually the same owners.

I wonder how the higher priced Wagyu Beef Burger ($18 eat in) at Justin North's Charlie & Co compares to his Plan B Wagyu Beef Burger ($10) but at least you can now order Fries ($6) or even Parmesan and Truffle Fries ($8) as a side. Eat Deli Kitchen seemed to be one of the more popular eateries when I visited. I must compare the Wagyu Salt Beef Reuben ($11.75) to Katz's Delicatessen Pastrami on Rye I recently tried in NYC which was sliced beautifully thin and so moist and tasty. Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar had plenty of pre topped pizza offerings by the slice which are cooked to order. The other successful franchise Guzman y Gomez is tucked away in the corner and didn't seem to have as much interest as all the other new eateries. Dergah Grill was offering kebabs although I'm always reluctant to buy falafel that isn't freshly cooked to order like Jasmin, Sabbaba or Yummba which currently has an eatery in the Westfield Bondi Junction. It looks like there's some nice seafood options to be had at Cloudy Bay Fish Co which I'll have to take a closer look at the menu next time.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Brand new and clean, Service seemed eager to please, Something new to try, Seems to be focussed on quality ingredients, Seating available

CONS: Need to go up to level 5, Can be more expensive than other food courts, Limited outlook view

MUST TRY: Something from every eatery in due course

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