Sydney Fish Market: Sydney, Australia

After our whale watching trip, we were ready for some lunch so we thought we'd continue our ocean trend and make our way over to the Sydney Fish Market. It was an easy 24 minute walk from King Street Wharf and included a walk across the Pyrmont Bridge, which spans Darling Harbour. We had seen a lot of pictures and videos from the fish market so we knew it was popular but luckily, going on a Monday meant that while it was busy, it wasn't completely rammed!

The Sydney Fish Market is the third largest of its kind in the world and moved to its current location in 1966. We were amazed when we walked in - we'd never seen such a variety of fish and other seafood in one place. The market has two main parts: venders selling fresh seafood to take home and a food court with cooked options. Apparently there is also a gift shop, a meat deli and even a florist (according to Wikipedia) but we were so overwhelmed we didn't even get to those!

While a lot of the fresh items were the usual subjects (prawns, squid, tuna... etc), there were a couple of Aussie specialties. Below, we found some Moreton Bay Bugs, which are on a lot of menus around Sydney. These are slipper lobsters and Matt got to try them later in the week. They do taste like lobster but I thought they looked more like horseshoe crabs when we saw them here...

Alongside the fresh, whole items you also have prepared fish and seafood. The stall below looked so delicious! We thought it would be so easy to get really high grade fish here and then take it home for some homemade sushi or poke bowls. The one downside of our hotel in Sydney was that we didn't have a kitchen area (the only hotel that didn't!). If we go back, we'll definitely book a space where we can cook at home since Sydney (and all of Australia really) was full of gorgeous looking ingredients!

The food court made great use of a lot of the items available in the market... although quite a few of the options were deep fried. It was hard to resist the fish and chips on offer but we thought we'd go for something a bit more interesting. Having visited the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne about a week earlier, we were really impressed by the food market options in Australia. Although that one had larger selections of meat and produce, this was definitely a unique place to visit for all the seafood you could imagine.

Even though I'm not the biggest seafood fan, I will admit there were some seriously incredible options on offer here! The sushi was really tempting - it was so colourful and looked so fresh! We thought if we were taking something to go, these would have been the perfect option since they were so nicely packed. I bet people who work in the local area come here at lunch since its so convenient and we thought the prices were reasonable.

We even saw sushi donuts - a first for both of us! These creations looked incredible and there were several stands selling them so we thought they must be popular choices. We were tempted but decided to keep checking out our options around the market.

These scallop and prawn platters were another popular option around the market - they came in a variety of sizes from the large ones below to the smaller version Matt ultimately went with. This seemed like a nice way to try a couple of different types of seafood but were definitely on the pricier side.

Finally we spotted this: the sushi taco! I can honestly say I've never seen this before and unfortunately they were snapped up by the time we made our way back around to the stall. It looked like they had tempora fried the nori and then filled it with rice, fish, veggies and toppings - so unique and I'm so sad we didn't get to try it!

Finally, we settled on our lunch options and found a seat to enjoy them. The one piece of advice we had seen over and over and over again online was to sit inside if you can. The outside seating looks lovely with the bright Aussie sunshine and breeze coming over the water... but it hides a vicious danger. Seagulls. Apparently they're completely unafraid of humans and will absolutely steal your lunch given half a chance! So, to protect our treats, we sat inside. First up were some cheesy grilled scallops. They were grilled right in front of us and very tasty. Our only criticism was that it would be better if they offered them in multiples of four rather than three as that makes sharing easier.

Next up was a grilled lobster with sweet chilli butter. This dish was a little underwhelming (mainly due to the soggy fries) but we still polished it off since we were so hungry after looking at so much tasty food! The sweet chilli butter was a new one for me - while it was good, I think I'll stick to copious amounts of regular butter in the future.

After our hot food, we had one last loop around the market and decided to try one of the smaller platters, which came with prawns, oysters and Marie Rose sauce (tomato, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, lemon and pepper). This is popular in the UK too and is used instead of the more American cocktail sauce. We also went for just a little sample of the soy garlic squid and prawns. These were tasty but not as saucy as I would have liked!

Overall, we had a great time exploring the Sydney Fish Market and the walk from Darling Harbour was really easy. This was the perfect follow up to our morning of whale watching! If you like seafood, this is definitely a must see while in Sydney (particularly if you have a kitchen at your hotel!).

Details:

Address: Corner of Pyrmont Bridge Rd and Bank Street, Pyrmont, Sydney, NSW 2009.

Website: https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

Hours: 7am to 4pm everyday