Doyles at the Sydney Fish Market - Perfectly Light and Crispy Fish and Chips

A visit to the Sydney Fish Markets for lunch has always been one of my more favoured and regular activities. However, over the past year or so, I've become very dissatisfied with the standard of seafood there. Generally, the platters are way too big, stuffed with too many fries, and the quality of the fish and oysters always lacking.

For a long time I got around my malcontent by eating only sashimi accompanied with lots of chilled wine. This worked very well for me until the other day when I just had to get my fish and chips fix.

I remain a fan of the raw seafood at the fish market as it is obviously of good quality and I always enjoy walking around looking at all the wondrous seafood.

Another problem was that it was way too crowded to find a seat and I certainly didn't feel like wasting more money purchasing horribly oily fried fish or baked oysters. My only hope was to go to Doyles.

I wasn't very enticed to go into Doyles however, and almost turned away because at their entrance there was a takeaway seafood stand serving the quality of seafood which I was trying to avoid. However I'm glad I wandered a little further into the restaurant because I was then able to see that the eat-in bistro was serving seafood of a much higher standard.

Having somewhat quelled my seafood fears, I took the plunge and proceeded to order the:

Beer Battered Fish and Chips (Today's Catch) - 17.90 AUD
Half a dozen Sydney Rock Oysters - 19.90 AUD
Beers - around 5.50 AUD each

After paying and collecting my buzzer, I was able to get a table pretty easily. There is both indoor and outdoor seating, and the place was less crowded than the rest of the fish market. I plopped myself down in the streaming sun and sipped from my cold beer while I waited for my food to be ready. Ahhh...I was glad to have made this decision already.

Just 5 minutes later, my buzzer rang and I went to collect my meal. Everything was ready to collect on a huge tray with all my utensils laid out nicely. All I had to do was pick it up and maneuver my way back to my table. This was a hard thing to do, as the food laid out on the tray before me looked so good I couldn't keep my eyes off it!

The fish and chips are covered in a light and deliciously crispy batter. I had three fillets on my plate, along with a good portion of fries and a refreshing salad. The Sydney Rock Oysters were also of good quality. They were more meaty and larger in size as well as not being too irony or tasting too much of minerals.