Garfish

This review is about breakfast. I’ve never had a good one here, maybe it’s just my luck? But again today the toast=bread ie not toasted at all, avocado off and coffee weak. It’s pricey too so I would give it a miss if I were you.

I do love garfish. Their seafood is to die for, and service is great. Every day, they have blackboard specials from the chef, and they’re always quite delicious. Prices aren’t cheap, though, but they’re still not unreasonable, especially considering the quality of the seafood!

Perfect seafood

We’ve visited a few times and always had a great experience. The menu varies each time with a seperate menu of fish specials which you can decide on the sides, sauces and cooking methods– all good and pretty foolproof whatever your decision. Fantastic oysters, particularly the Bloody Mary shots. The staff are consistently awesome and always happy to answer any inane fish questions i might have for them such as «what’s a … fish?» and even «is it too hot for fish pie?!»
We went with a Coeliac and they have heaps of gluten free options on the menu.
If you want to book it needs to be before 6:30, after that it’s first come, first served.

I really don’t understand what the draw is for this place. The food is average in quality, ridiculously overpriced, and POORLY served. The service in this place is ABYSMAL. The staff are all whiny hipsters with attitudes. They won’t make ANY changes to the sparse options on their menu, and the servers don’t know the menu well. They are extremely pushy and rush you to take your order and throughout the meal. Then they usually screw up the bill as well, so check their math. Truly a miserable experience. Also popular with yuppie breeders, so usually a screaming brat or two in the place. Uggh.

I fell in love with the concept of this restaurant: to custom order your plate among today’s freshest catches. In other words, you’re given a list of the day’s offering of fish, along with different preparation methods and sides. You can’t really choose a bad combination as all the fish and sides work perfectly together. Since there were several types of fish I had never heard of before, I referred to the TV screen which describes each fish’s origin, taste, and texture. There’s also a menu that’s filled with other seafood plates (I’ll be getting the Snapper Pie next time!).
I ordered the roasted Hapuka, a flakey white fish from New Zealand, served with a salad of fennel, parsley, and kaffir lime leaves. There was a bright sauce made with lime juice, olive oil, and chilies. The entire dish was absolutely fantastic. The fish was roasted to perfection, with a crispy skin and light showering of fleur de sel. The salad was the epitome of fresh and summery. For dessert, I had the Belgian waffles with clotted cream and strawberries. Well, I definitely had a complaint about the dessert. It was WAY too small! Just kidding – but it was one of the best waffles I’ve had.
Service at Garfish was stupendous. Our waitress couldn’t have been more friendly or accommodating. She helped everyone choose his or her fish combination individually. When one of my friends spilled her drink, the mess was cleaned posthaste and she was immediately offered a refill. Everyone at the table was very satisfied with our experience at Garfish.

If you’re a seafood fan, then you need to get to know Garfish.
Much like its Manly and Kirribilli siblings, the Crows Nest restaurant works on blackboard specials that list the chef’s picks of the day alongside a series of cooking and sides options. The deal is you design your own meal, but if that sounds a little too daunting, they do cite recommendations (eg. the Swordfish is best spiced and served with the cous cous salad). In a clever nod to newspaper wrapped fish and chips, there’s even a brown paper menu listing the rest of the a la carte delights. And yes, there are even some red meat and vegetarian dishes.
The service here is consistently warm and friendly, with much appreciated help given to moving tables and chairs around to accommodate for both a toddler and a babe-​in-​arms. We also came bearing a birthday cake, which was brought out with some (suitably embarrassing) ceremony before being served with a dollop of delicious vanilla bean icecream. The fact that the restaurant is also BYO is a just bonus, making it an even easier decision to return for future birthdays and fun times.