Marking the evolution of the Hot &, and ourselves!
Pardon the typo, but I had to do it! An homage to my wife’s most viewed FB post in recent times, which unfortunately had a typo in it. Oops!
But yeah, it has been a long while since we’ve last done a restaurant review. But to mark our 10 year wedding anniversary, we had to return back to Nick’s Seafood Restaurant, located at Cockle Bay Wharf in Sydney.
Why Nick’s seafood? I hear you ask. Well, when we were on our honeymoon where we essentially did a 5 day stay-cation, one of our most memorable moments during that time was our long-lunch at Nick’s seafood, where we ordered ourselves the Hot & Cold Seafood Platter (using the Entertainment card). And for our 5 year anniversary we did the very same (also on the Entertainment card), and now it just feels like a part of our tradition to re-visit Nick’s for each of our multiple of 5 year anniversaries! **Note: No Entertainment card this year.
And did the Hot & Cold Seafood platter live up to our expectations?
Well, most things rarely do. Unfortunately. As quality always erodes over-time. Or perhaps we always look back with rose coloured glasses. Or perhaps as we age our tastebuds deteriorate so nothing ever tastes as good as it used to…..
But I’m pleased to say, Nick’s Hot & Cold Seafood platter was just as good as we remembered it to be!
For $165 (gone up by 13.79% i.e. 20 bucks since 2021), you get fresh Sydney rock oysters (x4)- which were unfortunately a bit room temp; cooked muscles in a sweet chilli sauce (x4)- the sauce was the star here!; fried and crumbed baby octopus (x4)- heads and legs were unfortunately separated from each other so one mouthful was like eating shoe-string fries of a seafood nature; butterfly and fried king prawns (x4)- this was both of our favourites as the prawns were uber meaty; fried calamari (x4)- a bit forgettable among the host of seafood’s superstars; cooked prawns (x6)- not bad, not bad; Blue Swimmer Crab (x1)- this was amazing! Well worth the effort to crack open it’s shell to get at its sweet and salty flesh; smoked salmon rolls (x4)- a nice salty mouthful at the very end; and of course, heaps of chips and a ramakin of potato salad.
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And now can you see why we keep coming back every year? Sorry, I mean, every 5 years!? We love it for its variety (and not needing to order specifics from their a la carte menu), the fact that there’s so much to consume (I’m a little piggy), everything was tasty (wife does happy dance from her chair), and the venue is truly a treat (we sat half alfresco). The highlight for us was the fried King prawns, if people say lobster meat is out of this world! Then I think the meat of a well cooked King prawn is a close second! And the crab was a notable mention. Just because prior to this day, I rarely eat or bother with crabs. I’ve always placed it in the ‘too hard’ basket. The effort to crack the shell, to pull-out a slither of flesh always seemed like a too high price to pay for what return you did get. But perhaps my inhibition was lowered as I was sipping on a beer, and the tables were set far apart so I wasn’t self-conscious about others watching me man-handle this fist sized crab. But I took to the task of cracking it open with the shell cracker, and after 3 well placed cracks, the poor crab lay on my plate utterly broken but ready to eat! For my troubles, I was rewarded with 2 large pieces of crab meat. One piece for me, one piece for my wife. And although it was just a single bite-full, but OMG it was so tasty, fresh, sweet, and salty! Mmmmm.
Our end verdict? 4.0 from 5 stars! 2.5 from 3 for Food (everything was super fresh, tasty and there was so much of it!); 0.5 from 0.5 for Service (polite and efficient); 0.5 from 0.5 for Atmosphere (with night time views of the harbour, who can complain!?); and 0.5 from 1.0 for Value for money (a $20 increase over 12 months, and a $9.50 bottle of beer- I just couldn’t stop calculating in my mind their cost price compared to what we were paying for- I guess we’re paying for their rent and cost of labour).
But setting my Asian frugalness aside (as can you place a price on love?), it was a fantastic night! Great food, even better company! And it’s the memories, it’s all about the memories! And the views/likes on FB! “What? There’s a typo in the post! Nooo!”
Thursday 4 August, 2022
Nick’s Seafood Restaurant
The Promenade, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW 2000
Four Senses: Touch Smell Taste Sound 
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