Fish Bar

Address: 7th Floor, JW Marriott Hotel, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty
Tel: 2841 3899

What could be better than spending a summer afternoon enjoying a poolside lunch in the tropical heat? It may be even nicer if you are a guest staying at the JW Marriott, which entitles you to a cool dip in the water, but for the rest of us, the partly covered alfresco Fish Bar is lovely in itself with its comfortable wood furnishings and a colour palette of blues and greens. Start by ordering a cold drink from the long list of cocktails, mocktails, beers and wines.

True to its name, Fish Bar is dedicated to seafood, especially fish. Its one-page menu only has a small section helpfully labelled as “Not Seafood”. For starters, oysters are a favourite here. The homemade crab and lobster cakes are meaty and come with the restaurant’s popular homemade tartar sauce. Also try the buckets of seafood with large steamed shrimp, mussels and clams served with garlic bread – great for dipping into the white wine sauce.

The “simply fresh fish” mains are just that: simple and fresh. They are mix-and-match fare in which the customer first picks from among a list of available fish. On the day we visited, the list consisted of sole, snapper, salmon, pompret, rainbow trout, yellow fin tuna and garoupa. The three cooking styles to choose from are char-grilled, beer-battered and pan-fried. Finally, the potato side comes fried, baked or mashed. One of the most popular fish selections is beer-battered with fries, aka fish and chips. The staff can also helpfully suggest which combos work best.

Notably, all of the fish are from sustainable sources. This can mean that they are line-caught, farmed, or fished in the proper season, as opposed to fishing in massive quantities in ways that damage the marine ecosystem. Knowing this fact might improve your enjoyment of the meal, as could the simple preparation techniques that allow the fish’s freshness and flavours to shine through. No fancy sauces except tartar in a jar.

A tray of four desserts, which changes monthly, is presented for your selection – a charmingly formal gesture for such a casual setting.

Jumbo Floating Restaurant Address: Shum Wan Pier Drive, Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen Tel: 2553 9111 From afar, the glowing ship on the water never fails to make an impression with its palatial outline of pagoda eaves. Up close, the small decorative details are reminescent of a historical site rather than a restaurant built in the 1970s. But this seemingly wild idea to create a giant floating restaurant has since become an iconic tourist destination, and its signature dishes are delectable to boot.

Ocean Grill

Address: 49 Elgin Street, Central
Tel: 2147 0100

Ocean Grill, one of SoHo’s cosy, elegant eateries located near the Mid-Levels escalator, has a new chef and a new menu. The appropriately named head chef Chris Haddock is from Manchester in the UK, where he became well acquainted with top-notch fish and chips. However, his brand of seafood is also strongly influenced by the time he spent in Portugal as well as working under a slew of respected culinary personalities in London and New York, the most recent being Laurent Tourondel of BLT Steak.

The soups are all hearty and our favourite is the clam chowder, which is not heavy but chock full of ham, corn, clams and celery. If you desire chunkier portions of seafood in your soup, the signature Portuguese caldeiro tomato fish soup has very large pieces of sword fish and scallops, while the carrot broth comes with several fat mussels.

The hamachi sashimi starter with mint and lemon oils has a creative alcoholic twist: next to the raw slices is a hunk of ice that gradually melts a mojito concoction to lightly coat the fish. The octopus starter is inspired by Portuguese cuisine, incorporating chickpeas, and the octopus meat has a surprisingly pork-like texture from having been boiled, braised, char-grilled, and then fried.

Belying the chef’s young age, the fish are prepared with expertise but without pretension. Haddock emphasises the importance of picking the right section of fish for the right job, so while the delicious salmon spread that comes with the bread uses the salmon’s upper fillet, the swordfish with shellfish in port sauce (one of the most popular main courses) calls for a generous cut of the fish’s belly. The sauce also succeeds in perfectly complementing the tender cut without overpowering it. But he is also aiming for simplicity, best exemplified by the whole barramundi prepared according to a simple Portuguese recipe of vinegar, garlic and rosemary.

If you like sweet desserts, you’ll love the espresso affogato cake with vanilla ice cream and caramel. It is dense, sticky and so satisfying. The set lunch menu is affordable at $98 for two courses and $118 for three.