Chris' Seafood, York Street, Sydney

Chris' Seafood, York Street, Sydney
Friday 9 December, 2005

Chris' Seafood used to be located in a smaller location down the road. The service was great, the food was really good and you had to book in advance to secure a table.

Now, Chris' Seafood has moved into massive site up the road that has changed everything. Sure, it's a larger restaurant and they can accommodate many more guests, but the entire atmosphere and feel of the place (not to mention the service and quality of the food) has gone.

We arrived during the lunchtime rush. Menus were promptly handed out and we asked for water all round. This took sometime to arrive and not everyone received glasses. So, we asked again and waited. When they came to take the order, we had to ask whether they still offered the two-course and three-course special as it wasn't advertised on the menu. Yes, came the reply. We then had to ask another waiter whether we could order from any of the menu items or was it confined to a few dishes for the special deal? Any, came the reply.

With eight of us dining a variety of dishes were ordered. For entree, the salt & pepper calamari looked very uninviting, gone was the appetising calamari rings in a lightly seasoned coating. Now, it is long strips of calamari that looked rather sad piled high on the plate. The smoked salmon with feta, olives and capers was good, however they could have been more generous with the feta and olives.

Before the mains arrived there was a power failure and all the lights and air conditioning disappeared for several minutes. None of the staff seemed to know what was going on but thankfully everything returned to normal shortly afterwards.

For main I had the fish & chips cooked in macadamia nut oil. I left most of it. The chips were undercooked, the fish was heavily battered and the mayonnaise that accompanied it was sickly sweet (Praise anyone?). The baked salmon received good reviews but the Seafood platter was very disappointing. Three were ordered and each arrived at the table with a different selection of seafood - some had one prawn, some had three, one had a huge crab claw, one didn't - there was no consistency whatsoever.

The best part of the meal was the three bottles of wine we enjoyed. When the bill arrived, they had not indicated we had ordered the two-course special, so we were charged full price for everything. It was corrected but what a way to finish....

Chris' Seafood - 71 York Street, Sydney - (02) 92993094

http://www.chrisseafood.com/