18 Feb 2011

Spicy Fish Restaurant

















Spicy Fish Restaurant
209 Little Bourke St
Melbourne, VIC 3000

(03) 9639 1885

Open Hours
Sunday ~ Thursday
11:30am ~ 11:00pm,

Friday & Saturday
11:00am ~ 2:00am


I was so depressed after DH lost my memory card
with hundreds of photos unsaved including photos from Maedaya Restaurant in Richmond.
I took loads photos of it
and the little restaurant was so interesting from decoration to food.
I will go back.
In case someone out there found the memory card, please return it to me.
Reward would be given including a nice meal.

After a busy day, I needed to go somewhere serving decent food to comfort myself.
We decided to go somewhere I love and familiar with. Somewhere "HOT".
Spicy Fish is one of my favourite Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for spicy food.
They served traditional Szechuan and Shanghai cuisines.
DH loves their soup dumplings
and my favourites are their whole fish and chilli crab.

So we went in for a late dinner.
They've got a new menu and added more dishes. There was also a Chef Special leaflet.
We already decided on what to eat before we came.
Therefore we may try their new dishes sometime later.

As usual, we ordered soup dumplings.
Not matter how busy they were, their food always arrived quickly,
as long as you can get a table first.
I wonder how many helping hands were at the back of the small kitchen.
It took only about five minutes to have our soup dumplings ready on the table.
The skin was a bit thick this time and the size too large in my opinion as it was difficult to eat in one mouthful, but still delicious.
Juicy and beautiful flavour as always.
If you see my photos, the meat filling seems to be darker in colour compare to most of other restaurants served, and it was more flavour than others as well.
I wonder how they marinated their meat. I can taste pork, ginger, garlic, salt and maybe soy sauce?
Anyway, taste more fabulous when serving them with red vinegar 
and the price was reasonable. ($7.5 for 6)

For main DH ordered Kong Pao Chicken which is a classic dish in Szechuan Cuisine.
Don't be fool by the amount of dried chilli in this dish.
It's not that hot at all, mild for me and instead there was a sweetness in the dish.
Maybe this made it more eatability and more acceptable for customers who can't handle the heat.
The diced chicken was moist and tender, not overcooked, not too dry and not too hot.
DH ate the chicken and I ate all the golden brown peanuts. Yum!
The onions and capsicums are fresh and sweet.
There were none Szechuan peppercorn to be seen or tasted.
A bit strange if called it authentic.
Wasn't Szechuan peppercorn the primary ingredient in Kong Pao Chicken?
Maybe I was wrong, maybe this was the Westerner's version.
Anyway we both happy with the dish.

DH doesn't eat fish, so I would only order fish when I was super hungry.
As their name indicated, spicy fish in clay pot is the signature dish.
It was a big serving and suitable for two or more people to consume.
The level of heat is marked on the menu with one, two or three chillis next to the description.
And spicy fish is at the hottest level.
White fish and bean shoots were covered in red chilly oil
and mixed with countless dried chillis served in a large clay pot.
It looked spicier than it actually was but definitely a hot dish.
Great to serve with rice and the broth was beautiful and suitable to cook beef, seafood and other meat for sure, just if I could steal the recipe.

I like this restaurant, the atmosphere is great, wait staffs are attentive and prices are reasonable. 
More photos of Spicy Fish from my Flickr here! 
Luckily I've got some photos of their soup dumplings from previous visits.
They look totally different, smaller, rounder and cuter.
At least it used to look prettier and presentation is important for me, it's the style on plate.
I recommend their whole fish and chilli crab and I can't have enough of them.


Spicy Fish on Urbanspoon

Cuisine: Chinese
Food: Good
Service:Good
Atmopshere: Good
Value: $$
Recommend: Good

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