Melbourne Food Review: Spicy Fish Restaurant, Chinatown

Wow, I’m doing really well at this whole writing up blogs about recent event thing!

I was having a depressing day at work on Monday and desperately needed a pick-me-up lunch. I decided that I needed something extremely spicy – this usually makes me sweat a bit and feel better. Kind of like the feeling you get after a good workout, without having to workout. Now that’s what I call a win-win.

(Spicy fish  banquet: fish casserole, rice and bamboo shoots – $8.50)

So we landed at Spicy Fish on Little Burke on last and decided on things from their lunch menu. I decided to only look at the dishes with three-chilli rating – and one of those was their spicy fish banquet. I asked the waiter ‘how hot is this?’. He shrugged and said ‘not that hot.’ So being a masochist that I am, I asked if it could be made hotter.

(side dish: spicy bamboo shoots)

My spicy fish was brought over in a claypot within five minutes. There were chunks of white fish everywhere and they were all covered in deeply red oily sauce. I dug into it eagerly, expecting it to completely blow me away. It did. Though not in the way I expected it. Believe me, it looked much spicier than it was. It was very yummy – with spicy kicks and the fish were perfectly cooked. Not boiled to the buggery. It was sort of a cross between casserole and soup. There were bits of bean shoots underneath which balanced out the flavours nicely.

(Sliced beef with spicy capsicum set – $8.50)

Unfortunately, I am relatively crazy (by Australian standard anyway) when it comes to chilli. It was definitely not as spicy as I had hoped (and yes, I ate all the chilli slices floating around). Josh thought it was rather good and kept picking at it until his dish arrived (which was about 10 minutes later than mine).

Josh’s beef was also very good. The beef was tender and the sauce had this intense, garlicky flavour about it. It was a little spicy (I think it was rated two chillis on the menu). Again I didn’t find it spicy and yes I did eat all of the dried chillis from his dish. His set also came with rice and the side bamboo shoots. I rather liked the bamboo shoots but then again I just liked weird little things on the side like that. Josh didn’t want it so I scored his too.

Well folks, this is it. If you want a lot of fish or meat for $8.50, this is the place for you. No I didn’t think it was particularly spicy but then I am Thai.

Spicy Fish Restaurant, 219 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000