FISH Restaurant - Review

In the lead up to Christmas I have been crazily busy, so it was brilliant to be able to take some time out last weekend, to sneak away from my laptop and head to FISH restaurant at the Hilton in Auckland for a delectable pre-holiday lunch.

In the lead up to Christmas I have been crazily busy, so it was brilliant to be able to take some time out last weekend, to sneak away from my laptop and head to FISH restaurant at the Hilton in Auckland for a delectable pre-holiday lunch. The sun was shining making the setting even more spectacular, looking out to sea from the bright and breezy dining area.

My friend and I settled in to check out the menu and had a difficult time choosing, given the array of options available. I tossed up about trying the Lobster roll with white kimchi, lemon, herbs, pancetta chips and smoked hollandaise (which sounds utterly delicious) but couldn’t go past the Big Glory Bay Salmon with swede, nori granola, ginger daikon and aillade. The salmon was beautifully cooked, tender and luscious, with a beautiful sweep of soft swede and pieces of gentle ginger daikon. The nori granola was intriguing – providing a textural crunch to contrast the rich softness of the salmon. To drink I had a glass of the 2013 Grewacke Riesling (I’m a total sucker for Riesling) and my friend enjoyed a glass of the Wooing Tree 2018 Rose. To eat she chose the Cloudy Bay clams with apple cider, dashi, bonito, lardo di colonatta, garlic chives and seaweed. She declared it to be beautifully tasty, with plump clams and a perfectly pitched ‘broth’.

Given it was lunchtime on a Sunday with the thought of bathing suits looming in the not too distant future, we almost gave dessert a miss. Luckily, after much contemplation we chose the Choux, with strawberry, pistachio, basil and limoncello to share (a hard-fought battle between that and the Satilia noire cannelloni with pineapple, whipped panna cotta and coconut), and were thrilled with the choice. Toasty choux pastry on soft and subtle pistachio given a zing from the basil and limoncello…it was devoured with unseemly haste!

Big thanks to the team at FISH for a lovely afternoon – it made our lazy Sunday feel like a celebration.