After a long afternoon of Future Music Festival followed by a brief mingle with the glittered up crowd of Marquee in The Star, the next day Sunday was always going to be one of quite minimal effort. Since the Airbnb was located right between Randwick Racecourse and Coogee beach, the logical thing seemed to be to take advantage of the sunny 25C weather and rest.
A google search for Coogee fish and chips turned up 3 results: Kiwi Style Fish and Chips (closed on Sundays), Chish and Fips (which google maps located as not at the beach, but it actually is) and A Fish Called Coogee.
Strangely A Fish Called Coogee had the highest recommendations from various online blogs and articles, but also the lowest urbanspoon rating at a mere 65%. The criticisms seem to revolve around nonchalant staff, expensive food and a cooking fee. Given Kiwi was closed and I thought Chish was far away, AFCC seemed the only option. Thankfully it was a very good one.
- fish & chips - $11 for a solid sized piece of fried hoki and some reasonable chips is not that expensive. The fish had a very very thin, dark and crisp batter and nicely cooked flesh with a bit of firm bite. I added some salt and pepper (as the cooks don't themselves) and it was great. It was enough to share between two mildly hungry people;
- Greek-style octopus - so this is where more expensive prices ($3 for 100g) and cooking price ($1 for 100g) comes in. I can kind of understand, as it doesn't take much to build up a big cost (250g for $10 essentially). The octopus was tender and heavily flavoured with oregano and served with lemon wedge. It was nice as an aside and a break from the fish & chips.
The fish & chips are very high quality and not so expensive. If you stick with this and veer away from the raw seafood on display (or are happy to pay for it and the cooking cost), you'll be quite happy and not overly out of pocket. Take it down to the beach and enjoy the sun, the water, capoeira in the background and being alive.
