Alex: For us Aussies, summer is now nothing but a distant memory…okay exaggerating a tiny bit but July will be the commencement of my Europe holiday so I’m literally counting down the days until I will be swimming in the beautiful islands of Croatia and Greece and time cannot take any longer. So for us Sydney siders, who are obsessed with the beach or restaurants/cafe’s with water views then Merivale’s Coogee Pavillion couldn’t possibly be high on your list as your go to destination.
While it isn’t Europe, we’re truly blessed with some of the most breath taking beaches in the world, so take a drink up stairs to the newly opened rooftop, or chill in the many different areas of the bottom level of Coogee Pavillion and you might feel like you’re on some sort of holiday escape as you watch the waves crash into Coogee beach. Not even winter will be able to stop you from coming, as they have you covered with some great coffee courtesy of Will & Co.
On this particular day I went with my brother from another mother and fellow travel buddy Michael and started with some fresh lemon, lime bitters.
To share we ordered the Fried sebago potatoes with crisp thyme & chilli aioli $9. Ear shatteringly crisp and moreish but the chilli aioli had a kick that was a little to much of a smack in the face. I don’t think it helped that it was about 40 degrees outside so chilli probably wasn’t the best idea.
Michael ordered the Chef’s choice of daily sashimi Organic soy, pickled ginger, wasabi $32. Raw fish is like the devil reincarnated in my opinion, but I do appreciate the technique that goes into preparing sashimi platters and Michael seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the fish. The only thing that he wasn’t a fan of was the tuna.
And I (to no surprise) stuck with the fattiest possible thing on the menu. The Beer battered flathead, chips, lemon, tartare sauce $27. Everytime I order fish and chips it’s come after some hesitation because I generally get sick of it after the first couple of bites and unfortunately that happened again. I do have to say that the fish was cooked beautifully and crumbled away from the fillet beautifully, but it just became too sickly after a while.
I think that Coogee Pavillion definitely has some real winners on the menu, but unfortunately due to my uninspiring picking of menu dishes I didn’t get to witness anything overly special. I have heard mixed things about people’s dining experiences here so please let me know how your meal here was as I’d love to know!
Until next time!
Alex
I didn’t realise that you hated raw fish. I personally love it and always tend to order it if I see it on a menu! 😀
That sashimi selection looks great!