FISH AND SEAFOOD

As a country ‘girt by sea’, as the national anthem puts it, Australia is blessed when it comes to seafood.

A bucket of prawns might not sound overly glamorous (literally unpeeled, boiled prawns, on ice, in a bucket), but it is to Sydney what moules-frites is to Brussels. Try it at

Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel, where the ultra-fresh, local tiger prawns come with cocktail sauce, lemon and a baguette. Alternatively, supersize things with the seafood platter, which includes Western Australia lobster cocktail, tiger prawns, sea scallop tartare and salmon roe dip.

Meanwhile, at upmarket Bert’s Bar & Brasserie, in Newport, fish is displayed on ice piled high atop a marble bar. Order the hand-picked mud crab or whole john dory with hollandaise and shungiku, and you can choose the exact fish you’d like.

At Cirrus, in Barangaroo, creativity reigns: Flinders Island scallop comes with prawns, wakame and brown butter, and raw alfonsino is served with miso, kumquat and strawberry. At Saint Peter, in Paddington, chef Josh Niland has upped the ante on Sydney’s seafood scene, making a name for himself by dry-ageing sustainably caught fish in the same manner you’d treat meat: raw, 21-day dry-aged Mooloolaba albacore might be diced and served like steak tartare with all the trimmings, while line-caught bonito could be plated with bergamot and black garlic vinegar.

Pearl perch and charcoal biquinho peppers at Saint Peter