fish restaurant

really enjoyed my experience with fish. it has a really classy feel and would be perfect for a special occasion or romantic date, particularly at sunset.

we booked a first table reservation and the waitress that seated us was very friendly and welcoming which was an excellent start. the other servers for the rest of the night were fine but not quite as friendly in comparison.

we started off with the bread, and then each of us had a main with a sweet potatoes side to share, then three desserts. we all enjoyed our dishes and i found the gnocchi particularly delicious. it was just the right soft consistency that i enjoy. the sweet potatoes were also really good and a decent serving.

i really enjoyed my white chocolate and sorbet dessert. it was definitely my favourite of the three we got (also got the banana topioca one and hokey pokey sundae). the white chocolate cream had great milky taste similar to condensed milked, but not as sweet.

overall it was a great night and particularly great value with the discount.

went there for lunch today, lovely view of the harbour. very nice and quiet place. the food was nice and fresh. chicken breast was so tender and crispy on the outside. the only downside was the waitress that served us had a very strong body odor that we can't ignore. but she was really lovely.

was invited for a set menu, the raw salmon was beautifully presented with reductions, freeze dried white stuff but it was all pretty bland, simple soy and wasabi still tastes better.  friend was a vegan so they gave her grilled vege instead of salmon, which was very bland.  main of fish was again beautifully presented but lacked flavor. dessert of liquid nitrogen frozen ice cream presented by live chef looked beautiful but again lacked flavor, simple italian gelato tastess better.  so i sense a pattern. also i dont know simon gault personally but not a fan by the way he treated his temporary staff on a tv show he was on. seems like a small man trying to copy molecular gastronomy from overseas. the view is spectacular though.

food presentation and food quality were pretty good except their customer service seriously disappointed me. we bought a voucher through a website to have discounted food dine in here. we requested for a joined table and then a middle age beard white guy came along and rejected our request (with very impatient face)and started blaming that it was our wrong to come late. we seriously don't know what did we do wrong and it was actually my friend's 21st birthday. friendly advice, if you don't want your birthday to be ruined, don't choose here. (ps: it was just one of the staff (suited up) that being so rude to us, others were really friendly).

not bad at all! was quite impressed with the quality of food and the service. their steak was well cooked and i really enjoyed it. would go again 👍🏻

amazing service and staff extremely professinal. valet parking is a plus. food was definitely amazing and well presented. i hope they bring the big steak back soon though.

delicately designed, fish by hilton is a keeper for your special treat, for an anniversary celebration, for your business dinner or just come and dine for rewarding yourself.

walking in this space i was completely captured by the whole ceiling of wine cabinet, its soft ambience reflecting the prince wharf at night time and of course the modern fire place that brought us coziness. you would not feel nervous in this classy five star hotel restaurant. you feel immediately set in like your friends' lounge.

yes the chef is another reason i came here. since when has everybody started to love celebrity chefs? it does become a trendy thing. as it is known to all, fraser shenton runs the kitchen under group chef gareth stewart (ex soul chef and bistro lago in hilton lake taupo). 

the day we visited was the first night they started the new season menu. so i was told chef gareth was right in the kitchen guarantee the dish qualities by a well-knowledged waiter from bulgaria, he gave us beautiful advice to order the house wine which turned out nicely.

i just could not help praising the new menu, more fish and seafood options and with a twist of asian cooking technique and flavor. well done!

to start the te kouma bay oyster was such a delight. it came our freshly on a few stones, expressed its marine freshness. then the tarakihi sashimi, paring creme fraiche, lime and sourdough croutons was beautifully presented. however, when the warm south island salmon, dashi broth, ginger rice, pickled radish, soba noodles came into vision we both fell deeply amazed. a brilliant and light way to balance the fatty salmon, transferring it into an authentic fresh japanese fish dish, the red fish, lightly green beans with soba noodles immersed in dashing broth, we couldn't have it enough until the whole plate was cleaned by our greedy appetite!

then the highlight came to me, chef gareth came to my table and had a chat with me, expressing the menu and his idea behind it. absolutely a icing on the cake for me. much appreciated for his time sparing and it made us privileged.

as for the main, we were still keen for the fish&seafood concept. how can you resist fish dish in a restaurant called fish! my daily caught gurnard was such a treat for this night. with ham and barley broth, savoy cabbage, white beans, winter herbs pairing the nicely cooked gurnard, it did, again, bring out freshness from asian twist. i do love the way they cook with broth to soften the buttery taste of fish cooked in western  way. the fried kale was such a fun to eat with the dish. then came the grilled banana prawns, gremolata, crispy pancetta, soft herbs, it was another well-worthing treat for the night. imported jumbo banana prawns' texture were completely brought out by the italian sauce with parsley garlic and lemon, while on the other hand, the crispy pancetta added more flavor layers to the whole plate. once again it was fully swiped by us!

eventually the dessert session was a bit less attracted though. valrhona chocolate mousse
cocoa nib soil, poached cherries, kirsch, cherry sorbet was 4 out 5, however, the lemon poppyseed cake was a bit dry for me. the frozen buffalo yogurt, lychee was a save to the whole plate. in total this dessert should be 3 out of 5. i did expect more for the dessert though. with nevis bluff pinot gris – central otago 2013 and forrest – marlborough 2011, the dessert became more vivid in our tastebuds.

worth coming back from time to time, for the sake of chef gareth steward. so looking forward to a better refined fish into the future.

came here for ab anniversary dinner. the restaurant is beautiful, next to pier. atmosphere was very nice. the service was awesome! we got some bread and butter to start with then the mackerel taco. i got a crayfish mac and cheese and my partner got the grilled hapuka. we have complaints. flavor was spot on service was spot on everything was awesome!

review 21-04-2018

what a disappointment tonight. although service was good the food was so underwhelming . the sirloin steak $52 was cooked well instead of medium rare and you could tell it wasn’t cooked properly because the fat was so hard and not softened. the chocolate dome was not good at all and the banana looked just raw not grilled . really don’t know if we’ll be back again for a long long time . service was great 👍
previous review:

been here on numerous occasions for lunch and dinner. the menu does change seasonally but the food is always good. 

wonderful views, you're literally sitting in above the sea, and the decor is white and clean.

worth a visit.

came here for the new year's eve dinner- six course set menu. everything started off well, except they were still preparing our table when we walked in (why we couldn't get another table with the same number of seats i don't know). our waiter was very informative and lovely. he asked about special requirements (we had a gluten free person) and was very helpful, saying he would let the kitchen know. we were confused about the drinks situation- we did not receive a drinks menu, yet people were ordering drinks. there was an alcohol bar at the middle of the restaurant that the waiters poured our champagne. no one offered us anything other than champagne.

the food was amazing, almost faultless. however it came out too quickly. we were out in less than two hours- the wait staff did not ask if we wanted more time between courses, they just kept bringing plates out. we were annoyed that a dish with gluten came out, even though the waiter said he would take care of this. our amuse was served at the wrong time (one course late) and a waitress dumped potatoes and salad on our table as we were finishing our mains without specifying why- we didn't order them and they weren't on the menu. but we finished with an amazing desert.

great food but the night felt a bit disjointed- wait staff were mostly quite young and it felt like they were not well-informed and didn't really know what was going on.

went there with bf for dinner
most of customer dining on the night was tourism, kids playing outside which was a bit a bit unpleasant.
food was mostly lovely, bread and entree was fantastic, my fish was overcooked, with a soft skin, i thought fish cook like that should be a nice crispy skin. dessert we had the pana cotta, pudding was too set and too hard for a pana cotta, otherwise everything was good.
front stuff really friendly and helpful , but with a restaurant scored like this i do think they need to be trained more.....

my partner took me here for my birthday and we got a seat next to the window. the view of the ocean was absolutely stunning on the sunny day. if you come here for lunch then i would highly recommend requesting for a seat near the window. i had the salmon and it was cooked to perfection. not over or under cooked whilst maintaining the perfect amount of moisture. the service was okay. didn't get much attention or anything but it wasn't bad

lovely restaurant with gorgeous relaxing views. the service was good although could be abit more attentive, refilling our glasses and taking our order before we get the bread and butter. little things that went un noticed: our table wobbled and our candle went out- it did get abit dark around the table. after eating our first courses we saw the table next to us get a complimentary chef sample which we didn't get so i asked about that and i'm glad i did when we did get it, it was a crumbed oyster absolutely delicious. the salmon was ok the skin on the plate was rubbery and the other "decorations" on the plate seem pointless but the scampi was delicious as were the oysters. the red shrimp was ok but the monkfish was delicious and the baked purée potato with bacon butter yummy. all 3 desserts were really nice too.

we don't eat seafood so going to a restaurant with a major focus on seafood would seem like an odd choice - there is a long back story, and to be perfectly honest, fish was not actually our choice due to the strong seafood menu. we ended up booked there after another unrelated restaurant screwed up our booking and had to accommodate us elsewhere. as it was, we ended up eating the vegetarian entree and main. the entree was really enjoyable, but the main was disappointing for such a prestigious restaurant. our awesome waiter asked us how the meals were, and we gave him honest feedback about the main, not in a nasty way, but just told the truth and said that we weren't too impressed. straight-away he offered us dessert on the house which we were not expecting, but what a great response to a customer's disappointing meal. unfortunately we did not get our waiter's name, because i'd love to give him a shout out for providing such professional service, and turning a disappointing meal around.

awesome. great view and dining experiences. food is great! grilled fish is awesome crispy and juicy! salmon also great! fresh and yummy! love here!