Starfish Bar, Mt Lawley (Invited)
Starfish Bar is a premium fish and chips bar that just opened at the heart of Mt Lawley. It was within 1 minute walking distance from Mary St Bakery and located right across the Queens tavern. We were invited to the opening back in December but we couldn't make it due to our long holiday. Fast forward to the 16th of January, we managed to secure a spot for dinner at this new restaurant.
The restaurant has plenty of seating and if the ground floor is full, there's always the second storey to accommodate more customers. The design at the ground floor was amazing with thick ropes hanging from the ceiling and pot plants decorating the wall. Unfortunately you won't find the same kind of decoration on the second storey. The second storey was a bit more sombre in comparison.
We saw quite a good variety of salad in the Starfish's outer food display and also some meat skewers. The fresh fish can be seen inside the shop on their display and when we went there they had Hake as their fish of the day.
Hake was also the fish inside one of our delicious sliders that we tried. The firmness of Hake made it a great fish to be sandwiched in between buns. The trio sliders came at a cost of $12 which we thought was very competitive especially when we received great buns and fillings! For an additional $3 you can also add chips or salad to the sliders.
$12 sliders of fish, chicken and lamb (L-R)
Unfortunately we couldn't really taste the fish that much but on another note, the chicken and lamb were fantastic! As you can see from the above picture, the size of the fish meat was quite small in comparison to the chicken and lamb.
$9 Grilled Salt & Pepper Calamari
The grilled salt & pepper calamari was cooked well but unfortunately we couldn't really taste salt & pepper on it. It was a good surprise that the calamari came with heaps of garden salad. We brought up this issue to the manager and he said he'd check the marinated time of the squid. Just a clarification that the above photo was taken after we separated the whole bowl of salad into two plates.
$22 Iron Fisherman, a Japanese inspired dish
The last dish that we tried was the Iron Fisherman, a Japanese inspired dish. The goldband snapper, which was a tropical snapper, was really tasty with the sweet soy sauce on it. In the menu it says that the fish fillet was infused with coriander, lemongrass, ginger and chili. I don't think it was infused enough and I'd love to be able to taste more of the ginger and chili on the grilled fish. This dish came with rice that can be swapped to chips and complimentary beetroot salad.
The Starfish Bar definitely brings in a fresh air to the cafe strip along Beaufort St especially with their well priced dishes. Most dishes in the menu cost about $11-15 dollars with the exception of 4 International grilled items that cost $22 (2 fillets of fish, rice / chips and salad). I'd definitely give them a go again especially since I still need to try the old school fish and chips ;-).