Fish City
33 Ann St
Belfast
BT1 4EB
028 9023 1000
fish-city.com
IT’S clear that the coronavirus crisis and the lockdown that has accompanied it will decimate the hospitality industry. A report released last week tagged the sector as the biggest loser of the economic calamity the pandemic has unleashed here.
It predicted a massive contraction of 17 per cent, but still a bald, abstract figure that means unfathomable job and business losses.
While society as a whole will only be able to restart with massive adjustment, the nature of the restaurant business means even long after life starts to creep back towards normal, the restrictions that will still be in place and the changes that will need to be made will ensure lots of shutters never come back up.
And that’s without getting into government fulfilling its responsibilities to the taxpayers, job creators and prosperity drivers behind those shutters. There’s no good news here.
For now, though, restaurants are doing what they can to help themselves, and in the past few weeks that has seen more and more pivot to delivery and takeaway. Some have also become shops, maintaining the supply chain of suppliers and producers, keeping those heads above water too.
In many cases, such as Six By Nico, reviewed on this page a fortnight ago, ‘dinner kits’ have been the vehicle of choice. Restaurant-quality meals prepared up to the point of them being whacked into your oven at home.
Six By Nico’s effort was excellent, while early adopter Noble in Holywood and Stock at St George’s Market, which began last weekend, both look to be of the standard you’d expect from two exceptional places.
But even the little effort that goes into these can sometimes feel too much. This week I wanted someone to do the hard part for me – all of it. I didn’t want to follow instructions or an Instagram video, or even pre-heat the oven.
Having someone else take everything out of your hands is one of the joys of going out to eat – that and someone else doing the dishes, but you can’t have everything.
It’s understandable that some places might resist a fully cooked takeaway/delivery selection, for fear that what ends up on the plate just wouldn’t show them at their best.
Fish City in Belfast city centre is at its heart a fish and chip shop, so it should have no qualms about wrapping stuff up for punters to leave with.
But it’s more than that. As well as clocking up the awards for being a fish and chip shop, cod suppers et al sit on a menu next to linguine and fish pie, chowder and tacos.
In the spirit of making the most of things, a day and a bit’s worth of food was safely deposited on the doorstep. All of it survived and thrived. The batter on the scampi, which is always going to be most vulnerable to travel time, stood up pretty well, as did the chips.
Neither are going to compare to being eaten straight out of the fryer but both speak of quality ingredients, with a tartare sauce of zap and punch. The portions are huge – this tartare is the only thing there’s not enough of.
Squid tacos, with the shatter of the breadcrumb coating still present, are an invitation to make a pig of yourself. Everything wrapped up with salad crunch, garlic mayonnaise and a warming chilli jam in a soft tortilla makes a mouthful when it really shouldn’t. They’re bigger than that – but I’m not.
The curry is Thai red, hot but sweetly tempered with coconut and lemongrass. The prawns and cod aren’t overwhelmed, while there’s bite of varying degrees in the butternut squash, the lengths of broccoli and the pak choi. They give you a vat of it and if there wasn’t so much kick it would feel like hug, though not as much as the chowder does.
So luxuriously creamy, it feels you should be slathering it over a scone, with a little smoke and a deeply savoury, salty-like-the-sea backbone. Pieces of fish and potato, carrot and celery bob up and down in the liquid. Utterly simple, utterly perfect.
There are some discrepancies between delivery apps Deliveroo and Just Eat on availability and especially price – more than £3 for the cod and chips – that need to be ironed out but everything else about Fish City is just what you’d want. Except having to do the dishes.
THE BILL
Salt and chilli squid and chips £10.50
Scampi and chips £13.50
Seafood chowder £10.95
Seafood curry £14.50
Delivery £3.99
Deliveroo service fee £0.49
Total £53.93
