Richmond Seafood Tavern

The ultimate seafood restaurant spoil yourself Danny and his team are amazing the lobster is to die for, so is the chowder but truly a mixed platter is divine make sure get chilli prawns in the mix, you will be rebooking before desert! Great service, ambience, wine list and overall best in Melbourne for seafood!

After walking by this place many times, and not knowing much about it, we decided to give it a go last week. WOW. Easily the best seafood meal I’ve had for years.
It’s worth noting that despite its appearance (in what looks to be a renovated old neighbourhood pub), this place is semi-​fancy. White tablecloth, very attentive service in a small dining room.
We started with a mixed selection of appetizers. One of the cool things here is that they let you mix and match all the starters by individual quantities. We started with the battered honey sesame morton bay bugs, garlic prawns, fish cake, and scallops. All of them were terrific. The bugs were the highlight of the entire meal — very meaty and delicate, with a perfect honey dressing. The only dish I didn’t 100% love was the garlic prawns, because I expected a traditional garlic prawn dish (in something like butter and garlic) but they instead were possibly roasted and covered in very darkly roasted garlic, which I’m not personally a fan of. The prawns themselves were delicious though.
For the main, we got john dory and flathead. Just like the starters, they also let you mix and match how the fish is prepared — so we got pan fried and two types of battered. The pan fried flathead was AMAZING, literally the best pan fried fish I’ve ever had. It was so nicely browned on the edges that I asked if it had been blowtorched (it hadn’t — they apparently just use white-​hot cast iron skillets). The breaded fish was also simply divine. These guys know how to make simple ingredients just taste incredible. We definitely preferred the flathead over the john dory, but that’s probably personal preference.
The place isn’t cheap, but for the experience and the quality of the food I regard it a bargain — our bill came to $ 110 for two including a bottle of wine.
I can’t wait to go back and have been telling all my seafood-​loving friends about it. Truly a hidden gem and one of the best meals I’ve had in Melbourne!