Years after The Fish Market and the ensuing The Greenwood Fish Market Bistro established a foothold in the uppity Bukit Timah enclave dishing out briny bivalves, succulent, hard-to-find fish and lip-smacking pastas, their parent company has encroached on the heartlands.
Its latest outpost sits on the fourth storey of the gargantuan NEX mall and, much like its stablemates, serves up a menu – albeit, a scaled-down version – of coldwater fish flown in weekly from Australia, New Zealand, the US and Norway. This includes the tuskfish and Alaskan wild sockeye salmon, as well as better-known piscatorial treats such as oysters, clams and mussels.
During our visit on a Tuesday night – the company’s designated ‘Oyster Day’ – we decided to spurn the chain’s highly regarded fish ’n’ chips. Instead we slurped down dozens of freshly shucked Canadian Fanny Bay molluscs covered simply with lemon juice, self-squeezed to your liking, which cost only $1 each (usual prices $2.95-$4.95) when you order a main course. The heap of New Zealand green-lip mussels, dressed in an addictive, subtly salty, whitewine garlic-streaked consommé, was equally luscious.
Our order of fettuccine tossed with scallops, prawns and calamari had us rapt with its savoury, champagne-based cream bath of shellfish jus. Best of all was the hunk of pan-seared Seafood fettuccine Patiala aubergine tuskfish fillet, served with a mound of herbed butter rice and grilled seasonal vegetables, which offered pristine slivers of white flesh with a wholesome smoky, tang.
But what you see on the menu is not always what you’ll get: more than half of the mussels and fish fillet – including Maine black mussels, barramundi, sole, European monkfish and ocean trout – were not available during our visit. It’s probably a good idea to call in advance to check availability, or visit on Thursdays for the weekly truckload of mussels.
Though it doesn’t yet stand up to the restaurants that have paved its way, we are hoping the Little Fish Shop will dive deeper into ocean fare and reel in something that its predecessors do not already have on their menus. It would also be a good idea to catch enough fish to feed the diners. Eve C
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