Middle Fish

Edit 30/08/2017: Sadly Middle Fish is now closed! Their instagram account reports that they'll be opening at a new address in 2019.

30 December, 2011

When Claire first blogged about about Middle Fish, the stylish new Thai place in our neighbourhood, Cindy and I were cautiously enthused. Enthused because of the beautiful fitout and fresh sounding food and cautious because of their much-vaunted authenticity. Authenticity for a Thai place basically means fish sauce and/or shrimp paste in everything, so we were uncertain as to whether or not Middle Fish would have much to offer us. But I wandered in for lunch, relieved to find something open in the Christmas/NY gap (this was an unplanned solo visit, so the photos are all from my phone and not up to Cindy's usual standards).

As with Seven Seeds (where Middle Fish source their coffee), this is a converted warehouse, which means high ceilings and loads of space. It's outfitted with wonderfully designed sculptures and fittings courtesy of visiting Thai designer Torlap Larpjaroensook. The basic menu has almost nothing vego on it, but there's a sentence at the bottom promising veg adaptations are available. After a quick chat with one of the very friendly staff, I'm given a decent range of options, settling on a version of fried rice minus the pork. They checked in with me about various ingredients - it was particularly reassuring when they asked me about fish sauce - and relayed my answers to the kitchen.

What came out was this:

A generous serve of fried rice, filled with crispy fresh vegies and accompanied by a bowl of biting chilli-soy sauce. The combo of slightly vinegary flavours, soy and heaps of fresh chilli really went down well with me. I was particularly pleased to find out that Middle Fish don't load things up with sugar or skimp too much on the heat - the bottle of water on the table certainly came in handy.

This was an excellent lunch - quick, fresh and tasty and served by super-friendly staff who were happy to deal with vegetarian fussiness. The only slight downside was the price - $14.50 might be okay if you're paying for the fancy pork version of this but is a bit steep otherwise. Vegetarians clearly aren't the main priority of Middle Fish, yet it was nice to discover that they'll happily cater for us - I'm going to drag Cindy back to find out what else they can do.

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Middle Fish is gradually developing some blog-buzz: Melbourne gastronome, Authenticcity and The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar have all raved about it since it opened a few weeks back.

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Middle Fish
122-128 Berkeley Street, Carlton
9348 1704
salads $12.50, mains $14.50

Accessibility: There's a flat entry way leading into an incredibly spacious and naturally well-lit dining area. Service takes place at the table, payment at a low counter.