Ocean Foods Drummoyne — Restaurant in Sydney

Having been a local & coming here a few times a year for 15 or so years, I feel like I have the pulse of the place. To be fair, I’ll separately do the good & not so good points, as an honest assessment of a family owned & long standing business.

General info: on key corner location with reasonably easy parking nearby. A lot of competition close by & they recently had Chargrill Charlies, Frango & Grill’d all open nearby in past few years - they are all well oiled & stiff competitors. Lyons Rd now has an enviable raft of great offers, including Monkey King (Thai) & Lashings (original charcoal chicken joint). Add Kadmus (Lebanese) & the nice Saigon Express (Vietnamese) - eating dollars are not easy to decide upon!

Not so good bits of Ocean Foods: huge servings - a normal fish & chips can feed two people. Suggest they refine to relevant single serves or change portion control, my crumbed piece of fish was huge. Sounds great but could be shared by 2 or more people.

Menu has had numerous add ons, plus a bunch of new & irrelevant items. Scribbled all over the menu board - which also made it look messy - were countless new offers, a lot of which had very little tie back to fish & chips. E.g chicken parma, veal scallopine, steaks, garlic bread, beef/chicken/fish/calamari burgers, 12 different pastas, 3 risotto’s & so on. Not a fish/chip shop menu

Random odd item. Could they separate general & recycling stuff? Heaps of bottles & cans just being chucked in general waste.

Ample seating but air con not on with a 28+ degree day (inside tables). Outside seating is adequate but more the steel bench & tables of most school outdoor eating areas. Same 2kg of tiger prawns ‘special’ has been same for 2+ years. Service can be a bit hit & miss, asked for vinegar on food but wasn’t, must say though, very nicely/quickly addressed. Drinks range not overly strong.

Good points: overall range & selection is huge, you won’t struggle to find something that suits your desired hunger! Menu is huge & accommodating. Is licensed & prices are reasonable.

Plenty of staff buzzing around, things seem to tick along nicely & any minor issues are swiftly (& happily) resolved. Prices are reasonable & serving sizes are very large.

Value for money is great. Overall place looks/feels fresh & hygienic. Got a very warm farewell, but if George or Mary are around - it is a great personal exchange. The tartare sauce is...

We have been patrons of Ocean Foods Drummoyne numerous times over the years but this latest visit will probably be our last for a long time. The place has really gone downhill fast.

The restaurant was bare, with limited food in the refrigerated display cases and sad, almost empty fridges, at least in the dining area. The only welcome from staff was a cold one, if you even receive one. The dining area was dirty and uninviting, with bugs around the seating and bar areas where there is self-serve water. Upstairs there were broken windows and filthy toilets with broken soap dispensers. Doors letting in freezing winter air added to the neglected and cold atmosphere, both physically and emotionally.

The food was equally disappointing. The oyster was slimy and unpleasant. The calamari was thick, rubbery, and had a strong fishy, salty, and unfresh taste. The fried fish was dry, overcooked, oily, and lacked flavour. The chips were cold. The only decent items were the burgers. Everything else felt like it had been sitting around far too long.

To make things worse, the place was plastered with lengthy, condescending, and passive aggressive signs saying things like be considerate of other users of the loo or no food from outside, though it was unclear if these signs were also outside. The many signs and the general bossy vibe only made you feel more unwelcome. It is hard to enjoy a meal when you are being scolded by signage from the moment you walk in.

Staff were clumsy, dismissive, and unprofessional with no effort made to provide even basic customer service. There was no warmth or friendliness to speak of.

For the steep prices you would expect at least cleanliness, warmth, and edible food but Ocean Foods failed on all...

Absolutely lives up to the claim of "Best fish and chips in the universe"! We've been loyal patrons of Oceanfoods for over a decade, and the quality has consistently been top-notch. George and his team set a high standard, focusing on quality ingredients without cutting corners.

It's refreshing to see a fish and chip shop that uses high-quality ocean perch instead of the cheaper alternatives. The chips are always crispy, perfectly cooked, and remarkably free from excess oil—probably because they change the oil daily.

Our family has diverse tastes, and Oceanfoods caters to us all. I switch it up depending on my mood, while my daughters go for the crab claws, fish cocktails, prawn cutlets, potato scallops, and calamari rings. My wife, not usually one for fried food, loves their grilled options like barramundi, lobster mornay, salmon, fresh oysters, salads, and cooked tiger prawns.

The dining area is just as impressive, whether you choose to sit outdoors, indoors, or upstairs. The atmosphere is matched by the phenomenal staff, always friendly and ready to surprise us with their culinary creations when we're undecided.

My kids have grown so accustomed to the high standards here that dining elsewhere often prompts them to say, "This is not as nice as Oceanfoods”. Kudos to George, Mary, and the entire Oceanfoods team for maintaining such high quality through the...