Z Pier,
3/31 Westhaven Drive,
St Mary's Bay,
Westhaven
Auckland,


(09) 379 9875

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4 out of 5 stars

When a bird is dive bombing the water searching for dinner right in front of you, it kind of increases your expectation of a good seafood meal. Luckily one of Auckland's little-known gems doesn't disappoint.

Bill Fish Café has an absolute waterfront location at the edge of the main carpark down at Westhaven Drive. It's a little tricky to find, but if you head for Swashbucklers and then hang a left into the carpark towards the water you should be fine.

For a harbour city, Auckland's not really over-endowed with good (and affordable) seafood restaurants. Sure, you could dive into Hammerheads or Harbourside, but expect to pay a hefty whack at those flasher places. Run by a friendly Cook Islands family, Bill Fish Café is more affordable and still has scarily fresh seafood. After just one visit it's the kind of place that's on its way to becoming a regular haunt.

Inside the compact café has polished concrete floors, a few upstairs tables and the requisite array of mildly menacing sharks' jawbones. The blackboard menu is equally simple focusing just on what's come off the boats the same day. Don't expect flash sauces and fancy add-ons, just fresher than fresh seafood that's treated nice and simply. It feels like rocking up to see a mate who has just got from back fishing and asking "What's good?" That's if your mate was in the habit of playing vintage reggae from Toots and the Maytals and lived right on the water's edge.

For an entrée we share calamari lightly fried in ginger and garlic ($16) with a simple salad dressed in balsamic vinegar. Due to quirky and endearingly unsophisticated service, our mains arrive at roughly the same time as the squid, so we're soon tucking into a DIY seafood banquet. Half a dozen oysters in beer batter ($12) come with chunky hand cut chips - there's no room for pre-processed shoestrings at Bill Fish - and the Fish and Chips ($20) has three huge fillets of sweet John Dory overflowing on the plate. Just around the corner at a few of the Viaduct's eateries, you'd be lucky to get one fillet and it probably wouldn't be John Dory.

Don't come along to Bill Fish looking for a flash evening out. Instead grab a bunch of friends, bring along a few cold brews or a bottle of chilled Sauvignon Blanc, and celebrate living in one of the world's great harbour cities.

And when you're there, don't miss seeing the photos of Bill the owner surfing on the back of a huge whale shark.