The Manhattan Fish Market has delicious seafood and ridiculously friendly stuff – it’s an awesome place to dine at if you can handle the bill.
Service & Ambience
Although this is obviously an expensive high-end restaurant, the Manhattan Fish Market is disguised as a mid-range diner. The seating is both tables and sofas, the art on the walls are fun, the staff is very interactive (one of them announces ‘GUEST IN!’ and ‘GUEST LEAVING!’ appropriately so the rest of them can shout greetings at you – it’s adorable), and we love their whole low lit, relaxed, hangout-spot vibe.
The waiters were incredibly friendly and the service was prompt – every now and then you’ll see some live food action when a waiter subjects a dish to a flamer or pours something cool over a sizzling platter.
Food
We got their quad delights, a combo-starter (Rs. 1090), their precociously-named sexy hot whole fish (Rs. 2790) and the cajun chickie marinara to just check what the fish market’s chicken might be like (Rs. 940). For dessert we got the tempting Manhattan mud pie that promised chocolate ice cream, Oreo and chocolate syrup (Rs. 590). That was basically just two meals, a starter and a dessert, but we can already feel you cringing at the bill.
The starter was surprisingly good – expensive places are famous for poor starters that are more of an excuse for a dish than an actual dish, but the quad delights were awesome – batter fried shrimp, calamari and mushroom in corners, flanked by mayo and tangy dips, and yummy coleslaw at the center. It was sizeable and tasted great.
The chicken marinara was very good too. The spaghetti was slathered in marinara that was predominantly all tomatoes – it was filling, if not that impressive; the chicken was very well cooked and served in large portion. This dish for just Rs. 940 is decent enough to fill your belly on an average day.
The sexy hot whole fish was sexy as hell. Albeit for a whopping Rs. 2790. Presentation was awesome – it was huge and came wrapped in aluminium foil and the waiter unwrapped it carefully, as the mouth-watering fragrance of steaming whole fish wafted out of it. It came poached in a soupy broth of veggies, scallops and calamari, and plenty of bread to dip into it. The fish was soft and just falling off to the touch. The broth, spicy and delicious with the bread, was the best part about this dish.
The mud pie for Rs. 590 was alright. The layer of ice cream wasn’t impressive but when you get to the middle the Oreo comes in and tastes sweet and perfect with the little nuts and all the chocolate syrup. It was so small though and so we cried into our plates because just like all the best love stories it was over just when it was starting to get so good.
Conclusion
As huge shameless foodies, we can’t help but love the Manhattan Fish Market. Their taxes will totally screw you over though – at the end the damage for two was a heart-clutching Rs. 6000. The food however is stellar, one of the handful of super seafood places in Colombo, so if your wallet’s got what it takes then go.
