Mangrove Jacks, Wickham

Where: 97 Hannell Street, Wickham

Prices: Oysters, six for $19 to $22, 12 for $27 to $30; entre´ es, $17 to $20; mains, $24 to $40 (seafood platter for 2, $175); breads, $6.50; desserts, $14

Chef: David Young

Wines: Small list of mainly Hunter wines (some NZ and other Australian wines)

Hours: Breakfast, Saturday and Sunday; lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday

Vegetarian: Three mains (including a Thai green vegetable curry)

Bookings: 4969 8181

Bottom line: Entree, main and dessert, about $145 for two

What makes a true Novocastrian? Do you have to be born here, or is it enough to be able to remember how things were before the earthquake? Does 25 years living here count? You don’t really have to be a native to remember a time when the waterfront at Wickham was an industrial

wasteland and Throsby Creek a barren concrete-lined waterway dotted with rusting oil drums.

Fast forward to 2011; wool stores have morphed into apartments and townhouses; parkland and cycle ways replace weed-covered space; an expanded and busy Fishermen’s Coop supplies restaurants and households with

the freshest fish in town.

And above the Fishermen’s Co-op you’ll find Mangrove Jacks. It’s a great space for functions with its large windows and spacious deck overlooking the docks.

There’s constant theatre provided by fishing boats coming and going, loading ice, unloading fish; the helicopter landing on the pad across the water; walkers and cyclists passing below. But you only get that view from a window table and if you come for dinner or lunch such a large space can lack soul.

The menu, as you would expect, has a fishy focus, with just four land-based mains (Thai chicken curry, a baked lamb rump, chicken breast and eye fillet steak) and three possible vegetarian options. With so much available

down below it would be good to be offered more than the predictable barramundi, Tasmanian Atlantic salmon, whole snapper, cooked prawns, salt and pepper squid, soft shelled crab or battered (and unidentified) fish fillets. There must be so much more that is seasonal and good.

There’s nothing wrong with the snapper. Moist flesh is covered with skin crisped with a light tempura coating. It’s successfully teamed with a salad of julienned carrot and capsicum, finely sliced red onion, cucumber and parsley

with a sweet-sour-hot chilli and lime dressing on the side, but I don’t see the point in the spiky fried glass noodles underneath.

The Cajun spice on the skin of the Tasmanian salmon doesn’t penetrate its overcooked flesh but this does come with a very generous serve of mixed roast vegetables, kipfler potatoes and perfectly cooked green beans.

The scallop and prawn cakes, with their crunchy crumb crust coating and chilli and coriander aioli, are a bit salty. But a wellflavoured mustard and chilli Thai-style

vinaigrette complements the soft-shelled crab in its light tempura batter.

For the undecided and cashed up there’s a seafood platter for two with oysters, both natural and Kilpatrick; Balmain bugs or blue swimmer crab; whole lobster mornay; battered

fish; salt & pepper squid; prawn and scallop cakes; bacon, shallot and soy scallops; fresh prawns; calamari; chips, salad and fruit. Phew!

The kitchen pulls off a very presentable lemon tart. The pastry is fine, crisp and crumbly; the filling, tart and lemony.

Service today is friendly but sometimes a little slow and lacking experience; and given its location, I’d like to see a more interesting selection of seafood.

But they will always have that view.