Under the shadow of the castle lies one of Nottingham’s best seafood restaurants.
Situated on an unassuming road, that honesty hinders many (including myself) from finding it, is The Seafood Guy, a Hong Kong restaurant and cafe.
Recently, this locally owned restaurant has been all over my TikTok ‘for you page’ filled with Nottingham food influencers giving glowing reviews of this place.
Even Platform Magazine (fourth wall break) gave it a good review a couple of years ago.
However, could it live up to this high quality or have standards declined since its explosion across social media?
I have never been to Hong Kong, so I cannot comment on how authentic the restaurant is.
Yet, from the moment you walk in the door, you are greeted by all different kinds of food from Hong Kong.
Such foods included a baked good section, sauces, dried noodles and Buldack ramen available for you to buy.
Once you pass through the shop section you are welcomed into the second room, the restaurant. Lit by warm orange lighting surrounded by dark green plant walls and sophisticated dark sofas.
We went on a Monday, which is normally a day I find there are barely any good restaurants open in Nottingham (correct me if i’m wrong).
The restaurant itself was still vibrant with most tables being occupied which really added to the atmosphere.
Once we were seated, we opened the menu, a large one at that with a range of starters, mains and desserts with seafood, meats and vegetarian options.
We started with Hong Kong lemonade and a diet coke. The lemonade felt far fresher as it had additional lemon flavour to traditional British lemonade.
Quickly following these drinks were the starters, King prawn toast and Takoyaki balls.
The prawn toast were covered in a mix spices that have been fried and a sticky sweet and lightly spicy sauce.
They were crispy, with a delectable prawn flavour coming through nicely. The Takoyaki balls were deep fried Japanese octopus, covered in a rich white sauce.
These were absolutely brilliant. They were rich, fluffy and crispy on the outside. The filling oozed out when you took a bite.
To cut some of the richness, the lemonade was a nice pairing as the lemon flavour cut through. Overall, I would definitely order the Takoyaki balls again.
For our mains, we ordered sweet and sour fried Fish, ginger chicken with Hong Kong style fried rice and cured Chinese sausage to share.
I was scared that the fish underneath the batter would be dry and rubbery as it is one of the major issues I find with fish.
However, I was pleasantly surprised at how flaky and tender it was underneath, the fried element gave it a lovely crispness.
The main body of the fish didn’t appear to have any bones but I did have a problem with the tail having some bones. The chicken was nice, my friend loved it. She thought the ginger came through nicely. The meat was cooked nicely and the portion size was great. I didn’t really think it compared to my fish.
We had wanted to try the desserts, however by the end of our mains (we ended up having to get takeaway boxes) we were stuffed. But next time we go, the fried buns with condensed milk caught my eye.
It should be noted that it runs slightly on the more expensive side although the portion sizes do help justify it. Both me and the friend I went with managed to get meals out of the leftovers that we ended up taking home.
From the moment that you walk into the restaurant the staff are friendly, and the atmosphere welcoming. At the end of our meal some of the workers came over to talk to us about the restaurant. The passion and authenticity they had for the place truly shone through.
Overall, The Seafood guys definitely lives up to the social media hype, and both of us would definitely go back.
