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Monday, November 23, 2009

Eating out: Flanagans Fish Cafe

It had been slightly more than the usual hectic week at work. Most of us had put in a 16-20 hour day on Monday, then had fronted up again at seven the next morning. So on Wednesday, our boss shouted us lunch (whilst we had our (sometimes) weekly team meeting).

The view from my seat - looking south


The view from my seat - looking north

The location of choice was Flanagan’s. This establishment had been located as a take-away on Lawrence Hargrave Drive a few years ago. When they moved to the kiosk on Thirroul Beach, they seemed to be continuing to focus on “high-end” seafood take-away, but now also with the facility to dine in.

Since a few months ago when I had visited last, they have now physically separated the restaurant into take-away and dining sections. Both have table seating out the front, though this too is separated by a wood/rope barricade. The signage is not immediately apparent so in the time we were there, I saw 3 couples directed away from the dine-in section and around the corner of the building to the take-away section and a couple vice-versa.

The location is magnificent. Separated by a walk-way from the sand of Thirroul Beach, you can’t get much closer in this country to dining by the sea. It is a beautiful day when we are there, and for the days that are not so pleasant there is still adequate table space inside.

The service is a little curious. No-one came out to our group of seven, so we went inside and took some menus back to our table. There were also a couple of blackboard specials to choose from. Choices were mainly seafood oriented, though there were also some burger and Caesar salad options. The specials were the salt & pepper squid and Atlantic salmon. Once we had decided what we wanted, we then went back inside to give them our orders.

My choice was the King Prawn Wrap with aioli, cucumber and salad greens ($13). It came accompanied by a salad. Although the prawns were not really king-size, they were sweet, fresh and full of flavour. You could taste the aioli without it being over-powering and the wrap was fresh and nicely crispy.


Others at the table tried the specials: the Atlantic salmon ($18.50) came with hand-cut chips and salad with a pot of thick hollandaise sauce and was plated nicely and pronounced beautifully cooked; the salt & pepper squid ($14.50) was cooked to perfection.


Salt and pepper squid in the background, note-pad and pen in the foreground thereby proving our meeting intentions

The gluten-free member tried the Greek salad, which had generous chunks of feta and tasty olives, and a bowl of hand-cut chips that we were able to share.



They also have a wine list with a small, but thorough selection of bottled wines and beers. A waitperson came to clear our table, but did not ask for coffee orders, so our Akubra wearing stand in volunteered to take our order in (thanks John!).


Staff started taking in tables and chairs at 3.00 o’clock and when asked, they advised that they closed at four, which seems like a missed opportunity for the after-school crowd. However they did advise that they would be opening for dinner on the weekends from the beginning of December.

Food: 17/20 – Tasty, generous servings for a reasonable price
Coffee: 18/20 – Strong, flavourful and not too hot
Service: 14/20 – Full table service would have been nice
Location/ Decor: 20/20 – Right on the beach at scenic Thirroul

Flanagans Fish Cafe
At the beach, Thirroul
02 4268 1598
Open 7 days, 7.00am - 4.00pm
Check for evening opening days and times

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