A fishmonger with a fine dining difference opens at Prahran Market
Dine at any of LK Hospitality Group’s venues – including hatted South Yarra restaurants Omnia and Yugen Omakase – and you’re likely to feast on some of Australia’s highest quality seafood. Perhaps a whole flounder bathed in beurre noisette, or a delicately torched scampi nigiri.
Now, you can get this same calibre of fresh fine dining at home thanks to Portside, Prahran Market’s shiny new fishmonger and produce store led by LK culinary director Stephen Nairn.
Portside prepares seafood as it would at a restaurant, such as Hervey Bay scallops and half rock lobsters.
What is Portside?
In the heart of the market, the new fish shop gleams opposite premium butcher G.McBean (see below), and you’ll find cut, dressed and prepared seafood sourced from around the country – from Gippsland to Mallacoota, South Australia’s Port Lincoln and Busselton in WA.
The handling of top quality seafood is paramount at Portside. Yes, you can buy freshly caught tendrils of calamari straight from the marine of Corner Inlet. You can take home half southern rock lobsters, or an entire Queensland coral trout. But there are plenty of quality fishmongers in Melbourne.
The sticking point here is to take you beyond the raw product and guide you on specific culinary techniques and how certain cuts are best served. Even better, your fish will be prepared as it would before service in a restaurant.
The schmick new store is opposite G.McBean butcher in Prahran Market.
That Corner Inlet calamari? Scored to help tenderise the meat. Rock lobster? Stuffed with garlic miso and wrapped in kelp. House-made vadouvan butter is jarred for serving alongside coral trout, while Hervey Bay scallops are topped with yuzu butter, ready to be thrown in the oven.
“In restaurants, there’s a lot of technique that happens to fish before it hits your plate, whether it’s salted, cured or hung,” Nairn says. “It’s almost always treated in some capacity before it becomes a restaurant portion. That’s something you don’t often see in the retail space.”
Select sauces, butters and dressings from the fridges.
Fridges are stocked with everything from tartare and bouillabaisse sauces to brown butter with capers, fish stock, lobster bisque, mignonette dressing, caviar and more.
‘We’re trying to make [cooking with seafood] a little bit more fun and accessible.’Stephen Nairn
There’s also ready-made meals such as cooked octopus glazed with Japanese-style den miso, plus an entire fridge of “fish-friendly wines” – Nairn recommends a riesling, or a chablis to pair with clams or lobster.
In the future, a small fryer out the back will allow staff to prepare fried fish ready for picnics at a moment’s notice.
“We’re trying to make [cooking with seafood] a little bit more fun and accessible,” Nairn says.
LK Hospitality culinary director Stephen Nairn is behind the new venture.
Who’s behind it?
Born in Glasgow, Nairn has worked across restaurants like New York’s Eleven Madison Park and local fine diners Vue de Monde and Estelle. He now leads the teams at Yugen, Omnia, YTB and Yugen Omakase as the group’s culinary director, alongside executive chef Luke Headon, whose resume spans several UK Michelin-starred restaurants and Melbourne’s hatted Society and Lillian Brasserie.
Taking the skills and techniques Nairn and Headon developed at some of the world’s best venues and applying it to a retail setting is the core premise of Portside, where you can expect the same front-of-house service you’d find at one of their restaurants.
Portside is well stocked for Christmas Day.
Best Christmas buys
Hosting Christmas lunch just became much easier. Nairn’s pick for the day is oysters, and there’s plenty of them – you might find Sydney rock oysters from across Clyde River, Port Stephens, Merimbula and Wheelers, or Pacific breeds from Bruny Island in Tasmania.
As for prawns, choose from juicy king or tiger varieties from Mooloolaba, already butterflied for grilling. Pre-ordering online before midnight on Friday is the way to go to pick up your goods in time. Ready-made Christmas bundles include lobster, prawns and oysters of your choice, or buy sides like scallops, cocktail sauce and tinned caviar. You can even arrange to pick up from YTB to skip the market queues.
Nairn is also a fan of a whole baked fish as “something special to share around the table”. We’re eyeing off the Queensland alpine trout prepared with curry leaves, or the pre-portioned pepper-crusted tuna steaks.
Open Tue and Thu-Sun
