Top chef Josh Niland is permanently closing two high-profile venues this weekend

In sour food news for the Good Friday fish-eating faithful, seafood chef Josh Niland has announced he is closing Charcoal Fish, his experimental barbecue fish eatery at Rose Bay, and Paddington’s Fish Butchery, this Sunday, March 31.

When Charcoal Fish opened in 2021, it created a new genre by treating fish in much the same way a charcoal chicken shop treats chicken. Niland, the wunderkind of Sydney seafood with his two-hatted gastrotemple, Saint Peter, was pushing boundaries at the takeaway-heavy spin-off.

Chef Josh Niland at Charcoal Fish Rose Bay, which will close on Sunday.

But there had been recent rumblings that Charcoal Fish would vacate its New South Head Road site. A spokesperson for Niland blamed “the variable seasonality of that location”, which sits back from the harbour.

Fish Butchery, a fish and chip shop that also sells fresh seafood, ready meals and kitchen tools, opened in a former Oxford Street hair salon, a few doors along from Saint Peter, in April 2018. It will close almost exactly six years later on Sunday.

Niland, along and his chef wife Julie, have rapidly expanded in the past few years, also opening seafood bistro Petermen in St Leonards and “seafood steakhouse” Fysh in Singapore in 2023. They are in the process of relocating Saint Peter to the nearby Grand National Hotel, which is in the final stages of renovation.

A spokeswoman for the Nilands says that move tied in with the decision to shut Fish Butchery: “The relocation of Saint Peter into a bigger restaurant and kitchen has allowed for more space, and all whole fish butchery will now be carried out in the kitchen and at Fish Butchery Waterloo (which remains open to the public on weekends).

“The Waterloo site is more suited to purpose and will continue to supply whole fish butchery to both the larger Saint Peter and Petermen restaurants,” she adds.

“Staff from both venues will be incorporated into existing businesses where possible, and any outstanding Charcoal Fish vouchers will be redirected to other venues.”