Coming Soon: A Turkish-Style Seafood Restaurant by the Efendy Team

The hugely anticipated new Sydney Fish Market is finally opening in 2025, and its flagship restaurant has just been announced. It’s a new 280-seat restaurant from the Efendy Group, helmed by celebrity chef Somer Sivrioğlu. And this time around, the focus is unsurprisingly all about showcasing all the Australian seafood that’ll be hitting the market.

“When people think about Turkish food, they don’t think of seafood much,” general manager Fatih Kulle tells Broadsheet. “But Turkey is surrounded by seas: there’s so much seafood and it’s all so different.

“This is our chance to showcase Turkish seafood.”

The new restaurant, which hasn’t got a name yet, is expected to open in about 10 months – in time for summer next year. So finer menu details are a ways from being firmed up. But according to executive chef Arman Uz, the hero will be charcoal.

“It’s going to be fresh seafood, mostly cooked over charcoal – mud crabs, lobsters, anything we can source from the seafood floor every morning,” Uz says. “We’ll also have a raw fish bar serving oysters, scallops – anything you can imagine.”

Seafood dishes cooked in Turkish claypots are also expected to factor in a big way. Plus, there’ll be a takeaway kiosk serving classic fish’n’chips, salt and pepper squid, and a few Turkish surprises involving sardines and stuffed mussels. As for what Uz is most excited about? It’s the balik ekmek, a Turkish fish sandwich and a classic Istanbul street – or rather, waterway – food, served straight from boats on the Bosphorus.

“It’s sold on the Bosphorus, they just catch the fish and sell the sandwich off the boat,” Uz says. “We’ll make our bread for it with the wood-fire oven, and serve it with grilled seasonal fish.

“I’m looking forward to using some underrated fish on it that you don’t usually see on restaurant tables.”

It’ll all be set within a vast indoor-outdoor space – the biggest restaurant in the upcoming market.

“It’s on the second floor, top left corner, with a huge outdoor area – more than half of the seats will be outside,” says Kulle. “There’ll be an amazing view of the sunset over Anzac Bridge.”

The Efendy Group’s Sydney Fish Market restaurant is expected to open in September 2025.