About
John Dory Seafoods is a family-owned fish and chip shop in Nelson Bay, serving up fresh-cooked seafood and burgers for both lunch and dinner. The menu centres on classic takeaway fare, with seafood baskets, calamari, and burgers among the regulars. Meals are cooked to order, and the shop offers both dine-in and takeaway, with outdoor seating available on-site.
The seafood basket is a popular choice, typically arriving with fish, calamari, prawn cutlets, and chips, finished with house-made tartare sauce. The calamari comes as pieces of battered squid rather than rings, in a style closer to salt and pepper squid. Potato scallops also feature on the menu. Regulars note the shop offers solid value compared with other spots in the Nelson Bay area, and the fish and chips are served wrapped in butcher’s paper in time-honoured fashion. The staff are generally noted for being friendly.
The venue is fully wheelchair accessible, has a kids’ menu, and is suited to families as well as solo diners. Card and NFC mobile payments are accepted, and free parking is available on-site and on the street nearby. No reservations are taken, so expect to order and wait at the counter during busy periods.
For anyone after a straightforward, no-fuss seafood meal in Nelson Bay, John Dory Seafoods is a casual and accessible option. Phone ahead during the dinner rush to get a sense of wait times.
Business Hours
Dine-In Available?
Map
Sorry, no records were found. Please adjust your search criteria and try again.
Sorry, unable to load the Maps API.
Photo
8 Reviews on “John Dory Seafoods”
I was happy with the food. The cocktail fish are very tasty, but on the smaller side compared with other shops. The calamari was also tasty (not rings, but pieces of battered squid (like salt &pepper squid), just FYI). The potato scallops are much smaller than traditional takeaway size, which was a bit disappointing.
We got the Mermaid Basket and a few extra calamari and potato scallops, and it fed 3 adults + 3 little kids (<9yrs old) pretty comfortably.
Prices have increased a fair bit since some of the older menu photos on Google (I've posted newer prices in attached photos). It's not cheap, but the quality made up for it. Probably our favourite in the Nelson Bay area at the moment.
Food was eaten outside of shop, got a seafood basket. Chips could have been cooked a few minutes longer, fish batter on one of the two pieces was like soggy wet bread on the inside, calamari was like jerky, other pieces I didn’t personally try. Just a bit mid overall, eatable but not really worth the $34
Good ol fish n chips wrapped up in butchers paper, just like I remember when I was a kid.
Much better value than other places in the area.
Staff were friendly too.
We spent over $90 and it was the worst chips, potato scallops and fish we’ve ever had. I wished we’d looked for reviews before we wasted our $$.
Service was not even slightly friendly.
Wish I’d read the reviews before going. Fish had a weird taste and texture. Chips were awful. Service was slow even though they were not busy. Staff seem to be mostly students or school kids so I don’t think they particularly care much. You’d think for a place a block away from the harbour the fish would be great.
Overpriced, small portions, and badly cooked. Questioned the size of my flathead meal (as pictured) and was told “that’s the size”. Used to come here whenever we visited the area however never again!
If I could leave zero stars I would.
Specifically said I wanted 4 pieces fish, 1 serve chips and 6 calamari rings.. what did I get? A $65 bill for 4 x fish and chip meals…..which I told the teenage girl at the time was too much food. Took over 40 mins to make it and when I questioned what she was doing she didn’t even reply.
Spoke to the older man which made an appearance, but all too late..food cooked, no apology, no offer of a refund..just said, “thats how it comes do you want a carry bag for that?”
Honestly….never ever again will you catch me buying here.
Ordered then got scared whilst waiting and read the reviews. I actually enjoyed my dinner. It was a seafood basket with calamari, fish, prawn cutlet seafood stick with chips lemon and home made Tarta sauce. It was all quite tasty. Tasted better than it looked. It was just thrown on paper and wrapped up. So had to part the chips to find the good stuff. All in all, I wld come here again.