Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram has become the city’s seafood hub

Restaurants on Vizhinjam Harbour Road are making waves for dishing up the best seafood in town

Late in the night Vizhinjam’s ‘restaurant row’ is a sea of activity as the salty breeze mingles with the mouth-watering aroma of fried seafood, peppered with merry conversations. The seafood restaurants on Vizhinjam Harbour Road are packed with customers from all walks of life, most of whom have travelled from the city and beyond to dine on the best of seafood, fresh from the boats. Vizhinjam is not only the best place to bargain for the catch of the day but it has also become the city’s answer to San Francisco’s Pier 39!  

Vizhinjam’s self-styled ‘restaurant row’ in question is situated on an unpaved track behind the Muhyuddin Juma Masjid Dargah Sharif, and boasts several joints serving seafood only, with just a couple of juice centres here and there. And that’s apart from the handful of restaurants along the main Harbour road itself, making it the city’s seafood hub. 

“We only serve fresh fish caught right here from Vizhinjam harbour or Poonthura, Kannanthura, Adimalathura and other harbours nearby,” claims Ashraf Mohammed Haneefa, the proprietor of Al Usthad hotel. 

As if to illustrate his point, a fisherman comes with a bag full of plump hamour fish (grouper) that he just caught. “It’s typically found near the rocks and reefs in the harbour,” says Ashraf, inviting us to look at the rest of the day’s catch, kept on ice in the restaurant’s storeroom. There’s plump ponnarameen (butter fish), hamour, kalava, red and white snappers, avoli (pomfret), neymeen (seer fish), choora (tuna), prawns, squid and mussels…all marinated and ready to cook.

It’s pretty much the same story up and down restaurant row. Each place has a store room full of seafood, prepped and ready to go. “We all have tie-ups with local fishermen and they bring us whatever they catch. So the menu keeps changing everyday depending on what’s available. Customers can choose what they want and we cook it only after we get the order. Right now, we have a lot of hamour, always a hot favourite with customers; customers usually get one or two for the table,” say youngsters Issudeen Mohammed Illyas and Nazeer Khan, who run Salmon restaurant, which they opened eight months ago to rave reviews.

“It’s also clam season now so we are getting a bountiful catch of chippi (mussels) every day,” adds Riyas Khan of Asmak Seafood, the newest joint on the block, started five months ago and the only one apart from Al Usthad that has an upper deck with an uninterrupted view of the sea. 

It all began with Ustad Hotel, some 25 years ago. Until the movie Ustad Hotel, starring DQ, was released in 2012, it was just a nameless shack that served meals to fishermen coming ashore in the early hours of the morning. Over the years the restaurant became a cult favourite of foodies for its signature ‘Vizhinjam’ fried fish.