Whether you’re fishing for ornate seafood towers, luxurious lobster or simply-grilled filets, these are NYC’s best seafood restaurants
Written by Christina Izzo & Amber Sutherland-NamakoMonday September 13 2021
Thanks to NYC’s proximity to open water, seafood has always been on the menu in the five boroughs. From river to river, you’ll find dollar oysters at happy hour, seaside eateries and celebrations of the very bivalves that work to keep our waterways clear. These are the city’s best seafood restaurants for cracking lobsters, slurping oysters and hand-picking your own fresh fish right now.
Seafood restaurants in NYC
1. The Fulton
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Financial District
For food with a view closer to sea level than many of its competitors, The Fulton’s your tip-top spot. The Seaport restaurant has equally beautiful tableaus from its ground floor patio as its dining room upstairs. Its seafood-centric menu includes red snapper ceviche, grilled swordfish and black sea bass in surroundings that’ll tickle even longtime New Yorkers, especially with a glass of something sparkling.
Photograph: Courtesy Belathée Photography
2. Leland Eating and Drinking House
- Restaurants
- Prospect Heights
Relatively new to Prospect Heights, Leland Eating and Drinking House is already a popular destination for brunch and dinner, inside and out. Though it isn’t exclusively a seafood restaurant, some of our recent favorites include the smoked steelhead trout roulette, charred lemon skillet mussels and whole fried scup.
Photograph: Time Out/Ali Garber
3. Astoria Seafood
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Long Island City
Long Island City’s Astoria Seafood has been serving up an immersive dining experience since before the category formally emerged. You’ll choose from its selection of raw scallops, shark, snapper and octopus, bag it up yourself and choose from preparations like grilled, fried, baked or broiled. And with its option to BYOB, this is as close as some of us will get to cooking at home.
4. Maison Premiere
- Bars
- Cocktail bars
- Williamsburg
- price 3 of 4
Scuffed into submission by owner Joshua Boissy and the designers behind nearby Moto, this gorgeous salon—its green walls fogged with a faux patina that suggests decades of Gauloises smoke—is devoted to the twin pleasures of oysters and absinthe: two French Quarter staples with plenty of appeal in Brooklyn.
Photograph: Courtesy Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co.
5. Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co.
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Greenpoint
- price 1 of 4
Now open exclusively for outdoor dining, Greenpoint Fish & Lobster serves raw bar platters, smoked fish spreads, lobster rolls and tuna burgers right outside its beachy, narrow corner spot. Our go-to drink is Narragansett, but wine and a few other beers are available too.
27 Morton
- Restaurants
- Contemporary European
- West Village
Thanks to its eclectic menu and homely, laidback vibe, this adorable corner cafe on Morton Street is the perfect place to schlep to for a hungover…
Venue says: We are temporarily closed, but hope to resume operations and see you all soon!
Photograph: Courtesy Kylie Thompson
6. Fish Cheeks
- Restaurants
- Thai
- Noho
- price 2 of 4
A family-owned downtown favorite since 2016, Fish Cheeks’ contemporary Thai recipes feature a bounty of seafood served family style in a bright, lively dining room. Try the slightly spicy grilled branzino to perk up your palate, or keep it mellow with the crab fried rice. Stop by during happy hour any day from 12pm-3:15pm and 5pm-6pm for $6 beer, $10 wine, $11 cocktail and a half-dozen oysters for $9.
7. Russ & Daughters
- Shopping
- Specialist food and drink
- Lower East Side
- price 1 of 4
Russ & Daughters has been serving lox, herring and other specialty foods since 1914. But one of our favorite delicacies here is a more recent creation: the Daughters’ Delight, with Gaspé Nova smoked salmon, wild Alaskan salmon roe and cream cheese on a bagel or a bialy
8. Pearl Oyster Bar
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- West Village
- price 2 of 4
This convivial, New England–style joint was a forerunner of the city’s fish-shack trend. The outstanding lobster roll—sweet, lemony meat laced with mayonnaise on a butter-enriched bun—is Pearl’s raison d’être, but more sophisticated dishes fare equally well: A bouillabaisse features briny lobster broth packed with mussels, cod, scallops and clams, with an aioli-smothered crouton balanced on top.
9. Littleneck
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Gowanus
- price 2 of 4
Nodding to nearby Gowanus Canal, this New England–style seafood joint (funded in part by a Kickstarter campaign) sports a nautical look, featuring a salvaged ship portal and an eight-foot piece of driftwood draped with thick ropes. The short menu highlights Northeast clam-shack grub, including an Ipswich clam roll and a Maine-style lobster roll, plus raw-bar plates. Eight tap lines dispense seasonal brews at the zinc-topped bar.
10. The Mermaid Oyster Bar
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Greenwich Village
- price 2 of 4
This bright fish shack, with wainscoting and whitewashed walls, offers a the bill of fare balanced between the curated raw bar (16 oysters, as well as clams and lobster) and plated dishes that salute seafood favorites, ranging from greaseless clam strips with a tangy tartar sauce to a robust shellfish-enriched lobster bisque.
11. Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant
- Bars
- Wine bars
- Civic Center
- price 2 of 4
Though it’s September 2021 reopening date has been pushed back, we’ve got our fingers crossed that this historic spot will reopen any day. Dating back to 1913, Grand Central Oyster Bar’s vaulted ceilings and dozens of oyster options have been dazzling commuters for generations. Pair your platter with an ice cold martini or a few glugs of white wine.
12. Ed’s Lobster Bar
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- Nolita
- price 2 of 4
Chef Ed McFarland’s New England–style fish shack is a Soho staple. If you secure a place at the 25-seat marble bar or at one of the few tables, expect superlative raw shellfish, delicately fried Ipswich clams and lobster served every which way: steamed, grilled, broiled, chilled, stuffed into a pot pie and—the crowd favorite—in the lobster roll. Here, it’s a buttered bun full of premium chunks of meat with just a light coating of mayo.
13. Johnny’s Famous Reef Restaurant
- Restaurants
- Seafood
- The Bronx
Pack your pockets full of cash, stake out a spot on the deck out back and order your oysters, clams, fried shrimp, lobster tails and soft shell crab at Johnny’s cafeteria-style counter. The waterside spot’s Henny Colada cocktail is also one of the best frozen drinks in NYC.
