Clyde Phillips Seafood MKT — Attraction in Swansboro

My old friend Clyde Phillips who's seafood shop is just ten minutes from my house, often seems to read my mind when I visit his shop between the two bridges in Swansboro. All I have to do is ask, "What's your recommendation today?" and I know I am going to have a great meal when I get home. The fish that Clyde displays upon the ice in his counter is always fresh, clean, and quality cut. He knows his product... and as long as I have been coming to the shop between the bridges... has has always known what would serve up the best. There' just something magical... old days of the sea about that little shop. It's not fancy... but far more important it's real... and it is steeped in heritage. It is as it has long been a critical part of our community of Hubert, Stella, Bear Creek, Swansboro, Cape Carteret, and Cedar Point. Just ask anyone... they all know where Clyde's shop is... This weekend past I picked up a tuna steak from him. I grilled it this evening over hickory and mesquite, seasoned lightly with dried garlic, dill and lemon zest... I prepared some summer corn along with some of my home canned green beans for a dinner fit for a king. I made my own blonde dipping sauce seasoned with dill and turmeric, and then sat down to what has long been one of my favorite meals. The tuna steak turned out perfect, flaked at just the right point having absorbed the flavors of the seasoning while it sizzled on the grill without losing that unique fresh from the sea taste. Each flake dipped in the sauce melted tenderly in my mouth as I savored every bite of the meal. It's a flavor you just can't capture in a two inch wedge of tuna caught halfway around the world flash frozen and sold in pricey tiny portions in the big box stores. Phillips seafood is not fancy... it's real... like the fishmongers of old... and when one want the very best... most of us in our area know where to go... There's only one Clyde...

My wife and I stopped there Sunday evening and purchased 4 Speckled trout and 1 large Flounder. No bargain at 62$ but that was not the problem. The man cleaning the fish looked to be in his 80s which is fine but I could easily see he had no idea what he was doing, I ordered "gutted and scaled " that's all. He proceeded to trim off pieces of the stomach and and huge pieces of fish were cut off that didn't need to be. I have caught and cleaned fish my whole life. We ended up with 1 fish that still had all the guts left in and 2 fish that were not even scaled. The flounder and all the trout (that were gutted) were mutilated with huge portions of the stomach carved out. When i said something the man selling the fish was rude and started to argue with me. It was 6:00PM and they were about to close "open light still on " and there were 3 customers that came in after us. But that is no reason to mutilate the expensive fish we bought and be...

I asked for my speckled trout to be filleted, when I got back home which was a 1 hour drive, I took out the trout and it was not filleted. The guts were cleaned out and the tail was cut off and that’s it! I also had to finish scaling it as it was not scaled all the way. I was very upset as I paid $16.00 for 1 speckled trout and it wasn’t even done the way I requested! Not a happy person at all!

Update: I have continued to get my fresh fish here and I have been very satisfied. This day must have been an off day, because my fish have been exactly as I have requested them. So happy that I decided to give them another chance. This is the only place I buy my fresh fish and...