Fish Village — Restaurant in New York

Walking into the restaurant the the impression is that the place is simply decorated and is nothing fancy. Cartoonish pictures of sea creatures and mermaids are placed every few places on the wall or pillars. What draws the eye the most is dozens of tanks of live seafood such as fishes, crabs, lobsters, clams, etc. This is where you choose which one to pick out for the chef's to cook for your dinner that night and most goes by pound according to seasonal prices.

My girl said that the atmosphere reminds her of those street restaurants in Asia.

I found everything to be fresh and simple but simple in a good way. Fresh as could be since everything was swimming in the tanks in front of you when you chose one. The simplicity lets you taste the freshness of the seafood without masking it too much. Lightly steamed or stir fried with your chosen sauces and herbs seems to be the preferred method here.

Some of the selections could be made it multiple dishes from one creature. For example, fish could be made into a souip from the leftover parts like the head, tail, and bone which the main meaty section would be made into a steamed dish smothered in a light soy sauce with vegetables. The king Crab of ours was made into 3 seperate dishes as seen in my photos.

The reviews here seems to be mixed on yelp and Google maps but the bad ones seems to not understand that seafood is expensive thus complaining it's not cheap or the other common theme with complaints there is a 30% charge for cooking what you picked out from the tanks to eat. That complaint is not valid since the way this place works is that they charge you per pound seasonal fair market price for seafood and then charge you 30% to cook it. It ends up be cheaper than most seafood dishes at restaurants this way but some expect what they see on the tank prices is what it should be without understanding there is no profit that way for the restaurant.

Outside of the seafood, there is a selection of vegetable dishes and meat dishes on the menu. The vegetables is made with the same kind of pleasant simplicity as the seafood. I can't say anything about the meat dishes since we didn't order any the night we came. It is a seafood restaurant after all so we thought why not just go with it's strengths? And no the chicken, lambs, and pigs were not held in tanks or cages like the seafood.

Btw. I parked 3 blocks away to avoid the parking fee at the lot right at the restaurant but I found out if you eat here they stamp a coupon for you to park free when you pick up your car. You just need to...

Unique experience of being able to pick out fresh seafood and have it prepared several different ways for you. However the price is very expensive for the terrible service and ambiance. We were seated right away and provided a menu and tea. After that we were ignored until we asked several people how to order food. One server told me to order it at the counter along with all the take out people. Why am I sitting for dine in service if we have to stand in line? Finally, we got someone to take our order and the food came out relatively quick but in pieces when they were ready, rather than around the same time. So we got our clams with black bean sauces first and since everyone was hungry, we started eating that and then got veggies, then our crab dish and then noodles and rice all at different times. We ordered a live king crab prepared three ways. While the crab tasted good, it was all a little salty. The crab was huge but I wasn't expecting to pay $450 for it. So with the 30% processing fee charge, our entire dinner came out to $750 for 6 people. Paying this much would be worth it if we'd gotten decent service and didn't have to keep chasing people down for simple things like water or to pay our check (my husband finally had to stand in the "to go" cashier line just to get our expensive bill paid). We could have eaten at a fine steak and seafood restaurant with wine, apps and dinner and great service for what we paid for this meal... Meanwhile, the ambiance here is a total chaotic fish market with servers too busy to give you any kind of service and a hefty price tag. Seriously, save the money and go to someplace like Crown...

We came to Fish Village for a Mother’s Day lunch after seeing a WeChat ad promoting the weekend special. My mother-in-law loves seafood, and the ad — especially with the WeChat promo — convinced us to give it a try. We’re not local, but it’s rare to find a restaurant with live seafood tanks, which was a great sign for freshness.

We ordered lobster two ways: scallion & ginger, and 避風塘 (typhoon shelter-style). Both were very good — fresh, flavorful, and just the right portion for the three of us. The house special fried rice was another highlight: slightly pricey, but worth it for the quality. It had a great balance of flavors with XO sauce and dried scallop, and wasn’t overly salty.

We also had the 蒜香雞 (crispy garlic chicken), which was surprisingly delicious. A bit salty at the bottom where the sauce pooled under the chicken breast, but overall it reminded me of 客家-style chicken I used to have in Hong Kong.

The restaurant was spacious, the bathroom was clean, and the service was friendly. We finished with complimentary fruit, and parking was plentiful and well-organized.

A great spot for a special occasion, especially if you’re looking for fresh seafood. We’ll definitely come back when we’re in...