Sea Kings Steam and Fry Seafood Inc — Restaurant in New York

Walked in for the first time and the place is pretty clean. You walk towards the back select your seafood but no direction as to where to go after that so I place on the counter where staff washes the food. After waiting awhile the staffer tells me I have to take my baskets to the other counter to weigh and pay. I walk back to cashier with my baskets to the other counter. Cashier weighs my food. I had one basket to steam and the other basket which had shrimp and scallop was to fry. I take back to the first counter I was at to get food washed and prepped. I tell the guy that I want the shrimp in the fry basket butterfly style and de-shelled. After he preps my baskets I get them back but no butterfly style shrimp in fry basket. I didn’t make a fuss. He tells me to take my food back to other counter to cook. Ok so the counter is pretty high limiting visibility of the staff. I walk all the way around the counter but there are no one or any sign to say anything to direct on where to leave your food. It’s one long high counter. So I stand at the very end of the counter and no one is saying anything to me so I thought I was standing in the wrong place. Keep in mind I’m holding two wet baskets of food now but no acknowledgement from staff so after awhile I walk back to cashier side of the counter place my food on the counter. After awhile the cashier tells me that I have to take my food all around the counter to the chef. I take my food from the counter and walk all the way back around the other side of the counter where I stand again with my two wet baskets. After waiting some time a staffer finally tells me to give her the baskets and asks about my seasoning preference. I stand on my tippy toes to hand her the baskets at the tall counter. She in turn gives my food to the chef to cook. As I’m waiting for my food to get done the lady who took my baskets calls out someone’s order and reminds the person to leave a google review after asking if they left one already. Another person gets called for their order and asked the same thing as their picking up their order. Person said they hadn’t and they too get reminded of leaving a Google review. Odd I thought but whatever right? I finally get called up for my order and chef packs my food but the other lady doesn’t ask me about leaving a google review. Strange. I was in there feeling umwelcomed during my visit and left feeling the same way. As far as the food goes, spice flavor of my steamed dish was spot on but the shrimp was over cooked. The fried dish was inedible. There was no breading on the shrimp or scallop it was all just fried in the oil resulting in rubbery food. I never left a review this long but I had to write in because I support black owned businesses and hope the owner uses my review to improve...

Searching for a conch meal all over Connecticut and coming up empty handed, I decided to take the trip to the land of variety. Brooklyn NY it was. Got down to Utica ave and came across the little gem. At first, I was a little confused with the layout of fresh seafood under layers of ice to maintain freshness. “Is this a restaurant?” I asked myself. Finally I was approached by the lady behind the counter, who later introduced herself, Amarie. She handed us a bowl like basket to gather our fresh seafood. Again, confused I said, “I’m looking for cooked food, not raw seafood, conch to be exact.” She gave us this look of uncertainty until I said that this was our first time here and wasn’t sure how to go about ordering. Amazed she said ‘oh gotcha, let me show you’, and proceeded to guide us through the process. So, you’re given a bowl like basket to select all your fresh seafood from a variety of choices from conch, shrimp, different fish, lobster, crab legs, clams and more, then you select your greens (okra, onions, peppers, potato, plantains etc) to complete your meal. You then take your selections to a counter to have thoroughly cleaned and chopped, then over to another counter to be cooked right there on the spot to your liking of mild, half mild/half spicy or full spicy. You also have the option to have it prepared fried, steamed, Thai style, jerk, grilled, roasted and more. My choice for the conch, scallops, calamari, lobster tail, with a variety of greens, was to have it steamed. After a reasonable wait to be prepared by a very friendly chef, I have to say, it was heaven on a platter. Couldn’t wait, so I sat right in my vehicle before taking the long drive back to CT and completely delve into a slice of heaven. Steamed to perfection with a hint of spiciness, and topped off with a bottle of amazing soursop. Couldn’t have made a better decision to fulfill my sudden urge and craving for conch lol. Sea King did it for me. Head down to Sea King to see Amarie and staff for an experience like no other.

Sidenote; unfortunately there isn’t onsite dining, but honestly, I don’t think you’d want to wait an extended period to be seated because those revolving doors...

Everything was amazing except for my experience with their delivery, which according to reviews both here and on Yelp seems to be a common issue.

I placed an order on Ubereats around 8pm and my food didn't arrive until 10. A driver was paired with the order around 8:30 I assume because at 8:45 he was already at the restaurant waiting to pick it up. But at 9pm the driver was unpaired from the order and Uber sent me a notification saying the order was going to be late due to a delay in finding a driver. That obviously confused me because the driver had already been there for quite some time waiting for the order so I contacted support. They told me the driver left because the line inside was incredibly long and my food had yet to be prepared. It wasn't until around 9:30 that another driver was paired and arrived at the restaurant. Another 10 minutes of him waiting went by so I decided to call the restaurant myself to see what the holdup was. Apparently my order had JUST started to be prepared, 1.5 hours after the order was confirmed. 15 minutes later the order was on the way, thank God the driver didnt leave because I probably would've been eating at midnight.

Besides all that mess, the food was very, very good. Still very hot when it arrived, salmon was tender, shrimp were perfectly cooked and cleaned, potatoes and corn on point, everything wonderfully seasoned to perfection. I would've liked the broccoli to have a little more crunch but they steamed everything together so I understood. I just hope that they see what people are saying in regards to their delivery times and make a change. The man I spoke with said verbatim that they had tons of orders coming in along with walk ins which is why my order was prepared an hour and a half after it coming into their system. If y'all are slammed, stop taking orders until you're caught up. People will understand. I beg of y'all to work on that cause you're missing out on great reviews for things that have nothing to do with the amazing quality...