Riverside Seafood Market — Restaurant in Tampa

It has been my experience that if you want quality seafood that is adequately proportioned to cost and reasonably priced, local fish market/ restaurants tend to have a competitive edge over specialty dining establishments that include seafood items on their menus. However, choosing one over the other is not without compromise. Ultimately a decision has to be made and there are several things that should be considered when making said decision. There are three components that help me to decide, Taste, Portion, and Cost. Taste is relative obviously, nevertheless, Cost and Portion are often dictated by the venue. For example; at a Red Lobster I can expect to pay roughly $25 - 30 for a meal containing a four ounce piece of fish (mind you that price may increase dependent upon market value). At that price point though, I expect a much more gratifying dining experience; particularly one the you might come to expect from a franchise of that caliber. Conversely, at a local fish market I can expect three times the portion size than that of Red Lobster but the dining experience is essentially limited to tedious seating accommodations.

Riverside Seafood Market is the rule and by no means the exception. Nevertheless, what the establishments like Riverside lack in decor they over compensate in quality, taste, and portion comparatively speaking. Having said that Riverside obviously failed to win me over on the merits of their decorum, however, in their defense to expect anything more from a local fish market is simply unrealistic. Assuming that you love fish as much as I do, I can assure you, once you move past the ambiance the variety and the taste will effectively win the approval of your taste buds, stomach, and your wallet.

I've been to Riverside Seafood Market a hand full of times and have always left a satisfied customer. This is actually my second favorite seafood joint in Tampa. I usually pay them a visit when my first choice is closed or they've sold out of my preferred dish. To date I've had their Smoked Mullet, Mullet Dinner, Fried Clam Strips, Fried Oysters, Fried Conch, and Homemade Conch Fritters. I am extremely partial to the Conch Fritters, in a word the are succulent! If you want great tasting seafood patronize Riverside...

My friend and I called Riverside Seafood Restaurant on Sat, 9/15/18 before placing an Uber Eats order, because the order menu on that platform was poorly expressed and a bit difficult to understand. We were reassured by the manager that we could indeed order our items and shouldn't be concerned. We ordered a full pound of snow crab legs and an order of "just shrimp". Under the special instructions, we specifically asked for an extra drawn butter as there were two of us eating. The order arrived in the lobby and we went down to pay and then bring it upstairs. We soon noticed that there were NO dips at all -- no extra drawn butter, in fact NO drawn butter AT ALL. No cocktail sauce or tarter sauce. The "just shrimp" was instead fried shrimp. We called immediately (7:30 PM on Sat, 9/15/18) to respectfully explain what happened (hopefully, expecting that they'd correct their mistake). The man on the phone who identified himself only as "the manager" simply replied, "okay." Okay? Clearly not. I explained the issues again, asking if they'd please correct our order and he was condescending and offered no recourse at all. When pressed, he told me, "If it's such a big deal, drive over here and I'll give you the butter, shrimp and cocktail sauce!" If we'd been in a position to do that why would we have paid for delivery service in the first place? I again reminded him of his position, of the fact that we did not receive what we'd ordered and paid for...who eats crab legs without butter? We didn't order friend shrimp and really wanted the cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce that we'd ordered and he still was completely unwilling to correct their mistake. He was terribly rude. At that point, I asked for his name and he stuttered, "Why? For your bad review?' To which I responded, "That's how this works if you're unwilling to give us what we ordered and paid for..." and then he hung up. We didn't eat any of the shrimp since it was not what we'd ordered. We picked on a bit of the crab legs, but really...who eats crab legs that way? It was a complete waste of time and money. We wound up paying for dinner in the hotel, which we clearly should have done in the first place. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ORDERING FROM THIS...

Food was purchased by me and given away to someone else after waiting inside the store while talking with the assistant manager. The then informed me that the food was given away. They gave me a refund for the food. However I initially thought that they gave me the refund and was still preparing my food, I was given a bag with two devil crab cakes and that was it. When I asked about my order they said they refunded my money and was not able to comp my food order for the inconvenience. At this juncture I was there for over an hour and a half. I spoke to the owner’s Son who tried offering me an extra side, or drink, dessert for my time and their error. I declined after he said that was his father’s policy not to comp meals only to do 50% discount. I explained that my time is money. You go to reputable eating establishment they would have gladly comp’d the meal. My prior experience with this eatery is the fish fillet portion size. Fish have two sides or fillets! How do you take one side of fish or fillet and split it into two then sell one of the split sides as a whole fish fillet. That’s false advertising and naturally doesn’t work or make sense anatomically. So I am finished and will not be returning to this eatery. It’s not worth my...