The Fish Store — Restaurant in Town of Islip

Wonderful! The BEST SASHIMI & SUSHI and great cooked seafood as well. We go here for the food, for dinner, and occasionally lunch. Atmosphere is nice & clean, but not impressive. However the food is excellent, and wait staff is generally very good and attentive. The cooked seafood we have had many times which includes Chilean Sea Bass, Salmon, Calamari, Baked Clams, Oysters Rockefeller, Bacon wrapped Scallops, and Mussels. That's just a fraction of the big selection on the menu. All excellent. AND... the newer feature there is a superb Sushi Chef - Thursday though Saturday. We have ordered Sashimi and Sushi to eat there and also for takeout - Always excellent regardless. I have to rave about the Sashimi, which is amongst the finest I have had anywhere...far better than any others in Nassau & Suffolk Counties including the Hamptons. I always order Sashimi Deluxe, and the presentation is always visually superb, and different each time. The selection of fish also varies, and is delicious, very fresh, and very generous in portions and cuts. I really can't say enough good things. The superb Sushi Chef certainly knows what he is doing and takes immense pride in his work. We have recommended The Fish Store, to many friends & acquaintances, specifically for the best Sashimi and Sushi on L.I. as well as some great cooked seafood, and all have been very pleased. A couple of photos here, but they don't even show some of the Chefs most creative and best presentations.

Updated Oct. 27, 2023....We have been going here for quite awhile now. All of the seafood dinners are great, and properly cooked, we've had many. But we go there mainly for the excellent, fresh, and creative Sashimi and Sushi prepared to order by master Sushi Chef, Makoto. I always order the Sashimi Deluxe and am always a provided with a terrific selection and presentation regardless of whether we eat there or get takeout for home. The same can be said for his Specialty Sushi rolls! We love the fact that with Chef Makoto, each time what we receive is a little different, and of course delicious! I've just posted my latest photos of a Sashimi deluxe take out dinner. Simply...

Had lunch at the restaurant today. Our server, Riley, was very pleasant and attentive, was able to answer any questions we had. She would come by the table frequently to see if we needed anything. Nice selection of beers. We ordered crab cakes, New England clam chowder, my husband had broiled Cajun cat fish sandwich which came with homemade macaroni salad and a baked potato. I had almond crusted flounder with coconut rice and vegetables. Crab cakes- a delight! Plenty of crab meat in them, seared in a pan, not fried, light and flaky. New England clam chowder could've used a bit more clams, otherwise was very tasty and nicely seasoned. I had a taste of a very small piece of Cajun catfish because I can't tolerate very spicy food, even though my husband said it was not overly spicy. The fish was fresh and very tasty. It came on fresh brioche bun with lettuce, tomato and red onion. Macaroni salad was very good. You can tell right away that it was homemade and didn't come from a big tub. The baked potato was baked properly. By that I mean that it was baked without the foil, which steams the potato. The best part of the potato was the skin! Crispy and very tasty)) As I've said, my plate was almond crusted flounder with mustard sauce. The fish came with coconut rice, a few spears of asparagus, few slices of carrots and sauteed kale with fresh garlic. Asparagus and carrots were overcooked. Kale was very nice. You can taste fresh garlic in it. The almond crust was deceiving. When I see " a crust", I expect a nice brown crust on top of the fillet of fish. While the fish itself was very tasty-fresh and flaky, the " crust" was a miss. It looked like that the mustard was smeared on top of the fillet and almonds, roughly chopped and sauteed in butter and just placed on top of the fish. Was not a good presentation and the flavors were not properly developed. This was the first time I tried coconut rice. It could be, that it's supposed to be so sweet, but for me it was too sweet. Had one taste and left it on the plate. Wish I could've gotten a baked potato instead)) Or just the skin of the potato)) Next time would order a different...

We put in an order for takeout; the fish two people in the group received was great, but my order of Chicken Parm might actually be the worst order of a pasta dish I've ever had at a restaurant. The marinara sauce had a sickly sweet taste, the cheese was simply thrown over the top of the sauce, and most importantly the "chicken parm" was actually 8-10 frozen chicken fingers thrown on top of some linguine. The breading on the chicken fingers was soggy and sloughing off the side, and was barely lukewarm by the time it got to its destination. After throwing it in the oven and trying again, I ended up throwing most of it away. All that being said, there's a few concessions that need to be made: It's the FISH Store, not the Chicken Parm Store. It was a "Takeout Dinner". The in-restaurant Chicken Parm dish states that it's "Hand-breaded, deep-fried chicken", and I can only hope that the Chicken Parm for use with Takeout is different from the Parm they use in-house. Either way, the takeout version is unacceptable. It was $16. $16 Chicken Parm in 2022, I probably should've guessed that it wouldn't exactly be just like Mama used to make.

^^All that being said, even IF it's a fish store, takeout, and $16, there's plenty of ways to make a much tastier dish than what The Fish Store is offering.

It's always weird putting in a review for food that isn't a restaurant's specialty. This 1* review is based entirely on The Fish Store's non-fish offerings. It'd be like going to Burger King and basing a review off of their hot dogs instead of the Whopper. If you're going to The Fish Store and are interested in fish, I'm sure it's great. But if their non-fish offerings are going to be like this (and one or two other non-fish menu items I've ordered in the past), I honestly think it would be better for both the store and the customer to remove menu items like the Chicken Parm and focus on creating a couple great-tasting non-fish items, rather than keeping a bunch of chicken fingers in a freezer, which honestly would've...