Fish Tales
“Nope, it's not cheap (though there are some awesome specials), but always highest quality.”
“They have a bunch of recipes to go through which is a nice idea, one which I wish other stores would do more often!”
“In addition there's always special catches throughout the week, some prepared options, any condiment or spice, an information area, and 2 free lemons per customer.”
Fish Tales
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range Pricey
8 reviews
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I grew up in Long Island, in one of its historic & still active fishing hubs. Thruout high school and college, I worked on clam boats and lobster boats (before most of LIs lobster stock mysteriously died off suddenly during the summer of 1999) and for the top distributor of local oysters making 1am trips into the (now relocated) Fulton Fish market to (mostly) sell, and buy (a lil bit). I grew up & moved into the city, & in my adult life I have been lucky enough to find myself back out in the Island quite frequently for work. I take my fish markets very seriously. There are some of the best out there, particularly when you are looking for local seafood. I thank my lucky stars that often times I am lucky enough to get day fresh seafood from my valued sources during my days working out there. There are a great many other days I cannot however, and when that is the case, this is my hands down go to fish source. It is the real deal and a BK treasure. Interestingly enough, this review is something of a paradox. Normally, most often concerning restaurants, I afford a great bit more latitude when reviewing places out in the Island, and normally hold NYC places to a higher standard, factoring in the lack of other quality options in the given area. The one category where this rule would be reversed would surely be this one; Fish markets.
Make no bones about it; if this place were located out on the Island it would still rate a a excellent fish store indeed. Seeing as it is located in the middle of Brooklyn however, it shines much more brighter. It is simply the best in the borough, and among the best in the city. The quality is first class and the service second to none. Zero Pretension allowed, its strictly old Brooklyn Charm behind the counter even if its usually the epitome of New Brooklyn in front of it. I love those guys, they are masters of the dying art of customer service and appreciation, gotta love it when the staff goes out of their way to remember all of the many regulars names. They are world class, and in fact pretty much more educated and informative about seafood than you would actually find in most Long Island markets. While the stuff may not be quite as fresh for it would pretty much be logistically impossible to be so, it is pretty damn close. It is so comforting to know that all my favorites are within reach even without a trip out of city limits… LI Oysters, steamers, little necks, swordfish, monkfish, fluke, squid and more, its all here, enough to satisfy even the most hard core Long Island fish freak like myself. They also have an excellent selection of non local seafood, but as you might be able to tell, that's not really my focus. Take note I haven't really sampled to much of the prepared food here, I'm just not much of prepared food guy but I gotta assume it is good, I just feel like these guys care way too much about everything they sell. Oh yeah and the prices are very reasonable, especially given the location at the geographic center of one of Brooklyn's many yuppievilles.
Definitely pricey, but FT has a good selection and some harder to find items for a small store. I needed lump crab over the weekend, and found their prices ($25/160z) were $4 cheaper than the fishmonger in the Chelsea Market. However, their standard east coast mussels were $3/lb higher than at Garden of Eden on Montague.
Fish Tales is the absolute best fish monger in Brooklyn and in the top 5 in all NYC. The staff is very friendly and helpful while their assortment is very fresh on a daily basis. My husband and I love their salmon and sword fish but anything they sell is delicious!
Superior fish market in the neighborhood. These guys are friendly, knowledgable about the daily catch (where the fish came from, flavor profiles, what it pairs well with) and are usually jawing with a regular about this fish or the other. Ask them to peel and devein your shrimp and cut the skin off your salmon. Last time I bought some bay scallops in there, they threw in two limes – which was great because I was making ceviche.
You do pay a premium, but they run the show in the hood and are serving sushi grade fish (salmon, tuna). If you want cheaper you can certainly check out the fish joint further down on court but it's a gamble – and freshness varies. I want consistently fresh fish and I want to know where it came from. 5 stars in my book.
3.5 stars…
This is a cute little seafood shop, it's the seafood equivalent to some of the great butcher shops in the area. They always have a wide variety of all types of seafood which are extremely fresh (the owner goes daily to the Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx). The owner and those he works with here are always very helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. The prices are a bit steeper than you'd find elsewhere though. You'll have to make the choice to get a cheaper price down the street at Fairway or to spend extra and get your seafood from a local who cares. Recently I saw Fish Tales on Throwdown and to my surprise Bobby Flay actually beat him on making a better Manhattan Fish Soup. Despite the fact that they lost the soup looked great so I decided to go and give it a try ($6/pint). I found the fish to be a little grainy and not all that good but maybe because I didn't get it super fresh? Anyway you can tell all of the seafood here is very fresh so I appreciate the shop being right down the street.
I asked my wife to stop by and get some cod the other day. If they didn't have any cod, I said, ask for some other flaky white fish like cod, such as haddock or hake. The response to this none-too-baffling request at Fish Tales? "Cod is Cod, lady."
Well, thanks.
I'll give this another chance and re-rate.
Local seafood shop. Serves prepared foods as well. Knowledgeable and friendly. Ice on demand. A little pricey but fish is always fresh. Came in to buy wild salmon for $25ish lb. They say it's sushi grade but didnt try it raw. At whole foods, the wild salmon is always previously frozen and the price is more expensive. Here, the salmon was not frozen and you taste the difference. I've also gotten mussels from here. So good!!
This is my neighborhood, go-to fish shop. Good variety and things seem fresh and may have been recently swimming about. Compared to the other reviews, I haven't tried their soups so I can only review the actual fish at the fish shop.