Astoria Seafood

First things first: Judge the place based on their process and their food concept. So, the idea is the freshest seafood, cooked to your specifications while you wait. You can bring your own bottle [of alcohol] (BYOB) and they have more sides than you'll ever need to complement your main seafood selections.

The decor should be judged like you would a fish market. That's kind of what this place is, an elevated, higher-level-of-service fish market. The place can get really crowded during the winter during the dinner rush. You may find that a lot of people could be standing or passing by your table as you eat. It's not ideal but again, this is not your conventional, compartmentalized restaurant. So don't treat it that way.

I recall having clams, calamari, scallops and some whiting, among other things. It came out hot right to my table. The waitstaff and busboys do not mess around. They deliver and clear down VERY quickly, which is to be expected when space is at a premium. I recommend bringing in some chilled white wine or light beer to pair with your meal. I would also note here that it is VERY easy to order too much food. We ordered close to the right amount but didn't finish.

Bottom Line: Don't treat this like a conventional seated dinner at a fancy restaurant. Leave any pretentiousness at home. Bring your expectations into line with the concept they are clearly executing at a high level and you'll leave happy. For the best experience, I suggest going during the warm weather months. Sit outside, pop open a bottle of wine and enjoy the freshest seafood meal you could ever have!

Astoria Seafood is a complete disaster. The young man at the front seemed to be running a circus rather than a restaurant, with his rude demeanor and terrible customer service skills. Not only did they mess up our order multiple times, but they also refused to make it right or give us a refund, despite spending a whopping $150 between the two of us. It's unbelievable how they can be so incompetent and unapologetic about it. And to top it off, they had the nerve to charge $40 for a single crab leg and told me I had to eat it with a plastic fork and then tell me I couldn't have a crab cracker! Save your money and sanity, and steer clear of this place unless you enjoy being ripped off and mistreated.

This kind of behavior has no place in any establishment, let alone a restaurant. Avoid Astoria Seafood at all costs unless you enjoy wasting your money and being treated like garbage.

Love it, lots of options. Pick your own seafood and they prepare it anyway you like. Hot food to choose from as well. Good portions.
Service on POINT, older service dudes who know what they are doing.
Some odd encounters with other patrons, but no biggie. I love the BYOB.
Ambiance, interesting just the fish market dining thing Music,people chatter.

This place is chaotic but people love it for a reason! If you love seafood this place is definitely for you! Not to mention BYOB and decently priced for seafood!! You basically walk in, pick out your seafood, line up to pay and you tell them how you want it cooked along with your name for the order. After you pay, you wait in another line for a table and once you're seated they ask you for your name and then they start cooking your food. Honestly don't know how they do it but their system works. I came here on a Friday night around 6p and didn't wait too long but the place got superrrrr packed as I was leaving. Be warned this place is so stressful at first but once you figure out how it works, you'll have a blast. No frills, good food, good company, and BYOB! What more can you ask for!

Could be better organized, paying before eat is not a good thing, what if I want to eat more or another drink? The food is OK, but the place is too small

This was great you got to get a fresh view of what you wanted of seafood it was great the food was amazing

I haven't been to a seafood market/restaurant in a while but this is the first one that I have come across in the States. This place is a seafood market but it's also a restaurant. A must-go if you want fresh seafood.

PROCESS:
1. Walk in and get a table with the waitstaff.
2. Head toward the back and choose the raw seafood you would like.
3. Bring the raw seafood you would like to purchase to the register and let them know how you would want them made.
4. Check out the hot food section & the fridge behind the counter while you're at the register and let them know if you want a salad, octopus, types of drinks, etc.
5. Head back to your table and your waitstaff will bring over your food when they are ready.

All the food was all made to perfection and we enjoyed it here.

This place is hard to review for me; on one hand the food is great and I love the concept, but the service and wait times were completely all over the place.

Pros: I loved the concept of getting to pick your seafood and then requesting how it's prepared (fried, boiled, baked etc). There was a lot of variety and you can really taste the freshness of each seafood.

Cons: The wait time was quite frustrating when we went (party of four). We would get some dishes, but then have to wait another 20 minutes for entrees or other appetizers, and would see people that ordered after us get their food first. They also ran out of the garlic bread after we requested for it. The server also came up to my friend and essentially demanded $20 in tip as soon as we'd finished eating, which was quite off-putting and surprising.

All in all, the food was great and tasted fresh, but the experience of eating there itself was a bit of a miss. Hopefully the next time I go, it'll be a little better.

Usually always a line or congested but it's a spot you can pick your own raw seafood from display and they're cook it on the spot for you.

Got salad, crab salad, scallops, shrimp, fish , calamari.

indoor and outdoor seating available.

I dig the concept, would come back again!

Arrived at the establishment and my mother a 60+ year old woman was trying to sit at the table while my father and I paid for our food. A foreign elderly gentlemen was screaming in a foreign language signaling that she wasn't allowed to sit there. She told him that we were paying and he once again did not let her sit. She is Hispanic American.

He allowed other people of white, Asian, and Middle Eastern, and other ethnicities to sit and wait for their parties to purchase their food. After paying I asked the cashier if we could sit at the table behind us and she said yes. As we sat down the foreign elderly gentleman approached us and yelled that we could not sit there and wanted us to not sit there. We said fine that we would move and he kept screaming in a foreign language in an obviously derogatory tone. The cashier came out and told him she said we could sit there and he proceeded to scream and have a fit.

He argued with both my elderly parents and called over a Spanish speaking worker who said that table was "reserved". Meanwhile this restaurant is known for not taking reservations. Then the cashier and another worker came out and told us we could sit at a different table then the elderly man approached us again and began screaming in a foreign language in a hostile derogatory tone. It was obvious that this treatment was related to our race -Hispanic and likely had to do with neither of my parents speaking English. So hurt by this I began to get emotional and through tears told the younger man behind the counter that we wanted our money back and did not want to eat at this establishment. It was one of the most discriminatory encounters that I have faced in my life as a Hispanic woman in NYC. Deplorable I will never return there in my life.

I would avoid at all costs nothing is worth the treatment that we received here.