LAGuide
16 Excellent Seafood Restaurants In LA
16 of our favorite places to eat fish, oysters, and uni in LA.
Despite being right next to an ocean, LA sometimes gets overlooked when it comes to amazing seafood. And sure, we might be somewhat lacking in old-timey restaurants covered in Moby Dick paintings and rusty ship buoys (sorry, Boston), but we can also lay claim to a wide range of restaurants doing unique and delicious things with fish, shellfish, and other forms of marine life. Whether you’re looking for spot prawns and white tablecloths, a fish you didn’t know existed, or a beachside lobster roll topped with caviar, there's a restaurant for you on this guide. And if what you really want is sushi, we have a guide for that, too (the same goes for mariscos).
THE SPOTS
Found Oyster combines two things we like very much: wine bars and clam shacks. While you eat tremendously fresh seafood at this walk-in-only East Hollywood spot, a surfer-chill server might recommend a glass of syrah to pair with your meal. Take the suggestion and continue working on your littlenecks and oysters on the half shell, steamers and fries, or lobster bisque roll. For a more luxurious experience, you can also spring for the uni or caviar service while seated underneath a disco ball. Our favorite dish here is the scallop tostada, which gets an electric jolt of flavor thanks to a dab of yuzu kosho.
At this innovative seafood spot on Main Street in Santa Monica, you’ll eat steamed clams drizzled with fruity olive oil, beautifully plated crudos, and oysters decorated with purple flowers. Crudo e Nudo is home to one of our favorite raw bars in town, and their thoughtful wine selections take the whole experience from great to glorious. The focus here is on sustainable seafood, which means everything from the oysters to the halibut is locally sourced. It’s perfect for a special occasion date night or when you’re looking for a splurge-worthy seafood meal on the Westside.
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Newport Seafood is an SGV classic. It’s an upscale restaurant, popular with families out for a nice (read: expensive) Sunday lunch. And when you’re out for a nice Sunday lunch here, you should be ordering the whole lobster. It’s covered in spring onions, chilis, and ginger, and the smallest one you’ll be offered will be at least four pounds, which means you should come with reinforcements or just arrive really hungry. Although the lobster is the clear signature, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the rest of the menu—we love the salt and pepper squid and the clams in spicy hot sauce, in particular.
Ceviche Project is all about the details. The inventive menu at this Silver Lake mariscos spot and raw bar is filled with both traditional touches (toasted corn kernels in the tai snapper ceviche) and nontraditional ones (tangy yuzu-habañero sorbet in the yellowfin ceviche). The room is intimate and there are a few small tables, but we strongly suggest sitting at the long marble counter where you can watch the owner-chef, in a slick white suit, use tweezers to delicately place seven individual pomegranate seeds on a scallop and uni shooter.
This salt-crusted shack on the side of PCH in Malibu is where we go for a post-beach meal or a last snack before we leave the city. The menu ranges from fried fish with fries to a clam chowder bread bowl that’s an absolute delight. Order at the window, wait for your name to be called over the intercom, then claim an empty picnic table on their deck or patio. While you wait, you’ll likely see throngs of bikers and tourists who are also taking in the views of crashing waves as they wait for their food. Neptune’s is a bonafide landmark, and a great excuse to get out of LA for the day and soak up some ’60s California nostalgia.
Not only does Dudley Market serve some of our favorite seafood dishes in Los Angeles, this neighborhood spot also has a fantastic location one block off the Venice boardwalk—which is exactly why we’re so excited about their new outdoor patio. If eating jalapeño kanpachi crudo, whole fried rockfish, or clam toast while gazing at the sunset isn’t on your Things I Enjoy In Life list, we have serious questions. The menu changes daily based on what they caught, so just ask what’s good that day and you’ll be in great hands.
It’s a scientific fact that food from the ocean tastes better if you eat it while looking at the ocean, and Malibu Seafood is one of our favorite places to do both. Owned and run by the fisherman who caught that piece of fish you’re about to put in your face, this little shack on PCH is here to provide you with all your beach-adjacent seafood needs. The menu is full of classics—squid and chips, steamed mussels, a peel-your-own shrimp plate—and the elevated patio is ideal for taking in the views. Even with the line that snakes through the parking lot on weekends, we can’t leave Malibu without stopping here.
If you don’t live in the South Bay, you might think driving to Manhattan Beach for some raw scallops is crazy talk. It’s definitely not. A meal at Fishing With Dynamite makes you feel like you’re on vacation in Nantucket, especially if you can get out of work and be there for a Friday oyster-and-wine lunch. The Peruvian scallops are some of our favorite things to eat, and you should not miss the key lime pie.
Eating at Providence is an event—you’ll be there for at least three hours experiencing one of their multi-course tasting menus. There’s a man who will prepare your salt-baked Santa Barbara spot prawns tableside, a cheese cart, and a packaged sweet brioche to take home for breakfast the next day. But Providence does event eating in a way that doesn’t feel pretentious, and does feel like it’s worth the money. The food itself is imaginative and delicious, and can involve everything from abalone and geoduck to more familiar things like rockfish. If you’re looking to throw down for an incredible seafood meal, look no further than Providence.
If you’re a relocated East Coaster having steamer withdrawals, Connie & Ted’s is a good way to avoid spending too much money on a ticket to Rhode Island. This casual West Hollywood spot has mellowed from its Gwyneth-Paltrow-is-in-the-corner days a couple of years back, and has become a neighborhood hangout that works any day of the week. Almost everything on the menu is great, from those dipped-in-butter steamer clams to the enormous shellfish tower. And if you need a break from the sea creatures, the burger is definitely worth ordering.
Son of a Gun is the old reliable of the Animal/Jon & Vinny’s/Trois Mec empire. No one really talks about it too much, but it’s always there when you need it. Big group? Take over the giant window booth at the front of the restaurant. Dinner with the pescatarian in-laws? Bring them here and they might actually start liking you. This place is fun and casual, and relatively easy to get into. Order from every seafood section of the menu, and also get at least one fried chicken sandwich for the table.
Quality Seafood is a massive, two-story restaurant on the Redondo Pier filled with tanks of live shellfish, lobsters, crabs, and fish. This is the kind of build-your-own meal we fully endorse where you pick your seafood and decide whether you want it roasted, steamed, or fried. Between the tourists and the kill-or-be-killed seating situation, it is a process to eat here. But order the Dungeness crab (steamed), calamari (fried), or whole snapper (roasted) and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.
Turns out “snook” isn’t just a 1920s slang term for a game of pool—it’s a type of fish, and it’s the specialty at Coni’Seafood in Inglewood, listed on the menu as pescado zarandeado. And while you should definitely be ordering this superb grilled fish, the other reasons to go out of your way to this Mexican seafood restaurant are the marlin tacos and really any of the things they do with shrimp. Plus, they have a big, bright interior and a BYO wine policy. Bring enough friends to share a whole fish.
La Cevicheria is a tiny shop on Pico near Crenshaw that has fantastic Guatemalan ceviche. The dining room is packed at lunch with people on their lunch breaks eating excellent shrimp, crab, and snapper marinated in lime juice with onions and avocado as well as blood clams (not actually bloody, just dark red clams that are juicy, briny, and delicious). You’ll probably have to spend some time hovering over other people’s tables while you wait for a place to sit, but this fish is worth it.
Seafood meals are usually a dinner thing, but for the best seafood lunch in town, head to West Adams and stop in at Holbox. This order-at-the-counter spot is in the Mercado La Paloma, that severely overlooked food hall near USC. You’ll like pretty much anything on the menu—the lobster tacos and the ceviche tostadas are excellent—and you can be in and out in time to get back for your 1pm meeting.
Eating at Jae Bu Do in Ktown is an experience you won’t soon forget. This Korean grilled seafood experience will, like other KBBQ spots, leave your hair smelling like smoke for days. There's a non-zero chance you might singe your hand or mouth on a very hot piece of sizzling shellfish. You will eat seafood you likely didn’t know existed and maybe wish you hadn’t learned about (second round of hagfish, anyone?). You will eat an oyster the size of a baby. You will also have a lot of fun. If you're down to put away enough delicious seafood to fill a small aquarium in one sitting, Jae Bu Do is the place in Koreatown to bring an adventurous group of friends who are willing to go to battle with you.
