The best seafood restaurants in the USA

Fabio Trabocchi's award-winning seafood menu is inspired by Italy’s coastlines—so you’ll find crudos, seafood towers, handmade pasta, and more. The signature "Carrello del Pesce" will be presented at your table, a seafood cart with the day’s catch from Italy and other shores. Fiola Mare’s windows give out on views of the Potomac waterfront and marina. With a sophisticated wine list and ambiance, many of Washington, D.C.’s power players lunch here.

This titan of French dining with a long history of excellence is still under the helm of Maguy Le Coze (the first woman to be honored with a James Beard award for outstanding restaurateur) and partner Eric Ripert, a two-time James Beard winner as well. The menu reads like a poem Walt Whitman would write at the seashore, with exuberant descriptions of the treatment lobster, langoustine, merluza, fluke and halibut receive at the hands of the outstanding chefs.

Enjoy Chef Michael Cimarusti’s award-winning modern American seafood cuisine here in the heart of Los Angeles, hosted by co-owner Donato Poto. Providence procures sustainably-fished food from local coasts and mostly American waters, like farm-raised sustainable caviar and spot prawns (so named for the white spots on their tails) directly from the waters off Santa Barbara. With two Michelin stars, the restaurant is devoted to elegant and creative fare.

Back in 1904, a Jewish immigrant from Poland pushed a cart around the Lower East Side, selling herring, and from there, a brick-and-mortar appeared with various iterations of the restaurant which is said to be the first in the U.S. with “and daughters” in the title (we cheer! There have been a lot of “and sons” but this is a groundbreaker). Today, the fourth-generation owners still sell appetizing food (literally—the website is a good primer on this adjective’s meaning), crafting bagels and babkas, and serving schmaltz herring, sardines, chubs, pastrami-cured salmon, paddlefish eggs and more in an environment of joyful eating. “Be a mensch and wait to be seated,” reads a sign inside.

Any seafood restaurant whose website homepage includes a quote from Ernest Hemingway enthusing about how his oyster and wine consumption improved his mood deserves our full attention. We love the Neptune Burger topped with Vermont cheddar, fried oysters and a garlic mayo relish, and who needs avocado toast when you can have sea urchin toast (with Bottarga butter and Basque pepper)? The oyster bar pulls from two dozen local oyster farms, mostly in Massachusetts, while the “sea wines” come from vineyards right up against the shore to benefit from that ocean-blessed wind and soil. This includes wines from Italy’s Bisson, which famously sinks its bottles into the ocean to become barnacled, the sediments inside agitated by Poseidon’s currents.

The line is sometimes out the door for this venerable old seafood bar with the hyper-fresh fare. It’s small but mighty (counter seating only) and beloved by San Franciscans for everything from Sicilian sashimi to salmon lox and...of course...oysters! Accompany everything with a pint of local Anchor Steam beer and you can scratch the authentic SF seafood experience off your bucket list. Beware if you are craving clam chowder in the late afternoon; Swan’s closes for the day at 2:30. And make sure to have cash or you’ll stand in line only to be sad.

Serving Nayarit-style seafood with family recipes from Mexico, this award-winning restaurant imports its shrimp, whole fish and other foods from Sinaloa and Nayarit. The appetizer menu features a handful of ceviche variations—fantastic to spend time with while you wait for the 30-minute house specialty pescado zarandeado: grilled snook with salt and house sauce, served with caramelized onions and tortillas. The Caldo Mixto is a savory shrimp, octopus and fish soup, and you’ll want to wash it all down with a fresh handcrafted lemonade (or hey: sangria. Definitely the sangria).

This Portland, Maine revamp of the traditional New England oyster bar also has a location near Fenway Park, but who could watch the game when this kind of fare needs your attentive and adoring gaze? Besides oysters from a dozen Maine farms (and two from “away”) and shellfish displayed on a huge block of Maine granite, you’ll find the house specialty Brown Butter Lobster Roll and fun offerings like the Scallop Waffle-yaki (tempura, kabayaki and umami mayo) and the Mez-Call Me Maybe cocktail made with mezcal, tequila, house tonic and Luxardo. Enjoy the low-key and authentic experience of sitting at a picnic table to devour your lobster; you’re on vacation!

Art meets seafood at this delightful spot that includes artist Reed Van Brunschot on the “About” page next to the owner/executive chef Daniel Serfer thanks to her installation “Constellations and Polarities,” a school of sculpted fish in the restaurant’s Aquarium Room. The menu here is just straight-up fun, with popcorn shrimp and popcorn conch, lobster deviled eggs, clams casino (in broth with bacon, shallots, piquillo pepper and white wine) and an impressive raw bar. The heavy lifter on the menu is the Fancy Mignonette Tower with a dozen oysters, six clams, shrimp cocktail, crudo of the day, a King Crab leg and jumbo lump crab...we’re looking at a work of art here, too.

Chefs Donald Link, Stephen Stryjewski and Ryan Prewitt designed Pêche to incorporate the flavors of South America, Spain, and the Gulf Coast, with sustainably and locally fished seafood. Along with fresh oysters and Gulf fish, you’ll find some menu items cooked on an open hearth. Chef Prewitt and the restaurant itself are James Beard winners. Seafood gumbo’s on the menu, of course, at this NOLA standout, along with catfish with pickled greens in a chili broth, and grilled tuna with kale, chili, peanuts and carrots. The raw bar has great options like the steak tartare with oyster aioli, while the wet bar has fun treats like Turn Right to Go Left (mezcal, cacao liqueur, dry vermouth, orange and lemon).