Monterey Fish Market

Even though I didn't buy any fish at Monterey fish market, it is a place that I intend to go back to when I want to buy FRESH fish. Have you ever been in a fish market where the smell drives you away?? In Monterey Fish Market the air smelled fresh!!! Their selection was amazing with fresh clams, oysters, scallops, and sashimi grade tuna. They also had live crabs and lobsters available. Might as well shop where restaurant chefs shop.

Excellent selection of fish. I purchased lots of shellfish to create an exquisite paella during Memorial Day

They have a variety of fresh fish at this market & Live crab to choose from . I love the scallops here they are always fresh!!

It's a great fish market. Great service and selection.

Absolutely fresh fish, I come here to buy snapper to make traditional Sinaloense dishes like sarandeado, ceviche, and they have amazing oysters at very good prices. Can't go wrong when buying fish on the East Bay at Monterey Fish Market.

The Monterey Fish Market has the freshest seafood you can buy in the Bay Area, ranking at the top with the Tokyo Fish Market. What sets the Monterey Fish Market apart is its focus on sustainable sources; each product is accompanied by a description of where and how it was obtained.

I highly recommend Monterey Fish Market to everyone. They have an exceptional variety of seafood, all incredibly fresh. The staff at the market are extremely amiable and provide outstanding customer service. During my visit, I made a special request to have the fish sliced into thin pieces, which is not typically offered by most fish stores. Usually, even if they agree to help, the slices tend to be too thick. However, the staff I approached not only agreed to my request but also expertly sliced the fish into perfect, thin pieces. The level of service I received left me completely satisfied. Without a doubt, I will be returning to Monterey Fish Market and definitely recommend it to everyone looking to purchase excellent quality fish

Best seafood shop around high quality and fair price

Great fishmonger with a solid oyster selection. Last time we went in they also had fresh razor clams.

Pretty helpful staff Fish is OK Better than Berkeley bowl but not close to Japanese standards. Oysters are sad No liquor inside them Shriveled up Not enough turnover Purchased midweek.

I've been coming here for the better part of a year now and it's now part of our routine grocery trips. The seafood is fresh, tastes amazing and the prices are a bit lower, if not, just as comparable to the big box groceries stores. The staff here is extremely friendly and helpful- which is a plus. So grateful to have such a reliable fish market in town.

I was searching for Copper River Salmon to make sashimi. Alas, they didn't have it. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else either. They did have several other fish suitable for raw consumption. I picked up some bluefin tuna at a very reasonable price of $32/lb. They were delicious. Tasted a little bit like Chu-Toro. I also tried their ready-to-eat clam chowder. I highly recommend it. Add a slice of pizza from Gioia pizzeria next door for a perfect tasty lunch.

Excellent option for for seafood. Today I went they had five or six different fresh oyster options and live crabs as well. Friendly and knowledgeable service

A nice, small shop that has very fresh offerings. The staff is helpful and knowledgeable. The one reason that I wouldn't return is that their selection is on the upper end of my personal budget: fish ranging from $16-28+ per pound.

Friendly service and very clean. Visited a couple of times and they have very good choices for seafood. Prices are very reasonable and their location is perfect with ample on street parking and you can actually pick up some oysters and go next door and pick up some fresh bread at the same time. Definitely going to be my favorite place to get my seafood.

Even though I didn't buy any fish at Monterey fish market, it is a place that I intend to go back to when I want to buy FRESH fish. Have you ever been in a fish market where the smell drives you away?? In Monterey Fish Market the air smelled fresh!!! Their selection was amazing with fresh clams, oysters, scallops, and sashimi grade tuna. They also had live crabs and lobsters available. Might as well shop where restaurant chefs shop.

Small fish shop in North Berkeley. We stopped here on a Sunday afternoon to buy sushi grade sashimi. They had 2 different types of tuna, a whitefish and scallop. Service was friendly and helpful. They also had a lot of fresh oysters, $2 or $2.50 each. Bigger market across the street with tons of fresh vegetables and fruit. I have never seen some of the vegetables at other supermarkets. A little pricier but the freshest vegetables I have seen. We brought the sashimi home to eat. One of them was smelly and tasted fishy so we had to throw it out. The other was fresh and del ious. Taking a star off for the fishy tuna.

Great produce with sustainable production in mind. Supporting American producers. Louisiana prawns were lovely

Some of the nicest folks and best fresh fish in the Bay Area are at the Monterey Fish Market. The sashimi cuts of salmon, hamachi, and tuna made for a memorable 2021 Christmas. The friendly fishermen were knowledgeable and willing to give recommendations to a novice like me who has never ordered raw fish or prepared sushi. Come here! Trust.

The store is pretty small and what they have seems very generic. I was looking for salmon head, which one would think they have if they have salmon, but no. So, I asked for four 3 oz skin on salmon fillets. While waiting, it would have been nice to see what was in the case in back but the cashier line of people were queued there so that case will always be a mystery to me. Checking out, I though the fish portion was light but the guy said it was good. There was no sticker to verify so when I got home I weighed it and as I thought I had about 7 oz of the 12 oz I needed. Abosolutely no need to go out of your way for this.

A little overpriced for everything! But it was great fresh seafood. You gotta pay if you wanna play! Great little spot in the middle of Berkeley. Employees really took care of me and packed ice into my cooler since I wasn't going straight home.

Without fail, this market has delivered on its quality in freshness, so don't miss out! Coming here is a tradition and will continue on for years to come.

Hands down THE freshest seafood in the east bay, coupled with super-skilled counter folks. They always offer me ice in the bag (or on occasion I'll request it). Doesn't hurt to keep the fish as cold as possible until you can get it home. My fish dishes compete with the best restaurants because the main ingredient came from here. Thanks Monterey Fish Co!

I hate to do this, but I feel I must. I'm in the restaurant industry, and every single place that they've ever delivered to gets the absolute most beautiful fish and products ever. Yet, every time I go in and order something, I get the most horrendous butcheing I've ever seen. It's been several times I've gone in and just have asked for the fish to be just gutted, and they always destroy it - meat all torn up and not properly rinsed. They somehow took out all of the stomach lining and left the bones from the stomach just sticking out and all the meat was beat up. It was incredible, I don't even know how it was done. I couldn't bring myself to post a picture because it just looked so bad. Like I said. I feel bad because everyone else always raves about how great it is, and maybe it is, but the butchering skills are not there, and it just kind of ruined it for me. I'm sorry.

This review is dedicated to my yelp elite sista Josephine who's photo caught my eye. Whaaaaaat how did I miss this place??? I shop at Monterey market all the time as well as the meat market and the cheese shop not to mention the nursery around the corner! I suppose bit depends on when you get here. Perhaps after hours and it's closed I pay it no mind. But a pretty darn good selection of fresh seafood and fish filets ready to prep. 2-night I'm feeling Italian! Ok so that means I'm marinating the just purchased tombo steaks in rosemary infused olive oil, a bit of soy and fresh squeezed lemon. When I grill em on high heat I'm adding fresh ground pepper blend (green red black and white)a bit of garlic salt. Topping the grilled fish with some organic capers, and home made pickled onion. That's served with corkscrew pasta in vodka sauce with sundries tomatoes and roasted red peppers sprinkled with Manchego, Parmesan and Romano blend. I already know it's gonna be awesome! And NO... you can't come over for dinner! That meal, a bottle of wine, some mood lighting ... and it's instant date night at G$ cribbage! Ohh... bab a bayyyyyy beee!

This fish is where all the high end restaurants get their fish! Highly recommend the salmon burgers, they cook great on the grill!

It hard to eat fish bought anywhere else in the area after getting used to what real fresh fish tastes like! [i never buy farmed, so this review is only about the fresh wild]

Old reliable. Good quality seafood, all very fresh and with lots of good options. Very reasonable priced as well.

I wanted live dungeness crabs and was about to drive down to half moon bay, but was able to get them at monterey fish for just a small premium. I've been back here a couple of times and the crabs always seem very fresh and energetic, unlike the sad, despondent denizens of the ranch 99 tanks. Pro tip - ask them to add ice to your bag. Will keep the crabs fresh for longer and also make them drowsy and less active so they'll be easier for you to go dexter on them.

Fast service, good selection, easy parking. My go-to for hosting seafood meals and apps.

I couldn't wait to spend some money on some good sea food. I was very disappointed. I know seafood is seasonal but I didn't realize how bad it gets. Most of the fish and seafood sold is farm raised which I avoid eating. There didn't appear to have much fresh caught products. The market is much smaller then it appears on their website. And many items are not available. The lady that helped me was very nice but the other staff were very cold. I'll try Whole Foods as I can't get to SF easily before I go back to Monterey Fish Market.

Awesome fish market. Everything is super fresh. The prices can get high (as super fresh seafood usually does) so I usually get the cheapest thing they have. But whatever that thing is, is going to be really fresh and great too so you really can't go wrong. I wish the 80 interchange traffic sucked less since even though I'm not that far as the crow flies, it's a slog to get there. If it was easier I'd probably go 1-2x a week.

Great fish no doubt; but the fish boys are terrible. I wish to complain and have a very difficult time shopping there because the kids who work there will never cut me 1/4 lb .. this past week when I explicitly requested 1/4 lb they gave me and charged me for 7/8 lb of swordfish. I have tried to explain to them I am firstly 92 years of age , 2. my kidney and heart Dr. have me only 3 oz. of of fish per day and to make things easier for them I ask for a 1/4 of a lb Mr. Johnson - I have to stop going to your store because those boys will not give me what is heart healthy for me and I end up throwing away when they over weigh my requests what can I do? What would you do? Years ago you had a woman who worked there who was very pleasant and sold me what I asked. She is gone I guess; so it is Tokyo fish for me unfortunately. my tag was as follows: Smoke salmon 27.99 x.280 7.84 King Salmon local 29.99 x .320 9.60 Swordfish24.00 x .78 19.49 Total -------------------------------------------- 36.93 June 11, 2022 So more than half the swordfish will be discarded. Not good business practices.

Alan stopped in here today and brought home some garlic shrimp. We were both shocked to realize that we had never been in, either of us, after all the years we have been here and it has been there. I think that drought has ended. The garlic shrimp was raw, marinated in garlic and I don't know what all else. It was $12.99 per pound and he bought a little more than 1/2 pound. The man behind the counter gave him instructions how to cook it in a sauté pan. Alan had bought some Phoenix Pastaficio linguine at the Kensington Farmers' Market Sunday. Today he bought sliced mushrooms at Trader Joe's. He cooked the mushrooms w/ frozen petite peas and chopped garlic. He used part of the mixture to throw in w/ the shrimp and pasta and we saved the rest for later. I cooked the pasta and we combined all the ingredients. It was fabulously garlicky. The shrimp was tender and very tasty. It was a marvelous dinner and I could see us returning periodically for more garlic shrimp for another dinner. Alan observed the man filleting a salmon and was impressed w/ his skill. We will try their other fish as well.

Excelente pescado fresco. Las personas que te atienden hablan español y te ayudan a elegir los pescados mas frescos y según el plato. Para una costeña es la mejor pescaderia de toda la zona de la Bahia.

A few steps from Monterey Market, Monterey Fish is one of four stores that make this half-block neighborhood the epicenter of great ingredients. Monterey Fish has super-fresh seasonal seafood. Local king salmon in Sept, Alaskan cod in Oct, singleness in Nov, oysters in the summer. They carry some of these in other months, but when in season, MF has great samples of what's on the run. Prices are fair -- you'll see some $25/lb tunas, but I don't recall seeing any $40/lb Bay Area specials here. They always indicate how the each species on sale was harvested -- single hook line caught, longlined, etc. All sustainable harvest fish. They sell some smoked fish and prepared items, but 90% it's just good clean fresh in-season seafood. Worth the trip!!!

Bought a special expensive fish for Christmas Eve. Got the fillets home full of huge bones. Instead of grilling it whole because I didn't want to risk bones on Christmas with Omicron, I asked them to fillet it for me. I'm so disappointed. I'm not good at deboning and hacked this expensive fish to pieces trying to get the bones out. Very nice customer service but I will not be returning.

Super high quality fish and excellent service. I've also been to their SF pier location, both are fantastic.

Good selection of local fishes. Prices are fair for the quality but certainly not cheap. The cheapest thing they had when i visited was Rockfish at $12 a pound. Most fish are in the $20-30/lbs range. Not too many different choices but what they had was quality.

My family loves seafood, and we've been looking for fishmongers and seafood markets closer to us than Half Moon Bay and the City. Google showed us this place, and we couldn't be happier with it. We ordered some Marin Miyagi and Hill Oyster Farm oysters and the quality is amazingly fresh. When we used our shucking knife to cut open the oysters, the size of the portions and the freshness was to die for. It was incredibly delicious and just squeezing on some lemon juice over the oysters was just the perfect way to kick off the weekend. The pricing was decent as well. If you go to the oyster farms, they sell for $20, $25 a bag, but here at Monterey it was $1.50 per oyster, so the pricing was comparable and really good. On the way out, I also ordered some of their smoked salmon, and the flavors are a little subtler with a kick towards the end. It was all done so well, and I'm glad I found this place. It was worth driving out for it.

Fresh fresh fresh! Took advantage of the curbside pick up.. I did have to circle a couple times before I could get a spot up front but once I did, they were out very fast. I got a pound of shrimp and a pound of local halibut, both were delicious. I drove all the way from Fremont way just to pick up at this market and I will likely add this trip to my bi-weekly shopping routine.

Wonderful fish market and open on Sundays! I went for a whole fish and they had a few to choose from. The price for locally caught rockfish was so reasonable and they cleaned it for me. I was also tempted by their crab cakes and prepared foods. I'll be back!

I've always loved Monterey Fish Market, but parking can be difficult and my health has declined so it's difficult for me to shop in this area of Berkeley. Then I heard about their curbside service. PERFECTO! Simple and efficient. I'm thrilled they have added this service so I can enjoy their incredibly fresh seafood again. And if you haven't tried their prepared crab cakes, do yourself a favor and get some.

This is a good local fish place for people that live nearby. The scallops were good Monterey Fish's business practices sadden me. We ordered 3/4 pound of scallops. The cashier proceeded to initialize the scale to zero; filled a 0.5 ounce plastic container with the scallops and weighed without putting the scale in tare mode. When I questioned the practice, the cashier could have explained to me about tare and demonstrated that I just missed it or corrected the price. Instead, the cashier stated he didn't charge for the package because only the big containers would cause a difference. Bottom line, we paid nearly a dollar for the package. Suggestion -- if you shop there a lot, look for a tare flag and/or the weight going negative, by the container weight, prior to weighing the product in a container.

Other than for sashimi-grade fish, I come to Monterey Fish Market for shellfish, oysters, line-caught cod, shrimp and other seafood cooking needs. Fish here is uber fresh, sweet and usually wild-caught. I love that they usually have at least 3-4 different types of oysters on ice, Manila and little neck clams, and tons of mussels. They are fresh, sweet and just perfect with some simple fragrant herbs and wine. I love that they also have poke, and marinated shrimp. Their fish are sourced daily, meaning you get the fresh catch of the day without going to a direct fisherman. It's not frozen and kept in storage long because they seem to always have lots of customers. Their garlic cilantro shrimp is perfect for a quick shrimp scampi linguine dinner. Oysters here are on point, without taking the drive an hour up to Tomales Bay. My favorites have been the Miyagi's and kumamotos because they are fat, briny and sweet!

I've been here a couple of times over the years. I'm always impressed the selection and reasonable prices. This is also a consistently good spot to hit up during crab season... cracked and cleaned, please!

When I buy fillets, I tend to shop at the farmers' markets (e.g., at the Hudson Fish Company). But I've been cooking whole fish as of late. For some reason, the farmers stick to fillets. Monterey Fish is top of the line. I love the whole rockfish that I buy from them. My only complaint (a really tiny one) is that it seems to take forever for the crew to scale and gut my fish. In France, the same operation takes about 90 seconds. In Berkeley, patience rules.

I love Monterey Fish. Recently got some cleaned, cooked and cracked crab, and it was really delicious, and somehow cooked better (maybe a wee bit shorter in the pot) than my usual fishmonger in the city. Also got some steelhead trout on another recent visit, super fresh. More expensive than my normal place...I think around $19/lb. But, worth the price. I see from their website they operate a wholesale operation out of SF....sure wish they had a retail location in San Francisco because there is nothing like Monterey Fish in the city!

Oysters were fresh from the farm as promised! BF placed another order for additional 20 oysters, and they gave them to us for free! For the whole 120 oysters, i think we only have a couple that were bad, but that was expected :) Will definitely return!

So I felt a little bad about posting such a negative review, and I have gone back a few times. FWIW, when I've bought fish there since, it's always turned out well. But this time I decided to get oysters again and had the same issue. Out of six, maybe one looked edible, but the others scared me off of that. In one the liquor was a weird, opaque gray color and in two others it had leaked out so they were sort of dried out and weird looking. The thing about fish is you can tell a lot by looking at it, and you can always give it a sniff before you leave. But oysters, you have to trust, and that's the problem. Obvs I won't buy oysters there anymore, but it also colors everything. I don't know what's involved in ensuring quality with oysters, but whatever it is, either the retailer or the supplier are doing something very wrong. I'm now two for two, with the purchases being widely separated in time. Maybe I'm just the unluckiest oyster fan, but I doubt it.

Walked in the door and took a look around, the place was so small and the selection to match. This place wasn't even worth getting anything there, so I look for another place on line.

Expensive, but worth it. Particularly the black rock cod. Good for you and tastes like butter. I try to shop here once a week. Also, if you have a little drive to get here, dont worry.. they give you small bags of ice to keep your fish fresh...

I don't know how long this has been here, but I heard about it a few months ago and finally made my way over last weekend. It is open Monday - Saturday 3 am - 11 am, so of course we went at 4 am. It is at the very end of Pier 33, so at that time it was a slightly scary walk down a dark empty tunnel with some dumpsters, but at the end there is light -- Monterey Fish Market. The outside is not very friendly, since it is wholesale and mostly for packing orders. But inside it is like Santa's workshop and you see so many different types of giant whole fish. We went to buy some salmon and tuna to make sushi, and found out they have 2 pages of different fish you can buy. They had lobsters, 5 kinds of oysters for $.75, scallops, etc. All freshly shipped and super fresh - I'm pretty sure this is where a lot of SF restaurants source their seafood. If you want to buy something, you can just tell someone at the front near the office. They are super nice and helpful despite us not knowing anything about fish wholesale (i.e. a "round" is an ENTIRE fish), and helped us de-skin and de-bone! Protip: be prepared to buy a little more than you expected (they have giant whole slabs of fish, and may not have that 1 pound exact chunk) and be prepared for your hands to smell fishy from the bag. We left with ~ 3 pounds of salmon and a big chunk of tuna -- more than I've ever bought. Highly recommend if you're cooking a big dinner party.

I really love this neighborhood market and shop here regularly. The selection is all top quality and the people are nice. However today the person helping me was wearing their mask around their nose, not over it--as a customer I expect proper mask wearing in order to give this business a 5. Will give them another chance to get it right--this is the last item I still buy in person rather than grocery delivery.

First time here on yesterday! Was on a search for some Sand Dabs! When I read and saw photos that this fish monger has them sometimes, I called and when I was told they had them I went in pursuit!! Parking was challenging due to the nearby Monterey Market across the street but I parked in the neighborhood and walked down because it was such a beautiful day! The sand dabs though smaller than what I expected were very fresh (they had just got them in that morning!!) and tasty!! So thankful for Yelp and GPS in my car!! I was able to satisfy my craving and find a great local fish market at the same time!!!

Ok when you go for Dungeness crab and their out. Don't go back and get a large can and open and say you have more. WTF!!!! DUDE fresh isn't freshly opened. Now I know why I stopped going. SMh

Felt very unwelcome at this market. After standing in its small space for 10 minutes without being acknowledged, my father orders the salmon on display. The guy at the counter leaves the counter, goes into their backroom, again for like 10 minutes, and comes out with some fish all wrapped up and *barely* visable. As he weighs the fish, he asks, "does it look okay?" My father takes a peek into the dark space under the snug wrapping and nods (ever the polite immigrant). When we get home (literally, blocks away), we realize the fish is no where near as fresh as the one on display. It had that fishy smell of not-so-fresh fish. The color's murky, unlike the bright pink color of the fish we picked out. boo! not cool. Monterey Fish Market, thanks for making us feel unwelcome and then making us wait forever in your creepy store for *bad* fish. the experience was worse than going to a used car salesman. At least you don't have to stand in a tight space with the salesman very obviously ripping you off. Despite the fact that I'm a frequent Berkeley Hort and Monterey Market customer, I will not be buying fish from here again nor will I recommend it to anyone.