A few weeks ago, we went to Le Petit Pecheur because we were on a mission to try all the various seafood places in Astoria. Abuqir was on my list because it was highly rated for its “Egyptian” flavors, freshness, and value. All the NYC food blogs and Queens food crew for some reason feel this is a hidden find and offers good value. We went to this place around 4:00 PM on a Saturday, and there was a late afternoon crowd already.

Le Petit Pêcheur is one of the highly rated Astoria seafood places where you can pick your seafood and they will cook it for you. We’ve been to Hamido Seafood and Taverna Kyclades several times, so we’re wondering how this place stacks up. This restaurant opened nearly 1 year ago, and it has been low key on the radar. We were able to walk in without reservations around 4:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon.

Time and Tide comes from the Kent Hospitality Group, which owns restaurants such as Saga and Crown Shy. The head chef, Top Chef winner Danny Garcia, overhauled the menu recently, and we got a chance to experience it. The restaurant was inspired to be a steakhouse modeled fish restaurant. I was easily able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM on a Friday night because the restaurant snipers have moved onto newer restaurants.

We’ve seen this restaurant Hamido Seafood on social media all over the place. Like many Astoria restaurants, they pride themselves in having the freshest seafood, and they are somewhat close to Taverna Kyclades down the street. We went to the original Hamido Seafood restaurant at 4 PM on a Saturday late afternoon, and we were lucky to be seated right away before the crowds came. They are located very close to the N/W train off the Ditmars train stop.

Smithereens opened pretty recently in last November, and is from chef Nick Tamburo (Claud) and beverage director Nikita Malhotra (Momofuku Ko). This is a New England-style restaurant focused on fresh seafood and some different types of cocktails. Their wine list is pretty extensive, and they also have some pretty interesting glasses of white wines as well. I was able to book a reservation for 5:30 PM for 2 on a Friday evening about a week in advance. The restaurant is located in the East Village off 9th Ave, and it’s located in half floor basement of a building.

We had a show this evening, and this “crab house” just recently opened in Manhattan. This originated from a Flushing stall, and their specialty is crab roe over rice or noodle. We were able to walk in on a Saturday evening without reservations. The social media circuit really raved about this dish by showing off the roe, so we decided to try it. I figured there was no need to make reservations since Manhattan Midtown Chinese restaurants are usually pretty easy to get into.

Rice Thief is one of the few Korean raw marinated crab restaurants in New York City. The focus of this restaurant is to provide deeply marinated raw crabs with lots of seasoning in it. To the surprise of many, the raw crab meat is actually a little gooey but quite flavorful. My partner saw this restaurant on Instagram and expressed interest in trying this out, despite me wanting to avoid bringing them here. I’m unsure how they would do with raw crabs and the mess that is to ensue. Nonetheless, this was the catalyst for us to try out this restaurant.

We wanted to check out the Tin Building down in South Street Seaport, which is a building by Chef Jean-Georges. It was basically similar to Eataly, where it has a market for different cuisines and restaurants. There are only 2 floors, and there isn’t that much to see in my opinion. However when it comes to food, we decided to try the seafood joint, Fulton Fish Co. We were able to walk in with no reservations at 5:30 PM on a Saturday early evening.

Normally during every Thanksgiving Thursday, I cook for my partner some poultry thing whether it be quail or turkey breast. This year we decided to relieve me the duties of frantically looking for materials and cooking for 6 hours for the 2 of us. Marea was closed for a few months, and we’ve always had this on our list. Because it just reopened in October, I decided to pursue the Thanksgiving tasting menu.

Lure Fishbar is run by the same hospitality network thath also owns Bar Tulix and Mercer Kitchen, which is closed unfortunately. Whenever we were in the SOHO area, we always thought about checking this place out especially since we couldn’t walk into Balthazar. The restaurant is very seafood straight forward, and it always seems like it has a very steady crowd. The restaurant entrance is actually located down some stairs. We were able to walk in on a Friday evening around 6:30 PM without reservations, but they were only able to seat us at the sushi bar.