Pacific Fish Center and Restaurant: Redondo Beach Pier, CA, USA
The first time that I came here was with an ex, now friend, of mine about seven years ago. Surprisingly and gratefully, this place is still here! This to me means that in seven years, the food and quality of this place is that good that it has established itself as a food staple of the Redondo Pier.
Korean owned and ran, you order at the counter as soon as you walk into the entrance. You can order various seafood to order and they will steam it for you. Other things that they have include “seafood platters” like a snow-crab plate with fried rice and half of a snow-crab. I want to say that everything is pretty much market price except for some of the soups and stews on the menu and less-market dependent types of seafood like crab.
Things that we ordered:
- steamed shrimp (not prawn, shrimp)
- Dungeness crab (whole)
- snow crab plate (with fried rice)
- korean spicy fish stew
Steamed Shrimp
PROS
- super tasty, very easy to eat
- if you’re Asian, you eat it shell-on
- (you don’t have to eat the heads but if you like them like I do, get a friend who doesn’t like them to give them to you)
CONS
- if you’re expecting thick, fleshy meat, go somewhere else or see if they have large prawns because these are small
- very clean flavor so if you’re looking for salty seasoning like Old Bay, bring your own.
steamed shrimp
Snow Crab Plate: comes with fried rice
PROS
- I love me some snow crab – it’s easy to peel, decent amount of meat, and I feel is less saltier than king crab
- fried rice was actually pretty flavorful
CONS
- not big enough to share unless you order a lot more other things
- not the “freshest”: some of the meat didn’t come off the shell in a clean way. To me, that means that it must have been frozen for a bit.
snow crab plate
Dungeness Crab: you order this by the piece (as in the whole crab) and they come with it steamed to your table. Then these killer Korean aunties rip the top half off and let you go to work.
PROS
- they fish it out of a tank so this is legitimately fresh
- hot and steam when it hits your table
- kapow* full of flavor
CONS
- tendency to over-order because it tastes so good on the first go round: if you order the spicy fish stew you better have room because that will make any sort of carb (ie. fried rice) expand tenfold in your stomach, leaving no room for the extra Dungeness crab.
Dungeness Crab
Spicy Korean Fish Stew (“mae-woon tang” 매운탕)
PROS
- great flavor
- great kick
- lots of seafood
- it hasn’t changed in 7 years. These aunties (아줌마) know what they’re doing.
CONS
- have to ask for rice (but I don’t think they charge extra)
- if you can’t take heat, this is NOT for you.
spicy fish stew
In summary:
- steamed shrimp: ***.5 (3.5 stars)
- snow crab plate: ***.75 (3.75 stars)
- Dungeness Crabs: ****.5 (4.5 stars)
- spicy fish stew:**** (4 stars)
If you wanted to try this place out (and I highly recommend that you do), you can find Pacific Fish Center and Restaurant here:
131 Fishermans Wharf, Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 374-8420
Until next time, thanks for reading!
R/g
