Brooklyn Fish Camp

I quite liked this joint! The food is fresh & light, and perfect for a summer brunch. I went for a birthday party, and I didn’t feel that it broke the bank. In fact, everyone got what they liked, and the ambiance was convivial and sunny. Two thumbs up from this camper.

Insanely delicious food that will cost you half your paycheck. I totally get fresh seafood being expensive. I love the sign at Randazzo’s that says «Good seafood isn’t cheap and cheap seafood isn’t good.» Here’s the bill breakdown:
draft beer = $ 8. Insane. I don’t know of an $ 8 draft in the area.
hushpuppies appetizer = $ 8. There were three in the order. Wha wha whaaaa?
Lobster knuckles = $ 15. More or less, correctly priced.
Lobster roll = m/p…drumroll please… get this…$ 32!!!
Thirty two dollars!!! Thirty two? Seriously? That’s easily $ 7-​$ 10 overpriced.
Look the food here is great, but I seriously can’t recommend a place that charges $ 3.75/oyster! I didn’t order any given that price range.
I want to come back, but I also have to pay rent, so I guess I can’t afford to eat here.
Stick to the large plates at Randazzo’s or the just as tasty, plus a happy hour at The Lobster Joint.
Seriously??? A $ 32 lobster roll!!! Seriously???

So we’ve been here a bunch of times and ALWAYS enjoyed everything we’ve gotten. The backyard is phenomenal, as was the lobster roll I just finished. While a bit overpriced, what isn’t in neighborhood?! Ignore the mediocre star rating, check this place out for yourself.

Abysmal.
Ignoring the terrible reviews, we decided to try Brooklyn Fish Camp anyway.
A big mistake.
There were only two servers (June and Eva) on hand to take charge of the bar area in the front of house (no bartenders on duty). While we were waiting for an outside table we were told we could not have drinks at the bar, but were told to wait on the table instead. Nice welcome.
When we were seated outside, the waitress June had an ‘attitude’ from the start.
As were were four friends who had not seen each other for eight months, the atmosphere was wonderfully charged.
June and Eva changed that.
The food was blah.
The Fried Point Judith Squid is just deep fried calamari, but bland. We asked why it does not say calamari. «It’s not italian» was the reply.
The Lobster Roll was a squashed hotdog bun with small pieces of lobster. In three bites it was gone, not worth the price tag. The huge birds nest of fries next to it were thin and stringy, and tasted purely of oil.
We asked for a rosé, something that was off the menu, and were staggered when the bill came, where they charged us $ 50.The highest priced non-​sparkling wine was $ 40, no where near the $ 50 price mark. When we asked about this detail, they said there was nothing they could do. We asked to speak to the manager, and June said they all have «manager status».
The owner Mary Redding was «not available» as she was «in the kitchen». I asked if she was in the Brooklyn kitchen or the West Village kitchen. June answered, «It doesn’t matter».
We had a terrible experience. The food was plain and the service inattentive and greedy. It is unfortunate Ms Redding runs a sham operation such as this.
Stay away.

4 oysters + 2 shrimp + 2 lobster rolls + 2 beers = $ 120. Come on, Mary. $ 32 for a lobster roll drenched in mayo while listening to 2007’s top 40? Quite possibly the most expensive and mediocre seafood shack in the city, and I now understand why it’s only half-​full on weekend nights. There are much better options for your seafood kick.

Reminds me of eastern Long Island fish shack. Great seafood. Best lobster till in town. Good service. Love the outdoor seating

I think this place has a lot of potential if they change their staff and chef. The food is just okay– nothing to rave about. The service is annoying to put it nicely. The waitress who took our order (I think her name was Ashley) was «too cool» to tell us about the menu, she was arrogant and rude. Cool concept considering that there are not a lot of seafood places in the area but they should really change a few things.

I like Brooklyn Fish Camp. I have been here three or four times (I live around the block). I have gotten a few of their sandwiches, the lobster roll, chowder and some desserts previously, which have always hit the spot.
Tonight I went with my boyfriend for a nice Friday night dinner. They have five dollar beers for happy hour, so that is great.
We ordered our beers and then wanted the crab beignets with aioli. They were $ 14. We asked how many came in an order. Three come in an order. The waitress gave us an idea of how big they would be (about the size of a circle when you put your thumb and pointer finger together). I blurted out «$ 14 for 3 fried crab bites?!»
I don’t mind paying money for good food, but tonight, this just seemed ridiculous to me. Anyway, we ended up getting them as an appetizer. They were alright. They were kind of mushy. Once you dipped them into the mayo/​aioli you couldn’t really taste the crab. A waste to spend $ 14 on.
Anyway, the real reason why we stopped at BFC tonight was because it is FREEZING and they had a lobster pot pie advertised on their sign outside. My boyfriend and I both ordered one (we never usually order the same thing, but it sounded so delicious).
Our «lobster pot pie» came, for $ 24 each, and it was… um…not what I was expecting. I am NOT at all expecting something huge and gluttonous. But first of all, making a chowder and placing an oily puff pastry on top does NOT constitute it as a pot pie. Can someone say false advertising?
Also, I am just a bit turned off because I feel that they are starting to get ballsy with prices. I get it — good fish is expensive. Great. I’ve been to 3 Michelin star restaurants. Whatever. But the portions don’t match with the prices. Not sure if I’ll be back. I’d rather put the $ 100 I spent on that meal (2 beers, one order of three boring crab bites and mayo, and two «lobster pot pies» towards Le Bernardin.

If your friends in Manhattan can never get a table at Mary’s get them to cross the river! Great food, great people.

The Bad:
This place specializes in mayo sandwiches with a side of seafood on top, and the portions were small.
My boyfriend got the New Orleans Po Boy, and I got the fried clam roll. The seafood was yum, but the mayo was over powering!!! The mayor of mayo-​land was in town, and everyone was out having a mayo party!
To be fair, the amount of seafood was justified for the price, though I would have gladly paid the higher price for a slightly bigger sandwich. But the mayo. Oh dear lord the mayo.
The Good:
The place was well-​lit and had wonderful music. They were playing a doo-​wop mix last night. They also had a wonderful drafts list. The beers aren’t local, but they do largely come from microbreweries.

my review is based on the sardine sandwich and fries. when i lived in brooklyn, i use to bike to this place for lunch all the time. they have the best fries ever. and i especially like that they serve it with malt vinegar — my favorite way to eat fries.
it’s funny that they now call their sardine sandwich the Portuguese sardine banh mi. when i use to eat it, i think it was simply called a sardine sandwich. i always came back for this sandwich for nostalgic reasons, because it was how my mom would prepare sardine banh mi for us — like a vietnamese banh mi, but instead of meat, with sardines sauteed with tomatoes and onions. brooklyne fish camp’s sardine sandwich totally reminded me of this, hence the now befittingly named sardine banh mi. it’s delicious. try it.

When I came here I sat outside with my party. I think the ambiance is definitely nicer outside, with rows of picnic tables in a sunken garden. Indoors was like a children’s meet up — definitely good place to take kids as strollers, crayons, etc were everywhere.
Now the food — the menu is small, but there is usually an extensive «specials» list — order off of this! All of our food was delicious, if a little expensive — but I suppose that is to be expected in this neighborhood.

First of all, I think they need to clarify what it is they’re running here. I carried my goldfish, Cyrano, here in his bowl, hoping to enroll him in a two-​week summer camp. Apparently this is NOT a camp for fish, but a restaurant that serves fish!
Cyrano was mortified, but I was slightly intrigued (he doesn’t know that I actually eat fish… luckily he doesn’t read Unilocal!reviews so he’ll never know)
Anyway, came here on a date (or at least I think it was a date) and had a really nice time. I like the rustic décor. The service was laid back, but informative. I had a great Keslo Pilsner to drink and my date got some kind of wine (that’s a strike right there). We split the fried green tomatoes which had a nice yogurt sauce on them. Very tasty.
Then we each had a lobster roll with fries. The fries were super thin but very good. The rolls themselves were tasty with very generous portions of lobster. We were both satisfied.
The desserts looked good but we were stuffed. I’d definitely come back. The back patio looks awesome but it was raining the night we were there. Maybe next time.

My dining partner and I just spent a good long time debating between giving Brooklyn Fish Camp 2 or 3 stars. The food was good, for sure. But would I recommend that someone else go there? Probably not. Even though they have good food.
It’s my own fault, really. I wanted oysters and a seafood dinner. I read the reviews, but I decided to go anyway. Because of how much I wanted oysters. And because Cornelius is closed and it felt like too much of a schlep from my Park Slope home to go to Kittery.
About halfway through the meal, though, I realized. Should’ve gone to Kittery.
Again, the food was delicious. We had the a half dozen of the aforementioned oysters, some roasted mussels, and shared the soft shell crab (on the specials menu) with a side of hush puppies (also on the specials menu). It was all very good. Maybe not a hundred dollars good (that was our total, including a couple of beers), but good.
What wasn’t quite so good was the service. We actually tried to order something else, initially. Often when we try a new restaurant we like to do it «tapas style» as I’ve told dozens of wait staff — order a collection of appetizers/​sides so that we can try a lot of the things on the menu. Usually folks are comfortable with this, and some even seem excited to showcase their offerings in that way. But when we tried to order that way at BFC, the waitress was unhappy. She told us we needed to have a specific order that we wanted the dishes to come out otherwise the kitchen would get angry with her. When I tried to comply, she told us actually, we weren’t ordering enough food (four appetizers & oysters was the initial order), that we’d be hungry. She said she’d go put the order in for the oysters and give us time to revise the order.
I felt bullied into ordering more food. More good food. But it was strange. And she was adamant that it would be very difficult to add to our order later, so we’d better make sure we ordered enough food to begin with, which might have made sense if it had been crazy busy, but it was about 5:30 on a Friday — empty when we sat down and less than half full when we left. After we changed our order to something that she felt was more appropriate, she basically ignored us for the rest of the night.
She came to check once, I think, but mostly our other needs (more water, another round of beers, plate clearing, food served) was taken care of by some bus service and at one point, another waitress. All perfectly friendly, really. But still strange.
And the portions *were* small. Which I know other people have complained about on Unilocal,but sometimes I think that stuff gets blown out of proportion — I mean, sometimes fine dining is about paying for quality not quantity, right? Still, if I’m going to spend $ 8 on a side of hush puppies, I’d like more than 3. Or I’d like them to be the best hush puppies I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.
You should just go to Kittery.

Gotta say, other than the patio, I was really disappointed with my experience at Brooklyn Fish Camp. Our waitress was a total snot and was obviously annoyed that my friends and I came here only for oysters and drinks and not dinner– and treated us as such. Because they had different kinds of oysters offered, my friend asked «so what’s the deal with oysters, how do we go about selecting?» and the waitress retorted with «well, first you order them, and then I bring them out to you.» — thanks, that was helpful.
Service was also incredibly slow and they weren’t that busy– not to mention we ordered food that didn’t need to be cooked. And considering the great service I’ve received at restaurants all over Brooklyn, I can find oysters many other places without the ‘tude. I’ll also skip the $ 3.50/oyster and wait for the $ 1 oyster happy hours offered all over. I will say, the oysters were really good as were the sauces.
Beer and wine only.

My pregnant wife and I went here today. We have a 2 year old, and my parents were visiting, allowing us a nice date, something we don’t get very often. My wife was craving fish and chips. We went in thinking that a fish place should have fish and chips, but it wasn’t on the menu.
The waitress, who was very nice, said that it’s on the kids menu, and that she’d check to see if we could get it. It was 17 $, which I thought was a bit much, but heck, for good fish and chips it’s worth it.
We eagerly awaited our fish and chips, imagining a nice piece of beautifully battered cod.
When our plates arrived, we literally laughed. «This is it?» we asked.
Our plate consisted of 5 bite sized pieces of fried fish (with skin still on) and some fries. And I will say that it tasted fine. Was it magical? No. But it tasted satisfactory.
Fish and chips isn’t fancy food.
But it was an appetizer sized portion. Maybe worth $ 8. Or $ 10. Not even close to $ 17.
We finished quickly and I saw that a kid a nearby table got a plate that looked just like ours.
I asked our waitress how much the kids sized portion was and she said $ 8.
They said that they use different fish on the fish and chips and that they price it based on weight.
«The weight of the customer?» I thought.
I think we got scammed.
We were really bummed out and actually were sad after going here.
Thankfully we went for a key lime pie in Red Hook afterwards to make up for it.
I’ve had bad meals in NYC and rarely write a bad Unilocal review. It’s tough running a restaurant in the city, but after eating here, leaving hungry, and having paid over $ 40 for it, I feel angry. Especially considering that there’s hard working Pakistani immigrants who make a killer chicken and rice down the street from us for $ 5. Their food and the love they put into it is worth way more than this place.
Do not give this restaurant your business.

Swing and a:
Miss: Lobster Bites are over cooked and chewy with too much mayo. Or should I say the mayo had too little lobster?
Devilled Egg: Too many additions (seasoning, bacon etc…) did not let the fresh taste of the egg come through.
Hit: Oysters on the half shell. But come on, how can one possibly mess this one up?
Hit: Friendly staff.
at $ 5 the miniaturized sample versions of the main courses are well priced, but for the quality the $ 16+ entrees seemed a bit steep.

After finding a great spot close by we walked in to this busy restaurant just in time when multiple tables were getting up to leave. Score! We got a table in the back of the restaurant where you can see the open kitchen, this is a great feature of this restaurant. We’ve been here few times and i love that the menu is switched With new and inventive items on the menu plus they have daily specials on the black boards. The place is simple wood tables, simple art, nice wait staff, Great food. The waitress came over and asked us what we wanted to drink, i was unfamiliar with the beers so she recommended a wheat beer she had on tap. I noticed when it came to the table their was a large chip in the glass, She immediately got me a new beer and comped our next drink. That was very cool of her, very professional.
For an app we shared the fried oysters and clams they were fried perfectly with a great tartar sauce it had capers in it. it was delicious. One down side i wish they served bread! For dinner the bf got the fried oyster po boy with old bay fries and i got the indian inspired halibut filet. The sandwich was great rather large portion. The fried were addicting. The halibut was good but for such a delicate fish, i personally wouldnt have mixed such heavy seasonings with it. I do like this place but i wouldnt get this dish again. For dessert we shared the ooey gooey chocolate cake with salted caramel and vanilla ice cream. It was very good. It was rich and decadent and loved the saltiness of the caramel with the sweetness of the chocolate.
I think this place is great and will be back to try some new stuff.

Came here with a friend on New Year’s Day. I’ve actually wanted to eat here since living around the corner 5 years ago, but never had a chance to until now.
We started with the Shrimp Toast with Scallion Ginger Sauce. Here’s the tricky part. While I understand seafood is not cheap, for $ 12 I’d figured we’d get more than 3 pieces of toast that were basically two bites each. But sure.
I next had the Fish Camp Oyster Po Boy along with a side of Old Bay fries. Now having recently had very good Old Bay fries at the Mermaid Inn, I wanted to see how theirs stacked up.
They do not. At all.
These fries are basically potato straws seasoned beyond an reasonable amount with Old Bay. We’re talking heavily salted enough that my friend joked I could cure raw meat by covering it with the fries. I should mention that you do get an enormous mound of fries for $ 8, so there’s that. But I wouldn’t bother.
The Po Boy was also incredibly salty and I honestly couldn’t tell what sort of fried seafood was in the sandwich.
Here’s the problem: yes, salt is a flavor enhancer. But salt shouldn’t be the only flavor, and you can have too much! I didn’t come here to eat the Dead Sea, and when your food is as salty as this was, it’d be nice if the waitress came over once to fill our water.
Maybe this was a off night. But inadequate food does not make me feel charitable.

I went here last night for dinner and cannot say it is worth the money– I would recommend going to Littleneck, which is a bit less expensive and has higher quality food.
I had raw oysters, which were good, but over priced at 3.50 a pop; the clam chowder was not think enough though it was flavorful– most disappointing, however, was the oyster po-​boy– it just was not delicious and not worth 14 dollars.
However, I think the outdoor space in the back is lovely and I really like Mary’s in the city, or at least I did a few years back when I visited.