Union Fish Market

Took mom here for a dinner with just us two. Overall… Very good in terms of food. The food we had was great. Truly all my issues with this place came from service. Small things but all added up. (the star rating is due to service)
Service, well not up to snuff. Seemed slow and dragged out. We were going to a show after dinner. We had a 2-​hour window and this was filed and almost late. Took 15 mins to get wine refills or drinks, 20 mins for original drink order to even happen. Really? You’re dragging your feet on our drinks? Is this not a money maker? There was whipped butter on table but no rolls or bread (other tables seemed to not have this issue). Never did see any the whole stay. Why was there whipped butter again?
Next part was we asked some questions on menu and it was like an inconvenience. My mom wanted to know how big the sides were and what the difference between some items. Sorry. Did we slow you down for you bigger tables? Did we interrupt your work? Then; the information really wasn’t that helpful. Direct questions «How many sides for two people?» Or even help us know how big they were to start with? Never game a number. 1,2,3? Nope. «Whatever you feel like, how hungry are you» We dunno. How big are they?
My next one is a pet peeve of restaurants. Our table was so close that the «righty» next to us, I bumped her with my «lefty» elbow. Just a lil more separation would have been nice so we wouldn’t be part of each other’s conversations. Luckily they were a fun couple since we were now eating together. But really; I get your putting in as many people as possible, but too close is too close.
Again. Top $; but missing those things that really do make the experience better. It’s an Art. Dinner/​drinks and the pace of meal dragged on way to long (we even told them we had show plans) and we had to skip desert. Shame. There was 15 mins between apps! Then… We finish apps and it was 25 mins before the main courses showed up? What?!? Pace was poor.
So food: 4.5 stars — Not sure you can go wrong on this part here. Our food was great. (slow at times)
Service 2.5, just not up to par for top $ place. Really. Sorry. But… No
Yes… we would go back. The food was really good. But to many small things drove the service down.

AWFUL. My mother (from St. Paul) chose the place for a Sunday night dinner because my brother loves seafood. The place was empty and our server was young and obviously new to the restaurant – no big deal. But the food was just terrible from start to finish. Everything felt old, dry and about to turn, like there was no chef in the kitchen – just someone heating stuff up that the chef had left in the fridge Saturday night. With whopping prices for such lousy food I had to give a bad review. What a rip off. We had: «shrimp corndogs» straight from the microwave (yuck), bread (even that was a yuck), the table split a caesar and baby lettuce salads (tiny, old lettuce) and shared two sides: brussel spouts and kale. Both (very small) sides were dripping with bacon fat and salt… disgusting. I ordered the crab cakes for $ 30. Worst I’ve ever had. They came with two tiny stale lemon slices and a bucket of tartar sauce. Then dessert: the mle cake with ice cream and caramel. The cake was literally stale. None of us could eat more than one bite. Is this supposed to be a nice place? Another reminder to avoid that area of downtown at all costs. Its for suckers and out-​of-​towners who don’t know where the great Minneapolis restaurants are.

The Fish Market gives diners a reason to go to Union when it’s too cold to eat at the Rooftop. The menu offers enough variety to appeal to any appetite. Chef specials are beautiful and creative. Simply grilled fish shows off the high quality of the fare and provides the diner a choice of tasty side dishes. A section of fish market classics includes things like fish and chips and crab cakes. Even the non-​fish items are tempting and includes the delicious veal chop that I enjoyed at the Rooftop last summer. Special call out for the lobster bisque with sweet potato purée and smoked roe. Amazing flavor and great presentation.

what a wonderful experience we had last night. We stopped in for dinner at union before the Dave Chappelle show. Food was fantastic, I specially enjoyed the roasted jalapeños. Our server was friendly and helpful. We were seated in the dining room on the street level. The ambience was lovely.

Reservations made at 830pm-​promptly seated. Wasn’t extremely busy for a Friday night but there were a few filled tables nearby. We reviewed out menus and when we asked the waiter what some of the best sellers were so far-​he proceeded to go through the entire menu-​and roll out the raw bar and go into detail. I wanted to know what the best sellers were-​not a dissection of the menu. Regardless, I ordered the grilled seabass-​with a sea same sauce and choose the uni for my side. My guest: trout and lobster bisque which the waiter up sold-​only to come back and say they were out. While the trout was nicely presented and a large portion-​it tasted a bit off-​like it was brined out of a tuna can. My seabass-​was about the size of my thumb. For $ 28 I’d expect a larger piece but figured it must be like butter so I didn’t mind-​nope it was completely overlooked. The uni was amazing-​I could have eaten a whole bowl of it. The fresh and warm grain rolls are a nice touch at the beginning of the meal. A sucker for desserts: tried their version of the baked Alaska-​and it was very good from presentation to last spoonful.
Pro: obviously nice atmosphere, the uni and baked Alaska
Con: sadly, the fish. Avoid trout and seabass-​Captial had a buttery divine seabass across the street for the same price.

Food was really good — not the best I’ve ever had, but close. The atmosphere on the roof is fabulous. It started to rain when we were there, which was fun because we got to sit inside the glass roof which they closed up right before our eyes.

LBS
My wife and I dined here before the Billy Crystal show at the State Theater across the street and it was fabulous. I ordered the New Bedford scallops because I lived there about 30 years ago and got spoiled by the fresh scallops off the boat. These were tasty, cooked to perfection and a little beets and tiny dollops of (I think) crème fraîche. My wife had a skate and was worried when the waiter told her the taste would be «assertive.» She thought it would be overpowering, but it wasn’t. It was the kind of tasty that you get from shark or swordfish, except maybe a little stringier, which was an interesting texture. We’d go there again and hope to in the summer when we can dine on the rooftop. (We were told it’s enclosed and open for the winter, but we’re outdoor dining people when we can be.)

My husband and I had dinner here last night. Atmosphere was great as there were very few diners and so it was quiet. I suspect it would be quite noisy if crowded. Our server, James was very good and attentive. We had one significant concern about this place. SALT! We had a cold crab cocktail and it was garnished with sea salt. I ordered crab cakes and could barely eat it all because of how salty it was. My husbands sea bass was also quite salty. The brussel sprouts side was FANTASTIC as were the sorbets. Husband had the lobster butternut soup which was also very good. They have a great thing going here so I hope they see this review and fix this over salting thing before the critics get in there.

I went to the Union Fish Market after having dined on the rooftop multiple times. I had never experience the main room before as it had a very similar menu to the rooftop. The pricing was reasonable, all the food was very fresh and our servers were great. I enjoyed myself — not very many seafood restaurants in Minneapolis, I will be returning.