(Citarella has numerous locations (& thus Yelp pages) in NY, but since my online order came from the Bronx, I chose this page to leave my review.)
Citarella, how do I love thee. Let me count the ways! At least let me count the ways from a distance via ordering through your website.
Both hubby & I were born & bred on the Long Island, NY, waterfront, & thus both of us have a serious background in catching (or buying) & cooking quality seafood. When we moved to Virginia more than 20 years ago, the lack of same was really our only singular hit of culture shock. Luckily, times have changed, & we can now purchase decent seafood from at least a small number of fairly close venues.
And then I happened upon Citarella. Actually, I'd known of Citarella for some time, as they are apparently the only vendor offering "scungilli" (whelk, a close relative of conch), which is an Italian delicacy that - even though I'm not Italian - I was introduced to as a child & have loved ever since. Twenty years ago I was able to purchase it around Xmas time up at the Martin's in Winchester, VA, but no luck since then.
When dear husband purchased the Citarella seafood cookbook "Joe Knows Fish" for me this past Xmas, it came with a free shipping certificate for any seafood purchased from the store. Not too shabby if you know what overnight shipping costs these days. So I gleefully purchased 2# of frozen scungilli as well as 1# of fresh Mako shark steaks.
Everything arrived beautifully packaged with enough frozen gel packs to momentarily halt global warming. We enjoyed the shark steaks that very night, & they were as fresh & pristine as if we'd caught the fish ourselves. Absolutely delicious! Sliced up a pound of the scungilli the other night & served it true Italian style - in a wonderful zippy red sauce over spaghetti. (I even did a red drip candle thing over a raffia-coated Chianti bottle for true old-style NY Italian restaurant effect - lol!). The scungilli was tender, delicious - wonderful!
Fast forward to last week when Citarella sent me a 50%-off-shipping coupon towards my next order - just in time for the Chinese Lunar New Year. Couldn't let that fly by! Ordered a 2# whole Black Sea Bass for delivery yesterday. One gets "butchering" options, & mine was for "cleaned, but head & tail left on". Fish arrived right on time & was perfectly cleaned - completely scaled, all fins removed, gutless. Again - fish looked as if it had just jumped out of the water - clear-eyed, fresh, not a whiff of "fish". Heaven! I steamed that baby last night Chinese-style (for luck in the New Lunar Year), & we devoured every bit.
Needless to say, I see more orders for interesting seafood from Citarella heading my way in the future. Yes, I'll still purchase from our favorite local folks - Wegmans in Gainesville & Lobster Maine-ia in Chantilly - but when I want something different or special that's not available locally, Citarella it will be. Yes, prices are high & shipping is abominable, but you do get what you pay for. read more