The OK Seafood Fish Market and Kitchen is a little known hole-in-the-wall that should be better known by more people. It is a Chinese seafood restaurant that will beat the fancy suburban places on quality and price by 30%. 30% better quality and 30% less cost.
First the location: Paterson, NJ smack in the middle of the Railroad Ave. Farmer's Market. After loading up on fruits and vegetables, you can stop for lunch and rest your arms and legs.
Next it is a fish market with a few restaurant tables: This means that they use the freshest fish to cook up your meal. Plus the Mexican fishmonger guys do a great job of preparing the fish. If you even make a token effort to speak Spanish with them, they go out of their way to give you the best service.
Then there is the Chinese menu: The owners are from Fukien province where all the recent Chinese immigrants come from. They have taken over this generation's slot of running Chinese takeout joints. They have a full takeout style menu and they run a great $5.99 lunch special deal which lets you choose 3 items from the steam table with fried rice and a can of soda on the side. Don't let that fool you though. Go for the catch of the day.
You want to come here for the seafood. They will grill your salmon, tuna. Chilean seabass, cod, mahi-mahi, flounder, shrimp, and whatever else is fresh, over charcoal or a hibatchi. The fish and chips are exceptional. Then they have a full steamer menu. Yes you can get clams, oysters, shrimp, king crab legs, and lobster for a much more affordable price than at your usual seafood palace. The last time I checked the 2-2.5 lb lobster in ginger sauce special was between $15-16.
And I suspect that if I ask them to experiment with something like Japanese style panko bread crumbs, they will have it for me the next time I show up.
I started taking a bunch of my grade school and high school buddies to OK Seafood Market and Kitchen. They scratched their heads at first. Where are you taking me? But they were won over right away.
The only downside to the place is that they serve the meals up in styrofoam takeout cartons with plastic forks. But I'm going to pull the owner's coat a little and have a cultural sensitivity/marketing conversation with him one day to correct that defect. read more