The Best Seafood Shacks in America

City Seafood is both a restaurant and a market, with items that range from crab to alligator to frogs’ legs. Seafood is caught by restaurant-owned boats, so you know it will be fresh. Diners can sit outside and watch local wildlife (like manatees) while eating. Apart from the expertly fried seafood, the key lime pie comes highly recommended.

Conch fritters are the favorite of this aptly-named eatery on Duval Street, awarded Trip Advisor’s “Traveler’s Choice Awards” in 2021. Reviewers recommend pairing dishes with the restaurant’s signature key lime aïoli. And if musically inclined guests wish, staff are trained to teach them how to blow a conch shell.

Cracked conch for dinner and key lime pie for dessert…. Reviewers who ate at the family-owned Fish Shack note this winning combination. Located on the southeast Florida coast, Fish Shack is popular among locals and tourists alike. Guests need not worry about leaving hungry, as the portions are very generous.

Seafood can be baked, grilled, fried, sometimes eaten raw….But at this seafood shack, it’s smoked. Ted Peters opened his first restaurant in the late 1940s, enticing passers-by with the smell and spectacle of smoking fish. He moved to the present location in 1951, and it grew into a family business – still run by family members. The menu offers salmon, mahi mahi, mackerel, and mullet.

Situated on the Georgia coast, the Fat & Fine Crab Shack is a local favorite with a rating of 4.7/5 stars on Google. Diners rave about the fried shrimp and affordable prices. Grouper, snow crab, and Dungeness crab in various forms are also on offer.