Fish Market

Sewage stench. Surly waitstaff.

by powerrbill

To be fair, I dined at Fish Market in July and really liked the experience. So 3 months later, after telling my friends about what a great restaurant it was, I got them to join me last night. We sat down and ordered martinis. We were told that they didn't have a full bar, but that "it would be coming in about a week." This is what they told me in July.

"Must've been leftover booze from a party." Classy joint.

So, we order up 4 glasses of wine and while we're waiting for them to show up each of us comments on a terrible smell that's wafting through the place. It smelled like sewage was backing up. The scent, as one might imagine, was not at all appetizing. We agreed that we wouldn't be able to enjoy our food and that we'd pay for our wine and move on to a new place.

Just then a waitress comes to our table with complimentary soup. Rather than bring up the noxious smell around her other patrons, I explained that the menu was different than the last time I had dined there and that we were going to just pay for our drinks and move on. Her demeanor turn surly and she said "You should be open to trying different things. You might like it." and started to rattle off a description of something on the menu.

She seemed desperate to keep us there, so we quietly let her in on the fact that the scent of raw sewage that had permeated the place was not what we had in mind. Her explanation?

"Well, what do you expect from a restaurant that's on the East River? No matter where you go around here, it's going to smell like this." Ah...classier, still.

So we paid, tipped 20% and walked outdoors where it smelled refreshingly better than it did indoors, refuting the uninformed waitress' explanation of the sewage smell. The we walked a mere block over to Stella Maris where it smelled great, had a full bar, fantastic food and friendly staff.

Poor Fish Market. I don't suspect they'll bee in business very much longer. The surly staff and sewage stench will ensure that.

• Pros: food
• Cons: surly waitstaff, the smell of sewage permeates the place