Edwin & Neal’s Fish Bar
“Must try Sweet and Sour Calamari, Fluke Ceviche, Shrimp Riggies and Octopus Cassoulet (to die for!!!).”
“We got everything – from the salmon sliders, to the fried oysters, to the fish tacos, to the brisket, to the lobster, to the oysters.”
“Main courses we had the octopus cassoulet and the cuttlefish ribbons in Uni butter sauce.”
Edwin & Neal’s Fish Bar
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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So my three friends and I had these grand plans of dining at Upstate on a Saturday night (lolz, I know). When those dreams were obviously crushed, we wandered around the corner to Edwin and Neal's, hoping our seafood cravings could still be satisfied.
…And they were. This rustic, candlelit spot has pretty much all the fresh seafood you could want. We ordered the sweet and sour calamari, fluke ceviche, baked oysters, and skate with polenta and brussels sprouts. It was all delicious, but the calamari absolutely blew my mind. That sticky sweet and sour sauce was addicting. And the calamari itself was perfectly crispy.
The ambiance and wait staff were also delightful. It's a pretty big space relative to the size of most East Village spots. So it's a solid option for groups and dates alike.
In all, Edwin and Neal's is proof you don't have to wait 2 hours for a tasty and trendy meal.
Had a pre trip dinner to Upstate, there was a 20 min wait so the maitre de recommended the sister restaurant Edwin & Neal's. Missed the 7pm cutoff for happy hour. Had a dozen from the raw bar, was very good. Horseradish sauce and was hot but not too hot, complimented the oysters/clams. Fish taco was ok, I think they used haddock. Needed more salsa. Main courses we had the octopus cassoulet and the cuttlefish ribbons in Uni butter sauce. Both were amazing, wished they'd give us some good crusty sour dough bread to sop up the sauce. Octopus was cooked to perfection, the citrus sauce really cut the rich fattiness of the fish. Ate like a piece of good bbqed languissa. For a split second thought that the octopus was marinated in jerk seasoning. The beans in the cassoulet was cooked well, not over cooked or under cooked. Once again the citrus sauce complimented the buttery beans. The cuttlefish ribbons was the star of the night. The fish was cut like linguine pasta and the buttery Uni sauce reminded you that you were eating a seafood dish but not overly fishy. Oh I took a chance on the fries rice w Chinese sausages. We were successful in doing so. The fried rice was more like a corn hash w rice and was a good starch to go w both main courses. Can't wait to try Upstate. Cheers.
3.5 Unfortunately, I didn't feel like this place lives up to its sister restaurant, Upstate. They do take reservations which is a plus and they have adopted the Upstate oyster happy hour which is great. For dinner, I started with the fluke ceviche which was pretty tasty, it has a spicy kick with jalapeno. Where things fell a bit flat for me was the main course. I ordered the bass with corn polenta. The bass was cooked well, but I felt it lacked a bit of flavor. The polenta's texture was nice as it had chunks of corn, but it definitely needed salt. I tried my boyfriend's potato hash side and it was actually too salty! I put the two together and it ended up being an enjoyable bite. We also weren't offered whiskey cake at the end–not sure if they are keeping that Upstate offering.
Service here is off, and food isn't all that either.
I arrived at 5:20PM last night and had the most awkward initial encounter ever with the staff. My gf was waiting for me outside the restaurant and I guess she seemed to have walked off while waiting for the very late me. I walked into Edwin and Neal's unsure if she was inside or not, and asked the staff is an asian girl (with a description of how she looks like ofc) was seated a few minutes before me. A male staff proceeded to tell me he saw her standing outside a few minutes prior on her phone and asked if we meant to go to Upstate down the block. I told him no, and instead of being like "Great! These chicks intended to visit us and didn't make a booboo!", he was more like "Oh. Well, I'm gonna end this conversation in awkward silence and let you stand here by the bar like a weirdo with no instructions." I asked if I could be seated while waiting for my gf to come back and a VERY rude woman behind the counter basically snapped at me saying that I had to wait for her at the bar. Uh, mind you. The restaurant was empty with only one occupied table. And it's not like I was lying about my friend being close by. They SAW my friend waiting for me outside. So what's the f*cking deal? The woman is overweight, a lot of makeup, and brunette – This isn't to mock her to scrutinize her appearance – It's the only way I can describe her for other patrons to know and maybe for the owners to know. The first guy wasn't rude, just didn't have the best customer service skills, but she was off-the-chart rude and condescending and the reason why Edwin and Neal's is getting 2 stars and not a fair 3 from me.
The food itself wasn't bad, but wasn't memorable either. Food here tastes very.. home like. Not in a good way. Basically doesn't taste like food of a restaurant's caliber because it tastes like any without experience can make it.
HH Oysters – Forgot the names already because the two selections of the day were nothing special. Nonetheless, oysters were fresh and that's all that matters if the price tag is only $1 per oys.
Kumamoto Oysters – At $3 a pop, these were by far the wost kumamotos I've had. Kumamotos are my FAVORITE, and the ones here were smaller than usual and super duper fishy. I was able to handle it, but my gf hated it.
Fish Tacos – Luckily the fish tacos are at $2.50 a pop during their 5-7PM HH. I believe the reg price is $9 for 3? Only a dif of .50cents per, but having the option to order only 2 to try was great. Glad we did that. The fish was fried in a tasteless orange batter and did not look appealing. Tacos were overall overtly fishy, dry, and bland. Again, something one can whip up at home with fish leftovers.
Branzino Ceviche – Hmm. How to describe this one? Just didn't hit the spot, I guess. Branzino tasted like nothing and there was way too much olive oil. Tasted like a piece of sashimi with avocado on top drenched in olive oil. Again, something that didn't taste good, but also not bad because one is still able to finish the dish. The reason for us finishing it is strictly because we paid for it though.
Steamed Mussels – Nice solid bowl of steamed mussels. Nothing different than the many other pots of mussels I've had in the past though. Loved (not) how our basket to hold the shells in was changed towards the end when it was overflowing and we only had 4 mussels left to kill. What's the point of even changing it bro?
Side of broccoli – BROCCOLI. Not a mess up, but WHY does it taste like the stir fried broccoli I can stir fry at home once again? Better yet, the broccoli you find in chinese fast food? I just don't get it.
I don't get any of the raving reviews about this place. I really really really really DON'T.
KenScale: 7.5
What makes a seafood restaurant successful? Obviously, the freshness of seafood is the key success factor, and the next is how the kitchen puts together fresh ingredients in a way that ensures the texture stays consistently good with no overkill on the flavor. I was hoping that Edwin & Neal's Fish Bar, which recently opened in East Village from the team behind oyster bar Upstate, would be able to achieve this mission. While there were some dishes that worked, overall I was somewhat overwhelmed by the flavor, which was a bit too strong and therefore undermining the texture of otherwise fresh seafood.
When it comes to seafood, more often than not, simplicity with emphasis on freshness of ingredients usually pays off. For Edwin & Neal's, there seemed to be too much going on with some of the dishes, starting with roasted oysters with bacon and brussels sprouts. Sweet and sour calamari with peanuts and cilantro, too, was too strong in the flavor even though the calamari itself was tender. The whole idea on putting Asian touch may have been creative, but it seemed the execution was definitely off. Octopus cassoulet with bacon, white beans and breadcrumb also had too much going on, and the funky flavor of broth underneath made sure that I would not want to try this dish again. Now on to the good parts. Edwin & Neal's has the fish bar section where you can combine one of the catches with a side dish. The better dishes came from this section where simplicity did play better, such as fresh head-on shrimp with broccoli sautéed in garlic and olive oil, or the nicely cooked cod that worked beautifully with fresh corn polenta and roasted brussels sprouts. The best dish of the night belonged to shrimp "rigggies," a dish of rigatoni with shrimp sausage, bacon and parmesan that I just couldn't stop digging. For a seafood restaurant, it was quite a delicious pasta dish with rich flavor that wasn't too overpowering.
Getting a reservation seems relatively easy, although the dining space was crowded with people on my visit on a Thursday night. Edwin & Neal's has a typical vibe of East Village, a straightforward neighborhood-type restaurant without much fuss. There is a full bar, and complementing your meal with a glass of white seems like a good idea. While the restaurant had some good dishes, I'm not quite ready to call it a destination worth visiting. I would like to see how the kitchen evolves over time, sticking with basics instead of having too much going on.
If I have to go deep sea diving to find the bivalve in my fried clam appetizer, then it's a sure bet I won't be giving a stellar review. Bff and I came for a late lunch(early dinner for her) and made happy hour. Alas, compared to Upstate, this place is a disappointment. BFF did not like the food at all and probably would have given it all one star: too much batter, tasting nothing aside from the coating, she said. Stay away from the fried clams, you'd think you were eating fried batter. Seriously, the look might be cute, serving the fried clams(???) on top of their shells. But geesh, when you fry mini clams, you don't get to taste any meat. That was just a waste of money and frying effort. The fried oysters were slightly better. I tasted the mollusk at least, though bestie said it tasted like dried oysters, so chewy and thin they were. This was the first time I ate fried oysters that didn't melt in my mouth with that gooey center. Methinks these were oyster strips. They also came out on their shells, on a bed of tartar sauce. More interesting in concept than execution, as the shells were icy cold, the tartar sauce room temp, making the oysters no longer hot by the time it reached our table. As for the fish tacos, they were okay. I would rather the place charged more than the $2.50 happy hour price and give you more fish than coating. Flavor wise, they had me thinking the one shrimp taco I had at the fast food place Otto's to ward off a sugar coma from ice cream was far superior. We really think it was the $1 happy hour raw oysters and drinks that made this place packed and generated the rave Yelp reviews and the crowds. The raw oysters we ordered were fresh, briny and went down oh so smooth. The kitchen however, has counting challenges. We ordered six, received eight and our pleasant waiter smiled and said we got "extra" after I told him of the mistake. The table next to us ordered 8 and got 7. The wait staff here is affable, though if you don't order your oysters in the beginning, be prepared for a wait once the happy hour crunch is on. I'd come back only for the oysters if I did. On the day we went, there was a choice of 3 different $1 oysters. All were good. But for the other food, well, after dining here, I was disgruntled and craving real good fried seafood, like what you would get at Bigelow's or No Name in Boston.
We came here for drinks. Great selection of drafts from upstate NY. Industrial vibe, spacious, and very friendly staff. Will come again for food.
I really enjoyed my time at this place. I was concerned at first because they didn't have Moscow mules, but the Fire Island Sea Salt ale I got was one of the best beers I've ever tasted.
I like the ambiance here, great date spot. It's pretty small but you don't feel crammed and I Ike the dim lighting. The oysters were great. Highly recommend this place if you are picky with oysters(such as myself). They are fresh and come from clean bays. Now let me cut to the chase…
The SMOLDERED SALMON entree was INCREDIBLE. I ate this dish way too fast. Cleared the whole thing. It was one of the best salmon dishes I've ever had in my life: they give you a large piece and the dill sauce is an amazing touch. I highly recommend this dish when coming here. But, my date got the fish tacos and they were ok. I wasn't a fan. I was just happy I picked the really good dish:) it was hard for me to share.
The service here was ok. Waiter was a little awkward and I had to keep asking him for help, he never initiated or offered to take our order or anything. But, it's ok. No biggie. Fantastic salmon and great beer, I will definitely come back soon!