If You Spot This At A Seafood Restaurant, You're In For Top Quality - Tasting Table

"One of the most important indicators of fresh, quality seafood is keeping everything very cold. Gaudet emphasizes that things must be kept as cold as possible, ideally on plenty of ice or in refrigerated boxes. "I like seeing whole fish stored in ice," says Gaudet, "upright if a round fish, flat if a bottom fish, with drainage underneath [the ice]." Keeping seafood extra cold not only helps preserve the freshness and quality of the sea creatures but also helps prevent any bacterial growth in the seafood."

"Seeing any seafood languishing in a warm or even room temperature display or locations is a shellfish red flag you just can't ignore at seafood restaurants."

"Just as you'd look for certain signs before buying a whole fresh fish, the same should go for any seafood on display that you might order later. Gosker instructs us to pay special attention to the eyes of any of the fresh fish or whole crustaceans, saying that the eyes shouldn't show any signs of opaqueness or cloudiness, but rather that the eyes should be shiny and clear. "Everything should look fresh and bright," says Gosker, "not dull and lifeless.""

Seafood quality depends on strict temperature control and careful visual inspection. Seafood should be kept as cold as possible, ideally on abundant ice or in refrigerated containers. Whole fish should be stored properly on ice, with upright positioning for round fish and flat positioning for bottom fish, along with drainage underneath. Warm or room-temperature displays signal a serious problem, especially for shellfish. When evaluating whole fish or crustaceans, the eyes provide a key freshness indicator. Eyes should be shiny and clear, not cloudy or opaque, and the overall appearance should look fresh and bright rather than dull and lifeless.

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