University Seafood & Poultry

Very fresh and quality assortment of seafood, that you simply can’t find anywhere else in the area!
Depending on the item, prices can be steep… but I promise you will not regret it. I came in expecting to pay nearly twice as much as I did for a pound of mussels… that cooked up perfectly with no bad shells later that evening.
I wouldn’t use the term friendly to describe the staff, but they are certainly helpful. If it were a lot closer to my home, I would frequent this place for home cooked means.

Ho-​ly cow. Okay, so, I don’t usually like eating frozen crab. It’s watery, tasteless, and dry … but I called up asked if they had any Dungeness in stock and the fellow said he had some frozen. He also said they were pretty good or else he wouldn’t have them in stock. Well, he was right. I took a risk, got the frozen whole Dungeness and it tasted fantastic. I could hardly tell the difference between fresh crab. It was so flavorful and tender. Full of sweet meat. I know where I can go now to get off-​season Dungeness crab.

Please work on your customer service.
I felt like I was in a NYC butcher shop with the brusque old man not helping me but giving me more attitude when I asked advice about fish. I was able to get some advice from the younger guy on the oysters. The organic salmon we had tasted good and buttery. The oysters were pretty good but probably not for the price. We got a dungeness crab and it was fairly sweet but I’ve had better. We didn’t try any of the poultry but we probably won’t be running back to this place any time soon. I had high hopes for this place but I need to lower my expectations. I’d like to get fish outside of Whole Foods but the workers there are so nice, friendly and helpful it’s hard not to go there.

After looking around at different markets for duck breast, University Seafood & Poultry was recommended to me by a friend. I was expecting it to have all the standard meats and seafood (ie. beef, pork, chicken, lamb, salmon, white fish, and prawns), but after looking at the meat assortments, I was wildly surprised.
I may need to try my duck breast first to taste the quality, but thus far for wild game, this is the only physical store I know of in Seattle. Most companies that sell wild game only have online services which takes time to ship. University Seafood & Poultry carries rabbit, elk, kangaroo, alligator, ostrich, squab, quail, python, wild boar, venison, and buffalo). Knowing that is making me look up wild game recipes. It’s amazing.
i know I always say something is a must try, but the Indian Smoked Salmon is really a must try. It’s oily (fish oil is good for you anyway), and VERY well smoked. It has been the best in Seattle I’ve had, even better than Pike Place Market (which is already one of my favorites). Service is okay as I know everyone was occupied with the playoffs, but it could have been friendlier.
Overall, I’m ready to cook wild game this year. I’m excited!

I’ve liked this shop over the years, but had a bad experience here on Christmas Eve. I was just picking up the standard Christmas Eve appetizer in our family — cooked shrimp for shrimp cocktail. They came frozen solid, which made defrosting them before dinner an issue. They were huge but they also smelled way «fishier» than usual, had little flavor. And they seemed to burst with retained water even after defrost. I could have done much better at Met Market or Costco, which isn’t why I spent the big bucks, and waited in a 20 minute line here.

Worth a drive from the Eastside.
A super fresh selection, friendly/​helpful staff. Coming from the Eastside, I call in first to be sure they have what I want/​need, and they set it aside for me. Unless I have questions, I’m in/​out in under 5 minutes. Love it!

Not the cheapest but definitely worth it!
I ordered my turkey legs for Thanksgiving about a week in advance. I had a problem in terms that they couldn’t tell me on average how big they may be or how much they are going to charge. Granted they did tell me how much they charged LAST year. Within a ballpark I felt that ordering/​buying 5 legs wouldn’t cost me my four limbs, so I decided to go for it.
University Seafood and Poultry did NOT disappoint! These things were HUGE and SUPER fresh and tasty! I though I would be spending about $ 45 for antibiotic free, local, cage-​free, all the pizazz, but I only ended up spending under $ 20! The average came out to be a little higher than last year’s prices, but it was well worth it!
I wanted to buy some seafood too, but I was really in a hurry! So I will definitely come back for some seafood and maybe some duck! I cannot wait to cook another meal with proteins from University Seafood & Poultry!

After reading some of the reviews I wanted to shop there and it was just a couple of miles from my place, so a shopping I went!
I was not sorry I chose this fine business to get my ingredients for my seafood chowder. I liked how neat and clean and fresh smelling this market was. It had the feel of an old fashioned family store with a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful man behind the glass display case. I asked for fish heads to make my stock with. He said he only had one, a salmon head but he could provide fish bones if I wanted. He gave me a plastic bag with 5 spines and tails, each at least 2 feet long with lovely red meat between all the bones and charged me dollar for it! The black board behind him had a huge list of many different fish with the price per pound. Very reasonable compared to other markets. I purchased some large prawns, a chunk of local albacore and some coho salmon. He cut these pieces as small as I wanted, the scale calculating the final price. Parking was on the street or a free 10 minutes at the near by 76 station lot. If you don’t shop here you are missing out on very fresh fish at bargain prices from a friendly knowledgeable source.

Love these guys! I got a turkey and some scallops here for Christmas dinner and the price was way less than if I had gone to Whole Foods which is my usual move. My son liked watching the live crabs and lobster – free entertainment. I got a lot of help picking the right size turkey, which was nice. All in all, a great experience.

My son is a big fan of quail — he quite enjoys the quail at Cascina Spinasse in Cap Hill and requested we go there for his birthday dinner. When I called Spinasse to see if they planned on having the quail on the menu, Meg told me sadly no for the night of his birthday. SO — I had to jump in and save the day.
First problem — where does one buy quail? Why, University Seafood and Poultry of course! I called to hold some quail and the staff were very helpful — about the quail and parking — they do have parking in a section of the 76 lot nearby.
Anyway, great place. Quail was so tasty. I also picked up some foie gras as well as some duck fat (never know when you might need some duck fat lol). Happy son! Thanks University Seafood!

Great fish and poultry market. I got halibut for $ 21.00 a pound and it was super good. Also had snapper, salmon, cod, tilapia, scallops, fresh Maine lobster and so much more. Worth a visit for sure. Staff was helpful and polite plus they had candy for the kids:-)

You know those little street shops that you see in British cooking shows?
«Pip pip! Let’s just pop in to the local butcher that has every top cut and perfect quality meat and is still somehow reasonably priced. It’s also usually empty and everyone ready to help immediately. Cheerio. God save the bloody queen.»
Didn’t you always wish that there was one of those around your house when you were feeling all Betty Crocker or Julia Child ala SAS World War 2 style? I know I always did and, I must admit, was a bit pissed off that I didn’t have one of those around me.
Well hey. I’ve got news for you punters, this is one of those places.
Drop in here and some old dudes will answer every question about their products. Where it’s from. What the animals name was. Maybe a recipe suggestion.
You’ll think less of a host buying something from the freezer case because you don’t have time to do something cool, but if that’s you, now you know what to do for your do-​over.

Hands down best seafood in town. I have been coming here since I was young to get all my seafood needs and occasionally other meats. I do not remember ever being disappointed.
The employees are extremely friendly and helpful, they will not only give you the best pieces of fish, but also answer any and all questions on how to prepare it or what goes best with it. I was recently in there last week and was surprised to see some of their exotic meats, I guess i have never really looked into it, but they had python, Kangaroo, Emu, etc. I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyways, i would whole heatedly recommend people to come get their seafood here!

Best fresh fish in town — period—
Nice people — great advice

A great neighborhood seafood and poultry shop, they consistently supply fresh, quality product – I’ve never been disappointed with my purchase. Some people have mentioned the high prices, but I find them to be consistent with most other seafood/​poultry markets. The staff here is also very helpful and knowledgeable. I love how they have little recipe cards by the cashier in case you don’t know what to cook.
The only drawback is their hours. They close at 5:30 pm on weekdays, so it can be difficult to get there before closing after work.

While I passed by this shop everyday, I had been skeptical of trying it for some reason, and persisted in feeling the need to trudge down to Pike’s Place whenever I wanted fish. After some less than stellar fish from Pike’s, I was open to at trying University Seafood & Poultry at least once. Now there are my go-​to fish store, and because of the convenience, I am eating fish a lot more often. I’ve also got to try quite a few new varieties of fish — steelhead (OK, not new for most people, but new for me), ruby trout, and arctic char, to start. The fish has always looked and tasted fresh, and I only once found the stub of a bone left in my fillet. I’m so glad that I finally tried this place!

Great selection and quality. They don’t do web sales, but you can call them, and they will ship it to you.
Bought some kippered white salmon, so yummy, much better than the pink stuff.

Let me preface this by saying: I love seafood. I eat a lot of it. My dad cooked seafood often when I was a kid. In fact, he likes halibut so much that he tells me the same terrible joke every time he’s cooking it:
Dad: Do you know why we’re having halibut for dinner tonight?
Me: No, dad, why are we having halibut?
Dad: Just for the HAL of it!!! Get it? Hal-​i-​but?
Me: Yes dad. I got it the last ten times, too.
And I learned from him that if you start out with bad fish, you will end up with a bad dinner, no matter how good of a cook you are… So I go to University Seafood when I want seafood for dinner. When I needed dry (non-​chemical treated) fresh scallops for a dinner of seared scallops on New Year’s Eve, I went to University Seafood. When I needed black cod for a special dinner for my boyfriend, I went to University Seafood. And it was fresh, reasonably priced and there was no nonsense — what you see is what you get. The cod was impossibly buttery; the scallops were firm and sweet.
I will usually call them to make sure that they have what I want in stock, but it’s not necessary.

I love this place the most of all the seafood stores I’ve been to in Seattle. I only buy fish from them, but they also carry a variety of eggs (including duck) and some other interesting meats (quail, cornish game hens, etc.).
The dudes that work here are quick, efficient, and no-​nonsense guys that can answer any question I throw at them (from where the fish was caught, when it was caught, to their favorite way to prepare Arctic Char). The fact that they can answer where & when the fish was caught should be a no-​brainer for any seafood speciality store to answer, but I’ve had a few experiences at Pike Place Market where some of the smaller seafood hawkers couldn’t even answer those simple questions.

Fish mongers are some of my favourite people in the whole world… they are generally a little grumpy but if they love fish as much as their job intones then you’ll never leave a fish market with a bad piece of fish. That’s why I love this store, apart from the poultry side of things, these guys know their stuff and work hard to only give you the best stuff around. They consistently have hard to get oysters (such as fanny bay’s) and their fish is about as fresh as if you had gone down to the docks and haggled with the guy who pulled it out of the water himself.
Now the poultry, there are not a lot of places in seattle (minus farmers markets and some places in the international district) where you can get duck in more than one form for a decent price that won’t make you steady yourself on the counter when you get the $/​lb. Duck, chickens, geese you name it, if it has feathers and you can eat it they have it and it super fresh and clean.
I’m one of those annoying shoppers that want to inspect my purchase. I’ll ask to see a piece and the guys will hand it over and let me get close up and smell it or give it a tap to check for firmness or inspect the gills. Their patience with me alone is worthy of a good review :)