You take a seat at a good seafood restaurant and open the menu, hopefully, searching for the perfect catch of the day. The waiter comes over, smiling, to get your order. But here’s a little secret that might surprise you: some of those fancy-sounding seafood dishes might ultimately wind up costing you big in terms of your pocketbook, a disappointing meal, or, worse, a visit to the emergency room.
According to The Business Research Company, the global seafood market is projected to reach $270.43 billion by 2025. As consumers prioritize sustainability, safety, and transparency more than ever, knowing what to skip at restaurants is essential for both your wallet and well-being.
Seafood authorities and seasoned cooks have some serious “don’ts” when it comes to what you should avoid altogether. Let’s get to know the orders the pros even avoid like the plague.
Shark
Your health isn’t worth the risk of eating a predator. The FDA has long warned that shark meat contains some of the highest mercury levels found in any fish. As a long-lived apex predator, sharks accumulate high levels of mercury, lead, and arsenic in their muscle tissue, rendering their meat highly toxic for consumption.
While restaurant waiters might try to upsell shark steaks as an exotic delicacy, both marine biologists and health experts strongly advise against it.
Tilapia
This favorite white fish has a bad reputation among chefs and nutritionists, and for good reason. The majority of the tilapia served in restaurants were sourced from crowded fish hatcheries with suspect conditions at best. Such farms typically employ antibiotics, chemicals, and feed that includes animal waste to reduce expenses.
According to Healthline, Tilapia has a higher ratio of harmful omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. While omega-6s are vital nutrients, consuming too many of them, especially when you don’t get enough omega-3s, can lead to inflammation.
The Monday “Seafood Special”
Many diners are unaware of a hidden truth behind Monday seafood specials. Most restaurants receive their freshest seafood deliveries on Thursday or Friday to prepare for the weekend crowd.
By Monday, that “special” dish might be four or five days old, stored in coolers where it gradually loses both flavor and, potentially, freshness. Before you dive into a Monday special, it’s worth asking your server when the fish was delivered.
Raw Oysters
Raw oysters appear in the right venue beautifully, but it’s also one of the riskiest things you can order. According to the CDC, illnesses caused by raw oysters are responsible for more foodborne illnesses than those linked to any other type of seafood, largely due to the presence of Vibrio bacteria.
If you’re at a restaurant that isn’t obviously a bastion of seafood expertise, go ahead and skip the raw oysters altogether. The potential reward of a briny, tender bivalve is not worth the risk of an unpleasant night spent in the bathroom.
Fried Calamari
That golden, crunchy serving of calamari on your table? It could be the largest seafood scam in the restaurant industry. Most places run through simple, frozen, pre-battered squid rings that probably haven’t budged from a freezer for ages.
According to HowMuchIsIt, restaurants and similar organizations typically pay between $7 and $15 per pound for frozen squid rings, with the price varying based on quality and distributor. Essentially, you’re shelling out premium prices for what amounts to overpriced onion rings made from remnants of someone’s “catch of the day,” barely resembling the creature it once was.
Seafood Carbonara
Pasta dishes heavy in cream and seafood carbonara are often dumping grounds for seafood that’s a little past its prime. Chefs create richly seasoned sauces to mask off-flavors and undesirable textures that aging fish and shellfish develop. Cream, cheese, and sharp seasonings can mask the telltale stink of fish that needs to have been tossed out yesterday.
Good seafood should taste of the sea, not of a sauce that’s working overtime to camouflage something. When you order seafood pasta, what you are usually paying for is the seafood price, with some dairy and suspect protein added.
Swordfish
This favorite fish choice can be high in mercury content, similar to shark, meaning it is unsafe to eat regularly. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and small children should not eat any swordfish at all because of its high levels of mercury, according to the FDA.
At a restaurant, swordfish steaks can run up to $30-40 a plate, but you’re paying a premium because this fish can kill you if you overeat it.
Catfish
One notorious offender is farm-raised catfish, a prime example of industrial aquaculture. Yet, restaurants still serve it as a Southern delicacy. The majority of catfish are farmed, where they are often fed antibiotics and growth hormones and processed with feed made from animal byproducts to increase production.
These fish lead miserable lives in filthy, crowded conditions that would horrify most diners who knew the reality. This results in poor nutritional value, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria can contaminate the product.
Bluefin Tuna
Ordering bluefin tuna in most restaurants endorses one of the ocean’s most egregious conservation disasters. According to The Pew Charitable Trusts, the population of bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic has dropped by 82% since 1970, a number that threatens to drive the most magnificent creature to extinction.
Restaurants often charge a premium for bluefin tuna that’s frozen months or even years ago. And even if you could find and afford a top-quality, expensive fish, it doesn’t necessarily mean better quality.
Stone Crab
Stone crab season is from October to May. Yet, many restaurants offer “stone crab” year-round, at the most discouraging prices. Out-of-season stone crab is dredged from freezers where it’s languished for months, losing much of the sweet, delicate flavor that makes fresh stone crab such a delight.
Florida stone crab costs $40–$75 per pound in restaurants, which means you are paying premium prices for what is essentially generic crab that has been frozen for six months. Truly savvy diners don’t bother with stone crab at all, unless they are eating it fresh during the appropriate season in Florida.
Eel
Eel numbers have plummeted so drastically around the globe that European eels are critically endangered. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution reports that the population of Japanese eel has plummeted in recent decades, mainly as a result of overfishing, habitat damage, and climate change.
Conservation groups now rate eating eel as akin to chowing down on black rhino, and many countries have banned eel fishing altogether, or severely restricted it, to keep the whole amazing creature from blinking away.
Sea Urchin
Sea urchin is exotic, upscale-sounding, and a bold move at most restaurants; it’s one of the riskiest orders you can make, even for someone overly cautious about foodborne illnesses. These spiny creatures filter water through their bodies, extracting pollutants, bacteria, and toxins from their environment.
Disclaimer – This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information. It is not intended to be professional advice.
16 Grocery Staples to Stock Up On Before Prices Spike Again
16 Grocery Staples to Stock Up On Before Prices Spike Again
I was in the grocery store the other day, and it hit me—I’m buying the exact same things I always do, but my bill just keeps getting higher. Like, I swear I just blinked, and suddenly eggs are a luxury item. What’s going on?
Inflation, supply-chain delays, and erratic weather conditions have modestly (or, let’s face it, dramatically) pushed the prices of staples ever higher. The USDA reports that food prices climbed an additional 2.9% year over year in May 2025—and that’s after the inflation storm of 2022–2023.
So, if you’ve got room in a pantry, freezer, or even a couple of extra shelves, now might be a good moment to stock up on these staple groceries—before the prices rise later.
6 Gas Station Chains With Food So Good It’s Worth Driving Out Of Your Way For
6 Gas Station Chains With Food So Good It’s Worth Driving Out Of Your Way For
We scoured the Internet to see what people had to say about gas station food. If you think the only things available are wrinkled hot dogs of indeterminate age and day-glow slushies, we’ve got great, tasty news for you. Whether it ends up being part of a regular routine or your only resource on a long car trip, we have the food info you need.
Let’s look at 6 gas stations that folks can’t get enough of and see what they have for you to eat.
