Tony’s Fish Market Restaurant

3.5
So after Brixton’s the date wanted to come here for din din. Again its their show when its the first date. This place packs it in tight, even the bathrooms are small. The waitresses seem like they’ve been workin there since day one hehe. Still nice with a dash of grumpiness.
So I didn’t want to eat to heavy since I knew we would be going right back on the bike. I ordered the caesar salad and crab cocktail and the mister ordered the filet and lobster tail dinner. In the meanwhile we had some drinks and no complaints there. Food arrived and I was kind of bummed I didn’t get those anchovies I read about in the description of the salad. So the salad was standard. My crab cocktail was fresh but they only gave me like 4 measely crackers with it. I tried his comida and it was good. Im not a filet gal (ribeye alllll day) the lobster tail was delish. We didn’t have enough room for dessert and thats fine.
Would I come back? Yes but come on Redondo has so many spots to dine, especially my love for The Standing room. I will be back if were on the pier :)

A crowded but good enough tourist-​local establishment. I liked the special drinks.

I really wanted to enjoy this restuarnt; I love the old feeling from the décor; my friend and I sat next to the window and we decided to order fried calamari for an apetizer; it was wonderul!!! We thought wow can’t wait for our lunch; well, the chower tasted like they just dumped the flour in and did not cook it; I ordered charbroiled shrimp and scallops; the scallops were amazing; the shrimp were like eating rubbber; my friends shrimp was just like mine! Nasty Our waiter Jared was obnoxious and we left him a tip only because it was not fair to the people who were clearing the table. I give this a two for the view!!!

One of the worst dining experiences in my life. A group of 4 went in thinking with such high priced the food must be decent at least. No, disgusting actually.

We went to Old Tony’s for the first time. There was a long hair melted into our mozzarella appetizer. Needless to say we will not be returning.

Looked damn good sitting from the bar

It’s closed. I’ve gone there since the 1970s, was my mother’s favorite place. You could see the waves and the ocean much better than from Kincaid’s (where I got sick after 3 of 3 visits). «Old Tony’s» has a similar menu and is about 1 minute walk away and you can also be right on top of the waves, but you can’t see the beach or ocean as well as you could from Tony’s Fish Market. So we’re sad to see this close down.
«Old Tonys» tells me that this location will become a Japanese/​French restaurant. Sounds good but foofy.

As an infrequent visitor, former resident, I recently dined for lunch at New Tony’s for the final time. I had my usual, yellowfin tuna with steamed veggies. This time I opted for grilled medium with no marinade. For my taste it was perfect down to the last flake. It may have been the best yellowfin I have ever had but so, so for the salad and steamed veggies. The weather was great, the sea gulls were at the window. the southern jetty I slipped on as kid was still there and otherwise a fine day.
Why was this my last visit you might wonder. Well, after several decades New Tony’s last day will be Sep 28 when it will close. Some or all of the old photos will go to a museum. The waiter said the restaurant would be remodeled and become a Korean fusion restaurant. I hate to see New Tony’s change but Old Tony’s will remain with longer hours.
For those fish lovers I suggest you hurry for your last nostalgic visit.

Tony’s, as of late, has been inconsistent.
It used to be where I’d go for lobster if I wanted a view with my meal. And it used to be pretty good. I also used to like their calamari in garlic and oil. They also used to make good clam chowder. The operative phrase here is «used to.»
Sometimes they still get it right, but more often than not, the lobster is tough, the chowder watery, and the calamari bland. I’m not sure that it’s worth the 48-​mile drive, given the gas prices.
Speaking of gas prices, they doubled the lobster prices, ostensibly, as the waitress lamented, «because of the gas prices.» How lame. Is that also why the service is now so woefully inattentive and the cooking indifferent?
Incidentally, this restaurant, a.k.a. «New Tony’s» is «new» circa 1971. The three wine spigots on the wall attest to this, as does the bottle-​glass window on the front door, the overstuffed tufted vinyl booths, and the «split-​level» floorplan. Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot about the Tom Jones wannabe singing by the bar… ahem…I *should* have forgotten…
«Old Tony’s» reminds me of the S.S. Minnow run aground in the middle of a tiki bar with netting and life preservers tacked all over, and is far more laid back. I haven’t been to that one nearly as often. Both have atmosphere in their own special little way. Pick your poison. Food’s the same. Better yet, stay away until they get their act together.
I’m only giving them three stars because I hope they’ll get back up to snuff.

I was hoping for the best, but got something much lower than that.
My niece and I stopped here for dinner. I don’t think I’ll be back, except to check out the view.
There were few people in the restaurant, but we were eating early, so I didn’t think anything of it. We were seated along the windows. We had a great view of the water and the beach. It was a beautiful day and the sun was beginning to set, so it was a nice atmosphere.
I wish I could say the same for my chair. It was kinda sticky and felt dirty. I asked the waitress where the bathroom was and she said that it was CLOSED! How the hell can a restaurant have closed bathrooms. I was told I could go to the portables right outside or go over to Old Tony’s and use the bathroom there. I’m thinking to myself, if I were an employee and went out to the portable bathroom, where would I wash my hands? Answer: I won’t! Yay! GROSS
My niece ordered the clam chowder. I got the seafood combination special. I got it with a baked potato and salmon chowder. My niece said she liked the chowder, but pulled out a piece of clam shell. It could either be that they use fresh clams and a shell got in there by accident or it could be careless clean up in the kitchen. I’m hoping for fresh clams. I liked the salmon chowder. It had chunks of salmon in it. I excpected flakes only. I shared my dinner with my niece.
My combo had the 2 shrimp, 2 scallops a piece of salmon and a piece of swordfish. Both pieces of fish were cooked perfectly. The scallops weren’t overdone, but the shrimp had no flavor at all. The rolls were as hard as rock, The baked potato was perfect. I asked for it dry and it was hot and perfectly cooked. I ate the whole thing.
Our waitress didn’t come back to check on me, but the busboy was super helpful and kept coming around to refill our water glasses and clear the table.
I would have given it just 2 stars, but the fish was so good, that I bumped it up one.

The food was good and there was a lot of it. Every dinner comes with soup or salad (get the clam chowder), linguine with clam sauce or potatoes or rice (get the linguine). By the time my family finished our fried calamari appetizer (yum), soup, and bread, we were pretty much done. I ordered some wood smoked salmon and it actually tasted better reheated in the microwave than at the restaurant (the smoked wood flavor was too strong originally).
The terrible part comes in the service. For a pretty pricy place, the waitress and servers were extremely rude. They would take our plates while we were still eating on them and they brought us our check before we were half way through the meal! They seemed to be pushing us to hurry up and leave, but the place was empty. The worst part came at the end. We wanted to take our leftovers to go. Our waitress was wiping down the table with some filthy rag, when we asked for boxes. Not wiping off her hands she boxed our food and then proceeded to pick up some rolls her bare HANDS and just THREW (not placed) them in a plastic bag.
As an added bonus my sister and I were complaining to our parents about how cold it was that day and some waiter came behind me and opened the window letting in the freezing winter air and the dirty smell of Redondo Beach.
For me, service is just as, if not more important, than the meal itself. I was appalled.

Great service, good cocktails, nice portions and good seafood. Spectacular views… even prettier at night. Could use an upgrade, but still.

lions and tigers and flies, oh my! have you ever accidentally walked through a bunch of gnats hovering around one area in one big group? have you ever thought how much grosser that would have been if they had been big-​ass flies? well you can experience this not at the Discovery Center but by walking through the front door of New Tony’s. «new», by the way, may just be relative — we should probably distinguish the two Tony’s restaurants as «Old Tony’s» and «Most Recent Tony’s». i’d swear i’d seen an old episode of Charlie’s Angels or Starsky and Hutch that had been filmed there, still with that same ’70’s charm.
i ordered the charbroiled seafood combo which consisted of salmon, swordfish, 2 scallops and 2 shrimp. i chose linguini with the clam sauce which looked and tasted suspiciously like my friend’s chowder. calimari was ok, salad was ok, my friend’s coconut shrimp wasn’t very good but overall, can’t really complain about the food — my main gripe is that i think it was quite overpriced, «moderate» also being a relative term. yes, it was right over the water and the view was nice but hardly romantic. kam i am goes on about things not really related to the actual restaurant — can Tony’s help it if beachgoers are being mugged and dragged off into the green surf before our eyes?
the live music that was provided by Makena, a local acoustic girl duo, was probably the best thing going on in the restaurant. oh, and some guy — don’t know if he was a customer or plays there regularly — joined them at one point and played some really slick sounding hawaiian slack key guitar. he was really good!!!

Now I know why I have lived in the South Bay practically all my life, and have never been to this restaurant before. It was a bad sign when we were first greeted by the swarm of flies at the restaurant’s entrance. However, I really wished we turned right around when we were greeted by another swarm of flies in the restaurant’s bar area. All I could think of was «Find Cover and Protect the Babies!»
We went just before 6 pm, and the view of Redondo Beach would have been nice if it weren’t packed with people. As we sat waiting for our food, I don’t know if we witnessed a mugging or a playful moment between two lovers on the beach. The restaurants sits on the pier and over the coolant green water (our friend’s roommate said that the water’s color in RB only turns green like this only a few weeks in the year b/​c of the algae, oh. lucky us).
Some of the low lights:
This place is OLD! If this is New Tony’s I can’t imagine how old Old Tony’s is. I mean, El Nino did quite some damage to the pier years ago, but I would have thought that any reconstruction/​reparation/​renovation would have brought this restaurant back to the last decade or even the one before that.
The sticky furniture was severely outdated and looked like it needed to be wiped down ten years ago. I kept having to tell my 2 yo to not touch this or that, and wish I had some wet wipes on hand.
Cobwebbed bowl of black pepper behind our booth. Ick.
Company of flies hovering over our food. Be sure to keep your mouth closed when walking through this restaurant if you don’t want to swallow a fly.
What our party ordered:
Clam chowder, chockful of clams, more floury than creamy, but the flavor was good. Bowl of soup $ 6.
Fried Calamari, $ 9.
Seafood Combination, which consisted of 2 fresh scallops, 2 blah shrimp, and a surprisingly fresh & moist serving of salmon and swordfish (about 4 oz each), this was served with a bed of linguini with clam sauce which tasted exactly like the chowder (without the potatoes). This entrée also included a bowl of soup for $ 22.
Friends ordered the butterfly shrimp, which was good… the baked halibut just okay.
Overall we thought the food was subpar (esp for the money), everything was overpriced, and the view didn’t really make up for it. There was good live entertainment by Makena who played some mellow acoustic Hawaiian and pop music.

I may sound a bit harsh on them, but as a long time local customer, I am not very happy with what they are now.
Their menu line-​up has not been changed for decades, except for price tags. Although their strong point has never been creativeness, I used to enjoy their weekend champagne brunch — their seafood eggs benedict was exceptional.
But the brunch is long gone, so is their friendly service. The servers are there to take your order and deliver your food, but that’s about it. Sure, some are fine, but not great like many used to be. Oh, last time I called, they told me they don’t even take reservations any more. What are they, overpriced Denny’s or something?
If their only draw is the sweeping view of the elegant curve of Redondo sand beach, they will have to rely on weekend one-​timers.
I sincerely hope they will redeem their acts and jazz it up a bunch.

I love the food at Tony’s. I go here for Valentines Birthdays and Anniversaries every year! My favorite is the seafood pasta. I love the ocean view and the service. Although there bathroom needs a major upgrade. Other than that Tony’s is a pretty cool place for a first date or just to have dinner. Very Romantic place. And sometimes they play live music. Oh and if three’s a wait you can have a drink at the bar.

Even though I have been living in Redondo for almost a year, this was my first time at Tony’s. The service was only a shade better than «okay», but the view and the delicious oysters and clams that we slurped down made it a tasty visit. We sat at a corner table so one side faced directly out to the ocean dotted by the afternoon sun, while those sitting opposite had a nice view of the beach and pier. Their oysters were pretty tasty with only a couple of the freakishly large ones (that some people actually like anyway, but I prefer mine about the size of a mouthful and a bit sweet rather than briny). I loooove eating raw oysters, but this was my first clam experience and I have decided that clams are growing on me, too.
So here’s the breakdown — one star for the view, one star for the atmosphere, and one star for even having raw clams (I hear it’s an East Coast thing). If I could I would give it another half star because even though it’s a little pricey, you pretty much get what you pay for. I’ve had «cheap» oysters before and… bbbllleeehh.

Tony’s is a popular place with locals as well as tourists. There is «Old Tony’s» and «New Tony’s», which are located across from each other on Redondo Pier. I have no idea what the difference is, but a long-​time-​resident couple told me that they prefer New Tony’s so that is where I went. Tony’s appeal to me was that it has been a family-​owned restaurant for decades, since 1952. The food was so-​so, nothing to brag about, not much to complain about either. But the view, o lord the view! The building is of course over the water, it’s on the pier. I had a sunset scene facing south, toward the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. My view included Memorial Day beachgoers playing in the sand and the water almost directly under me. I didn’t care at all about food & could have stayed there forever.
Update 5÷12÷06:
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I wrote the first part of this review. I had dinner at Tony’s tonight: Australian lobster tail (overcooked), baked potato, salad. My dinner including coffee & tip was over $ 50, not worth the price. The views were worth any price, however. I lingered to watch teenagers playing in the surf, passing sailboats, and the fog rolling in over the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Tony’s still has its original-​looking décor, very dated, but rather charming. The waitstaff could not be friendlier. I learned tonight that they will validate one hour’s worth of pier parking. I am lucky — I can easily walk here from home.
Update 5÷13÷06:
I went back again tonight! I enjoy walking from home to Tony’s along the beach. I had the scallops scampi and they were perfection. I am wondering if the previous night’s overcooked lobster was a fluke. At 4:30 on a Saturday it was crowded and there were no tables by the windows. The views are good from almost anywhere in the restaurant, however.
Another update 4÷12÷08:
I still go to Tony’s for an early dinner from time to time. I went last night and had breaded fried shrimp, which were delicious… perfect. The salad was too simple though, just lettuce with mediocre dressing… so the salads could use improvement. My server chatted with me & a nice couple at the next table for a long time, very pleasant. There were only a few tables occupied at the early hour, so she had time to talk and the experience was fun, unhurried and peaceful.
For the first time, I did notice the small flies that were mentioned in some other reviews. They were in the air, fortunately did not come near me or my food.