This small seafood restaurant in Kendall was just named one of the best in the U.S.
Only one South Florida restaurant made the list for the best seafood spots in the country — and it’s in Kendall.
FreshCo Fish Market & Grill, a small, unassuming spot in a strip mall near the turnpike, was the only restaurant in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach or the Keys to make Yelp’s Top 100 Seafood Spots 2024. Two Orlando-area restaurants, Happy Snapper Seafood in Orlando and J Crab House in Kissimmee, made the list’s top 10.
Ranked no. 13, FreshCo Fish, which first opened in 2018 and was also named the best seafood restaurant in Florida in 2022 by Eat This Not That, is owned by Key West native Mario Palazon, who has been in the seafood wholesale business for more than 20 years. He knew nothing about the ranking until he received a Google notification and was surprised and thrilled by the honor.
“I come from a small town, that’s why I take it like I take it,” he says, laughing. “In Key West, if you get stuff like this, it’s because you know somebody. But I know nobody!”
Yelp created the list culling reviews that mentioned seafood, then ranked the restaurants using a number of different factors, including the number of reviews and ratings left between Jan. 1, 2001 and Dec. 13, 2023.
A longtime local favorite, FreshCo is both a place to buy fresh seafood to take home and a sit-down restaurant. Either way, you order at the counter.
The choices are numerous, with starters like conch fritters, fish dip or blue crab cakes; sandwiches like reubens, po’boys or BLT with your choice of fish or shrimp; soups and salads; ceviches and platters.
One of the restaurant’s specialties is fresh hogfish. Order the whole fried fish, which is prepared with the lazy eater (most of us) in mind. It’s fileted, then chopped up, breaded and then fried along with the carcass, and served together so you can easily eat the perfectly battered pieces of fish and don’t have to waste time picking off chunks with a fork.
Palazon says that the restaurant, which once was a locals-only haunt, has started to draw tourists, thanks to reviews on Yelp. The restaurant is on the way to the Keys or Everglades and not far from Zoo Miami.
“Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we’re probably 60 percent tourists this time of year,” he estimates. “Locals won’t come in because we get crowded, so we have a huge amount of to-go orders on the weekends. It’s hard to tap into the tourist market. I really never thought we’d tap into that.”
FreshCo is in the process of opening another restaurant in Downtown Doral. Palazon estimates it will open in early summer and will reflect a Key West flair, with a seafood menu and live music.
It’s a bigger space than the current FreshCo Fish, which is more than enough to leave him a little edgy.
“I’m nervous, queasy, I wake up in the middle of the night,” he says. “In two days, I’ll be 60. I didn’t get into the game to be opening a restaurant at 60, but I’ve surrounded myself with the right people: my son, who’s coming down, he’s the chef, and my wife, all of us, we’re going to make this happen. We’re going all out. Make it or break it, we’re not changing who we are.”
FreshCo Fish Market & Grill
Where: 12700 SW 122nd Ave., #113, Miami
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily
More information: freshcofish.com or 305-278-3479
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