Eat your heart out, Eric Ripert.
Better yet—eat the scungilli at Randazzo’s Clam Bar, rated best seafood restaurant in the five boroughs, according to an online guide.
“Hearty chowders and fried calamari pile on the flavor, while the old-school Brooklyn-ese waitstaff piles on the other kind of flavor. Are you still in NYC? Yes. Are you still in the 21st century? No way,” according to AOL’s City’s Best, whose members gave Randazzo’s the coveted top spot.
The homey Sheepshead Bay eatery, 2023 Emmons Avenue, beat out the likes of celebrity chef Ripert’s Le Bernardin—an eatery with a months-long waiting list, as well as Manhattan’s legendary Grand Central Oyster Bar and Aquagrill.
“We know fish,” explained Paul Randazzo, 50, the fourth-generation owner.
Back in the 1920s, his great grandfather Sal started the business across the street from where the clam bar now stands, selling fish by the piers.
“The secret is that my family stays together,” Randazzo stated. “My employees are like my family.”
The guide appreciates the clam bar’s rich history—and its tasty fare.
“Since 1920, this unpretentious clam bar has been dishing up fresh seafood raw, fried or cooked under its famous spicy tomato sauce. The giant plate of lobster pasta – chunks of pinky-white sweet meat, royal-red sauce and slithering noodles – can feed two people for less than $20.”
Randazzo said the tomato sauce is his grandmother Helen’s special recipe. “Everyone wants to duplicate it, but it can’t be duplicated.”
