This fish market is incredible! We've stopped by everyday to pick-up dinner. The fish is FRESH, not frozen. Local fisherman drop off their daily catch and much comes from Florida and along the coast. So far, I've tried the local lump crab (made incredible crab cakes), the large head-on shrimp, (shrimp scampi-yum), clams (made a stew) and the flounder (so dang fresh). I'll be going back for more today. They carry every fish you can imagine and live crabs. The fish is in coolers and they will fillet the larger fish for you. Prices are downright reasonable. The clerks are super friendly and will bag up your purchases with plenty of ice. They also carry seasonings and a few frozen prepared fish foods. There was plenty of parking during off season and no wait for service. I'm guessing that during peak season, things get busy. This market is a MUST visit for seafood lovers. read more

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Really fresh seafood & big selection of options (fresh& Frozen). Plenty of young men for quick service. They offer customized steam pots for $100 that seems reasonable. We opted to purchase our own (shrimp, clams, mussels, snow crab, scallops, corn on cob, andouille sausage) to take back to condo & cook. Fresh caught fish (filets, whole, rounds) looked really good! Right on the water and offer ice to pack & take home. Our go to stop! read more

Surf City Crab - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

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The people that work here are friendly and knowledgeable. We went back a couple of times to get seafood to cook at our beach house. The fish was super fresh and plentiful. Highly recommend this fish market! read more

Surf City Crab - Coolers filled with seafood - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

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Always a pleasure! The freshest seafood and the happiest people. We love coming here and getting all our seafood for our stay. Even a cooler full to take home! Shawn is the best! read more

Stopped by for lunch before the tourism season and had a wonderful lunch. The restaurant is the kind of hole in the wall you'd love to find. It's cute inside and obviously coastal themed. We started with hushpuppies as an appetizer and I feel comfortable saying they're the best I've had in the area. For our meal we both had the lunch special which was 1/2 lbs fresh steamed shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn. It was fantastic and inexpensive. Our waitress was really sweet and attentive. No reservations on two thumbs up. Next visit we will look forward to shopping at their adjacent fresh seafood market. read more

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What a great place it is. You can get any sort of fish here. But what if you want crabs? You can call them up on the phone and they will tell you which day is likely to have what you want. And it turns out true! Live crabs aren't cheap, but if you want em here's how you get em. read more

Service was great! It was fun seeing the live crab and their T-shirt's were super cute!

You can't beat the freshness of the fish here. We went several times during our week in Topsail. We made shrimp, scallops, red snapper and mahi. Our favorites were the mahi and the scallops. They have different fish each day. It's all in coolers out front but they have more in the back. You can get the fish whole or filleted. read more

This is now my top seafood place on the island! We always come on vacation and get crab legs and shrimp to cook, I'll be going here from now on. These guys are not only super friendly but very helpful and give you cooking tips etc with no judgement. Good prices and fresh fresh seafood. It's a very neat and fun place to visit. read more

Surf City Crab - a child in a mirror - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

I recently moved to Jacksonville from PA. I've been trying to find a seafood market that sells fresh Wahoo. Surf City Crab was the ONLY one who had it. I drove 45 minutes to get there and I was not disappointed! They had many what I considered to be nice filets already cleaned. I chose two, and the man that got them together for me was not satisfied with them. He said that they had a Wahoo that was swimming this morning just come in and he asked one of the guys to filet it for me. I got to watch! Talk about fresh! I will prepare them tomorrow so I can't attest yet as to how it tastes, but I know it's fresh! I am certain I'm going to be very happy with it! read more

This place is the best! When I went 2 weeks ago, they did not have the specific item I was looking for. They called a competitor to see if they did and sent me there to get it. I will always go to these guys. And their seafood is amazingly fresh. Love it. read more

Wow. This place is about as authentic as a seafood place can get. It is basically a dock, with a roof over the coolers. The staff were super friendly, and were really honest about the status of each item - fresh or frozen. We bought fresh tuna here for some poké while enjoying a week at the beach. It was fabulous. We will be going back tomorrow for some grouper; hopefully they will have some! They also appear to have lots of clams in stock, and we will put the hurt on their supply. Prices were amazingly reasonable, and we enjoyed chit-chatting with one of the fishmongers while the other was filleting our selection. I can believe that this business must be out of control during high season, since the quality is so insanely high. If you are coming to Surf City / Topsül Beach (haha), you owe it to yourself to stop here and stock up. Will absolutely be coming back for more!!! So delicious! read more

Awesome food and service! Shawn was an awesome help and helped us pick just what we needed. It tasted great and was fresh!

I have been going to this fish market a few years and they always have really fresh fish available. There prices might be a bit high, but I can justify them. Always good to try something new every time I visit. This year I tired alligator sausage, which I would highly recommend! read more

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Great seafood!! Friendly people. Seafood was very fresh and quite abundant. One stop shop

Had a good experience here picking up some fresh seafood for dinners while at the beach. Got scallops for one meal and grouper for the other. It's a no frills open air market with the fish on ice in coolers. Staff was knowledgeable and nice. Prices seemed a little high but I guess fair for the quality and convenience. Will likely swing by again! read more

Fresh grouper, jumbo shrimp, 400 top-neck clams, and some large scallops this last trip to Surf City. All were outstanding! Nice guys too - patient and helpful. read more

Surf City Crab - Photo prop inside the fish market made for some fun while shopping! - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

"SURF CITY CRAB" and "THE CRAB POT" are two completely different businesses. Surf City Crab is AWESOME. People usually confuse it with "The Crab Pot" which is a restaurant that shares the same parking lot. They are two VERY different businesses. Surf City Crab provides fresh seafood. You buy it, take it home, and cook it. I am SO spoiled after getting my flounder here that I can no longer tolerate the frozen junk found in grocery stores. Surf City Crab has actually ruined my flounder experience and I have to drive to see them when I want flounder. The people there work hard and can usually be found with a beer in hand and their dogs lying in front of the fan. Shrimp, clams, crabs, fresh fish, you name it. If you want FRESH seafood in North Carolina, you buy it here, take it home, and cook it. They are an asset to the community. The Crab Pot is a restaurant with a terrible reputation. read more

Do yourself a favor, stop what your doing right now- fill a cooler with ice and drive over to this place. You will not be disappointed. I have never purchased better quality seafood in my life. Shrimp, flounder, clams- all sublime. They will remove the skin if requested. read more

A great place to buy your fresh seafood on Topsail Island. Fresh seafood, great selection and nice staff. We got there mid to late afternoon and were out of a few things, but lesson learned. We will go earlier next time. read more

Came away with a TON of seafood for $100. When you think about what the buffets in beach tourist traps charge you per person ($50-60 in my experience), not bad considering I still had enough food to feed an Army and some of it was freshly caught. I love walking up and buying fresh seafood right off the pier here out of the cooler. The staff are friendly, and the selection is pretty great. Best of all, the food is amazing. I had scallops, shrimp, crab legs, calamari, grouper, lump crab and I'm pretty sure something else that I'm forgetting. All of it was excellent. The snow crab legs were meaty as can be. The scallops were honestly the best I have ever had anywhere. My only gripe is that they sell some stuff frozen in bags that look like they came from the grocery store. I think they should really focus on only selling what's fresh and local and not frozen! read more

Guy on the phone was so rude. Honestly what's the deal around here. He said "in this country 12 is a dozen". Someone needs to teach the old man some customer service. I wish I got his name so I could warn everyone. Wouldn't even taste the food at this point. read more

Excellent selection and variety of fish and shrimp whole or prepped. Friendly staff. Clean market right against the water.

This is a permanent canopy over a bunch of coolers and fridges selling super fresh seafood. The people are fairly friendly and patient. I like that they sell super fresh stuff, but there must be a way to update the board to reflect what is actually in the coolers. The shop is at nature's mercy to fill up the coolers and I get that...but more often than not they didn't have the items we desired. We wanted a fish to fry like talapia. (not local, they don't have it), they also didn't have grouper, catfish, or any other fish which would be good to fry. There was one fish he said would be okay...but it was whole. I'm sure they would have scaled and filet it, but that seemed like too much hassle. That said, once we arrived at an order - shrimp, clams, scallops, salmon, and oysters (they didn't have muscles) - the quantity was immense for $54 and the freshness was amazing. I'd go back. read more

This place has great food but would like the staff to take a course in customer etiquette. One of the girls there was incredibly rude when we were trying to pick something up and less than helpful. Then had the nerve to roll her eyes after we responded. Coming here for the past two years and haven't had a bad experience yet, but this might be enough to turn people away. Really not sure why people think they can be rude to paying customers like that. 5 stars for the food, but unfortunately 1 for the interaction we had. read more

Excellent fish market! Lobster, clams, salmon were super fresh and delicious! We'll be back!

Been to Surf City twice this summer and each time, we've made a quick stop at Surf City Crab. The folks here are quick, friendly and helpful. The seafood is fresh and delicious! read more

Surf City Crab - Fresh shrimp I took home to make a seafood boil for the first time. So glad I got fresh shrimp from the beach, wouldn't have been the same! - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

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Good seafood, horrible staff. These folks act like they really don't need or want your money. They are not courteous or helpful at all. All of the seafood sellers along Topsail Beach are priced roughly the same and the quality is roughly the same. The thing that makes the difference is the service and here the service is far from stellar. Move along to somewhere else to buy your seafood. These guys don't want your money. read more

Love this place. Went for our 2nd time last week while visiting TopSail, NC. Loved it just as much as 2 years ago when we first went. A little hot inside and the AC wasn't working at our table 100%, but great food and great service. This will be a definite stop every time we visit NC! read more

went here for fresh seafood three days this week...spectacular! had shrimp, scallops, crab cakes (my fav). tonight we'll be trying the clam strips. attentive, knowledgeable, fun staff read more

Not bad for fresh seafood but place doesn't have AC inside and the steamer pot has too much oil or something in it, it was too greasy. Atmosphere is good. read more

Visited these guys a few times. Bought shrimp, flounder, (more shrimp for bait), pompano, and black drum & it all was amazing! Fresh. Yum. Even the fish enjoyed the bait shrimp... so what's not to love? ALSO - They fillet the fish after purchase & do so quite quickly. Great service. If nothing else, stop by to see the begging pelicans nearby. They are huge fans of this place, and I trust the locals! read more

This is our second time visiting the Topsail area and we discoverd this fish market during our last trip. Let me just say I won't be going to any other fish market while here every again. I tried a different market and the prices were higher and selection wasn't as good. This market isn't fancy but it seems like a place the locals would go and that's always a good sign. The selection is great... they have everything from fresh blue crap, stone crap, grouper, mahi mahi and more. I'd highly recommend this place if you're in the area and want to do the cooking yourself!!! read more

Just bought 1/2 lb of tuna, one snapper, and 50 top neck clams: $34. You can't beat fresh seafood for that price! Can't wait to go home and cook dinner! read more

Surf City Crab - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

My in-laws have vacationed on this island the last 4 years. This is always where we stop for fresh seafood. This past week Oysters have been $2 a pound; head-on shrimp $3 a pound; head-on colossal shrimp $5 a pound. read more

Awesome place with amazing prices!! We moved here to Raleigh a couple months ago from San Diego,CA and were missing the ocean like crazy. We decided to check out some east coast beaches and landed in Top Sail/Surf City. Honestly a bit disappointed at the lack of things to do because we didn't realized the east coast doesn't do the whole boardwalk/beach town thing, we were ready to head back home when we drove past Surf City Crab. We stopped in looking for some fresh clams and hit the JACKPOT!. We got a huge bag of large clams(must have been 30+ of them) for just $9! That's insanely cheap to us. We got them home, all were alive, and all were delicious. Really wish we lived closer to these guys but we will stop here every time we visit Surf City. These guys have a great thing going. read more

The service here is not spectacular, but the seafood is oh so fresh and yummy! This place is right on the Surf City strip behind Crab Pot. The prices are reasonable, and I saw everything from crabs, scallops, oysters, clams, whole fish, shrimp, fillets, and more. We rented a house while visiting so we grabbed a bag of littleneck ($25 for 100) and cherry stone clams ($5), and they were so good just simply boiled with garlic. If you're in the area and have a kitchen, don't miss this place. read more

Surf City Crab - Just one of the tanks holding blue crabs - Seafood Markets Near Me - Surf City, North Carolina

This spot is awesome for fresh fish and shellfish. 3 years in a row has seen this place hit the mark. The swordfish we bought last night was so fresh and amazing! Awesome clams, shrimp and red snapper. Their prices are really good too. Not cheap but very fair for a high quality product. They do take cards. read more

This place was awesome! They have the best assortment of fresh seafood and the customer service was out of this world. We purchased blue crab, shrimp, crab cakes and they were all amazingly fresh and tasty! They even had the seasonings. We will be back whenever we are in the area. read more

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Good atmosphere with tall drinks & live DJ. I recommend the big pot with 2 lbs of crab legs & shrimp, mixed with clams, oysters & sausages.