ABOUT
Our menu features an array of char-grilled and sauteed seafood items - and the full service fish market is a local favorite. Things are done the old-fashioned way - with no food processors, and with everything cut and filleted right at the market. Everything is made fresh, when you place your order.
Our fish market and seafood restaurant boasts a mixed bag of clientele -- from the surfer crowd (stopping in for a meal after a day at the beach) to typical La Jolla residents (taking home all the fixin's for a delicious fish dinner).
We have two refrigerated display cases, full of fresh fish. You can select a slice or two or choose your favorite shellfish, and our cooks will prepare them for you on the spot. Otherwise, you can take the fish home and make it yourself.
Depending on the season, there are dozens of different types of fish. You can find everything from local red rock cod to Scottish salmon. The restaurant offers sashimi, quality bluefin tuna, New Zealand salmon (a seasonal treat) and a variety of other delicious fresh fish.
If you love smoked salmon (a very special treat), try ours. The salmon is smoked locally and it's something special. Likewise for the smoked albacore. The albacore tuna is honey smoked, and it is truly delicious.
HISTORY
El Pescador first opened its doors in Del Mar in July of 1974. A young ambitious nineteen year old surfer named Jeff Norris bought some refrigeration equipment for less than a thousand dollars. He recruited sixteen year old Jim Mahoney and together they hand crafted a display case out of wood and fiberglass and begun selling fresh seafood to the once small town of Del Mar.
Within twelve months retail fish sales were booming, but the public demanded more than just raw seafood. They wanted fresh fish to eat on the spot! Soon after Norris served El Pescador's first prepared food: a shrimp cocktail and lemonade for $1.00. By the end of 1976 Norris has a complete seafood deli to accompany his thriving fresh fish market.
In March of 1978, sixteen year old Sean Shannon traded his paper route in for his first real job, "El Pescador-clean-up-kid". Seven years later Shannon opened his own store on Pearl Street in La Jolla. Since then the menu has increased to an array of char-grilled and sauteed seafood items. The full service fish market remains unsurpassed for its quality and selection. It has now been proudly serving San Diegans for over thirty years.
El Pescador Fish Market in Del Mar as it appeared in 1978.