Tusquellas Fish & Oyster Bar

As I was walking around the Farmers Market, I notice their sign for Eastern Fried Clams. Good fried clams are hard to find, for the most part, in Los Angeles, so I was curious as to how they were. It was about 20 minutes before they close, and with the clams at $ 12.95, I decided to give them a try and had their cole slaw with it.
The clams were big and fried to a golden brown, but that was all that was good about it. The breading pretty much disintegrated into small pieces upon taking a bite into a clam, and since the clams were not freshly made, they were quite chewy. And without the tartar sauce for dipping, these clams would have been completely bland.
The accompanying cole slaw was the last they had for the day, and it was probably the reason why it was overdressed. Only shredded cabbage, there was nothing special to their cole slaw.
Service was good since there were no other customers at this late hour, and the food came out after a 10 minute wait.

AVOID.
I made the mistake of not checking the Unilocal reviews on this joint before committing to eating here… My bf and I wanted something quick to eat before the movies at the Grove and ended up at the door step of Tusquellas Fish & Oyster Bar. This is not a restaurant. It is one of the vendors in the Farmers Market where you order food, and eat at one of the tables you can find empty.
We ordered the Wild Alaskan cod with side of pasta salad and cole slaw. The fish was super dry and old. The texture was rubbery instead of soft. The fish and the pasta salad were both bland and lacking in flavor. The cole slaw was not fresh. We also ordered the clam chowder, which came with couple pieces of baguette. Clam chowder was really salty.
The lady that works there needs to work on her customer service and communication. My bf went up to her couple times to check on our food because it was taking so long. Apparently, the food was out the whole time, but she refused to listen to what he was saying, and instead just told him to WAIT. Later he found out that our food have been out the whole time. Which means our food was COLD.
I would never come back here. Not sure how this place still gets enough business to stay in the Farmers Market, since there are so many other competing, BETTER places to eat.

I bet if someone tried to feed this crap to roaches, even they would turn away in disgust. But if they could somehow force them to eat it, they’d probably flip over and start twitching, until dead as if someone had sprayed them with Raid. This is just how bad this food is. The halibut was very, very dry, very bland and tasted slightly spoiled and the batter wasn’t even connected to it. It was like chewing on paper. The fries were also very, very bland, spoiled tasting and dry. I’ve never had fish ‘n chips so revolting, in all of my existence. Plus, it was way too much money for so little. There are much better fish places in the hood. I’m still in shock and awe over it, really. I had to throw the crap away, after just a few bites and I rarely throw food away. It’s obvious from reading other reviews that they’re pulling a fast one, on people.
They think they’re so smart but not really. What they do is count on gullible tourists who weren’t wise enough to check the reviews before they decided to eat here, to eat at their place. They also rely on the location to trick people into believing their food HAS to be good. This is why they’re so rude. They’ve gotten away with this so long they know they can be as mean as they want and the establishment will not pay a hefty price cuz there’s more gullible tourists and newbs where those disappointed and infuriated ones, came from. But hopefully, eventually enough people will catch on and this place will be shut down. Too bad you can’t sue restaurants for serving food so awful (trust me, they’re well aware it’s bad but don’t care), it actually causes emotional trauma. Please. Please! Avoid this place at all costs, if you don’t want your stomach to die an early and tragic death. :’(

Gross. Expensive and left us feeling yucky. Fried shrimp was nasty and the tuna salad, seafood pasta salad and fried halibut is sitting in our bellies making us feel ill. Meh on the way down, too. They got us on their central location.

$ 11 for a very average Boston clam chowder. Can do better here in farmers. See my review for Moishes — $ 14 for a big tasty plate of Schwarma

Well, I kind of assumed with how lucrative a stall at the Grove’s Farmer Market could be that I couldn’t go wrong with wherever I chose. Well, I guess I deserve a disappointing meal for making assumptions. After looking around for something relatively healthy, yet appetizing, I decided to go ahead with seafood. I ordered a salmon salad for like $ 12 or so and got the food almost immediately (cause it just sits there apparently). $ 12 isn’t really that much for a meal at the Grove, but man did they try to skimp as much as they can. All I got was a tiny piece of cold pale salmon plopped onto a pathetic and unappetizing pile of greens I would have pulled out from the nearby ground if it wasn’t for the fact that dogs piss on there.
I give this one star above the minimum for at least still being healthy, affordable, and edible.

Save your money and don’t go here. We had two fish and chips – $ 28 – and it comes with a slice of lemon. Tastes OK at best. You can find better fries probably anywhere.

Cash only, as most of the food locations located here. Can’t speak on the cooked items, had a small order of the seafood pasta salad. $ 4.95 gets you decent amount of shrimp, crab meat (imitation), pasta, red bell peppers and peas. It was fresh. I peaked into the kitchen, clean! This little bit will hold me till dinner! Love the whole vibe of the farmer’s market…

I ordered the Lump Crab with cheese on an English muffin and fries. The crab muffin was cooked previously and then reheated when ordered. My food wasn’t heated all the way through and was cool in the middle. I noticed the fish and chips were also precooked and reheated. For a place that appears to pride itself on fresh seafood why wouldn’t you prepare your food fresh when ordered? Very disappointing.

I ordered the fried shrimp basket with fries and my mom ordered the Grilled trucha with a side of fries.
Portion size is pretty good but it tasted very bland. I hate it when my fries aren’t seasoned. The shrimp had no flavor at all :(
I did however get full.
CASH ONLY
& they only have bottled water, lemonade & ice tea.
Not sure why it was super busy … Maybe I’m not ordering the better items from their menu. The line was long but I only had to wait about 10 min to order and get my food.

Located conveniently at Original Farmer’s Market, right next to The Grove.
We ordered their Panko Shrimp Basket with the Seafood Pasta. When we originally asked what the sides were, the cashier just walked back and pointed to the «side dish» menu. I saw him do that a few times with other customers as well. If you are ordering from the front of the case, one might not see the sign since it is off to the side on the right, especially if one is shorter than the case. The service isn’t the best, and I don’t expect it to be. But for the prices, I did at least expect the panko shrimp to be fried better.
This place is also CASH ONLY so make sure you bring enough cash. I also wonder how sanitary they are since the cashier also handles your order from the kitchen. They touch money and then your plates, bowls, trays, and etc…
There was too much batter on our shrimp and were also over fried. The seafood pasta was good. Baffles me how busy they are because the food wasn’t the greatest and it is also very expensive. Next time, I’ll order from the sandwich shop next door or down the street to Blue Plate Oysterette.

Meh. I decided to try something different than I usually get when I come to the Farmer’s Market, and it had been years since I tried this place, so I thought I’d give it another shot. I ordered the Wild Alaskan Cod Fillet,” and it was dry and overcooked. And it took a really long time. With all the places they offer here, I’d pass on this one.

Don’t eat here. Just don’t do it. They get two stars because I really loved their iced tea. That’s all there is to say.

The employees here are so fucking rude I came to buy some clam chowder and heard the employees speaking to each other in Spanish so I said excuse me how big is the bowl of chowder on Spanish and the girl was like «excuse me» in English as if she didn’t speak Spanish so I just asked her for a bowl of chowder and she whispered something the the cook and served me my soup extremely rude at this point I was completely uninterested in the soup and just wanted to walk away but she had already served it to top it off she didn’t even give me my correct change. The chowder was mediocre and wayyyy to overpriced.

We were here last weekend after visiting Hollywood Walk of Fame and before The L.A. County museum of Art. I hadn’t been here for over 40 years. I remembered visiting a long time ago when I was a kid and we were there to see the Carol Burnett show at CBS Television City.
So many things were just like I remembered, however, not the parking. There is now a huge parking structure but we opted to drive around and find parking closer by. Parking is free for 2 hours with validation. We had to wait about 15 minutes to get a space.
Since it was my 16 y/​o daughter’s birthday I let her pick where we ate. She decided on fish ‘n chips. We opted to share so we got the 3 piece halibut which comes with 2 sides. We got the fries and rice pilaf. $ 15.99. It was about 3 p.m. on a Saturday so there wasn’t a line. Waited about 5 – 8 minutes for the fish and fries to be cooked. I watched as the cook served up a huge portion of fries and pilaf. I felt sorry for him in that small hot room!
Our food was hot and tasty! Plenty for the 2 of us to share. We didn’t even finish all the fries or rice. While others here didn’t like the fries-​we did! Crisp on the outside hot and tender on the inside. I like larger fries because they stay hot longer. And speaking of hot… boy was our halibut hot! We had to wait for it too cool before we could eat it. It was very good. The fish was flaky. It could have been cooked just a little bit less-​the batter was pretty crispy, but we both enjoyed it. The rice pilaf (huge bowl) was pretty good. Had a nice buttery flavor-​nothing fancy but good and tasty. The serve the fish with their low-​fat tartar sauce which I liked. It was even good to dip the fries in.
We were able to get a table in the shade and we had a very nice relaxing late lunch at Tusquellos.
Would I eat here again?-Yes.
Was it a good value for the money?-no for a regular place but yes for a tourist location. I would say about the same price, or less, than Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, but better than what I have had there. And you even had tables to sit at. Include the free (2 hour) parking and you have a winner!
Would «I go out of my way to eat here again? We live about 50 miles from here os I wouldn’t make a special trip but I will come here again if in the nearby area.
I did find the cash only annoying, but luckily I had cash with me.

Over priced not worth the price. $ 17.42 for 3 fish & chips. Do not eat here!!! And the workers are extremely rude!

Ordered the clam and fries plate, workers were rude and the food wasn’t good. very expensive

Located conveniently at the farmers market, this place seemed to be a good choice for a quick bite. I guess I should have read the reviews before spontaneously getting food at this place though.
The food is kinda pricy and it is cash only. I’m not sure why the farmers market tends to be cash only.
I tried their shrimp tacos and had lemonade with it. The lemonade was good (not much that could go wrong there, right) but I really didn’t care for the shrimp tacos. They did just not have much of a taste to them.
The service was good and the seating is just what you expect from the farmers market.
I don’t think I’ll eat there again, mainly because of the taste. If the tacos were tasty they might actually be worth their price considering that they were pretty big.

Pretty disappointing and very disappointed.
I decided to go for the Northwest halibut fish and chips combo which cost $ 17 and change. I asked to switch the side of fries for cucumber salad… it didnt happen. I still received the fries. Why didn’t I send it back, 1. I was hungry. 2. I had my pug on my lap so my wife had to go get the order. 3. It felt useless at that point to ask.
When they can’t even handle 1 order from a customer like me (there was no line and I was the only customer between 8 – 8:15pm) then i Shouldn’t expect
get it right, ever.
The person that took my order seemed disinterested and I tried to cheer her up with some «sympathy small talk.» I’ve never worked the food service field before but I can understand how long hours and how tiring the business can be. But whatever the cause of their incompetence could be, it is highly likely I will not eat at this establishment again.

I got a fish & chips from this place and it cost $ 18. No, the fish weren’t dusted with gold flakes, nor were they harvested out of the ocean hours prior to my purchase. This place uses farmed fish and charges you an arm and a leg for them.
The only saving grace is that the portion is fairly big, but it doesn’t taste any different than other places that I could get farmed fish from. The price you’re paying is due to the fact that you’re in the middle of Farmer’s Market, an extremely touristy place. Definitely go somewhere else if you’re interested in getting some quality seafood.

We came here for lunch on a quiet Tuesday afternoon. There was no line, we were the only customers. I ordered the fish and chips and it was quite tasty. I didn’t care too much for the fries though and I thought it was a pretty big portion. Ordering was simple, but unfortunately they only take cash which was fine for us, but had we planned on using a credit card then we would have moved on to another restaurant.
I could tell they took their time making the food as we did have to wait a bit, but it wasn’t too long.

Okkkk… I didn’t look at the reviews before I ordered but I was interested in some chowda…
Should of kept going…
Ordered the bread bowl chowder and their famous cole slaw…
The cole slaw was blaaaannnnd .
Looked like just mayo and cabbage and tasted like that… No flavor no nothing bland is what it was
The chowder was ok nothing to bad I have had worse…
Had chunks of potato and was a good amount… Still needed some spice or a lil extra, good thing i asked for some hot sauce to kick it up a notch…
Overall I wouldn’t come back. It’s average to best… And not the. Best value either