Penn Avenue Fish Company is a small, loud, legitimately good seafood counter in the Strip District, and I’ve been going there longer than I care to admit.
The place sits on Penn Avenue a few blocks east of the main Saturday market chaos, which means you can usually get in the door without too much trouble on weekday mornings. Weekends are a different story — the Strip fills up fast, street parking turns into a contact sport, and the line at Penn Avenue Fish can stretch out toward the sidewalk. Go anyway. It moves.
What they do well, specifically: raw oysters, fish sandwiches, and a rotating selection of whatever came in fresh that week. I’ve had a fried flounder sandwich there that I still think about — simple, not fussy, good bread, good slaw. The oysters are shucked to order and priced around $2–$3 each depending on the variety, which is reasonable for anywhere, let alone Pittsburgh. They usually have three or four types on the board; ask the counter staff which ones came in most recently and go from there.
The room itself is tight. There’s a raw bar counter, a few stools, some standing space, and not much else. No reservations, no tableside service, no cocktail list. You order at the counter, grab a number, and find a spot. It’s the kind of place where you end up chatting with whoever’s next to you because there’s no real choice — you’re close enough that ignoring each other takes more effort.
They’ve also got crab cakes, shrimp, smoked fish, and prepared sides to take home, which is worth knowing if you’re picking up dinner ingredients while you’re in the Strip anyway. The retail side of the operation is solid — good quality, honest pricing, staff who actually know the product. You won’t get a blank stare when you ask what the difference is between two cuts of salmon.
Lunch runs somewhere between $12 and $20 depending on what you order, which is fair. The fish sandwich is the move if it’s your first time. If you’ve been before, try whatever they’re running as a daily special — those tend to be the most interesting things on the board and they sell out.
Getting there: Penn Avenue in the Strip, between 21st and 22nd streets roughly. The lot situation is genuinely annoying, but there’s usually space on the side streets if you’re willing to walk a block. Go before noon if you want the full selection; by 2 p.m. on a Saturday, some things are already gone.
I keep coming back because it’s one of the few places in Pittsburgh where the seafood actually tastes like it arrived recently and was handled correctly. That sounds like a low bar, but it isn’t — not in a landlocked city. Penn Avenue Fish Company clears it comfortably.
