Community Seafood

Love the concept but the execution by the Community Seafood staff was terrible. The quality of the seafood was great but I was hoping for some more variety. Pickup locations in Santa Barbara/​Goleta area were nice as we could shop for produce to go with our fish all in one location.
However, the problems we experienced with the Community Seafood staff over the course of our membership time included:
— Poor communication — various staff members were unresponsive to questions about our order, billing, general Q&A via email
— Poor communication on the weekly catch making it difficult to menu-​plan for the week
— Price increases — from $ 18/​lb to $ 20/​lb without any notification of the price change
— My credit card on file expired, which I updated accordingly but a hold was placed on my account pending a lift by our local contact. Both my husband and I emailed with no response, then finally called to ask what the holdup was and was told that they’d never seen either of our emails
— And finally the straw that broke the camel’s back… a complete change to their program for 2016 where they also state they will reimburse what they’ve already charged us in the form of fresh frozen or smoked fish — which is not what I signed up for (the program summary is taken directly from an email they sent to all members):
NEW PROGRAM SUMMARY:
Limited Membership — Only 20 spots available!
35 Weekly deliveries over 8 month season (April to November)
$ 220 upfront deposit to reserve your spot, covers first 2 months
After that, $ 109 every month for 4 to 6 pounds of local fish and shellfish! (psst…this makes the average cost of your seafood $ 20 per pound!)
Three convenient pickup locations
Juice Ranch in Santa Barbara — Wednesdays from 1:30pm to 4pm
Fairview Gardens in Goleta — Wednesdays from 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Santa Monica Farmers Market — Wednesdays from 8am to 1:30pm
In the unlikely event that we will have to cancel a pickup during the season due to bad weather OR you miss a pick up, you will receive the amount of pounds you missed as convenient flash frozen packages at the end of the season!
Overall, loved the concept but as said, the execution by the CS staff was really poorly done and they clearly grew too quickly to keep their customers happy — thus the new program structure. Really a disappointment.

Fresh local seafood, delivered as promised. The web site is well designed and the hands on support by the folks at the Hollywood Farmers Market is first rate. If this seems interesting to you, it’s worth trying.

My family of three looks forward to our bi-​weekly fish share so much we just added more fish to each pick-​up. Signing up was a win-​win for us: We now eat more fish and I no longer feel wracked with guilt about whether or not it was fish that was «OK» to buy and eat.
I signed on to Community Seafood thinking that guilt reduction and healthier meals were enough of an incentive (the cost is more or less the same as other guilt-​free options) but the unparalleled freshness, the great recipes on the website, and the wonderful customer service have kept us with Community Seafood.
What really sealed the deal for us was the addition of Luis as Pick-​Up Manager for our Wednesday evening pick-​up. He is immensely personable, genuine and warm, and makes an adventure of the humdrum.

Great place to get fresh great tasting seafood! Couldn’t get any better, definitely recommend the place

I purchased five 1lb shares to try. I was a little disappointed with the selection. For the 5 shares, they were ahi, black cod, mahi mahi, petrale sole, and mahi mahi. They were very fresh, but the sole and the mahi mahi were cheap readily available fish. I was hoping to get at least one share of halibut or seabass since both are local fish. During the short time that I subscribed, there was one location change and one time change. The location change was announced by an email on the day of the pickup. Its a nice concept, but its more convenient for me to just buy my seafood from SB fish market, Nikka, or Kanaloa.

We joined CSA for all the reasons everyone else did, but they have had a major problem with their west LA customers for the past 3+ months. We all signed up online to get our delivery at the delicious Red Bread, but then the bakery flaked out and closed shop in July. That means that we prepaid for fish that was not delivered for the summer. Before this happened we had had a few delivery problems that were relatively minor (only ½ the fish we prepaid for was there, some people never got their weekly delivery since nothing was labelled, one week the fish was left out in the street in a cooler, etc) but they got worse. While they searched for a new drop-​off spot from July through Sept they continued to charge our credit cards but never gave us fish. Then they finally connected w/​Jackson Market, but pick up hours were shortened, we showed up and once again didn’t have the amount of fish we had prepaid, and Sarah and Magda stopped responding to emails. To this day I am not sure that we actually got the fish we were billed for, due to so many errors and lack of delivery and communication.
This is the best idea in concept, but for those of us in LA it was poorly executed – we had no guarantee from week to week that the fish we prepaid for would ever show up.

I’m a terrible cook who loves fish, so I was hesitant to buy anything, but man did it pay off. I did an encrusted cod with some store bought crusting stuff and pretty much smoked out my kitchen but the result was delicious. Wish I had gone for the full pound now. Plus with NPR guilting me out of buying shrimp because somehow it funds slavery, it’s nice to have an option that’s local and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you read about the actual fishermen who are providing the catch. Plus they’re at the Hollywood farmer’s market now. With no line. Walk past all those people waiting for the former only seafood stand and laugh inwardly.

Consistently great fish and wonderfully convenient! And buying local is the best. ..

This summer, I started my subscription to Community Seafood, excited to get local fish from our very regulated California waters. I wanted to strengthen business for California fisherman, eat responsibly fished products, and expand my seafood horizons. I pick up at the Altadena Farmers’ Market.
Community Seafood has provided all that and more. The fish is so remarkably fresh it smells sweet and tastes like clean ocean. I’ve loved everything I’ve gotten: succulent rockfish, buttery sablefish, rich King salmon, briny squid, sweet shrimp. It’s all been so good, and I’ve learned about cooking fish as I experiment with my share in the kitchen.
The website is super-​easy to use – choose the size of your share, whether or not you want shellfish included in your share, and how frequently you want to pick it up. I pick up 1 pound every other week, including crustaceans, but no oysters (my husband, unfortunately, is not a fan). It’s easy to fit the order to your family’s needs.
Finally, on the occasion I’ve had to change any part of my order, Magda and Sarah have been very responsive and polite. It’s pleasing to communicate with them.

Just about every week for the past two years we have been picking up our weekly share of local, freshly caught, cleaned and filleted fish. Everything from anchovies (which we cured with kosher salt and stored in olive oil for pizza, pasta, and Cesar salads) to one of the finest pieces of fish I have ever eaten, a California King Salmon fillet steamed in foil with white wine and herbs. (Sorry Eric Ripert, your restaurant’s ambience was better than our kitchen’s, but this fish rocked!) It is not cheap, but neither is Whole Foods or Santa Barbara Fish Market, and the best part is you know exactly what your are getting, that it was caught locally, and that it came off the boat no more than a couple of days ago. Tell your friends — this is not to be missed.

The Tell-​Tale Guts.
I grew up in Annapolis MD and have been eating fresh crabs my whole life.
But I’ve been in CA for some time now and I don’t have easy access to the Maryland Blue crab. So I now substitute Dungeness crabs to satisfy my crab cravings. Not the same, but «any port in a storm.»
I’ve been happily plodding along getting my live crabs from Chinatown and making Dungeness crab Maryland style — until Community Seafood ruined it for me. (In a good way though)
Last week the Community Seafood’s catch of the day was Rock Crab. I was very excited. And I must say it was one of the freshest tasting crabs I have had in a long time.
Why so good though? I figured it was because it was fresh. But then I thought, well I get my crabs live from Chinatown. They have to be the ultimate in fresh because they are still alive. Not so.
Here’s what I noticed when cleaning the Community Seafood crabs. The guts and internal organs were very clean. (I know, gross huh?) But really, really clean. Unlike the nastiness inside the Chinatown live crabs.
Which got me thinking — that must be one reason for the great, fresh taste. Fresh out of the ocean and into the cooker. Not kept in nasty old Chinatown holding tanks for God knows how long stewing in their own «…»
Plucked fresh out of clean ocean water and shipped directly to the consumer makes all the difference.
Is Community Seafood the cheapest fish? No. But when you eat it, you’ll know where those extra dollars went. It’s all about fresh. And Community Seafood brings on the fresh by boatloads.

Had our first experience last weekend. Mussells were on the menu for pick up. We cooked them up this week and not only were they delicious, but also felt great supporting the local community. Looking forward to our pick this week!

We’ve been members of Community Seafood for over a month now and have been delighted with the assortment of seafood sent our way. Each week we get an email with details about that week’s catch, the local fishermen who haul it in, along with a variety of tasty recipes to try. There have been several times when we’ve gotten a selection we’ve never tried or cooked before! This program a great way to open yourself up to try something new or unfamiliar. Here’s the best part: I do my pickup at the Sunday (Santa Monica) Farmer’s Market and all I have to do is call ahead of time and they have my order ready for me AND they bring it right out to my car! How easy is that?!

We’ve been a member for about 3 months and are LOVING it.
It is so much fun to get to try something different every week depending on what’s available in the water. We’ve had swordfish (AMAZING), sand dabs, oysters, crab (this was already cooked) and more.
Cannot get fresher fish!
It feels like a value too because they seem to be generous with the portions/​weight.
And they are great to deal with whenever we need to change something (skip a week, don’t like something, etc.).
They even give you info on suggested preparation and recipes.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

We joined Community Seafood the first week that they started at the Santa Monica Farmers market on Sundays and it actually changed our lives. We now plan our Sunday evenings around cooking whatever delicious catch we get in our share. The fish is incredibly fresh, and we have been turned on to so many delicious varieties that we didn’t even know existed (Opha? Delicious, who knew). This seafood is five star restaurant quality, and with the great recipes that are provided on the website, we fell like we are eating at Providence or the Water Grill every week — it’s that good (and costs way less).
What really sets Community Seafood apart is their wonderful staff, led by Sarah and Magna, who provide a level of personalized customer service that is unparalleled. They take time to answer questions, listen to feedback and adjust their offerings and their website based on what their customers want. I used to live on an island, and only there have I encountered this level of friendly, personalized service. I will never buy fish at a Whole Foods again, it just can’t compare to Community Seafood, and the money goes to actual independent fishermen, not a corporation pretending to be concerned about locals. And over the course of a couple of months, you will actually save money compared to buying in a store. The world needs more businesses like Community Seafood.

Hey, what they other guys said. The fish doesn’t smell fishy because it is so fresh. I don’t usually like fish but participating in Community Seafood has helped expand my palette. I love the passion it took to organize this effort and like supporting local sustainable seafood.

Wow, what do I say about this CSA… I can start with saying that I was really interested in eating local seafood. You know something from that giant ocean we live next to. Not something shipped from thousands of miles or another ocean away.
And it turns out it was worthwhile. Local fish taste 10x better than anything else I’ve tried. It is so filling. It’s easy to cook. Most of the time I don’t put spices or seasoning on it.
My girlfriend is hooked too. At first she was scared of the fillets and other items I was bringing home. Then after 3 – 4 deliveries she tried some and was hooked. She started eating all my stuff! So I upped our order to get something every week… but we still fight over it.
I can also say that I’ve gone out of town several times and each time Sarah and the team was very helpful. I just emailed them my problem and they quickly replied.
They’ve got a great thing going on. Sign up, check it out, you will love it!

The fish is local and as fresh as can be! The included recipes have been pretty tasty too. Pickup is super-​easy and friendly, and it’s simple to put your account on hold if you’re going away for a while.
It’s not the cheapest fish, but then the cheapest fish isn’t as fresh or tasty. Plus it’s nice to know that it’s sustainably caught.

Love this program! The fish is always incredibly fresh, and the recipes they recommend are always delicious!

Participating in the Community Seafood program has changed the way we eat. We now get wonderful fresh and interesting local seafood each week. We have fun figuring out new ways to prepare and enjoy what we get. We are pleasantly surprised every week. Sarah is the best!!!