Hayward Fishery Restaurant

It’s reopening soon. Hopefully the new owners will get it right. I give it 5 stars hoping it
will be so.

This place should have been closed a long time ago
The food at this resturant is terrible

NOT CLOSED. This location has never closed, they added an «Art’s Crab Shack» sign to the front part of the building (the shack part). Old-​school, straight-​up seafood. Not fancy, mostly original furniture/​décor — but a great value. Most dishes served with a drawn garlic butter witih mushrooms. The pecan/​honey prawns were tasty also. Giant Ceasar salad for $ 2.99.

Been here a couple of times. so far so good. I really am giving an extra star because the last time I tried their seafood pasta which i really enjoyed (primarily because it was pipping hot. I love when food is fresh)… The crab bucket is not worth its price but prepared really good. And the drinks are quiet stiff. :)

First off, I don’t know why Unilocal is saying this place is closed.
I’ve been here twice and for lunch and I’ve had a great, filling meal and excellent service.

This use to be one of the best seafood restaurants in the Bay Area. A few years ago it changed hands and became Art’s Crab Shack. It’s been going down hill ever since. The food is bad and the service is bad. Half the time there isn’t even a bartender behind the bar. The place is dirty. Check out the inspection report on the Health Department website.
The last time we were in there the owner was so rude to us we left before we finished our drink. I’ll never go back. I don’t know how these people stay in business.

Lived here for yrs and wished there really was a good fish place but this is not it. Had read the bad reviews and stayed away but since new good reviews popped up (after reading todays paper about Unilocal charging businesses to move good reviews up this is fishy) we tried it.
bucket of clams and crab for 2. $ 68 would have been ok if I didnt end up in the bathroom shortly after arriving home. They use margarine instead of butter what a flavor difference.
It could be such a great place but. affraid to say it is not.

there aren’t many seafood places around my area that isn’t chinese or a red lobster chain. found this place on Unilocal.despite some of the bad reviews, we decided to check it out for ourselves. we only ordered three items:
–a half bucket of steamed clams
–a half dozen oysters in a half shell
–bucket of garlic crab for two.
its a lot of food. i was expecting a tiny bucket of tiny little clams. the clams were actually fresh and plump. although i wasn’t a big fan of the garlic butter broth it was soaking in. nonetheless, the clams were good and no unopened clams like from other reviewers. the oysters were served on ice with some lemon slices and mild hot sauce. this was one was a hit also. they were fresh, creamy and refreshing.
finally, the main attraction. the garlic crab. my first concern is that the crab they’ll be using is frozen. i’m glad i was wrong. the crab meat is fresh and non flaky (frozen ones are flaky). the garlic butter compliments the freshness of the crab but again, i’m not a big fan of it. i usually prefer my seafood tasting like seafood. thats just me.
the service was very attentive. eventhough, she was the only one taking orders and serving, she was able keep everyone happy. one lady went as far as proposing a toast for the excellent service. the décor and the place is an eye sore but thats not what i’m there for.
overall, i would rate this higher than other folks just because i had a good experience and i had some fresh seafood. the price is a bit steep but its expected in places like these. would i come back? maybe. do i recommend it? sure i do.

Yeah, the signs are most def conflicting. sign outside says Art’s Crab Shak and everything on the windows and in the restaurant says «Hayward Fishery Restaurant». Anyway.
We came here and overall I would say on my part that the food was pretty good. Nothing great, just good.
For $ 55 we had:
–Salmon with pesto cream sauce around $ 15
–Bucket ‘o Crab for one. around $ 27
–1 beer
–1 soda
I think the price for the crab might be a bit much, but the GF wasn’t complaining. My salmon was pretty good, the sauce was a great compliment. Definitely no qualms about the portions, though. Both of our plates arrived with the food almost bulging to the edge of the plates.
The service was very attentive. I’m not a very big fan of seafood, but I love love love my salmon. I just didn’t think there was anything special to what I got. Although the experience was a good one, I don’t think I myself would come back unless the gf dragged me there.
Try it out, you might not be exceptionally satisfied but you will be satisfied nonetheless… especially if you love seafood. :]

As good as it gets indeed. They have the best Oysters Rockefeller in the world… And don’t even get me started on the Garlic Crab… The service is great. The food is great. I dont understand why these people have given it less than 5 stars. Best food in Hayward!!!

Not sure what in the heck the rest of these folks who have given this place anything less than a 4 – 5. The stuffed prawns are to DIE for… they are the best!!! The hot bread is awsome and the severs are great… I think those of you who don’t l ike this place should go back and try the stuffed prawns. REALLY
I do agree that the crab is a bit TOO expensive… but still good. BUT too expensive for the amount they give you.

i went here for a birthday dinner one year with my mother and then girlfriend and the food was definitely good i ordered some kind of pasta with prawns and a lobster sauce. (sorry i can’t remember exact details it was almost two years ago.) I finished my entire plate, the food was so good. The bread is pretty tasty as well.
however recently i went and albeit it was kind of late in the evening the waitress was kind of negligent to my friend and i. we sat at our table for about ten minutes while the waitress watched tv before i had to call for her attention, to her credit she jumped up and gave us our check and made sure everything was ok. my friend and i had ordered clam chowder and it was WAAAAAAY too salty like i could only eat a couple bites. but since i’d ordered a salad along with the soup i felt obligated to pay for everything, you know?

Okay, I LOVE the crab here. You can’t beet the warm buttery buckets and the warm bread. What I can’t stand is the service. I have been meeting my family at the fishery for a couple years and normally we overlook the service because the food is just that good. However! A couple months ago we decided we could no longer overlook the horrible service…
My sister simply asked for extra lemon and was sneered at more than once. I actually saw our server giving dirty looks and talking badly about the people at our table when I was returning from the bathroom. I understood that we had 6 people with us and were asking for refills and napkins so perhaps this was just asking too much. We were honestly afraid our server would get upset so we didn’t ask for anything else. I don’t think asking for extra lemon should have caused her to be so upset but it certainly did. We spoke to the manager about these issues on our way out and he was less than helpful. He apologized and then finished by saying that’s, «just how she is»! Sadly we won’t be returning to the fishery…

LOL! I almost feel embarrassed giving this place 4 stars when the average is 2… but I got to be honest… and, honestly, not having to drive out to Oakland for that buttery, garlicky Art’s crab is worth 4 stars.
Below are my reasons why Hayward Art’s is as fab as Oakland Art’s:
— I didn’t have to pay first after being given the stink eye like I’m about to run out on the tab
— the waitress actually didn’t give me the stink eye at all
–equal parts butter and crab on your plate, mmmmmm… saturated fat…
–my 3 girlfriends and I sat in dead silence while we picked and picked at the bucket o’crab for 3. It takes deliciousness to shut us up.
Please keep in mind that the only thing I’m rating is the crab and I am a crab freak (blame all those Catholic school crab feeds from back in the day).
Do I think its on par with an An Family (Crustacean’s and Thanh Long) crab? *sigh* I moved from SF to Hayward… I’m using a different scale.
I have ALWAYS, even when I lived in SF, enjoyed an Art’s crab. If you live in the area and enjoy crab, I bet you’ll think its yummy too.

The coconut shrimp was terrible
The service was poor
The dining room made was very 70’s
I give it a year before it goes (There were 3 other people there)

I didn’t like this place when it was the Hayward Fishery back in the day, and I sure as hell don’t like it now. The calamari tasted like it was rubber. Don’t wast time, money, or effort going here!

I don’t like this «Fishery» thing… fishery…sounds like a fish processing plant. Or like a fish insemination clinic. Gross. Hmmm.
Why didn’t they just stay Art’s? Well, one pro versus Art’s in Oakland is that you don’t have to pay before you eat. But don’t worry, there’s a tall black man in the front just waiting for something to pop off. Lol
Well, we had the crab cakes. I don’t know that they were of the highest quality but they were good. Fried = A+ in my book.
Didn’t like the cocktail sauce, it was 98.4% ketchup. Yech…
I got the prawns newburg, sauteed prawns over rice with white garlic cream sauce, fresh veggies on the side. I thought the dish was solid, it was actually better the next day. I think that garlic really got in there deep overnight.
The clam chowder was interesting. Not impressive. Had carrots… strange. Needed more clams. Or more clam juice in the broth. I like fishy chowder.
Coconut shrimp were huge, but I’m not into coconut. French fries super hot.
Service was… homestyle. The ladies give you that «Auntie» feel.
Can’t knock that.
Not a bad meal. I’m glad I didn’t have a one star night like so many others… I don’t think the Fishery is a bad stop if you’re trying to stay within the city limits

I worked in this place about 10 years ago for a couple of years, we servers called it the hayward roachery, filthy kitchen, terrible mgmt. good kitchen staff who did the best with what they were given to work with. this place was very good in it’s early days, but got complacent and lazy, almost as if they felt, hey. we are the only seafood place around, so we can coast forever. Well, that attitude hasn’t changed apparently, considering the reviews listed here. if you must have crummy fish, i suggest a mcfish sammy from mickey deeze.BLEH.

Came here for another TND with my friends on a recommendation by one of my friends. They have a large variety of seafood and cooked in better ways than steamed and with butter. I wasn’t sure what to order and I like calimari so I thought I couldn’t go wrong with the calimari dinner. The calimari dinner was not very good. They had strips of calimari breaded with a weird hard breading that tasted a bit funny. I’m not sure how everyone else liked their food but mine was not the best.
The place itself seemed a bit run down but I read about that on here before we went. The service was okay, nothing spetacular, but didn’t forget our orders. I don’t think I would come back and it gets two stars.

Now I know why we’ve never heard anything about this very prominently located restaurant in downtown Hayward. Is it called Hayward Fishery, or Art’s Crab Shack? The conflicting signs are very confusing.
The sauteed scallops looked so nasty swimming in brownish mushroom oil, I didn’t eat them. I don’t care for mushrooms, and I don’t expect them on a dish that simply says, «Sauteed sea scallops». The bread was sub-​standard, very crusty, though hot. I tried a few bites of my husband’s crab enchilada and the kids’ fish and chips, which were okay. Actually, the fish and chips kids meal was probably the best thing we tried, with a crispy and not greasy corn meal coating. Nah, now that I think about it, the best thing was my glass of Wente Vineyards Chardonnay, hands down.
Two stars is generous. But the employees seemed nice and some of the stuff was edible. And it’s good for my diet.
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Update: Downgrading to one star. My two year who ate the scallops I wouldn’t, got sick that night. Soon as her stomach was emptied, she was fine. Bleh!