BamaVol

Unfortunately the quality goes down with farmed fish and you might not find it as delicious, assuming they would be suitable. I've had farmed catfish, trout, clams, salmon and cobia. I imagine there are others, but not every fish wants to thrive in farm conditions.

bruceba

It lives in fresh water, salt water, septic tanks as well. Eats anything.

bensyd

I think there's farmed fish and there's farmed fish. The few times I've had tilapia, and I assume it was farmed, I've been pretty disappointed. It could be anything really, it doesn't taste like fish just blandness. I find the same with a lot of the barramundi that comes into Australia from SE Asia. It's flavourless and poorly frozen for transport.

James Silva

If you don't like it, don't go for it.

Badenoch

I do not order any menu item simply identified as "fish" without asking what type of fish it is and perhaps even where it is from. Tilapia is not a fish I typically order eat because it is bland and tasteless. It is the Wonder Bread of fish.

moondog

Yes, I am the idiot in this case. Basically, in Boston, or even Florida, there is no way in hell that a restaurant would sell Tilapia for $30. I would be willing to pay an extra $10 for a fish that doesn't taste like sawdust because the preparation was actually quite nice.

gobluetwo

Funny story. I was in Eugene OR on a business trip and grabbing dinner at the Fisherman's Market. As I was waiting to order, I overheard an employee taking a call from a customer asking if they had walleye. The employee said something like, "Walleye? I've never even heard of that. What is it?" I helped the poor guy out and said it's a lake fish from the midwest, so you wouldn't have it here.

On topic, I find tilapia to be either bland or muddy. It seems that sometimes, certain chemicals build up in farm-raised fish due to the presence of cyanobacteria. Since cyanobacteria blooms come and go, you might have a "muddy" fish or a cleaner tasting fish. That said, I think the texture is fine - just not a fan of the flavor. Would much rather be eating Patagonian toothfish, although tough to find sustainably caught.

MSYtoJFKagain

I try to catch enough black seabass and tautog during the summer season to keep my freezer full through the winter but I usually fail.

I tried some walleye at a friend's in MN years ago and it was fantastic.

Badenoch

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. It wouldn't be the first time a restaurant has charged exorbitant prices for second-rate fish.

The more troubling part is when you ask a server what fish is used in the fish tacos or fish and chips and they claim they don't know. And fish and chips made with tilapia is an insult to the English-speaking world.

JBord

I agree! But it actually makes a decent fish taco, which is really the only way I'll eat tilapia.

Badenoch

A restaurant near me that focuses on local food uses pickerel in their fish tacos. Try those and you'll never eat tilapia tacos again.

BamaVol

BamaVol Jr #1 lives in Eugene. He took us to the Fishermans Market and it was my first opportunity to try Pacific snapper. I thought it compared favorably with what we get locally from the gulf of Mexico. We also shopped the Green Market downtown on Saturday and it was easily the biggest farmers market I've seen. Great town to visit. I can't wait to go back, but more for the beer than anything else.

work2fly

I'm not sure I've seen any fish other than Tilapia used for pescado frito at our local tacquerias. Sometimes great, sometimes muddy tasting, and every so often we'll get one that tastes like ammonia (and never return)

moondog

It's been almost 10 years since I lived in Portland, OR, but at the time, tuna and halibut were the standards for fish tacos.

Back on the original topic, the idea that a restaurant would charge $30 for tilapia is still shocking to me, even if it was in a 5-star hotel.

The next time I see a dish labeled as "fish", I will be sure to ask what kind of fish. The problem with this approach is that most waitresses here have no clue (i.e. to them, fish is fish).

moondog

This is the first time I've ever plugged a Thrillist article on FT because I find most of them to be spam, but the seafood mentions here prove my point about New England being simply awesome.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation...ampaignmonitor