Tilapia sucks!
 

My local Mexican restaurant uses tilapia in its Signature fish dish. It is awful, but wouldn't be awful if they used pretty much anything else.

1) Don't order it.
2) Consider the dish might be another $10 a serving if it used its preferred fish choice.
3) The fish itself is an ok fish. The dirty farmed version is not. There are cleaner farmed versions.
4) Be careful what you wish for. "Much anything else" could be worse.

In Florida, Mahi Mahi is popular, and I find it acceptable. And, in New England, there are many choices. I actually wasn't so impressed with the choices on the west coast (e.g. salmon and halibut seem to be staples), but at least the quality was good. In all cases, fish doesn't really break the bank.

High quality local fish is $$$. Most restaurant, most of the time, in most of the USA, are using frozen, and frequently, farmed, fish. I'd rather have good frozen than rotting "fresh." The economics of small (not fancy) places using anything but industrial fish just doesn't pan (so to speak) out.

Perhaps I am spoiled, but one of the few benefits of being a Cape Cod native is that we can get amazing fish anytime we want.

Florida isn't quite as good, but I'm definitely cool with the Mahi as long as it well prepared.

I like Tilapia. I guess I'm the outlier here. :p

Interesting. I've always found the fish in the Bay Area in CA to be very disappointing. Even the supposedly good stores (such as Whole Foods and its competitors) and the roadside fresh fish markets in fishing ports seem to sell fish that has seen better days. It's really not that hard - catch it and get it on sale later the same day or, in extremis, the following day.

I therefore avoid fish in the USA altogether now.

Tilapia are great at converting any kind of organic matter into lean protein, but they also don't provide the omega-3 and other trendy benefits of eating fish.

I like tilapia as a generic protein that I can add to anything...an easy dinner I do sometimes is to stop at the grocery store salad bar on my way home, then put a frozen tilapia filet on the salad when I get home. 25 mins in a 450 oven cooks it perfectly from frozen. I rub it with a little olive oil and whatever seasoning strikes my fancy at the time.

Maybe tofu of the lake?

As I mentioned upthread, I think the entire West Coast lacks variety in the seafood area, but the quality is not bad. Boston, on the other hand, is honestly awesome.

It’s an ugly fresh water fish.

Don't order it then.

Well, the restaurant I mentioned in my OP simply marketed it as "fish". I (mistakenly) assumed that for $30, they would source a decent product.