Fearless Fish is the best. Stu sends out weekly newsletters where he talks about how and why he buys certain fish, and how the ecology, industry and marine laws work. I don’t think you can get better fish in RI without buying from a fishing vessel (or catching it yourself).

Andrade’s in Bristol is also good. Tony’s Seafood in Seekonk is good for clams and oysters. You can also find many fishing vessels on Facebook (they all typically have ‘F/V’ in their name. For example F/V Briana James is one). RI changed some regulations during the pandemic, and you can often buy directly from the boats, now.

I moved here a few years ago and spent a lot of time wrestling with this same conundrum: it should be so much easier to get quality local seafood. But it’s a lot like shoreline access: there are a lot of regulations and established practices designed to enrich various business entities above all others. But with the places listed above, I’ve been able to affordable access amazing local, sustainable catches that never show up in big stores: Skate, tautog, John Dory, monkfish, sea robin, cape shark, razor clams, even whelks and urchin. All caught here.