I ate Lionfish for the first time last week.

[OriginalUserName]

Delicious. Nice white flesh, firm but tender. Highly recommend that you give it a shot if you get a chance. Plus you can feel good about eating them.

 

[Lasse]

To eat it - it is the best idea ever in order to solve the invasion of Lion Fish along your southern and eastern coast. Let the fishery industry extinct it in a decade - they will easily do that if there is a demand of the fish and no fishing restrictions.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Gareth elliott]

So running joke i have with my gf every time i have bad day at work.
“I am retiring, and we are living off spearfishing lion fish in Florida”

Never actually have tried it though lol.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Our local club does a 'field trip' every year to go snorkeling and collecting in the Florida Keys. We have one member who is good a diving deeper than most of us and he always gets a few loin fish. I thing last year he speared about 10. This year he just collected a couple and then killed them when nobody wanted them. And this was about 50 feet out (maybe 20 feet deep) from an old rock quarry on the Florida Bay (Gulf of Mexico) side of Spanish Harbor Key.

I wonder how hard they are to clean and how much meat there is in a single fish. Is one good size one enough for a restaurant meal? I've never seen it on any menu when we eat out down in the Keys. We are going down in a week, I'll have to see if I can find somebody serving it in the Middle Keys area.

 

[saltyhog]

It's a staple on the menu in Westpunt, Curacao. We had it there and it was wonderful.

I have read some reports that where they are aggressively hunted, they retreat to much deep water.....making them unavailable to divers not using closed circuit rebreathers. That and their passive/ambush hunting strategy may make them impossible to completely eliminate. However the success that places like Cozumel and Bonaire have had in keeping them in check is very hopeful!

Save a juvie reef fish (or actually several hundred), eat a lion fish!

 

[Chef Tommy]

Used to serve it in FL. Kinda a pain to clean, scissor off the spines first then start to clean as usual. It's a flaky white meat and it takes a few for a meal. If I recall correctly, $12.99/#

It was rather expensive and from a chefs view, snapper or grouper sells much better for same cost if not less usually.

 

[OriginalUserName]

To eat it - it is the best idea ever in order to solve the invasion of Lion Fish along your southern and eastern coast. Let the fishery industry extinct it in a decade - they will easily do that if there is a demand of the fish and no fishing restrictions.

Sincerely Lasse

Precisely my thoughts. I expected it to be just ok honestly and was surprised. Just as tasty as snapper etc. I got a platter with two whole fish fried for a pretty reasonable price. Those dang things are everywhere in the gulf and Caribbean now. Time to let loose the worlds most dangerous predator: Humans that have cold beer handy.

 

[Hammer100]

i saw someone has a vacuum robot they are sucking them up with.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Used to serve it in FL. Kinda a pain to clean, scissor off the spines first then start to clean as usual. It's a flaky white meat and it takes a few for a meal. If I recall correctly, $12.99/#

It was rather expensive and from a chefs view, snapper or grouper sells much better for same cost if not less usually.

I think my platter with 2 plus sides was like 25 or so. Restaurants just need to market the novelty and environmental benefits.

Edit, yeah I bet cleaning is a pain.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Does anybody know a restaurant in the Keys that serves lion fish?

 

[chefmur]

We went to Disney World in Orlando last year and they try and serve sustainable seafood. I had the lionfish in one of the theme parks and it was fantastic, I was chef for 35 years so can be very picky but it was delicious . Probably expensive due to labor to clean so I would not expect to see it a lot.

 

[Dancingmad]

Still haven't tried lionfish yet. Several Youtube videos make it sound like its easy to clean. I've heard it tastes like lobster. True story?

If it wasn't marketed as some novelty or doing your part meal maybe it would have a more market relevant price (for something plentiful and invasive) to encourage consumption.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I found a list of a few restaurants in the Keys that were said to serve lionfish. I looked up the menu for two that are near where I'll be next week. Neither one had lionfish on the menu. I called both and they both said it is the fish of the day about once every week or two.

 

[siggy]

We went to Disney World in Orlando last year and they try and serve sustainable seafood. I had the lionfish in one of the theme parks and it was fantastic, I was chef for 35 years so can be very picky but it was delicious . Probably expensive due to labor to clean so I would not expect to see it a lot.

Any relation to the Chuck Muer Detroit restaurants

 

[Reeferdood]

A local Restaurant here in central Florida was one of the first places that I saw them on the menu. They look crazy when served up, but they are delish. I would say that all reefers that eat fish should spread the word to their friends to try it. The more demand for them could likely have a better and quicker result in trying to irradiate them from the reefs. Also, please spread the word to anyone you know that might be considering tossing their non wanted fish back into the rivers or oceans. If the fish don't belong there, do not just toss them there. Those of us that live in florida know all about non native things being introduced to our areas, Love bugs come to mind for me. I sure would love to slap the idiot that brought them here...

 

[Mikedawg]

Precisely my thoughts. I expected it to be just ok honestly and was surprised. Just as tasty as snapper etc. I got a platter with two whole fish fried for a pretty reasonable price. Those dang things are everywhere in the gulf and Caribbean now. Time to let loose the worlds most dangerous predator: Humans that have cold beer handy.

Yep, found a lot of them around Turks and Caicos last week; thankfully, we also found a lot of cheap cold beer as well. Interesting video:

 

[Chef Tommy]

There were lion fish roundups or lion fish safaris in FL. Where I was working, divers went out and brought them back to the resort. We got 1100 pounds one year I believe. It was a fun event. Divers worked with a local seafood vendor so we could cook them at the resort as well. Diving is the only way to catch them as we certainly do not want drag nets going through. That's the difficulty with it always being available.

 

[Chef Tommy]

http://reelanimalsfishingshow.com/rumfish14.htm

 

[OriginalUserName]

There were lion fish roundups or lion fish safaris in FL. Where I was working, divers went out and brought them back to the resort. We got 1100 pounds one year I believe. It was a fun event. Divers worked with a local seafood vendor so we could cook them at the resort as well. Diving is the only way to catch them as we certainly do not want drag nets going through. That's the difficulty with it always being available.

If I still lived in FL I'd be spending a lot of time snorkeling for them. I'd eat like a king.

 

[cracker]

Ok up here in Jacksonville Florida They are caught on hook & line . I saw these fish i coolers back At the boat ramp. The guys said They were well out in deep water bottom fishing. No spear holes or anything. Iv'e seen several large at least 5 lbs or more. I believe the spearing methods make the supply limited to the public.