While fish and seafood already appear on the vast majority of restaurant menus, opportunities for developing new menu items within familiar formats are boundless. Operators are finding new ways to innovate around popular proteins like shrimp, whitefish or salmon by tapping into trending flavors, preparations and dishes. Nation’s Restaurant News examined the strategies of more than 330 decision makers, including more than 250 operators who serve seafood daily, to understand the opportunity.
Anchoring Innovation to Seafood
The State of
the Seafood Market
How restaurants are driving sales with seafood
2%
Decrease
Slightly
Over the next 12 months, how do you expect your sales of fish and seafood to perform?
January 2025
Catch the Latest
11%
Increase
Significantly
More than three in five respondents expect their sales of fish and seafood to increase over the next 12 months
Catch the Latest
Get Your Customers to Bite
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is a public-private partnership between the State of Alaska and the Alaska seafood industry established to foster economic development of a renewable natural resource. ASMI plays a key role in the positioning of Alaska’s seafood industry as a competitive market-driven food production industry.
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Report
Foodservice operators have several storytelling tools at the disposal when they want to build a compelling marketing story for seafood. Most menu makers highlight seafood’s freshness to reel in more trial of that category, and there is plenty of room for growth in other methods, such as touting geographic sources when a restaurant sources crab or salmon from Alaska or lobster from Maine. Nearly a quarter of all operators specifically call out a particular breed of fish or seafood — such as coho or King to promote a salmon dish — as well.
Successful Selling Often Starts with Seafood’s Origin Story
Key Findings
More than 1 in 3
51%
Increase Slightly
36%
Stay Flat
Hook Your Customers with Breakthrough Seafood Items
restaurant operators, including nearly half of full-service respondents, said calling out where they source their fish and seafood increases the consumer appeal of those dishes.
A Steady Stream of Menu Innovation
62%
Form Goes Here
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