California’s Largest Fish Market Now Has An Awesome Reality Show


Have you ever wondered what happens “on the line” at your favorite restaurant? What if you could take a look behind the curtain and see the inner workings, struggles, and camaraderie? Well now you can, thanks to our friends at Foodbeast.

The brand’s new web series — Kings of Fi$h — plays like a consumer-facing riff on the adventure fishing shows of the past decade. It delves into the goings on at the popular San Pedro Fish Market, one of the most Instagrammed restaurants in the US, and gives viewers an inside look at the lives of the Amalfitano and Ungaro families. Together, the two families have run the famed fish market and restaurant since its inception in 1956.

The fish market seats 3,000 and has served more than 1.2 million people in the past year alone. That’s a lot of pressure for this well-trained staff. But, as the videos show, not everything runs smoothly all the time.

The series is perfectly timed because of all the news surrounding the fishing industry in the past few years. It seems like every week there’s been a new report on restaurants selling fish under the wrong name (also known as “fish fraud“). In 2017, it’s refreshing to see a company doing things the right way.


“We’re here busting our ass to make money,” says Tommy “The Boss” Ungaro Sr in the trailer for the series and it pretty much sums up the whole project. In each episode, viewers get to see a glimpse of the drama surrounding this iconic market and restaurant. We get to sit in on manager meetings, witness the inner workings of one of the most popular restaurants in the world, and watch a changing of the guard as “The Boss” decides to retire.

You can already see all of the episodes of season one of “Kings of Fi$h”, but you don’t have to wait very long for season two — it drops on Foodbeast this week. Binge away! If you don’t watch for the drama, you might want to watch just to see how the fishing industry works. In this time of responsible fishing and dock to dish sustainability, learning about where our food comes from is more important than ever.

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